528
Journal of Occurrences.
were called to order, and sharply reprimanded; whereupon the public voice broke forth. The gentry became clamorous, began to hiss, called his honor a traitor, and hurled their inkstones at his head! Unable to withstand such missiles, the old gentleman determined to withdraw; but on leaving the Hall, one of the most daring of the malcontents attempted to break his chair. A row ensued. The Nanhae heen-the magistrate of the district of Nanhae, who is second in authority to the prefect-then came forward, soothed these excited literati, and begged them to come again next day for examination, when the commissioner of justice would come to the Hall. On the 18th, the prefect had resolved to resign his office immediately. This he has done.
5. The fishermen and pirates have come in hostile collision; and it is said, that, within a period of three months, more than a hundred of the latter have been seized by the former, and handed over to the local authorities of Hengshan, who have sanctioned, and aided in, the operations of the fisher- men, many of whose boats are well armed.
6. The schooner Maria was lost on the night of the 23d instant, near Chuenpe, where she was aground, with her crew disabled. We have been told she had nothing on board but stores, when she was boarded by a party of Chinese, supposed to be villagers, dismantled and broken up, and her crew, fourteen in number and a Parsee, natives of India, all carried off. Eight of the 15 have come back.
7. Affairs at Hongkong seem gradually progressing: captain J. F. My- lius has been appointed land officer on the island; T. G. Fitz Gibbon, clerk in charge of the post-office; and Mr. C. Fearon, at present resident at Ma- cao, has been sworn to perform the duties of a British notary public. Mail packets, by ships arriving at Hongkong, are to be immediately delivered to the harbor-master or to the clerk in charge of the post-office there; or at the superintendents' office in Macao, on their arrival in the Macao Roads. A jail has been built; and a piece of land, to the east of Cantonment hill, has been allotted for the burial of the dead. Unauthorized burial elsewhere will be treated as a trespass.
8. Yihshan's policy is becoming more and more tortuous, and this pacifi- cator of barbarians, if not careful, will yet get entangled in the meshes of his own web. At the first of the month, he was basking in the bright sunshine of imperial favor-gained by his false reports to the emperor. Recently, however, he has been disturbed by the reports from Amoy; and will be dis- turbed still more, when the emperor shall have heard of the fall of Ningpo and Chinhae, by the same barbarians which were so recently subdued and pacified by his brave and worthy general. It is said, Yihshan is now playing his cards to become the people's man-by enlisting and paying villagers, the soldiers of righteousness, by buying arins and ammunition for them, &c. But, we fear, he and they both may yet pay dear for their temerity and treachery.
9. The rumors about Keshen have been very contradictory during the month: at one time he was reported as bound in prison, and the famous com- prador was said to have been cut into ten thousand pieces. More recent reports seem to indicate, that he is rising again to influence. But we have no direct information of him, or of his affairs at court, since the British ex- pedition moved northward.
10. An imperial edict is in Canton, said to have been written after a dis- patch from sir Henry reached Peking, and, though not made public, is be- lieved to be peaceable in its tenor, hinting that money and greater privileges of trade than existed formerly, might be granted to bring about an amicable adjustment of existing difficulties, but declaring that no territory can be ced- ed, and severely blaming the provincial authorities for their late false reports.