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THE FRIEND OF CHINA ÄND HONGKONG GAZETTE.

Mexico, and de. her aftost. During this time, Lieutenant Morris Ethe whole Me

was mortally wounded. The flotilla then reopened As their Prest their fire upon the city, silenced the enemy's bet foread the feweries, and proceed down the river, arriving again rodes, nn avgged monarchist at Frontera on the evening of the 26th, and rejoining the main aquadron on the 31st October. In this expedition there were two killed, two wounded, and two drowned.

airery sea caces to rejoice over the

egs of European despotism, Wa conquered Mexico best generals mgodia, Torrejon And Le Vega. As paredes, he was never very celebrated for cou If we can now have a fair chance--that is, Taylor can have a change to meet Santa orce, we shall have half the Maxicana force, Au Goportonity to dress the let hern of the lexic. an sock pit in a ferent flugage from that which hepromised us pinck on the banks of the Sabine. Who cares whether Santa Anna lor is not in favor congnging the war! He is the more executive

Апла

people, and mist obey the popular will, Wibon the Mrsicans begin to feel the war, and are ready to cry enough," we shall probably have peace, and not before. An opportunity for making pesce may be allorded at the meeting of the Con gresses next month, but it is very doubtful whether the freak anny under Santa ona will be content le return to Mexico without a light. It is even more doubtful whether we can have a lasting ponce with Mexico will we barn reduced their capital and aught the rabili army of the centre the same lex

ow we bare given their Morthern brethren. We again repat our apprehensions on this point. If we refuse to incurabe expenses of a campaign against the city of Mexico this winter, we have no gua. Tantee that the war shall not continue another year, at the expense of one or two hundred pullions of dollars. It appears to us that humanity, the best in jerrats of both comjindricx, economy, despatch and sound pation policy demand the immediate equipment of our northem wolunteers for a winter's campaign against the enemy's capitol —ód.

A case

Dulling Lam-The law to prevent duelling in Louisiana, has been made se very stringent as fo destroy the object contemplated. Not only the principals and seconds, bus all persons siding and abeuing in a duel, may be disfranchised. recently came before the recorder of that city, and every witness called for the prosecution refused to Lestify, on the ground that they might render them The court analainend salves liable to the penalty. them, and the case was dismissed for want of lesti- macy, -Joid..

On the 12th, the fleet under Commodore Connor left Anton Lizarde, and proceeded to Tampico; which was quietly invested on the 14th. The Com- modare crossed the bar with the Spitfiro, Vixen, Petrel, Bonetta, and Reefer, containing reinforce ments from the Cumberland, Mississippi, Princeton, and St. Mary's. No opposition was offered, and the town surrendered unconditionally. Commodore Connor garrisoned the town with a force of one A small hundred and filly sailors and marines. flotilla was placed at the entrance of the harbour, to guned any approach from the sen; and the steam- frigate Mississippi was despatched to Brazos and Belize, in order to obtain a force competent to insuTE the retention of the capture. The force was sup- plied with great promptitude; and on the 21st November the Mississippi set out for Tampico with & detachment of fifty men and guns and munitions of war, tondered for the use of the Supreme Gevera. ment by the Clovernotof Louisiana, Further troops Despatches requiring these reinfor would follow. cements hall been received at Wa-lington from the Commodore of the Gulf Squadron.

The details of the land operations of the American From forees are more than usually uninteresting. Monterey, the head quarters of the Army of the Leit, there are accounts to the 4th November. General Taylor was preparing for anodber movement, and all the regular troops were advanced up the ziver. The volunteers were relied upon to maintain the line of communications with the Rio Grande. From the Army of the Centre offend despatches had been received to the 14th October the nmin body would ultimately must with General Taylor at Monterey. The passage of the Presidio was accomplished on the 11th of the mouth. From Santa Fe we lear that the Mornin dery bad at length arrived, and would shortly set cul, en route to California, in the track of Goniral Kearney's forer.

The news from Chinabun is that all the foreign residenes in the city had been driven out by the mob on the fall of Sinta Fé becoming known.

tineral root, the Cornman er in chief of the United States forces. had left New York for the It is supposed that he is to sup sale seat of war General Taylor in the chief command.

Mr John Quincy Adams had been attacked by paralyses, but was recovering

The price of bread stuts had been filling in American markets; but in consequence of the closing of the card navigation a sight advance bad taken place.

The news from the interior of Mexico is important

The Americans and the Mexicans are as pertion- cious as the Russians and the Turks used to be, as the Russians and the Circassians are. Nor does the great Union get on each more prosperously than the great Empire did and does in the arque contest. It has its successes-23 at Tampico; it also has its peculiar balks-a kind of suceras by the wrong end, as at Tobasco. Tampico yielded with cute blow-the Mexicans, in fact, geting out of the

T- Tobasco was soumily thrashed and then-cens the Americans thought it meet to get out of the way. For sach, through their own boastful accounts, seems to be the state of the case Meanwiele, sup- plies are rapidly absorbed. The immediate conha- lants are warning to their work, and gaming vigour in their appetite and powers be mischief; but the Commercial citizens of the Union, who have no substantial interests at stake, except in the way of

less by taxation and impoteil trade, are apparently cooling in their martial ardour. General Set 15 went to supersede General Taylor, because, as people infer, General Taylor is not energete encargh, General Taylor has shower no real want of mergy, though the Americans may seek, by disgracing him, to disguise mortification at the defests inevita ble to those who contend against adverse circums tastes with scanty means. But it is to be reniera- bered that General Scott as well as bring an able fofficer is an mble and consiliatory diplomatic.

Spectator, Icember 19.

UNITED STATES.

There have been two arrivals from America this week. The Great Western & New York on the 27th November, and reached Liverpool on Satur- day; and the Acadia left Boston on the 1st Decem ber, and reathed Liverpool on Wednesday.

The failure of the allock on Alvarado had been compensated by a successful attempt against the town of Tobasco which was bombarded on the 24th and 2th October, by a detachment from the mam squa don, oder Commodore Perry,

The Commodore left St. John Lizardo on the 16th October, with three steamers and four schooners; and the next day captored two American vessels: Bone was condemned as a prize, being in treasona. ble communication with the enemy; the other was permitted to proceed, her papers having been endors ed. From the 17th to the 224 the squadron enco- untered very bad weather; but in the interval a Mexican schooner was captured. On the 23rd the fastilla reached the bar of the Tobisco river; and look possession of the town of Frontera, of two Me Kican steamers, and all the vessels in the port.

The ships proceeded seventy four miles further up the river Tobasco. After staming all night, they anchored about morn in of barde within musket range of the city, which was sharqoved to orrender the boate meanwhile securing five mer- chant-ressejs at anchor in the port. To the sum -

if true; but there is a want of distinctness in the ac

It is said that the Mexican Administration was dissolved, and that General Aliponte was going England The elections for the Constituent Congo sa had taken på wee; and Elecrers, the deposed President, was one of the elected,

It was two yours

they are most valuable in themselves, or cutablish. ing a principle which no other country in the world has fin. so many opportunities of testing, or has now such a disposition to apply, as ourselves. They are valuable not only so far as tea is regarded, but everything else which can enter into the provisions of a tarif. It appears that every reduction effected in the duty has led to increased consumption; apo their increase has not been trivial or temporary, but wide and progressive, sufficient indeed to more than balance any loss sustained by the Custom-lipase," In 1747 the and to be hailed as a national boon. first, though only a slight reduction, appears to The consumption have been made in the duty. was in consequence trebled. In 1758 it was again Again wes the consumption greatly ex reduced. (ended. In 1784 Mr Pitt reduced it from 119 to 12 per cent, with the avowed intention of thos bailling the smugglers. This attempt was eminent- ly successful. Sinuggling and adulteration were stopped, and the legal imports trebled again. In 17015 was raised to 90 por cont. afterwards raised to discriminating duties of from 20 to 34 per cent; in 1798, to 20 and 35 per cent. respectively; in 1800, to 20 and 40; in 1803, to 96 and 65 respectively; in 1800, to one gonecal duty of 96 per cent.; and in 1819, to duties of 96 and 100 per cent. Now, at each period of increased duty the consumption seems to have reavived a check a and even afterwards its increase is by no means pro- portionate to the increase of the population. And in no one year does the sum of duty received appear of purpose to have answered the wishes and the those who raised the amount of its collection. The differenan between the net receipts under a high rate and those under a low rate of duties was at no time oqunt to the difference of the tariffs; and in some years the quantity charged for home consumption actually diminished. Thus, a policy which was intended to augment the resources of the state failed in effecting this; but did not fail to deprive many of its subjects of a necessary and usual enjoyment. Even at the present day, when the destruction of the tea monopoly has materially lessened its former, price, the day still pressess upon the mass of the pople too sensibly to admit of its being universally used. Whilst the average consumption of this ar tiele in the Channel Isles is 41. a-head, in New South Wales 74lb. a head, and in Newfoundland 5lb. -head, it does not exceed 1b. a head in Eng land. There would be no occasion to complain of this, if we know that the people had a wholesome stitute for tea But we know that they have

TINE

h

Those who do not drink tea drink gin, Nor dors the evil ond with the absorption of a pernicious and poisonous spirit. The moral ill is greater than the physical. The habits of a large number of our p polation are formed, not at home and in the bo on of their families, but in the reeking atmos phere, the jangling tumult, and the horrible profa- nity of the tavern and the gin-shop. There are thousands of human beings whose conversion to re spectability is rendered difficult, if not impossible, by the dearness of a beverage which none of the our habitually drink, except the well conducted and the respectable, Although everything which heara even a remote resemblance to the parade of sentimental philanthropy is injurious to the ca iso, we believe there is so much moral suffering and s

think fit to make upon this point should be misun - derstood, we readily nyow that it is with no wish to disparage any particular system, or to deprecate the imenities in the way of completo success. fint we call public notice to failures which are, indeed, something rather more than occasional. A new element has been introduced into navigation, naval architecture, and nayal warfare we have, fortunate ly, na yot had little necessity for putting our inven tions into practice, and we can only be guided by the results of such experiments as can be made wilk the nearest imitation of reality. Excellence is no more likely to come by intuition in the construction of steam-frigates than in any other department of science. We must take indulgences for the ra- dimentary epoch of the system. We know per- baps, little what steam can do ; certainly wo know little what it will do. It may transfigure the nspect of naval warfare, or it may, as is sometimes suspect- ed, prove considerably less influential. It is obrt. Dusly safer, however, to act on the former hypn thesis, and this we can hardly do without some uneasiness and disastisfaction at our present plight. We have not made suflicient progress.

Whatever may be the explanation of the fact-whether the difficulties of construction and adaptation increase in n greater ratio than the mere scale of the ship or whether we have at some point taken a wrong turn-it is certain that we have by no means ini. proved in proportion to our effects or our experi ence. The two lule Deptford Vessels of 1822- the Cornet and the Lightning-are notoriously bet- ter cran, of their class, than those that have been built since; and it is hardly too much to say that the latest specimens of our skill are the least se- cessful; so that an inference might be drawn, with apparent plausibility, that we were actually rotro grading, Moreover, in the single real trial, and in the most decisive of the experiments, to which our steamers have been subjected, the result has been unfavourable. At Acre they answered less than that had been form- any other class the expectations ed of the new system of warfare, and in our squa drons of evolution they are pretty invariably found wanting. They put us to great cost, and produce no adequate return. They don't all, and it is sur mised they won't fight. We build them of wood, and find that they won't float; we build them of iron, and find that a single shot may possibly sonid them to the bottom Whether these deficiencies are the attributes of our steamers or of abstract steamers, we do not take upon ourselves in pra- nounce but the question is one of immense n. portance, and its public discussion must told to. bring us more nearly in the trol, and to diminish the cost of the investigating.

a

pamphlet, from which we published an extract few days back, upon the engines of our steam. navy points to an element in the consideration of these matters sometimes neglooted It is possibla that the fault may, at allevents occasionally, lia ex- clusively in the engine-room, that the construction of the vessel may be admirable, and thashe may be unexcentionably mazoed and handled, and yet he half her time imperfect, and the other half incapable, owing to the mistakes of the manufacturer, after she had left the survey a hunks. Though the writer of the pamphlet does not conceal his personal intes rest in questioning be plan by which engines have Blatements and a wholesome and unexciting kind of diel, that we arguments are linbl to the less suspicion in so fut hope the moral elements of this question will not be us they are allowally founded on, official returns overlooked by the Legislature and Government in their regard for its fiscal and political qualities, im portant as those undoubtedly are

Supra Anna is vuitto here issued another exciting proclainntion "guinst "the invaders of Mexico," in which, after exhorting al ranks to tally round riscaldanger produced by withholding from the poorheen supplied to the navy, yet his standart in def are of their homes und für sites. be

says that he has no pergated ambition to gritty, that after freeing his country from invasion he will retire

private life.

To

Accounts from California, by way of Mazation, report that the Mexicans have mutinied against the Unlund States anthorpies, and that some fires had been lost before the disturbance could be suppressed. Insurrections are said to have occurred at several pants. But the most important incident reportod is that on the 20th of September the Americans had neprisoned the French Consul, M. Gasquet The reds in assigned is that he had protested against the i neempation of California

The spoust also adds that in English vessel was umur fiately despatched to the French Admiral at the Marquisus Islands,

with the news

An attempt by the boats of the United States cor vinto die Cyaun, to seize a Mexican brig at Gunya imas bail bern repelled by the Captain of the port (Spencer) with the loss, it is computed, of 20 men Entire reliance was not, however, placed in the truth of these reports.-Ibid.

We may perhaps attribute to the merchants of Liverpool somewhat of speculative fancy and bape

exaggeration, when they describe the prospec. tive resources of the Chinese market. It is not for us to pronounce ex cathedrá the limit which must

is st

made to the House of Commons upon Captain Gore's. motion for that purpose some time ago. It is there shewn that the engines furnished by ons particular house

e in two cases out of the fixe included in the relure, were actually incapable of duty for the res spective periods of 393 and 353 days out of a ser- vice of three years, while in twÓ other cases tho engines from another manufactory were only inva Jided for 38 and 51 days each, and yet the flat-

fer house obtained scarcely any share of Govern- ment favours compared with the former. Unhap pily, though these returns were made in 1843, they are particularly a propos to

c là 1842, as may be aces by our naval intellig

'The Val Intelligence week after week effect still remains, whatever may be the existing

Cause

define the demands of the Celestial Empire for English goods. It seems more probable that the markets of China should obey the laws which re- gulate those of other countries, and that demand on our side should simulate demand on the other, than that the merchants of the second trading city in the empire should mistake the capabilities and Wants of a country with which they have the most intimate connexion. But, even if they paint in too It is undoubtedly, in the highest degree desirable glowing terms the future condition of our mercan that the benefits arising from the free play of public tile relations with China,--if they overrate the

competition should not be lost to to material on ter advantages derivable to themselves from the ex

of public expense, and so important an object of mas tension of them, yet, they do not overstate the tional excellence. If the best engines can be sup- natural necessary benefits which the diffused con-

plied on the Clyde, they should come from the The merchants of Liverpool hive begin to agi. sumption of anyone article must produce, not to Clyde nor can we conceive it possible that the tate the tea question. Perhops" agitation” is tog the consumer alone, but likewise to the Treasury. Admiralty can be without statistical ret

returns salting strong a term to apply to a movement which has

The Inw which holds in other cases will hold like beyond a doubt the facts requisite to form a judg not yet descended to popular artifices, aor been wise in this the law of mutual dependence und

ongines which are ment on this point. Those elevated into a popular cry. But we do not think association, The increased use of tea will increase proved to do the most work with the least coal and that the absence of these characteristics is likely the demand for sugar. The enhanced facilities of fewest repairs are the engines with which our steam- to prejudice the cause in the estimation of its best procuring either will multiply the demand for cho- ships should be fitted; and this discovery can be friends, nor that its chance of success will be im-colate, coffee, and other things, used as subsidiary made, we should imagine, without any fear of bias. paired by the quiet and business like tone in which to lea and sugar. No one article of importation or delusion arising from ex parte statements or its discussion has commenced.

comes in alone. No one luxury long retains an fessions. The responsibility upon this head, how unshared predominance over men's tastes. The ever, is not entirely shifted from the shoulders of the process by which a luxury is elevated into a neces- Surveyor of the Navy for independently of that sity je slow but eure, Ae civilization is diffused, supervision which he may be presumed to exercise, each eucceeding era witnesses the simultaneous the future quality of the engines ja materially affect multiplication of wants and their appliances. To ed by the conditions which he imposes on the ma- codcede the fullest gratification of them, and to qufacturer. Limits as to space and weight raust of make them most profitable to the exigencies of an course, be attended to, but it is said that they have old and burdened state, will be among the first ob been assigned somewhat arbitrarily during our mag jects of a prudent and a liberal Ministry. The expanimous experiments, and that the results have been partially been found detrimental. And there is one potht tried in the case of

connected with these discussions which common humanity forces peremptorily on our notice. We noir employ steamers pretty generally on the Aftis can coast, and the climate to which these vessels may be this destined should be at least as much considered in their construction as the curibus spe- culations of a naval architect. A premium has lately been set upon small engine rooms and the authori ties have been hum lude regard to the

The gentlemen who assembled at Liverpool did not forget the most important el ment of the case, its fancial bearing. As Mr Brown, in opening the business, statud, the result of their remonstrances mast chiefly depend upon the notions which the Chancellor of the Exchequer may entertain of his win responsibility. If the duty on tea cannot be reduced without a certain and permanent diminu. tino of the revenue, then few Ministers would

do we imagine, that if the incompatibility of re renue with reduction were satisfactorily proved, that the merchants or manufacturers of the north would persist in their petitions or their agitation, Iris as much their interest as their duty to see that public credit be not injured by too large concessions for private convenience tolested by changes in the method fifty millions must be

meus an answer was rdered, that the Commodore pledge themselves to so ruinous a liberality. Nor periment, now desired has already hortly be so..

might begin bring as soon as he pleased Accord- ing a few shots were discharged from the Vixen, and the day staff diappeared. On this the firing was ordered to cease, it being imagined that the flag Tight poessly have been lowred in token bf sur- Tender and stain Parrest was sent on shore

wer that the fag had been

yould not be

rrender

but were ezentú“

Some hing

be case of coffee, and will

in that of sugar. - In the first it was eminently suc- ces ful, in the second Ministers themselves expect that it will be equally fortunato What sound reg. so, them, remains for taxing tea 200 per cent !—

November 27.

Bkill and perseveran pertinacious resistance

vert to tim

remarks which we from time to time,

pro-

hi head with very rugate engineeré, consequences

rues of our slaves Birds of the day Mid its own, na

and we surely

aprice to effect

mes Now 30,

hed by JOHN CARE,

Ongkong Hopan STKREA

HONGKONG, 1847.