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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 705, 15 January 1853, Page 3

The Cities of China. — A correspondent of the New York Commercial, writing from Shanghae, lives some interesting account of the five ports of China. He says, by the treaty of peace between the Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of China, ratified at Nankin, 29th of August, 1842, it was agreed that the following five ports should he opened for the transaction of mercantile affairs, via:—Canton, Amoy, Fuchs,u Fu, Ningpo, and Shanghae, and that foreigners should have the liberty of residing with their families and establishments at these ports, for the purpose of carrying on their business without molestation or restraint. So far as Canton is concerned, this treaty has never been of much use, as foreigners are as much restricted now as they have been for many years, not being allowed to go out of the original limits assigned them, and every plan has been resorted to to throw impediments in their way. This is the principal reason why the foreign population has not increased here more rapidly. And but for this, Canton would long since have numbered its foreign residents by thousands instead of hundreds, as at present. By reference to the map, the position of the five ports can be readily seen, in order to have a correct view of the subject, the reader had better consult one. Amoy is situated on an island of the same name about 200 miles to the northward of Canton. Its position for trade is very good, being the principal port of the Fuhkien province, and many important places in the interior receive their supplies through it. Some hundreds of junks belong to and trade with this port, and a large business is done with Formosa, Singapore and other neighbouring places. The trade is increasing rapidly, and the population is about 300,000. — Fuchau Fu is the capital of the Fuhkien province, which is the principal district for black teas. The population is about 000,000, but there is as yet very little trade at this port. Ningpo is situated in the Cheukiang province, and has a population of 300,000, but as yet very little foreign trade.

Shanghae, the most northern port in the empire open for trade, is situated on the Woosnng river, near the mouth of the Yang-stze-kiang which is one of the largest rivers in Asia. Here, since the opening of the port, hits sprung up a business with such rapidity as even to astonish the Americans themselves, accustomed as they have been at home to see places spring up like magic; and here is to he the greatest place of trade East of the cape of Good Hope, far surpassing Canton or Calcutta. In saying this we have only to sum up the advantages that Shanghae possesses which are so apparent as to enable the non-residents to come to the same conclusion. In the first place foreigners are not restricted, to any extent, but can ramble wherever they choose irrany direction; the natives are friendly and harmless, and these advantages alone are sufficient to cause a much larger population than at Canton, where the foreigners are confined to a strictly prescribed limit, and the feelings of the natives toward the “outside barbarians” amount to positive hatred. At Canton, for nearly three-fourths of the year, the heat is very powerful, and the cool season is so very limited that the human system has not a chance to recover from the effects of the heat, which is shown in the languid, bleached appearance of the foreigners, most of whom are prostrated. At Shanghae, on the contrary, three-fourths of the I venr is coo!, and ice of some thickness is common, tiie thermometer sometimes, falling as low as 10 or i2 degrees. The summer momhs are very hot, 1 out the relaxed system easily recovers as soon as the cool weather sets in. The autumn is delighful and compares very favorably " ith that of our own clime. At Canton, no exercise of consequence can be taken except on the river, while, a most every one keeps his horse, and there are fine promenades into the country, in every direction,about Shanghae. Another great advantage this port has over Canton, is in the fact that it is situated so much nearer to the green tea districts and here will be received, ere long, all the green tea of the Empire ; and even now, most of it comes here, which is well known to every one in the tradeThe situation of Shanghae, so near the entrance of the Yang-stze-kiang, reminds one of New Orleans, and like that city it has the benefit of a vast; extent of up country, the products of which flow down in an uninterrupted stream ; and when we reflect that this river is navigable for junks of large size for more than three thousand miles, it will be apparent that the position of the port is very fa-, vorabie Tor trade., On this great river and/its branches are situated Nanking, Suchan, and other large cities, with a great number of smaller ones, and the mind is lost in wonder at the population a nd the extent df trade. '

Annum shops a\d Bishops. — A return was yesterday printed (obtained by Sir Benjamin Hall), which was required In show “ from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England setting forth the names and titles of every arch bishop and bishop who has been consecrated or translated since the Ist. of January, 1830; the amount of income assigned to the see; the amount of net income received annually by such archbishop or bishop, an 1 toe amount of surplus paid over to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and dates of su *h payments.” The amount of income assigned to the Archbishop of Canterbury is id,ooo/. In the year 10 >O-51 the net annual amount received was 82,721/. O.v. fid. Tim annual charge was the whole excess over the income assigned. In 1851 the payments to flic Ecclesiastical Commissioners wore 526/. O.v. Ad. In 1852 the payments by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were 8472/. ss. 2 d. Similar statements are made with respect to the Archbishop of York and the bishops as to their incomes, the net annual sums received, and the payments made to ami by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. I t appears that the amount of income assigned or contemplated to the Archbishop of York is 10,000/. a-year ; to the Bishop of Durham, 8000/,; to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, 5000/.; to the Bishop of Chester, 4500/.; to the Bishop of Chichester, 4200/.; to the Bishop of Ely, 5500/.; to the Bishop of Hereford, 4200/.; to the Bishop of Lichfield, 4500/.; to the Bishop of Llandaff, 4200/.; to the Bishop of Manchester, 4200/.; to the Bishop of Oxford, 5000/. ; to the Bishop of Peterborough, 4500/.; to the Bishop of Ripon, 4500/.; to the Bishop of Rochester, 5000/.; to the Bishop of Salisbury, 5000/.; to the Bishop of St. Asaph, 4200/. ; to the Bishop of St. David’s, 4500/.; and to the Bishop of Worcester, 5000/. No specific Income was assigned to the see of any archbishop or bishop until after the passing-of tho .Vet 13th and 14th Victoria, can. 94 (August 1350). Previously to that date the law required fixed annual payments to be made by the charged, and to the receiving bishops, sc calculated as to leave to each of them an average annual income of a specified amount. T he archbishops or bishops making or receiving such fixed payments under the provisions of the Act 6th and 7th William IV, cap. 77, wore not liable to pay to the commissioners any surplus, nor to receive payments on account of any deficiency. It is stated that the in-come-tax is deducted from the payments to and by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. House or Commons. —On Tuesday an amended return of the sitings of the House of Commons in the late session was issued. The davs of sitting vmre 82, the hours of sitting 017 and 10 minutes. 01 hours were after midnight. The average sitting was 7 hours, 31 minutes, and 35 seconds.

An Official Conscience will, wc fear, soon bear away the boll for flexibility from caoutchouc or gutta percha in every form. At least, so we judge from the sayings and doings of the late Board of Trade with tlie Eastern Archipelago Company, of which Mr. M‘Gregor, M.P, for Glasgow, was the prime mover and chairman. The object of this company was to work coal in Labium and Borneo, and its first step towards so good an end was to obtain through the Bard of Trade, a charter from the crown, by which the liabilities of the shareholders were limited to their several subscription. This important privilege was duly granted for, as old Potts says, a “ con-si-clo-ra-ti-on.” The condition was, that until a certificate had been lodged at the Board of Trade, under the hands of the directors, to the effect that £50,000 had been paid up, the company should not commence operations. In due time the required certificate was lodged, and the company appeared to be going on right enough, until only a few weeks since, by a proceeding in a court of justice, it was plainly proved that the certificate was fradulent, the capital of the company fictitious, and the charter necessarily null and void. The £50,000 had been made up after the following fashion : One-tenth held in hard cash,, mid the rest represented by a certain reputed coal mho.-, for which the directors had agreed to pay £40,000, but had not paid one farthing. We never before heard of a company estimating its capital by its debts. The roue, indeed, put his bills down ns ids income, and his promises to pay as his capital. In this cool fraud on the public the directors were aided and assisted by the officials of the Board of Trade—the guarantees, in this case, of the company’s credit. Sir S. Nor fit cote, a youthful Whig Baronet, elevated by right of descent to the responsible position of legal assistant at the Board of Trade, and Sir I). La Marchant, once the Secretary of the Treasury, but now snugly shelved as a clerk of Parliament, and Mr. B diend m Kerr, the counsel to the department, all agreed that a reputed property, bargained for but not paid for should be taken at the director’s own estimate, not only as of that real value, but as being as much an actual property as if the money had been handed over to the fortunate seller. John .Vl‘Gregor and company have succeeded in bringing another shoulder beneath tiie burden, without casing their own. The connivance of the Board of Trade in the deception is one question; the origination of the deception itself is another question. The House of Commons will, wc doubt not, deal separate ;' with each question and each party. The larger of a hill is not to be acquitted because another rogue forges the acceptance. — Britannia. The Church business for next session will bo heavy and important. The Bishop of London is engaged upon a bill, the object of which will be the improved administration of discipline amongst the clergy. The law respecting thepnstitution of clerks will also have to undergo some revisal ; and therewith the canon law is threatened with modification. The ecclesiastical Courts of Appeal and the reform of the Church Courts generally, are also connected with questions of wider interest upon which Convocation will possibly express an opinion, and the next Parliament decisively legislate.—Britannia.

Democracy.—lf is said that the characteristic of our times is Democracy, hut in truth ours must have been a dull planet without the democratic element in any times ; this has relieved the monotony of life, and has called into existence at the same time the most illustrious virtues, and i he most execrable vices. Democracy is the thirst of the human intellect for power, and, as intelligence is diffused over the widely-scattered people, the thirst for power shapes itself into an idea, begins to select its materials and its agents, and eventually embodies the dream in a country or an institution democracy is virtuous,, just as it is associated with virtuous methods and objects ; it is an instinct, and when the lawless man aspires to be the ruler and the leader of factions and of demagogues, he, too, opposite as his life may seem, manifests the same phase of soul manifested by more tyranous and persecuting priestcrafts, it is the ever-prevalent sense of power, the consciousness of injustice too; this democratic clement has been in every age the anvil on which time has beaten out the great changes of the globe, it has been at the foundation of all states; hence Theseus performed his feats of valour in the wild Hellenic forests; hence Romulus laid the foundation of the seven-hilled city ; hence the wild black raven of the nortbman sea-king flapped its wing over the Danube, the Rhone, the Baltic, the continents of Europe, and the islands of the sea —compelled by the democracy of Christianity, the Venitii founded their mighty dams upon the mud and the rushes of the Adriatic, and, piloted by the same genius, the Bonny Mayflower cast anchor among the rocks of Plymouth Sound, carrying on boardt he seeds of democracies, to shake one world build another. The Grecian history, with its and piracies, its Persian or Lacedeemonian strugiings —Rome, with its legions outpoured over the earth the heroism of Regulus or the perfidy of Cicsar, the floods of incursionary Teutoacs—all these are but commentaries on this great assertive element of human power, an element that insists upon the record of its bis tong whether we survey it in the agricultural tribe of Eastern wanderers, pitching

f their tents in the outlawry of the desert or the ! forest, r or in the rude barque drifting to the lone isle i from the toils and meshes of oppression: or j amidst the tumultuary vindictively horde, tramp- ! rlhnr on the last vestiges of beauty or order, or lilt* j lug up its voice like a thuudcr-chaunt amidst the intelligence of a mighty people, proudly daring or hopefully inspiring—the spirit of democracy should ever he regarded, not as the foe, # hut as the mend of man, the spirit to which we owe the stout yeomanry of that older day, wli n such yeomanry were indeed formidable, the men of the middle ages; the spirit to which we owe, indeed, all the amenities and institutions which have made citizenship noble, or conferred a moral lustre or renown on our human name. But as liberty is not the final charter of human destiny, so neither is democracy the greatest boon ; indeed tills truth is not sufficiently perceived, that what we pant for is not so much freedom as faith. Noble minds seek the highest liberty only that they may rise to the perception of the Irgliest law. The history of the growth and development of England is the history of democracy. A people’s character result from its external circumstances ; the Grecian character was indebted to i s blue skies and the forests of the Morea, and the loveliness that for ever brooded over island and wave—it was impossible hut that a people borne beneath such heavens, surrounded by such earth, such seas, must have been a beautiful people. Britain wrought out the more wonderful problem of making a noble character, and shaping a beautiful literature, from circumstances of most opposing difficulty. The Tuetone has conquered the climate in which he was born ; he did not find Nature, like a graceful goddess, weaving festoons and garlands to celebrate his approach; wherever our Teutonic fathers moved, they beheld Nature looking sternly upon them, through her gloomy forests and desolate x’oeks and moors. It was a struggle with Nature, and Nature gave up the struggle. Situated as our island is in these northern seas, cut off from all communication with other peoples, exposed to all the horrors of a hyperborean winter, in lands where the presence of dense forests spread a perpetual gloom, or where the swamp and the miasma prevented the growth of food on them, for even the scantling people ; yet here, even here, man, by following nature, has conquered nature, has himself hung a fair and propitious sky over his island home, has clothed his fields not only with verdure, but with health and opulence, has caused each savage aspect to retire before Ins cultivating hand, and, if removing some of those elements which seemed essential to sublimity of thought, has yet robed the country in the truest and highest grace. The | Englishman’s character is pre-eminently his own, and he impresses Ids character permanently wherever he moves ; as of old time he was trained to rugged work, so he can work after the same fashion still ; hence, wherever he sets his foot, whatever he touches, he moulds and fashions; it is his ancestral character derived from Teutonic, Scandinavian, and Saracenic forefathers. The Englishman lives thus, then to move and to struggle, to conquer and to build ; he is an architect ; to visit all seas, to diffuse the genius of his ! character over all nations.— E. P. Hood.

Tun Production of Valuable Matter from tub most Worthless Materials. —Instances of this nature are constantly occurring. The skins used by the goldbeater s are produced from the oflai of animals. The hoofs of horses and cattle, and other horny refuse, are employed in the production of the prussiate of potash —that beautiful yellow crystallised salt which is exhibited in the shops of some of our chemists. The worn-out saucepans and tin-ware of our kitchens, when beyond the reach of the tinker’s art, are not utterly worthless. We sometimes meet curls, loaded with old tin kettles and iron coal-scuttles, traversing our streets. These have not yet completed their useful course. The less corroded parts are cut into strips, punched with small holes, and varnished with a c arse black varnish, for the use of the trunkmakcr, wl o protects the edges and angles ui his boxes with them. The remainder are conveyed to the manufacturing chemists in the outskirts of the town, who employ them in conjunction with pyroligneous acid in making a black dye fhr the use of calico printers.— Birmingham Journal

A Texan Colonel’s Story. —“ No, my friend,” said the Colonel to his piave companion ;“it is entirely impossible for one nursed, as yon have evidently been, in the lap of luxury—perhaps even in a sealed and framed house—to know what we suffered here in '36. I’ll just tell you exactly how it was with me, and I have seen nothing—oh, nothing at all—to what some have ! You see, T was there in Sabine County—had a little cabin in the woods away from town some dozen miles. 1 fad 160 cows, 20 mares, 17 fillies, and a wife and three children, but not a dollar in the world. How-, ver. I was a lawyer, and had et.gaged to defend a man for cow-stealing at court in town next day, for which 1 was to get two bushels of meal. You see, my clothes had well nigh worn out. and so I swopped with a Bedi Indian lor a suit of deerskin. Did you ever see a real suit of deerskin, stranger ?’* " Well, I have —felt it too.*' “ You see, the Indian told me to dye it in dogwood ooze. 1 did so, you know—left them in all night. Next morning I was up early and off fur court, for I needed that meal—didn’t have anything in the house ut all. My deerskin suit fi'ted well, hud tassels round the calves and skirts. -Well, 1 rode out of the inoi o. timber in which my cabin was 1 uilt on to the prai.ie that stretched the rest of the way to town; as the sun got hotter, the wet skin—you see, I had nut it on wet for I mini he at court —had to have that meal—tlit* we skin began to get tigli. ! ‘ Pshaw, it don’t mind,’says 1 ; hat in 20 minutes, pshaw, it did mind! Got off the mare, out there in that broad prairie, with the roast.ug, broiling, burning sun right over my head, u nd my clothes creeping up and coiling tight round me like a nest of snakes. My arms were fastened so by ihsleeves that I couldn’t get my knife to rip anything, My hair stood on the end like thorns of a hois d'me. Oh, the misery, the suffering, the agony ! My whole body was hound up, and screwed together, and strangled Blood rushed to ray head—couldn’t get on my horse Well, 1 lay there in the blistering sun till somebody going to court happened to pass, and ripped me up. lie cut me m two or three places, he was shaking so with laughter while he did it. Well, you see, 1 roJe buck home—took the last sheet in the house—cut it out—wife sowed on one leg, while I sowed up the other—got to court just in time with my white suit—cleared the man, and got the meal.” French Modesty. —'ihe Pans Siecle, referring to thExhibition, ingeniously demands to know by what right The Royal Commissioners think of appropriating to England alone the great surplus arising from it ? This sur, lis says the s iesle, was the result of foreign contributions as well as English, and it ought to be applied to some purpose purely European. Upwards of 1,000 fires occurred in London during the year, 1851. The amount of properly insured m London is estimated at £600,000,000. Tab and Feather. —The use of tar and feathers in the punishment of crime is one of great antiquity, Richard 1., in his voyage to the Holy land, ordained thus:—“ If any one be convicted of theft, let his head be shaved, lice Champion's, lot melted piten he poured upon it, and feathers shaken over it, that he may he known, and let him be pm ashore at the firs' land to which the ship approaches.” Railway Statistics.— By the returns of the Railway Commissioners it appears that, on the first day ol 1850 the total amount of capital which had been extended on the railways was £'220,000 000 sterling. Allowing a proportional amount of capital for 7,000 miles of railway now open, the total will represent a capital of .€250,000.000