Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-02-25
important From China.
The american Minister's interUieu aoith
the Governor of Canton.

The american Minister'S interuiew acith
the Governor of Canton.
As the next mail from China will pfoba-
bly, bring accounts of the attack on Canton,
our readers will peruse with interest the fol-
lowing extracts from the latest China cores
pondence of the London Times. Writing
on December Is, the correspondent. after
mentioning Mr.. Reeds proposal to Yeh
and the latter's answer, already given by
telegraph, adcs:
"Mr. Reed then proceeded TO Macco, but
even rumer did not venture to affirm what
he proposed 20 himself by this journey. or
whether the rai5er contemptuous refusal
he had just received had in any way mod
flied his opinion as to entertaining alliances.
The Chinese have another version of this
affair. They protest to have seen copy
of the answer, and laugh when they speak
of it. have not been able to induce any
of them 10 procure me transcript and can
not make much of their description of it.
If it should reach you by-way of America,
1 think you will find that the Imperial
Commissioner has replied to his Excellen
cy Mr.. Reed by what is vulgarly called "a
SELL sort of Chinese version of Don't
you wish you may get it? Certain it is
that Mr.. Reed is very irate with his celes-
tial friends, and has rather abandoned his
idea of being master of the position.
Yeh seems resolved to show the world
that he is determined to carry out the poll
cy openly acknowledged in that notorious
Chinese State paper, and to consider the
terms of the last treaty binding only so long
as be had not force enough to break them.
He seems to be confident that the present
is proper season for perverance in this pol
icy. He has doubtless heard of the might
and wonderful contrivances of the Minnesc-
ia. Nothing that can be said in praise
of her discipline and arrangements, her ex-
quisitely finished machinery for economic
ing labor and time in the working of her
guns, her Sharpe's rifles, her officers cab
ins, and her state reception rooms, can be
too great praise, but Yeh has heard all
about these. We have just seized copies
of correspondence which has been pass
ing between Chinese writer, resident on
this Island and Howqua. Itscontains a
minute chronicle of every event, and de-
scriptions of men and things, including a
by no means fattering account of the per-
sonal appearance of Lord Elgin. Possibly
it also included statement of the draft of
the Minnesota.
1 recollect that once on circuit, when a
zealour and hot-tempered junior replied
with scarcely decent violence to an in
terruption of the Judge, and drew down
upon himself a rebuke, a sarcastic old sta
ger who sat by said, ."Pitch into him again,
give it to him we'll; he can't come down
to you." Yeh knows that that the Mime
sofa cannot come up to him. Moreover,
he has filled this city with soldiers from
the North. We have just kindly rescued
and released 5000 of these from the wreck
ed Waverly. The Chinese report that the
walls are now bristling with cannon, that
the streets are all undermined, and that
Yeh is determined to blow the whole place
into the air rather than give it up. We
shall see shortly what truth there is in
these tales. They by no means lessen the
eagerness of our fellows to get into the
city, but they may perhaps induce the Ad-
miral and General to explode these mines
by few shells before they set our British
bulldogs at the walls.
We must hope, in the interest of human
ity, that when the allotted interval has ex-
pired, Yeh will yield. He must know that
he has. at his gates the representatives of
the four great nations of the earth, and
that however they may differ upon the mo-
dus operandi, they are equally determined
to tolerate no long, this foolish Chinese pa
geant. Mr.. Reed does not, l apprehend,
propose to himself to go home without ma
king treaty, any more than does Count
Putlatin, or Baron lie Gro, or the Earl Of
EIgin. However much we may deplore
the undignifed policy which the American
statesmen at home have chosen to adopt,
and however much We may feel satisfied
to find that they are banked of even the
advantage they propose TO themselves of
monopolising the trade while we are fight
ing the common battle, still our interests
are identical, and eventually we must work
together. The high Mandarins of China
cannot but know the power of the nations
arrayed against them. But if they do not,
if they are ignorant of what every China
man at Singapore knows full well, and of
what each small tradesman at Hong Kong
could tell them, what practical satire this
Ignorance is upon that system of competi-
tive examinations and the rule Of literary
men, which, as it is worked in China, has
been SO little understood and so senseless-
ly extolled! 1t is useless, however, to
speculate upon what Yeh will do, for the
next mail will bring you tidings of what be
has done, and what we have DONE"