AitiscEllantous.
A London Gazette Extraordinary, published on Wednesday, con- tained this formal announcement- " Foreign Office, 2341 November.
"Despatches have been this morning received, at this office, from Major- General Sir Henry Pottinger, her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China, dated ' Steam-frigate Queen, Yang-tae-kiang River, off Nanking, 30th August 1842; reporting that on the preceding day he had signed, with certain Chinese Pleni- rtentiaries, on board her Majesty's ship Cornwallis, a treaty of peace and friendship between her Majesty and the Emperor of China." The Morning Chronicle reiterates its charges against Lord Ellen- borough ; still resting, however, on bare assertion- " We have before us a private letter from a friend in India, whose authority IS nnquestionable, the writer of which says-4 You were right about Lord Ellen- 'borough's order to withdraw. Lord Ellenborough did order a retreat; be did "grant a reprieve, upon the representation of General Pollock and it was only when commanded to do so by the home Government that he has tardily allowed our troops to conquer Ghuznee and Cabal."'" The French papers naturally have something to say on the great events in the EAU, China especially : and each has a different view. We • subjoin brief specimens- " This is a great event—this peace, imposed by an European power on an empire which has hitherto treated foreigners with such supercilious contempt,. is an act which may have the greatest consequences upon commerce and poli- tics in general. It is a whole world henceforth opened to the penetrating activity of Europe. We cannot now dwell upon the various results which may arise from this event, but we cannot conclude without observing that, as conquerors, the English have given a proof of moderation."—Journal des Debuts. (MinisteriaL) "The English are immutable in their policy. In all their arrangements with foreign nations are to be found traces of the same ideas, tendieg to bring into their own grasp the best pusitions of every point of the globe. • • , The treaty announces that= The island of Hong-kong is ceded in perpetuity to her Britannic Majesty.' This island of Hong-kong has long been coveted by England. It is the best station in the Chinese seas; it is an inestimable advanced post to the Oceanic Archipelago."—Presse. (Court and Christina.) "To consider only the European side of this event, the pretensions of Eng- land do not appear exaggerated. * * • Five commercial ports to be thrown open to the English, who are to have consuls at these places! Five breaches made in the wall of China, through which Europe, with her ideas of progress, will rush in. • * • But if it be desired that the triumph which has been obtained over the Chinese immobility should have any duration, England must go farther, and interest Europe altogether in this advancement. Let England admit all the nations of Europe to a participation in the benefits of those com- mercial concessions and China, no longer having to do with a single state, hut with all which modern civilization comprehends, will not attempt to engage in a resistance which would be desperate."—Courrier Francais. (Liberal.) "The English undertook the war upon grounds purely selfish, for the pro- motion of their own interest, and from an odious motive ; but if they succeed in bringing 250,000,000 of men, now vegetating supinely under an astute and immoral government, into the improvements of European civilization, a great. service will be rendered to the cause of humanity."—Niecle. (Odilon Barrot.) "These are great events for England, and important also for the Adminle- tration of Sir Robert Peek In France, the persons who govern us do not Wein to be aware that Ministers render themselves worthy of governing by brilliant acts of vigour."—Quotidienne. (Royalist.)
Tuesday's Gazette notified the appointments of Mr. Lafontaine, Mr. Baldwin Mr. Aylwin, and Mr. Small, in Canada. The
Baldwin, Chronicle announces that Lord Aberdeen has abandoned the treaty for augmenting the Stade-duties ; adding that it has "one creditable act to set down to the credit of Lord Aberdeen." It was proposed to Hanover to limit the new duty of one-eighth per cent ad valorem to those goods in respect of which that rate or more has al- ready been paid; Hanover refused ; and the contemplated treaty WU thrown up.
The United Service Gazette makes knowu the discovery that the sister of Sir Sideey Smith is suffering great poverty and privation. She earns a precaHous subsistence by taking care of empty houses, near Ox- ford Square, for house-agents; having been deprived of support by the death of Sir Sidney and the transportation of Beaumont Smith.
The " City " department of the morning papers used to be devoted exclusively, to monetary and commercial reports, told with a matter- of-fact conciseness, and free from the intrusion of party politics. The Morning Chronicle has changed all that; and its City article has taken up the worn-out style of invective that used to be common in the " leading" articles of the papers, until shame and " the march of Intel- lect" begot abetter taste. We gave a sample last week, in a matter of abusive misrepresentation that concerned ourselves in relation to the Canada Corn question. This week the writer returned to his menda- cious Billingsgate.; and one of the Chronicle's long columns was on Tuesday occupied by his extra-commercial compositions. Of his abuse we have no more to say : the editor and proprietors of the journal are likely to be more damaged by it than we can be. Neither need wes recur to his dishonesty, having exposed it pretty fully last week, by the juxtaposition of his own writing ; showing that one day he imputed to the Spectator statements which were the direct opposite of our actual statements, and that next day he adduced his own disproof, by quoting, in the hunt for some new point, our words. Apart from its abuse, the business of his last outpouring—being the seventh on this one subject— is to make out that he was not one of "the blunderers" who needed our explanation of the 12th instant: and he repeats an account of the matter which he gave on the 1st, to prove that he was right then; which is in the main true. Our explanation was not addressed to the Chronicle exclusively : other and far abler writers had fallen into error; in fact, none appeared quite right. We did not mention the Chronicle, until the writer had so misrepresented us as to make it appear that, on all the essential particulars, we had said the reverse of what we did say, founding on that misrepresentation some gross animadversion. But we are quite willing to release the writer from the charge of blunder- ing, if his own words do not convict him : compare these statements_; "The Secretary of State for the Colonies says it is desirable to encourage the transit of the produce of the the great corn-growing States of America to English ports through Canada, at an import-duty of 3s. per quarter, and that the modified duties now charged upon the importation of Canadian produce should then entirely cease."—Morning Chronicle, Nov. 1. "Lord Stanley offered to admit Canadian wheat and dour manufactured lh Canada (no matter where grown) into British ports duty-free, provided the Canadian Parliament would subject American whist to a fixed duty of 3s. per quarter when imported to Canada."—Morning Chronicle, Nov. 4. "Their legislators contend that wheat transhipped from Canada must be imported to this country free of all duty, after the above date : and certainly the words used by Lord Stanley bear out that impression on their parts, and well justify them in calling upon the Imperial Parliament to adhere to that construction. But supposing that the Cabinet may be successful in repu- diating that meaning to the despatch, they are bound to maintain good fsith with our North American colonists, and at least to admit American wheat aid Canada into British ports, subject to the Canadian duty of 3s. in the colony, and afterwards to the Imperial duty of 5s. leviable on Canadian produce ;a England. A bill must be introduced into the next session of the British Parlia- ment to give legal effect to this contract, which is tantamount its all essentials to the admission of American wheat under a fixed-duty of 8s. per quartee'e- Morning Chroruck, Nov. 10. "The Cabinet cannot maintain that the duty of 3s. per quarter ass imposed by the Provincial Parliament on American wheat imported to the Canadas as a protection to the agriculturists of those colonies, and that they merely intend to take off 3s. per quarter from the Imperial duties now levied on Canadian wheat in the Mother-country. The despatch of Lord Stanley is totally at va- riance with such a construction, and if it were attempted would infallibly defeat any effort of that description."—Morning Chronicle, Nov. 11. " American wheat, it seems, is now admissible, then, as Canadian wheat at our frontier ; and, after 5th July 184.3, will pay a duty of 3s. per quarter on the Canadian frontier ; when, according to the above quotation from the Spec- tator, an equivalent reduction is to be made in the duty at our frontier.' After July 1843, therefore, American wheat exported via Canada, and trans- shipped from thence to British ports, will pvy a fixed duty of 3s. per quarter at the Canadian frontier, and at our frontier a maximum duty of 2s. per quar- ter while the price is below 55s., or what is equivalent to a fixed duty in all of 5s. per quarter. This is quite evident from the Spectator's own words ; and yet, in another part of the same article, he sneers at the idea of any new enact- ment on the subject."-1lorning Chronicle, Nov. 15. Even in the boasted " prior" information, this person fell into some blunder : he says that Lord Stanley offered to admit Canadian corn into British ports " duty-free "; whereas the Colonial Secretary, in the closing part of his despatch, [see Spectator, November 5,] which im- plies the promise, speaks only of a "further reduction." Again, in this last correction there are new mistakes and new falsehoods. The " confusion" which we attributed to writers in this country, we are made to attribute to the Canadian Parliament ; and then the garbled quotation is turned against us, to prove that we did "attempt to adduce an erroneous understanding of the facts as indicative of the views ex- pressed by the Canadian Parliament and ourselves," (to wit, the Chro- nicle's City reporter.) It is boasted that we now admit that there must be a new enactment,--which we never denied : we merely limited its application : in the foregoing extracts, it is at one time applied to the virtual "fixed duty of 8s.," at another to the abolition of all duty here, _And thirdly to the "further reduction "—and this last seems to be the most probable version.
After all is said, however, it appears that none of us had reached the bottom of the matter ; which indeed the Spectator did not profess to do, but only to draw consistent deductions from the facts then known. In the Colonial Gazette of last Wednesday, a correspondent, for whom that journal vouches as highly trustworthy, writes as follows from Montreal— "The bill imposing a duty of 3s. per quarter on American wheat imported into the Province from the States has been reserved. This was expected ; and it was imperative on the Governor-General to reserve it. Its operation will depend upon the repeal of the Imperial duties upon Canada wheat." So the Canadian bill is not yet passed—it is " reserved ": the Go- vernor-General has not put a veto upon it, but he postpones his assent— apparently waiting the "further reduction " in England as a condition. In the mean time, United States wheat may still be imported into Canada duty-free ; and the wheat of Canada may be received in Eng- land at a variable duty, of which the highest term is 5s. and the lowest Is.
The Globe recurred to the subject on Wednesday, in an article of moderation and ability, but not at all advancing the question. Some arguments were repeated, and others tended to expose defects inherent in all measures of restrictive commercial policy. The Globe claims a right to keep alive the question of what the Whigs might have done; which it is welcome to do, if it think such employment worth while. We believe no one expects that Lord John Russell's eight-shilling fixed duty will ever again be proposed; the next proposal from that side must be considerably lower.
Adviees have been received from Madrid to the 15th instant. The Cortes opened the business of the session on that day by the election of its chief officers—a President, four Vice Presidents, and four Secre- taries: all were elected by the Opposition. The Ministerial candidate for the Presidency was S. Acunha; the successful candidate was S. Olozaga. The result forced upon the Regent the alternative of a disso- lution of the Cortes or a change of Ministry ; and he adopted the latter. S. Olozaga himself is spoken of as the hi ad of the new Cabinet. An additional office is to be created : the Ministry of Commerce and Colo- nies being detached from that of Marine.
Letters from Perpignan, of the 19th instant, mention the receipt of a letter from a cavalry-officer at Barcelona, dated the preceding day, an- nouncing a revolution in Barcelona, which had commenced on the 13th with a dispute between a body of workmen and the soldiery, in conse- quence of an attempt on the part of the former to introduce several casks of wine into the town without the pay ment of the duty. On the 14th, the number of insurgent workmen amounted to 10,000; and the troops of the line, with a park of artillery, were ordered out on the evening of that day. The approaches to the Town-hall were guarded by the National Guard, (composed chiefly of working-people,) who re- fused to allow the regular troops to replace them. After a sanguinary contest, on the 15th, the troops were compelled to retreat into the citadel, after losing 500 of their number. The insurgents had possessed themselves of the artillery, and such had been the extent of the excite- ment that women armed with lances had taken part in the affray. Next day shells were thrown into the town from the citadel and from Mont- juic, also occupied by troops. On the 17th, however, the military com- mander and the Provisional Junta of the insurgents opened negotiations, to prevent further disasters ; and they continued at the despatch of the mail.
The discontent of the Barcelonese is variously attributed to French or Republican intrigue, Don Francisco de Paula's name being also men- tioned; and to apprehensions lest the Government should throw open the cotton-trade : but the people themselves declared that their out- break was spontaneous, and that the real causes were the arrest of the editor of the Republican° newspaper and the dislike to the conscription.
The insurrection was spreading to Lerida and Solsona, and Van Ilalen had proclaimed martial law in Catalonia.
There are rumours of some apprehended disturbances also in Madrid, but so vague and contradictory as not to be worth repeating.
The Times publishes the following extract from a letter dated Cape Coast Castle, 26th September 1842— " The Wilberforce, you will recollect, was here in March last ; at which time Captain W. Allen was preparing to reascend the Niger, to look after the Model Farm' people, and if possible to do something to retrieve the fame of the expedition. Be proceeded hence to Fernando Po, to fit out the Soudan, to accompany him. While he was still lying there, the Kite steamer arrived with orders from Government that only one vessel was to go up the river, and that she was only to have on board four or five White men at most. Her only object in going up was to be the bringing back the people left at the farm. On receiving these orders, Captain Allen and most of his officers and crew went on board the Kite for a passage to England. The other Commissioner (Cook) went home by the Golden Spring. The Wilberforce, under charge of her pre- sent commander (Lieutenant Webb) proceeded up the river, and found the Model Farm' a very perfect model of disorganization. The Blacks who had been left at it, having plenty of cowries (a species of India shell used as money) and goods, voted themselves to be independent country gentlemen, and ma. naged to get hold of a lot of natives, whom they very coolly made slaves of and whom they compelled to work on the farm, each gentleman being provided with a cat or slave driver's whip, the better to enforce obedience. The model farmer himself (Carr, brother of the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone) has never been heard of; and had, as it afterwards appeared, been killed, somewhere near the mouth of the river. The Wilberforce brought away farm-implements, people and all; and those of the latter belonging to this place are now being discharged here. The steamer got on a rock in the river, where she remained five days; and came down with a hole in her bottom, which now compels her to go home. So much for the last speech and dying words of the far-famed Niger Expedition- A more mismanaged piece of business from beginning to end is not, I will, venture to say, to be found recorded in any history."
The Wilberforce arrived at Plymouth on the 17th.
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