23 AUGUST 1851, Page 7

,fartign and Colonial.

FRANCE.—The Parisian journals have been hardly tasked this week to supply news of interest. The trial of the Lyons conspirators has extended through the week, but has not supplied any interesting particulars; it excites little attention in- Paris.

The correspondent of the Times announces, that the chiefs of the Le- gitimist party are about to meet again at Wiesbaden, and pay their court to the Count de. Chamhord ; who repairs thither for the purpose of con- certing with his partisans "'some definite solution of the questions which at present divide his party."

Arrsntrk.—The accounts of public opinion in Lombardy again picture it as "gloomy and full of foreboding." Arrests of "compromised per- gons" are continually made in Milan and Verona. In the latter city, one of the new prisoners was " a lady of rank, accused of forwarding a corre- spondence to Mazzini."

A recent number of a Vienna paper, Lloyd's, contained an article on the state of affairs. in. Lombardy, which wound up with a most significant declaration, that should another outbreak take place, " a. great change in the possession of- landed-property " would be a just and a probable retri- bution on the rebel proprietors who are now for ever plotting. The Mi- nisterial Corriere Italian thought it necessary to repudiate any Govern- mental connexion with this article; but local writers say " there is no doubt Lloyd spoke from authority." If so, it would appear that the policy of turning the peasants against the landowners is to be transported from Austrian Poland to Austrian Italy

The latest letters contain the mystifying statement, that " M. Warrens, proprietor and editor of the Lloyd newspaper, had been expelled the city, on the personal order of the Emperor himself, for having given publica- tion. to a series of articles severely reflecting upon the Government."

INDIL—We gave in last week's Postscript the telegraphic accounts which had anticipated the overland mail. The detailed accounts of the political intelligence are little more definite than the telegraphic anticipa- tions of it.

The reports of disturbance in the Punjaub only assume this slender and vague dimension. " Letters from the Northern Punjaub state that the passes to Cashmere are closed, and that a disturbance and extensive mutiny of troops are reported to have taken place in. Gholab Singh's dominions, in which four British officers have lost their lives." Bombay letters add—" The latter portion of this report is here considered to be highly improbable." The confusion in the Nizam's territory is thus alluded to-

" It is generally reported that orders from the Court of Directors to the Governor-General have been at last received by the Resident at Hyderabad, Deccan, to take and keep possession of certain part's of the Nizam's domi- nions unless he repays at once the monies due to the Government of India, amounting to upwards of eighty lam of rupees, with interest at six per cent. The districts of country about to be absorbed are, it is said, all those on the other side of the Kishna river, Richer; and Noildroog, besides Berar. The first will be under the superintendence of Captain Bullock, and the last under Mr. Heighten, who once managed the Warrungal districts."

But it is considered in Bombay that the Nizam "has the means to pay," and that at the eleventh hour he will pay and save his territory.

A terrible accident occurred at Gihindpore, on the 14th of June. Seventy prisoners en route to Hai sesame had been halted there and chained together in a. but for the night ; the but accidentally took fire, and only five are stated to have escaped with life. The Bombay corre- spondent of the Times mildly observes—" With the numerous instances the Government have before them of men being burnt to death tinder similar circumstances, there ought to be rules laid down for securing prisoners under such circumstances in a manner that would allow them a chance of life in ease of fire."

' Cltrwass-The- newspaper files from Hongkong, extending the news to the 23d of June, state that the disturbances in the Southern provinces

have assumed a magnitude and political complexion which alarm the Im- perial Court Hitherto the English journals at our stations on the Chinese coast have taken a very discrepant view of the importance and even of the extent of these movements ; but those local organs now concur in admitting the serious extent of the movements, and they seem also to incline towards a belief in the revolutionary drift and political importance of them. The Hongkong Register, while still assuring its readers that there is no ground for political apprehension, now admits that, " no doubt, the effect of the disorders will be injurious to trade " ; and that " one effect they are hIce- ly to have," if not put down shortly, will be "the destruction of Canton as a place of export." This is about the same sort of admission that it Would be to say that the Nullifying movement in the United States had got to such a head that New Orleans was about to be destroyed as the ex- port emporium of the Southern States.

The China Mail still maintains that the outlaws are but " banditti "desperadoes;" called into existence by floods and famines, and " en- comsged to make the most of a predatory life by the disgraceful apathy of the provincial officers"' but at the same time it quotes despatches from the Pekin Gazette, showing that " the Emperor is now thoroughly alarmed." The China Mail itself draws an interesting parallel between the causes of the overthrow of the Yuen dynasty and causes now threatening the overthrow of that Mantchoo dynasty which displaced and succeeded the Yuen line.

" In 1351, extraordinary taxes were imposed by Shun Ti, the last Monarch of the Yuen, to enable him to form a new channel for the Yellow River. This dissatisfied many' and an ex-minister, who declared himself the de- scendant of the eighth Emperor of the Sung, assumed command of the mal- contents of Shan-Tung, Ho-Nan, and Kiang-Nan : he was joined by another at the head of 100,000 men. Meanwhile, a famous pirate harassed the coast of Kiang-Nan and Cheh-Kiang. In the tenth moon, another rebel, in Hu- Kwang, declared himself Emperor ; but in 1355 the colleague of the first proclaimed his the ex-minister's son Emperor in Ho-Nan. In 1356, a young priest who had been actively employed since 1352 in promoting a re- volt against the Yuen' beat the Mongols at Nanking; in 1358, took posses- sion of the capital of Hu-Kwang; and, in 1364, overthrew a Chinese who had usurped the soi-disaut empire of the lfu-Kwang claimant. The priest eventually established himself as Emperor, at Nanking, in 1388 ; and, the last of the Yuen having fled in terror, against the advice of his ministers, reigned for thirty-one years as Hung Wu, the founder of the Ming. "The Yuen owed their downfall, which it took seventeen years to effect, to an overt act of tyranny producing immediate revolt: the only definite complaint against the Mantchoo family is that it usurped the empire two hundred years ago ; a cry not, of course, without its interest in China, but certainly not connected a twelvemonth since with the disturbances in the two ICwang, by the Chinese to whom we have ordinary access at Canton. It would be singular, were the violence of the impracticable river known as `China's Sorrow' once more to lead, though less directly than before, to the expulsion of the foreign usurpers of the throne."

The Friend of China, which avows itself "at enmity with the very name of Tartar dynasty,' " indulges the earnest hope that " a better fate is about to dawn on China's relations with foreign countries," and de- clares that "a few more months will assuredly decide the fate of the em- pire."

The Hongkong correspondent of the Daily News makes the most of these signs of conversion to his theory, that " a great agency [politico- religions] is promising at no distant day to dismember this mighty em- pire." He now writes-

" My expressed apprehensions, and the data on which they rested, were at the time questioned by the local journals ; who very unjustly endeavoured. to fix the authorship on Dr. Bowring, her Majesty's Consul at Canton. But time has proved the correctness of what has appeared in the Daily News ; and my next letter will probably announce the taking of the city of Canton by the insurgent mass, which, like a mighty ocean, is moving gradually but irresistibly onward, involving ruin in its course,—unless the Mandarins declare themselves, and thus hasten the downfall of the present dypasty. Fall it assuredly will ; and it will be well if the event finds our codntry- men with sufficient naval force for their protection."

The extracts from the Pekin Gazette, quoted by the China Mail, show that some 5000 picked veterans have been hastily despatched from Canton towards the seat of revolt ; that new commanders of the greatest emi- nence have been sent against the rebels ; and that the Emperor is pour- ing into the state treasury immense contributions from his private wealth to hasten forward the great military measures now in execution for the suppression of the rebels.

The Hongkong papers describe a sad loss to roue navy—that of the screw- steamer Reynard, Captain Cracroft.

The Reynard left Hongkong for England on the 28th of May, with orders to go in the first instance to the Prata Shoals, about a hundred and sixty miles from Hongkong, and assist her Majesty's brig Pilot in rescuing a part of the crew of the wrecked merchant-brig Velocipede. The Prate Shoals have been surveyed, but no accurate knowledge has been obtained of the strength and irregularity of the currents prevailing there. During the night of the 30th of May, while the greatest vigilance was exercised, and when, according to all their different means of reckoning, it was supposed that they were at least thirty miles from the point of danger, the Reynard struck on the shoals. The sea was smooth, the water deep, and nothing gave the slightest indication of the proximity of danger. All endeavours to get the vessel off failed; and the wind getting up, with a heavy sea, the vessel soon became bilged and a perfect wreck. Captain, officers, and crew, saved no- thing. They passed one night on a raft, and the following day reached the island; and, with the crew of the Velocipede, all got safely on board the Pilot ; which vessel also barely escaped being carried on the shoals.

The Hongkong papers also contain the story of three sailors, Berries, Blake, and Hill, who had just arrived at Shanghai, from the island of Formosa. The American opium-clipper Antelope, on her passage to Shanghai, was on the 1st of May lying nearly becalmed off the South point of Formosa, when a boat was observed rowing towards her from the shore with three men in it. Captain Roundy, knowing the craft and ferocity of the natives, fired a cannon-ball over their heads : but they still came on ; and when they had approached within hail, they were heard to speak in the English language. They were quickly got on board, and found to be the survivors of the Larpent of Liverpool, 614 tons, which had left her port for Shanghai on the 18th May 1850, with a crew of thirty-one men, commanded by Mr. Gilson. Mr. Bland, a passenger, had acted as third mate. The rescued Englishmen made a statement from which the folloWe ing narrative in the North China Herald was drawn up. • " The Larpent passed Anjar on the 19th of August. On the 12th of Sep- tember, in the forenoon, she passed Hotel Tobago Xima, a lofty island, bear- ing East-half-North from the South Cape, Formosa, from which it is distant

thirteen leagues. The weather is said to have been thick and rainy. At 9.30 p. tn. all hands were alarmed at the ship suddenly striking on a rock. By backing the head-sails, however, the ship came off almost immediately, but on sounding the pumps no less than seven feet of water were found in the hold ; all hands were forthwith busily kept at pumping until 2.15 a. of the following day, when, as there was no prospect of gaining on the leak, Captain Gilson ordered the quarter-boats to be lowered and the launch to be hoisted out. In the hurry the jolly-boat stove and became useless. The captain, mate, and six men, then got into the starboard quarter-boat; the re- maining members of the crew taking the launch, in which some provisions bad been placed. On the weather cleating up a little at daylight, they found themselves close to the shore, somewhere in the vicinity of the place de- signated on the map of Formosa, Mat-faer. Here they all landed for the purpose of getting fresh water, and with the intention also of caulking the long-boat; but in these purposes they wereprevented, the natives coming down in great numbers and plundering them of every moveable. So situated, Captain Gilson determined on putting to sea again, to endeavour to reach Hongkong, a distance of 400 miles and upwards. Both boats started to- gether; but the launch, still leaking considerably, was unable to keep up with the lighter boat, and, parting company, she [the lighter boat] was never more seen ; although it was afterwards heard that Captain Gilson had landed near South Cape, and procured water. (There, indeed, he might have been murdered or taken captive, and may still be in slavery, for aught we are required to believe to the contrary.) At daylight on the 14th, the launch having rounded the extreme point, the crew landed on a shelving beach, surrounded by bushes, intending, before proceeding any further, to do 'their best to repair the boat. About eight a. m., almost without any previous warning, they found themselves in the midst of a deadly fire of matchlocks. Young Mr. Bland was observed to spring a great height into the air and fall flat on his face dead ; those who could swim immediately took to the water; whence the savages were seen, with long knives, stabbing those who were wounded, and immediately cutting off their heads, which to the number of nineteen were then thrown into a terrible heap. Blake, the joiner, says that although wounded by a shot when in the water, he swam for several miles across a broad bight, and had landed under a huge sugar-loaf rock thoroughly exhausted, thinking that he was the only one saved, when turning his eyes seaward, he observed the boy Hill, pursued by an enormous shark. The lad appeared nearly exhausted, and was about to sink, when cheered by his voice, he gave a few more strokes and landed in shoal water, whence he dragged himself over the coral to the place where Blake was sitting. Here they had not remained long when two natives with matchlocks were seen traversing a beach at some distance, apparently in pursuit of them. But they succeeded in hiding themselves for a time, and afterwards escaped to the mountains, where they remained until the 19th. Exhausted nature could hold out no longer ; and at a time when Blake says the feelings of a cannibal bad arisen in his breast, and he insanely thought of partaking of his comrade's blood rather than remain longer without food, they wandered into a field where some villagers were at work. From them they obtained a meal of rice and shelter; and were afterwards made to work with the village labourers from daylight till dark—sometimes in boats, diving for large shell-fish, at others with hoes about the paddy- ground. The man Bens and another had landed at a different place, whence they tried to reach a junk, in which one of them, Harrison, succeeded, but was almost immediately shot and decapitated in eight of his comrade. Boris appears to have subsequently joined Blake and Hill ; the latter of whom, being unable to do so much work as the others, was subjected to very severe treatment, and has been left sick at Shanghai. At the expiration of five months, the kind-hearted villagers sold them to some neighbours for six dollars a piece ; the purchasers proving to be of a more friendly disposition than the original holders. On arrival at Shanghai, a voluminous narrative of the seven months and sixteen days captivity was taken by Mr. Consul Alceek."

rauroratrA.—The real Terra dcl Fuego of modern times seems to be found rather in the Northern than in the Southern American continent. The latest American accounts bring letters from San Francisco, dated July 1, which announce that " another, being the sixth, great fire in this apparently doomed city, has laid a large proportion of it in ashes. It occurred on Sunday the 22d June, and was no doubt the work of an in- cendiary." The English reader is now, through the descriptions of pre- vious conflagrations, nearly as well acquainted with the topography of San Francisco as its own inhabitants; so we give, as a matter of course, the details of the destruction.

" The extent of the fire includes thirteen squares, and parts of five other squares, situated between Powell and Sansome, and Broadway and Clay,— namely, two squares between Powell and Stockton, and Broadway and Jack- son, including the Presbyterian Church ; not a house within these limits left—mostly residences. Three squares between Stockton and Dupont, and Broadway and Washington, excepting two houses, the residence of Dr. Wol- zencraft, and the Baptist church, corner of Washington and Stockton. Three squares between Dupont and Kearney, and Broadway and Washington, in- cluding the City Hall (from which all the records were fortunately saved). Within these limits, only the Bella Union and the Customhouse, on the Plaza, were saved. The Alta California buildings, with most of the materials, [at last, after so many previous escapes,] destroyed. Portions of the two squares fronting on Washington, above and below Dupont, including the old Adobe on the Plaza; Foley's Amphitheatre having been torn down, left a space which saved the balance of that block, beyond to the Post-office buildings inclusive. Five squares between Kearney and Montgomery, and Broadway and Clay, including the City Hospital; the middle portions only of the two squares between Washington and Clay were destroyed ; all the buildings fronting on the lower side of the Plaza, (except the new theatre adjoining the El Dorado,) and all the large fire-proof banking buildings, from Bur- goyne's South on Montgomery Street, standing without the least injury ; also a few frame buildings above the City Hospital. The verandah and the small brick buildings adjoining were saved. The large new store of Mark- weld, Caspari, and Co., on the North aide of Jackson Street below Kearney, with a large stock of goods, was destroyed. The three other portions of squares destroyed are below Montgomery, between Washington and Broad- way ; the fire sweeping around the point of the hill, about half-way to San- some. No building on Jackson below Montgomery sustained any injury. At the corner of Washington, below Montgomery North, only a few houses were consumed. Eight of these squares are above Kearney, and beyond the limits of the conflagrations of the 4th of May; as are also those portions on Washington above the Plaza, and on Pacific and Broadway, in the neigh- bourhood of the City Hospital. The other five squares and portions of squares below Montgomery embraced new buildings, put up since the last fire, and those fire-proofs which had borne the test of the destructive element, and have passed the present calamity unharmed."

The fire originated in the residence of Mr. De Lessert, at the corner of Powell and Pacific Streets—a house in which there was "neither fireplace, chimney, nor stove."

"Mr. De Lessert left home between ten and eleven o'clock in the morn- ing, and noticed on the opposite side of the street as he came out, two suspi-

cious-looking men directing their attention to him, and significantly laugh- ing; so much so that he examined his person, to see if there was anything about his dress or appearance calculated to excite their merriment. Before he reached his office, in the old Adobe building on Portsmouth Square, he heard the alarm of fire ; and hastening back, discovered his house in flames. His suspicions immediately attached to the two men as implicated in the in- cendiary act."

The correspondent of the Horning Chronicle states that "several tenants, of the houses in the neighbourhood had been notified to vacate at an early day this week, in consequence of delinquency in the payment of their rents for some months past. From these facts, the conclusion wag thought irresistible, that the fire was the result of a deliberate incendiary act" Several arrests had been made. The most feverish excitement prevailed on account of the insecurity from fire and robbery so generally felt. The same writer concludes his letter with this general statement- " The loss is very great, but not nearly so extensive as that by the pre- vious catastrophe, on the 4th May. Houses on Clay, Merchant, and Washington Streets, are already being built up again ; a dozen at least will be completed on those streets by tomorrow night."