PROGRESS OF THE OPIUM WAR.

Intelligence has been received from India and China, by the March overland mail from Bombay, announcing what is considered as the ter- mination of the dispute with China. The news reached London bit by bit ; first in the shape of a French telegraphic despatch, next in a meagre account by the extraordinary express of the daily papers, and the full particulars came lagging last. The reason is said to be, that the authorities at Marseilles, according to instructions from the French Government, seized the courier employed for the English journals, and deprived him of his papers and letters. The jealousy of the French Post-office people is suspected to be the motive for this strange proceed- in The latest dates are, from Chusan to the 24th December, from Macao to the 27th January, and from Bombay to the 1st March. We copy the summary of the Chinese news from the Bombay Gazette- " In consequence of the insincerity and tardiness displayed by the Imperial Commissioner, preparations were made on the morning of the 7th January fir attacking the outposts of the Bogue forts. About 700 Sepoys, 200 European soldiers, and 400 seamen and marines, were embarked under the command of Major Pratt, of her Majesty's Twenty-sixth Regiment, in the steamers Enterprise, Nemesis, and Madagascar, and lauded in the vicinity of the fort of Chuenpee. At the same time, her Majesty's ships Calliope, Lame, and Hyacinth, opened a cannonade on the lower battery of the tort, while the steamers Nemesis and Queen threw shells into the upper tower which com- manded it. The latter was soon taken possession of by the British troops ; who poured down a heavy fire of musketry on all the lower works, and quickly drove the Chinese from their guns. In two hours the fort was in possession of the English, with a loss of only 3 killed and 23 wounded : that of the Chinese is estimated at from 500 to 700. Many were killed in the attempt to escape, by junipin,g down from their embrasures, a depth of twenty feet, to the rocks below. The ships and crews escaped unhurt, although the fort mounted thirty -five guns.

" At the same time the fort of Tykoktow was attacked by another squadron, operating about three miles to the southward, under command of Captain Scott, of the Samarang, supported by the Druid, Modeste, and Columbine. A heavy fire was opened on the fort, and promptly returned ; but the Chinese guns were speedily disabled, and a party of seamen landed to seize the fort. The Chinese made a spirited resistance, but were soon overpowered, and the fort captured. The First Lieutenant of the Samarang was wounded in the assault.

"The steam-vessels then attacked the fleet of junks lying in Anson's Bay ; but, owing to the shallowness of the water, only the Nemesis could apprdfich them, townie, twelve armed boats from her Majesty's ships. Her first rocket set fire to the powder-magazine of one junk, eighteen others were blown up by their own crews, and the rest escaped into the inner waters. Next morning her Majesty's ship Blenheim began to throw shells into the batteries at Wang- tong, and was preparing to attack the chief fort of Anunglioy, when the Chi- nese Commander-In-Chief made a communication to Captain Elliot, who thereupon desisted from further hostilities."

A public circular, dated the 7th January, and signed by Captain Elliot, announced to the British that " negotiations had been inter- rupted," and that the forts had been attacked and taken. The papers contain some " rough notes " of the attack on the two forts. Here is the storming of the fort at Chuenpee- " All the dispositions having been made, and the troops landed at the water- ing-place to the southward of the island, they formed, and pushed strong covering-parties in advance of the guns ; and then waited the effect of their fire, as well as that of the squadron. They then marched in two bodies on the hill-fort, into which the Queen and Nemesis had previously thrown some shells. On reaching the intervening valley, the stockade opened a fire on the troops; but was soon silenced by the field-pieces, placed on the ridge of the hill. The troops—the Cameronians and Marines—then pushed forward up the bill and took possession of the fort, whilst the Bengal Volunteers and Fifty-seventh Madras Native Infantry debouched from the valley to the northward, and then, left shoulder, forward, marched round the hill. After driving the Chinese, who made a handsome defence, out of the stockade, the Cameronians and Marines deployed and rushed down the bill on the lower and largest fort, entered the embrasures, and drove all before them ; the garrison escaping through the northern gate, when in a few minutes they were intercepted in their suave gui pent retreat by the Na- tive troops which had debauched from the valley ; who opened a most destruc- tive fire upon them. This spot, a short distance from the northern gate and beach, was the slaughterhouse : it was here the Hiptae, a Mandarin of the third class, was killed, obstinately refusing quarter from a sergeant of Marines, who ran up to him as his people were carrying him off severely wounded. He cut at the sergeant, who parried the blow with his bayonet, and nearly bad the worst of the encounter. The Chinese, with the Cameronians and Marines in their rear, and the Native troops in front, rushed into the water to escape; but there fell beneath the united fire of the troops. It should be here remarked, that the Chinese do not understand either giving or taking quarter in the European military sense of those conditions : many of the Chinese, when in the water, fired their matchlocks at the Native troops, and then threw them away and made submission ; but this bit and fall-down proceeding the Sipahis did not understand, but returned the fire of the Chinese—of course with fatal effect."

Then follows the attack on Tykoktow- " The left division, led in splendid style by the Druid, Captain Smith, [This is afterwards corrected: it was Captain Herbert, in the Samarang,1 were in their stations about half-past ten o'clock a. m.; the Druid reserving her fire, although a brisk cannonade was kept up from this extensive fort, until she dropped her anchor, when instantly she poured in a destructive broadside ; her example being, followed by the other ships, as they came up in succession. A landing was effected to storm the fort ; but the Chinese obstinately defended themselves at the north gate, being driven by the broadsides from the batteries, but not until a great many of their guns were dismounted or rendered unser- viceable. Several personal encounters here took place ; and, to show the ob- stinacy of their defence, a Mandarin having lost his arms, grappled with an officer of the Modeste and bit him severely in the arm. The Columbine being on the flank, her batteries enfilading the fort, threw in upon the enemy, who were now firing and retiring, a destructive discharge of grape and canister. In an hour the British flag floated over the fort. The enemy's loss was great, but we are unable to speak accurately as to number. Here, as at Chuenpee, the clothes (padded with cotton) of the killed and wounded, as they fell, were ignited by their matches and ammunition-boxes, which they carry in front, and the bodies almost consumed by fire." The preparations of the Chinese for defence were not altogether con- temptible— " The stockades were well and strongly built ; but their situation was not well selected, being commanded by the neighbouring hills. They afford a proof of the advance the Chinese have made in the means of defence. From the freshness of the materials employed in their construction, it would appear that they have been erected within these few weeks, while the British Plen1potentiary has been negotiating; and had they been held by determined men, or rather I Bremer, on his first arrival in China. They were consequently en- . skilful soldiers, it would have cost our troops some trouble to have taken them. As it was, the Marines had a good many men wounded in the attack ; and although exposed to a galling fire from the field-pieces and musketry, the Chinese resolutely defended them for twenty minutes ; and it was only a for- ward movement of the gallant and ever-distinguished Cameronians—not in- valids, as they have been elsewhere most egregiously misnamed—and Marines that induced them to evacuate the works."

One thing found in the forts furnishes a curious illustration of the whole contest between the two countries—about 160 balls of the "foreign smoke" (opium) were left behind by the Chinese soldiers. " It is probable (says the writer of the " rough notes ") the spirits of the Chinese were exalted to the gallant resistance they opposed to our troops, by a few additional pipes or pills of this stimulant."

Various reports were circulated as to the mode in which communi- cations were carried on between the British Plenipotentiary and the Chinese Commissioner ; but none of them seem very reliable. We give them at what they are worth. The Canton Register of January 12th says-

" It appears, or it is reported, that her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, after the capture of the forts at Chuenpee and Tykoktow, took the first step to open communications with the Commandant of Anunghoy : a message was sent, through some of the Chinese prisoners, to that officer, informing him that if he would haul down his flags the British would cease hostilities. In reply to this communication, the Chinese commandant deputed his heralds in the Tanks. boat. The consequences of these communications have been made known to her Majesty's subjects by the public circular dated the 8th instant.

" When the commandant of Anunghoy hauled his flags down, he told the British officer who brought the message, that he could not surrender the fort ; and also, that though they were desirous of peace, they were at the same time quite prepared for war.

" We have likewise heard that Keshen has sent a remonstrance to her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, lecturing him on his madness in attacking the Chuenpee and Tykoktow forts, telling him no good will be done by such con- duct ; and asking him, 'how he can possibly report such rebellious proceedings to his Imperial Majesty': and it is said that her Majesty's Plenipotentiary has evinced 'a too late repentance,' expressing his regret for and lamenting the consequences of his own acts."

Another report mentioned by the same paper, that Chuenpee was to be held by the British, was disproved by the event.

What passed from this period to the 20th is not stated. On that day, Captain Elliot issued a circular, announcing the progress of negotia- tions, to the following effect— "1. The cession of the island and harbour of Hong-Kong to the British Crown. All just charges and duties to the empire upon the commerce carried on there to be paid as if the trade were conducted at Whampoa.

" 2. An indemnity to the British Government of 6,000,1)00 dollars ; 1,000,000 payable at once, and the remainder in equal annual instalments, ending in 1846.

" 3. Direct official intercourse between the countries upon an equal footing.

"4. The trade of the port of Canton to he opened within ten days after the Chinese New Year, [which falls on the 2d of February,] and to be carried on at Whampoa till further arrangements arc practicable at the new settlement. Details remain matter of negotiation." On the 21st, the English colours were removed from the fort of Chuenpee, and the Chinese replanted in their place. The English ships then left the Bogue. Part of the fleet was to proceed to Hong-Kong, to take possession in the name of the Queen, on the 26th ; disembarking a portion of the troops to plant the British flag. The troops were then to reembark, and to remain on board ship until proper quarters were provided for them on shore.

Captain Elliot was to proceed in a few days in a steamer up the river to Second Bar ; where he was to have an interview with the Imperial Commissioner Keshen.

The Canton Free Press of January 23d gives some indication of the opinion among the British in China as to the cession of Hong-Kong-

" We consider that, for an independent British settlement, no situation can possibly be more favourably chosen than that of Hong-Kong. The island it- self is of little extent—we are told about fifteen miles in circumference ; but it forms with the neighbouring lands one of the finest ports existing, where any number of ships and of any size may safely anchor in the worst of weathers ; and the settlement of Hong-Kong would, we doubt not, in a very short time become a place of very considerable trade, were its possession by the British not clogged with the condition that the same duties as at Whampoa are to he paid there ; which, in our estimation, destroys at once all the benefit that might be expected to trade there, and will in fact reduce the British settlement of Hong-Kong to nothing more than a military station, and make it possibly the resort of the families of foreign merchants transacting business at Canton ; although even this is doubtful, as they may continue to prefer Macao. The same charges Lind duties being paid at Hong-Kong as at Whampoa, it follows as a matter of necessity, that the trade will remain where for centuries it has been established, and not seek a new location, where it is under the same dis- advantages, without its being afforded the same facilities it now finds in a po- pulous commercial city, long the centre of the commerce of the Empire, and under the same charge infinitely better situated than a port on an out-of-the- way island can ever be. Had Hong-Kong come unconditionally into the pos- session of the English, we should have thought it a valuable possession, ac- quired at whatever price: now, according to the reading we give to the Pleni- potentiary's circular, its value is little or none."

The Canton Register publishes the following order from Keshen to the Kennmingfoo of Macao, as a rider to Captain Elliot's circular-

" Keshen, a great Minister of State, and Imperial High Commissioner, of the second order of lua.editary nobility, and acting Governor of the two Kwang Provinces, writes this despatch for the full information of the Tungche or Kennmingfoo of Macao.

" The English barbarians are now obedient to orders, and by an official do- cument have restored Tinghae and Shakes; invoking me with the most earnest import auity that I should for them report, and beg for (the Imperial) favour.

" At present all affairs are perfectly well settled. The former order, for stopping their trade and cutting off the supplies of provisions, it is unnecessary to enforce: it is for this purpose that I issue these orders to the said Tangche, that he may obey accordingly, without opposition. A special despatch." It is asked, why the prisoners, particularly the officers, taken at Chuenpee and Tykoktow, were not dettined until the English prisoners kidnapped at Chusan were released?

Much dissatisfaction had been caused amongst the British merchants at Macao in consequence of Captain Elliot's having allowed two Ame- rican merchant-ships, the Kosciusko and the Panama, to quit the waters of Canton whilst the blockade was pending. These vessels were at Canton prior to the notice of blockade having been issued by Sir Gordon

titled to free egress with any cargo which they might at that time have had on board. The objection is therefore confined to their having of their own accord remained in the blockaded port until the consignees had purchased and shipped a valuable cargo of teas : under which cir- cumstances, their being allowed to pass out was granting an undue de- gree of preference to threigners, and tended also to vitiate the blockade. The British merehants have remonstrated with Captain Elliot in very strong terms, and threaten to bring the subject to the notice of Par- liament.

Captain Elliot seemed shill in hopes of being able to fulfil his original engagements a ith regard to the opium-compensation : perhaps he was anxious to conciliate his 41i,,eontehted subjects. He had issued the fol- lowing circular " to her Majesty's subjects

Macao, 0fr. T-nuary 1841.

" Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary considers it incumbent upon himself to lose no time in assuring the commercial community, that he will use his best efforts with her .Majesty's Cover:uncut to secure an early and entire advance of their claims tor the indemnity. " And, mindful of the intents of parties in India, he will not fail respect- fully to move the hi hit Honourable the Governor-General of India to second these purposes as far as may seem just to his Lordship.

" CHARLES ELLIOT."

The accounts from Chusan represent the health of the troops as im- proving. It was rumoured there, at that time, that the Chinese meant to renew hostilities in the spring.