CHINA AS IT IS.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 114, 23 November 1858, Page 4

CHINA AS IT IS.

(From the Overland China Mail, August 10.) The New Treaty.—The statement which went home by last mail, of the Emperor of China having signed the new Treaty, was not correct, and little credence would have been given to there having been such a departure from ordinary custom, had not the account of the treaty, which appeared in the North China Herald, been acknowledged as a semi-official notification. Care was talten that no correction of the error, or public declaration of the exact state of the case, should, appear until after the departure of the homeward mail, when a letter from the Hon. Mr. Bruce was published in the Honhong Government Gfazette, stating that he was the bearer of a treaty which had been signed by Imperial Commissioners and approved of by the Emperor of China. A portion of the foreign residents in China are indisposed to regard the treaty as having been signed in good faith, and prematurely insist on its being a mere Chinese take-in, because as yet it has had little or no effect in altering the aspect of affairs in the South. Such a conclusion ia not yet justified by anything which has appeared, and from Canton we learn that Hwang, the Governor-General of Kvvangtung, has acknowledged the receipt from Peking of the intelligence of the conclusion of peace, and is prepared to change his policy; The worst phase of the matter is, that nothing has yet been done sufficient to humiliate our opponents in the South. They have openly attacked our troops in Canton; they have emptied Hongkong of its respectable inhabitants, cutting off also, to a large extent, our supplies of provisions', and they have fired upon a party which landed at Namtow, under a flag of truce, to deliver proclamations regarding the formation of. a treaty. In these circumstances they will have plausible grounds for asserting that they were on the point of prevailing, against us when the Court of Peking granted us peace.. It must be admitted, however, that though Lord Elgin's policy may cause much inconvenience here, and though, in going to Japan at present, he has culpably neglected the interests of the foreign community in. the South, yet there will be a great future gain if lie throws entirely on the Peking Government the task of restraining its unruly subjects of Kwantung. Certain: great advantages may arise from the conduct of a plenipotentiary who is insensible to local opinions and has a special eye to general British interests. /

State of the Colony.—The exodus of Chinese from the colony, and the stoppage in our supplies of provisions from the mainland, are now become matter of the very gravest importance, and a natural feeling of discontent prevails on the part of the residents whose lives and property must be considered in jeopardy, at the utter indifference displayed by the Governor, and total absence of all endeavors to meet the emergency. We are told that his Excellency has been strongly remonstrated with on the subject by those whose position best qualifies them to form just conclusions as to the posture of affairs, but that he either ignores a*ll apprehension of danger, or pleads his inability through want of instructions to move in the matter. Finding all private remonstrance unavailing, a public meeting was held this forenoon at the office of Messr3. Dent and Co., attended by upwards of fifty members of the community, including the heads of all the British mercantile firms in the colony, when a memorial addressed to Sir John Bowring was read and approved, requesting of his Excellency, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, and in the absence of Lord Elgin, to assume the responsibility of immediately issuing a stringent proclamation to the Chinese, and threatening the native authorities of Heang-shan, Tung-koon, Sun-on, &c, with the vengeance of the British Government should they still persist1 in. the recall of their countrymen in foreign employ, and in the interruption of market supplies; and suggesting that his Excellency should put Himself in communication with the naval and military authorities, to arrange for carrying out his threats if the Chinese refuse compliance with his just demands. The want of protection for the colony itself, and the total inadequacy of the present police force, was likewise referred to. At the commencement of hostilities, when comparatively little danger was to be apprehended—the presence of a large proportion of respectable native traders, securing the foreign colonists against any serious aggression—the Executive nearly doubled the police force; but as the feeling of insecurity died . away, the force was gradually reduced to its former dimensions, at which it now remains.

This, then, is the present position of affairs here: a large and wealthy community—a small body of military, sufficient probably to guard the cantonments, but little more—a frigate denuded of a considerable portion of its crew, absent on special service-—and a miserable half-starved police, many of them only fit to be stuck up as scarecrows; while our houses are deserted by their servants, the markets are bare of provisions, the principal shops are closed, and almost every Chinese merchant, trader, or comprador of respectability has withdrawn from the colony. At first there is little doubt but that these aggressive measures on the part of the Chinese were not only sanctioned, but encouraged, by the mandarins; but since the news of the treaty has reached them, some of these have endeavoured to the best of their ability to tranquilise; the people and control the brakes. Thus information has reached us of the chief magistrate of Namhoy having been beheaded for an attempt to disarm the villages under his jurisdiction; and a district magistrate, a major, and a captain, in the Wie-chau department, have suffered afimilar f&te; while the Heang-shan magistrate, having expressed, hii conviction of a treaty having been agreed to by the Emperor, and positively declined to issue placards of recall; was thereupon

imprisoned; and has only of late acquiesced through compulsion in the demands of the Sun-kum. It will hence be seen that it is not the mandarins with whom we are at war, but a self-elected body of the literati and gentry of the province, who seem determined to carry measures with a high hand, and utterly repudiate any exercise of authority on the part of the officials. Under these circumstances, and with a determined and energetic enemy opposed to us, it is scarcely to be expected that they will refrain from carrying the war into our colony; so that besides the want of servants and provisions, we have good reason to dread attempts at fire-rising, and even something worse. This is surely no time for dilly-dallying, and yet not a single step has been taken by the local Government for the protection of the town. The state of affairs in the colony becomes every day more alarming. We are on the top of a mine, which may be sprung at any moment, and yet nothing whatsoever has been done by the colonial Government to avert the impending evil, beyond the issue of a.proclamation, of itself, we fear, powerless for good or evil, but more likely to be productive of the latter than the former. When last we wrote on the subject, a small portion of the compradors and shopkeepers still remained in the colony; but nearly the last of them have now taken wing, as have also the majority of the workmen: indeed every man, and woman also, having either relatives or land on the mainland of China, is compelled nolens volens to leave the island, under threat of imprisonment of his friends and confiscation of his and their property; and not only are they going themselves, but are taking all their moveables with them.