Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 500

462

Journal of Occurrences.

AUG.

officers will look out one for them; why then wish so unreasonably to rent this particular one, whereby the citizens are all disturbed in this way? We infer that as your honorable consul has been in China a long time, he is well acquaint- ed with affairs; and we therefore make these remarks upon the propriety and equity of the question, fully disclosing our thoughts and views, and hoping that he will take proper measures for the just decision of the case, so that all can enjoy the blessings of peace, and both be greatly rejoiced. A public declaration. This paper is given to Hing, the district magistrate of Haukwan that it may be forwarded to the English officer.

This document has been forwarded to Gov. Bonham, and the citizens are willing to wait for his reply to their statement. It is noticeable, that the view here taken of the meaning of that part of the Treaty which speaks of the residence of foreign merchants being at the kiáng-kau, or mouth of the river, the inart where trade is carried on, is the same as that given by us last year, when discussing the question of entering the city of Canton (see Vol. XVIII, p. 276), and we have no doubt that the citizens of Fuhchau are philologically in the right in their interpretation. The kiảng-kau and the ching—the mart and the city—are there three miles asunder, and the differ- ence between the signification of the two terms is plain; consequently H. E. Gov. Bonham will need to show from some other documents than the Treaties with foreign countries that foreigners plainly have the right to live within the walls of Fuhchau. The fact of the Consulate lying within the walls is, however, a good precedent to urge for Messrs. Welton and Jackson to be allowed quietly to remain, and by kindness and decision on the part of the English authorities we think the point will be carried.

The governor-general of Fuhkien, Liú Yunko, was not in Fuhchau at the time of the fracas when the populace endeavored to drive the tenants from their residence. The literati, as at Canton, have been the chief movers in the attempt, and the body of the people have not sympathized in their desire to expel the foreigners so much as to make it unsafe to remain in the nio- nastery. The influence of Lin is probably one moving cause of the affair, but it is not unlikely things will soon return to their former course, and Mr. Welton be allowed to open his hospital.

Disturbances in Kongsi have lately risen to such a height, and the insurgents have become so numerous and so well organized as seriously to alarm the authorities of Canton. The governor-general is the only one of the rulers here who can officially notice them, and it is reported that he is not at all inclined to proceed to the scene of trouble, and the troops under his command are still more unwilling to leave their garrisons and face their refractory countrymen. What particular grievances have aroused the people of Kwangsi to take up arms, we can not clearly ascertain, nor who are their leaders, though we have little doubt that more are induced to join the original movers from hope of plunder or expectation of bettering their position, than from any well concerted plan of asserting acknowledged rights. Rumor states that a body of fifty thousand has laid seige to the large town of Wú- chau fú on the borders of this province, and put an embargo on all trade on the West river on which it is situated. It shows how little sympathy exists between the various parts of this large empire, and how little information transpires of what is going on elsewhere in it, when we state that one of the most tangible consequences in Canton of a sedition involving the peace of a neighboring province containing nearly ten millions of people, is the rise in the price of cassia of six or eight dollars per pecul, and the collection of a large fleet of boats, whose crews are afraid to proceed westward.

"The North-China Herald” is the name of a new weekly paper commenced on the 3d inst, at Shanghai, Mr. Henry Shearman, publisher and proprietor. This new sheet has started into life a full grown newspaper-advertisements, occurrences, editorials, and all, as if it had emerged out of a box of types all