CHINA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume VI, Issue 277, 21 November 1857, Page 4

CHINA.

It is reported that Lord Elgin, in company with his Excellency the Naval Commander-in- Chief, will visit the northern ports of China and Japan, taking a look at Chusan and Formosa on their way— some say their real destination is the Gulf of Pichili, and even Peking. Several screw steamers will accompany them. Veiy little has been going on in the river, and to pass away the time the officers have been getting up games to amuse the men — viz., in climbing oiled poles, running after pigs with well greased tails, racing in sacks, boat matches, &c. It is said that Commodore Elliot is again to go up in the Sybile to relieve Commodore Keppel, who will lemain, however, in Hongkong only a short time, after which ho will again take his position in the river. The gunboat Haughty arrived from the river on Tuesday, having on board eight wounded men of H. M. S. Esk, the boats of which vessel had an engagement with pirates in one of the creeks in the immediate vicinity of Second Bar. Two of our poor fellows were killed, and three mortally and five severely wounded. One pirate junk only was taken. Chuen-pee Fort has been regularly taken possession of as a depot, not as a sanitarium, but H. E. Admiral Seymour adopted the precaution of relieving the ships in the river as necessity requires, and despatching the most sickly to anchor off the Wantung, the sanitoiy effect of which is instantly apparent on the ship's crews. The Canton men had a fight •with the Portuguese on the 26th instant. The former landed from their lochas, and led on by some foreigners, completely put the Portuguese and Manilamen to flight. I lieaid this morning that the Portuguese had thirtyseven men killed ; I myself saved thirteen corpses round one house. The houses of the Portuguese and the Manilamen's lodging houses have been completely sacked j even the Portuguese Consolate was entered, the flag hauled down, and everything — not excepting windows or doors — carried off. Mr Marques, I hear, lay hid in the Roman Catholic Mission in the city. Just as the fight was over, the French frigate Capricieuse came in. Her arrival was opportune, for excitement and the flush of success might have driven the Cantonese to further slaughter. And she did not come too soon, as it was well for other foreign interests here that the Portuguese should receive a check of some sort. I hear there are a lot of Portuguese lying hid in n temple in the country. The Cantonese know of it, and will probably pay it a visit. The Portuguese did not show much fight, but the Manilamen kept to their posts pretty well. A large Canton fleet is here, I should say twenty-six sail ; more are arriving, and more expected, under Poo Leang-tse, Apak's brother. They say that if the Fiench interfere with the combatants, the crews (some 500 men) of the junks will make for the shore, seize the city of Ningpo, and turn lebels. Loud Elgin's Anticipated Movements. — We plead guilty to a certain amount of disappointment at learning that the new plenipotentiary contemplates a move north, before what we have been accustomed to regard as the chief condition of his success be satisfied in the capture of Canton. Wo say this, assuming that his trip means negotiation at some point or points of the coast of China ; but we have no positive information regarding his Lordship's proceedings ; and if we are to trust general leport, he will perform a sort of grand tour along the coast, to conclude with Japan and some other minor attractions. We are not disposed to believe this. The probability is that Canton would have been taken had the troops been heie s and, although we should regret the commencement of negotiations before we are in occupation of the city, we must not foiget that we are at present without means to our end. We have sufficient confidence in our present Premier to feel sure that, however gravely and diplomatically the intervening time may be passed, we shall not be the less secuie in the end of a removal of the restrictions of which we complain, no less> at Canton than elsewhere. From the little wo have seen and heard of the Earl of Elgin, too, we augur favourably of him as a man of energy. Experience forbids us to be sanguine about the advantages to be gained by correspondence. It may serve to remove from us, at home, the reproach of not having exhausted peisuasion before we proceeded to coerce the Court of Peking, and this, oi course, will strengthen our own Government against the cavil of its opponents. But we lepeat, the best answer to the objection that we are beginning at the wrong end is, undoubtedly, that it is not just now in our power to commence at any other ; and the improvement of our moral position in the interim will certainly not hamper us in the ulterior measuies which will only be too probably forced upon us. We give the Couit of Peking one chance more while wo clear for action — but we are clearing for action.