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Brview of Public Occurrences. During the

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ceeded in getting one line from any person outside, smire my imprisonment here on the 24th ultimo. It is to the great honor of a community principally com posed of merchants unaccustomed to confinement and anxiety of this distressing nature, that their confidence in the protection of his majesty's government is their sufficient support.

"April 13th, 1839.

"I permit myselt to refer your lordship to the memorials laid before the emperor relating to the opium question, which were transmitted, in a printed form, in my dispatch of February 2d, 1837. Their attentive consideration will be needful for the treatment of the grave public difficulties forming the subject of these dispatches. The memorial of the governor and lieutenant-governor of these provinces (vol. V., page 259,) in support of the legalization policy, was formally transmitted to the foreigners through the official organs of the government, together with their own remarkable report (vol. V., page 385). The natural effect was an imme. diate and prodigious impulse to the trade; and dismissing all claim for modera- tion, arising from the considerations of the laxness of the court (to use careful terms), and the long connivance of the officers, the fact now noticed should of itself have secured to this property, upon every ground of justice aud sound policy, totally different treatment than has now been hazarded. The utmost con- ceivable encouragement, direct and indirect, upon the one hand, and sudden vio. lent spoliation on the other, are the characteristics of the Chinese measures con- cerning the opium subject.

"The institution of intimidatory proceedings against the merchants, the con. tinued forcible detention of all our persons, the menaced privation of fresh water, of food, and of the life of her majesty's officer, form the heavy account of res. ponsibilities which this government has now incurred. I am not ignorant, my lord, that the sacredness of British life, liberty, and property, from sudden and most unjustifiable aggression, is an active principle of that spirit of government which has placed us where we stand amongst the nations. And whatever por. tion of the uttermost fraction of expense her majesty in her magnanimity may be pleased to restore, the requirement of the whole certainly seems to be of highest obligation. Such a course is necessary, not for the sake of the value surrendered, or to be recovered by force, but for the effectual prevention of the like dark proceedings.

"There is reason to believe, that the author of the rational policy advocated in these papers, was the great minister Yuen Yuen, formerly governor of these provinces, a man of singular moderation and wisdom, and probably more vers. ed in affairs of foreign trade and intercourse, than any statesman in the empire. Hu Náitsz', who was an officer in this province during his administration, is supposed to have acted under his guidance, and Yuen Yuen's concurrent retire. ment, or nearly so, from the Inner Council, by the einperor's permission, with the late degradation of Hu Náitsz', is a circumstance which favors these views. The adverse character of reasoning in these reports is less remarkable in ny judgment, on account of the special hostility to the legalization of opium, than because of the general reactive and restrictive spirit concerning the whole rub. ject of foreign intercourse.

"This scheme of policy would necessarily acquire prodigious credit and force, if the present proceedings were lightly treated. But from all I have been able to observe of the character of this court, it seems to be a just inference that