The news from China is not reassuring for the French,
or indeed, for Europe. The Chinese are pouring troops into Ton- qnin in such numbers, that General Briere de l'Isle, in supreme command there, demands reinforcements of 10,000 men. His subordinates win all skirmishes, but he loses men ; and so many are suffering from sickness—the usual fate of French conscripts who have no heart for these distant wars—that he can scarcely keep the field. His strength, too, is diminished by the plan, never adopted by the English, of holding a great number of small fortified places, which do not subdue the country half so well as a considerable victory would do. The repulse from Formosa is at last officially acknowledged, and it is admitted that Admiral Courbet has ordered a strict blockade, which may involve European complications. It is impossible to carry it out without stopping European vessels, yet, as no war has been declared, the right to stop them does not exist. The Europeans, who generally sympathise with the French from the dislike of China, so universal in Chinese ports, may keep away for a time ; but, sooner or later, remonstrances of a stringent char- acter will be addressed to Paris.
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