London, Monday, November 26.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 341, 25 January 1861, Page 3

London, Monday, November 26.

We have this day news from China that the Celestials had sent out a flag of truce, and provisions for a treaty.

The Moniteur of yesterday contains an Imperial decree, granting great constitutional reforms. The chief of which is, that the Legislative Assembly, will have power to vote an address in reply to the Speech from the Throne, and the Government will give explanations of its interior and exterior polic}r. This is preliminary to other changes towards a freer constitution.

There are also some Ministerial changes —Mr. Fould resigns, and Count Walewski is nominated Minister of State.

{From the Home News.) STORES FOR NEW ZEALAND

Under the presidency of Sir Richard Aiiey, Quartermaster-General, an influential board of officers has been sitting for the last three weeks at the War-office, for the purpose hi considering the nature of stores to be sent to New Zealand, best adapted for equipping the soldiers to cope with a brave and wily enemy in the dense bush of that country. When such men as the president; Mr. Power, of the Commissariat; Dr. Gibson, at the head of the medical staff; and Mr. Ramsay, of the War-office; meet together, unfettered in their deliberations by instructions, or minutes, or estimates ; and assisted by the experience of officers of various regiments who have served in that country (among whom we m?y mention Lieutenant-Colonel Jenner, commanding the 2nd battalion 11th Regiment), we may naturally expect a result worthy of such an opportunity; nor believing the reports, are we disappointed. It is stated that the men are to be formed in camps of reserve in the neighborhood of hostilities; and that strong detachments will be organised in a peculiar manner to clear the bush throughly of our assailants. These men will lay aside tunic and shako, and mount a rough blue, thick flannel Jersey; fatigue cap and buffs, leather gaiters and boots to lace outside, will complete their fighting costume, while each man will carry a hatchet, a tomahawk, a strong jack-knife, a tin pot, his cloak rolled'

a new oilskin haversack, with provisions ready cooked inside, and a tin pot to boil his tea in the bivouac.

The country through which the men have to force their way is thick bush, intersected with water courses, and subject to heavy showers; such a country for " cock "as excepting albania, ever was seen, only unluckily of birds of that ilk there are none. The hatchet will chop down boughs and ferns in abundance, which with his cloak will make him a bed which a prince might envy, as happily the scrub is wonderfully free of insects and other parasitical abominations. With his knife he will tripod a few skewers over the fire, and hang his pot thereon with stew, or soup, or tea; and the oilskin will keep his provisions fre« from wet and mould. What would not some of our newly-fledged volunteers give to try a maiden campaign under such circumstances ? The more so as our fellows are to fight with a full stomach—an Englishman's delight this has always been, as in future it will be his privilege. The ration is increased to 1 Ib. of meat, 1J lb. of biscuit, 1 gill of rum, coffee, tea, sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar, and mustard, the whole of which are to be served out free to the men so long as they are ia presence of an enemy; that is, so long as the country is under martial law; nor is any deduction whatever to be made for his fighting kit. Coolies will follow up with provisions and ammunition; so that the men, unincumbered, will be ready to make descents on the enemy; and civilised man will stoop to fight the savage in his own way, and conquer, God willing, in so doing. The commissioners have, on hearing the evidence of officers of the 58th, and other regiments, recommended that large supplies of rockets, hand-mortars and shells, should be sent out with these stores. It is the custom of the natives of New Zealand to fight, and then to eat and sleep, reversing in fact the British quality we have mentioned. Nothing annoys them more than to have their sleep disturbed by a rocket or five-inch shell pitched every quarter of an hour among their pahs. It was on this principle that Van Amburgh tamed his wild beasts, by stirring them up with a long pole whenever they attempted to sleep, until he had, by outraging Nature's laws, rendered the poor brutes so tame that he could introduce his head intp the lion's mouth with impunity. Such a master in the art we may safely follow. Nor have medical comforts been omitted in their catalogue of stores, as well as many hundreds of dozens of porter, alej and soda water. Armstrong guns with Mercer's battery, supplied with abundance of ammunition, are, as we write, sailing down Channel aura favente Austri: and Veterinary Surgeon Anderson, of the Royal Artillery, sailed on the 20th via Egypt and Sydney to Melbourne, there to purchase horses and forward them as rapidly as possible to New Zealand, in order to be ready to mount the battery as it lands.— Army and Navy Gazette.