Daily national Democrat., 1859-03-03
Lafer from China.

The Bremen ship Felix, which arrived on
Monday from Hongkong, brings papers from
that place to 10th January:
The Hongkong Press of 10th January
thinks that matters at Canton have assumed
very alarming appearance. 1t appears
that a week or two before that date, as
patch from Pekin, addressed to the heads OF
the Canton war faction, was by some means
intercepted by the allies. 1t ran to the eitect
that the Braves were MT to be dlsDanue1,
| but held in readiness to act, inasmuch a' IL
was not the Imperial intention to carry ont
the treaty which had been agreed to under
eompulsion The Press considered that there
was no doubt about the interception OF TINS
dispatch. The intention of the bad ialth
! derived a further cOrroboratlon from the
circumstances of the treaties never having
been regularly gazetted, from the continued
use of the term E (tarbarian) in the Govern
ment documents and from an edict which
had recently appeared, ordering immense
cannon to be cast for the defence OF Pelho
The journal referred to goes on to say
The interception of this dispatch was, we
presume, the cause of the late movement
On 18th January, Gen Straubenzee made a
reconnaissance with $50 men, and was family
attacked from some outpost of this Sheck-
tsCng. The attack was nothing in itself, eX-
cept that it showed the spirit of resistance
was there. 1t was then considered desira
BILE to ascertain if the place were accessible
by water Accordingly, Capt McCleverty,
of II. b. NJ s ship Cambrian, and Capt. Col
vile, of H. B. Ms brig Camilla proceeded
on 9th January to institute a survey. They
were fired upon by Mandarin junks before
they reached as high as they wanted to go,
and having but two boats they had to re-
turn. They, however, reached high enough
to ascertain that the gun-boats could ap-
proach to within good shellng distance from
Shecktseng. No time was then lost in equip
ping and in dispatching an expedition OF
sufficient strength to overcome all opposition,
which it is possible for Chinese to offer or to
bring against it"
On 7th January very insolent message
was received from the Braves, which may be
summed up in the words "come on" The
following day (Sth) the allies "c0me on ac-
cordingly. Gen. Straubenzee, with two
brigades, marched out early in the morning.
These consisted of l 300 marines, 200 French
and 400 natives (of India,) with a number of
bamboo rifles to carry back any Of the troops
who might become collapsed Seven gun
boats started at seven or about half an hour
afterwards, under command of Capt Colville,
who took the lie d in the Staunch, the For
ester whipping in Our dates only come
down to the afternoon Of the Sth. An occa-
sional gun had been heard in the direction Of
Shecktseng but nothing to denote an en-
gagement Sir Michael Seymour arrived up
about IL o'clock in the morning, and imme-
diately followed the gun-boats, so that un-
less General Straubenzee should become
panic stricken again, there can be no fear for
the result
The Chinese traders are of course rather
alarmed. They are of opinion, and no Won
der, that the Braves can meet us in the field.
The cdnard they give currency to on this
occasion is that these are body Of four thou
sand disbanded Braves, who, having no Oe-
cupation in the piping time of peace" are
endeavoring to excite the ninety-siX villa
ges. This is entirely rcfuted by the fact of
the surveying boats being fired upon on the
9th by junks, which certainly must have
been an adjunct of the Shecktseng force, and
of course under the direction of the same
leaders.
RuMoRED OFFICIAL CHANGES 1t was re-
ported that Rear Admiral Sir Michael Sey-
mour had applied to be relieved of the pres
ent command, and that, when Lord Elgin
came down from the North, and matters at
Canton were settled, he would proceed to
India, previous to returning to England.
Admiral Jovien de Lagraviere was spoken
of as likely to be the successor of Admiral
Rigault de Genouilly in the China seas; and
it was also rumored that he would be accred-
tied to Peking in diplomatic capacity.