COCHIN CHINA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 270, 28 November 1861, Page 4

COCHIN CHINA.

The news is up to the 14th August from Saigon. The Admiral Charmer has taken formal possession of Cochin China in the name of the Emperor. The war is to he prosecuted with-re-newed vigour, additional troops, via Suez, are now on the way, and may be expected in the course of a month. ~ The troops at present in Cochin China are to be relieved. Rice is very dear. A new French Governor is shortly expected, when land concessions will be made to settlers, and other important measures will be introduced. Several of the Chinese merchants, who have forwarded goods from Singapore to Saigon, have received information of the loss by pirates of the goods shipped, and of the murder of several of the supercargoes. There ai'e about 30 vessels at Saigon. The French have twelve gun boats, with which they expect to make short work of the pirates. JAPAN. An attack had been made on the British legation at Yeddo, which was repulsed, leaving 24 of the assailants dead and wounded in the legation. Ar ong those belonging to the legation wounded was Mr. Oliphant, not dangerously, however ; but it was desirable that he should have the first surgical assistance, and he will therefore return to England before long. It took place at two in the morning, at which hour the various members of legation were suddenly aroused from their slumbers by a band of ruffians, who, there is some reason to think, were suborned by some one of the powerful opposition nobles who lately retired from power on the ‘ foreign ’ question. The only casualties, however, that are reported, consist of one wound in the head received by Mr. Morrison, and a more severe wouijd ip, the left arm received by Mr. Oliphant. The Japanese guard fought bravely, and saved the entire Embassy. Mr. Harl’is and the other ambassadors were unmolested. Our Minister immediately called upon H.M.S. Ringdove to supply him with a guard, and preparations were being made for the worst. The attack is reported, in the North China Herald of 17th August, to have been instigated by a prince in the island of Tsassimas, who had had his palace bombarded and one of his villages taken, and many of his followers killed and wounded by the Russians. In revenge, he ordered the legation to be attacked and its inmates massacred. This is the version of the story generally believed, and the mode of revenge is only too much in keeping with their usual habits of thought dud action,—too much so, at all events, to be discarded as improbable. Admiral Hope, long daily expected at Yeddo from Hong Kong, liad not arrived on the 2Gth July. Our minister was maintaining his ground in the legation, with the aid of a guard of twenty-five blue-jackets, from the little despatch boat the Ringdove, the only British man-of-war on those waters for the protection of British interests. Whether any second and more desperate attack was pending, no one could say. But, according to the North China Herald qf 10th August, the Japanese seemed to expect another attack, as besides the usual guard, they had the retainers of two Damios as an extra protection, and the precautions to meet it were daily increasing. The guards were going about in full armour day and night, lamps were stuck up at every ten paces or so, and large fires kept up all night at a distance of from 40 to 50 paces, so that it was impossible any one pould get into the grounds of the legation unobserved. They are said to disapprove of the marines being on guard, as, in case of attack, they would be unable to distinguish between assailants and defenders, and would fire on both indiscriminately, Nor is the alarm confined to Yeddo ; the accounts from Yokohama state that the consulate at £angawa is turned ink;

a regular stockade, with a double, palisade; and numerous guard-houses ; rill rourid* it, ’• the entrance being guarded by armed Yacunius.