CHINA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 68, 21 November 1855, Page 2

CHINA.

The Hong Kong Overland Register of October 10, furnishes the following summmary of intelligence : — Our Admiral. — The respectable old lady who is by some extraordinary arrangement called Admiral of the East India Squadron, has let an opportunity of fighting the Russian fleet pass. As we expected, the poor old man was pottering about Japan when he ought to have been in the north with Commodore Elliott. The consequence is, that the only chance that we are likely to meet with during the war of encountering a Russian ship, has gone past, to the intense disgust and annoyance of every man in the fleet, except the Admiral. It appears Commodore Elliott, with an inferior fleet, had marked down the Russians in a bay in the Gulf of Tartary ; he could not attack them with his inferior force, and they, we suppose, fearing a supporting fleet, dared not attack him, and therefore took the opportunity of a fog to bolt. The Hornet had been despatched by Commodore Elliott to bring up reinforcements. When the Admiral arrived in the Winchester, after a delay of a month, the birds were flown. It is enough to drive a man raving mad, this incredible folly of Admiral Stirling. He tried to cut out Sir John Bowring in the embassy to Japan, and succeeded. But what kind of success had he 1 It now appears that even the American treaty is a mere sham — the English treaty of Admiral Stirling never was anything else; and yet the Admiral goes cackling about this addled egg like an old hen, by which he has missed one of the most glorious chances that the war has presented. Admiral Stirling has, however, effected two things — he keeps himself out of danger, and is laying up a stock of twaddle which we suppose he will let loose on some set of the unwashed on his arrival in England. The unwashed are not, however, without pluck, and it is to be hoped some one of them will ask him why he let the Russians escape. We have no desire to write or speak unreasonably of any one in a supreme command, who may have hundreds of difficulties to contend with of which we are ignorant ; but really the most ignorant man could by no means make a mistake about Admiral Stirling's movements since the commencement of this war. He has twice carried off the whole of his squadron to the north, leaving a very large portion of his charge either unprotected, or most inadequately protected. His first absence was for the purpose of effecting this most silly and useless treaty with Japan : in the second absence he carries his beautiful frigate and other ships to idle about the same place, while his commodore is sent with an inadequate force to the north. Admiral Stirling is no more wanted at Japan than we are, and he never was wanted there ; but he was very much wanted at Petropaulowski ; and now, for a second time, he was wanted and not found in the Gulf of Tartary. This is not the style of man we want ; and we hope, for the honour of the British arms, that the Government may soon see fit to withdraw him from his naval command, bestowing on him, if it be their pleasure, the governorship of some out-of-the-way colony. Tiie Rebellion. — This great event in China has latterly made its appearance in the North China Herald, in extracts from the Pelting Gazette; and we have accounts of battles duly chronicled, that (if they were true, which they are not) would throw Alma, Balaclava, and Inkermann-into the shade. In the same extract we have an account of three battles, in which three thousand two hundred rebels were killed — more than a thousand in each battle. Why, the loss in killed at Alma of the allied troops did not exceed that amount! When, we think, first of all, that that missionary naval officer, Captain Fishbourne, encountered (with a very small steamer), drove on shore, and destroyed, a pirate fleet of forty junks, without losing a man from the fire of these junks, it seems to us strange when we read of such battles, with I their thousands of dead men. Talk of the bravery of the Anglo-French troops ! they must be a set of perfect poltroons in comparison with the Chinese. Then, again, we are told of the wester a king retreating, with aa army of 60,000 meu, before an imperial general who had only an army of 40,000. It is true we found a difficulty in supplying our army hi the Crimea (which never exceeded 2j,000 to 30,000 men) with pro\isions, to &ay nothing of what was required for the sick and wounded; but in China they have no more difficulty in moving about 100,000 men, than a labourer has in wheeling a barrow from one end of a street to another. That the usual run of editors of newspapers, from the Times downwards, and som3 missionaries, should bc'ove, and writ;* in tbat b c ii"f ; ? uot ?? <"v >\^Z'> -t i riTt—vvn 'ike <~W >|

Fund, could believe such absurdities, certainly does surprise us. The rebellion was and is one of the follies of the day, which, notwithstanding it was declared by the Times, among others, to be one of the greatest events that the world has seen, has yet faded out in the presence of real war; and neither Captain Fishbourne, nor any missionary meeting in England, could give it the tenth of the amount of the importance which would attend the march of a single regiment to join the Crimean army. We who live in close proximity have laughed at and derided it from the commencement ; even its great recorder and admirer here has almost dropped it ; and perhaps we might have better employed our time than in noticing such a questionable subject as the squabbles of poor, overcrowded, starved wretches, driven into plundering and resistance to their Government from the want of their daily bread — a state of things from which we believe China has seldom been long free, and from which it may be safely inferred the country will never "be entirely exempt. As to the rebellion in this part of China, we are glad to be able to give an account of in the words of another. We quote the following from a report of the Missionary Hospital in Canton, for 1854-5, under the care of Dr. Hobson, of the London Missionary Society :—": — " In July of last year, rebellion broke out in this province ; Canton and the neighbouring places were attacked by numerous bands of insurgents, amounting to many thousands, who aimed at first to overthrow the existing local Government ; but failing in this, and disappointed that so few wealthy and influential persons joined their standard of revolt, they settled down into mere marauding parties or banditti, bent only on plunder, to the injury of the 'peaceable inhabitants. This naturally soon created a universal detestation of those disturbers of the peace, aud caused a reaction hi favour of the old-established government. The literati and gentry, who are the heads of the people, now combined their influence and resources to combat the common foe, and raised at their own expense vast bodies of able militia, before whom and the Government troops the insurgents could not stand. At length, after some skirmishing on both sides, the rebel party has been nearly wholly destroyed, and dispersed into other provinces. It has been a desperate affair, and nothing but injury has resulted to all classes ; the position of foreigners being likewise in no way improved, as it has been at Shanghai and Amoy. Many have been killed and wounded on both sides ; and the poor helpless creatures that have lately fallen like so many sheep into the hands of their enemies, are brought to Canton and beheaded in number more than a thousand a week. Forgiveness is now offered to all who sincerely repent. We saw one of the battles in the neighbourhood of Canton, and we can safely say that we have more bloodshed in a street-row in England than crimsoned that battle-field."