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THE FORMOSA MASSACRE. The last Indian ma...
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NOTES'Ol«' TKAVKL AND TALK. Nt)w«KHtl«;-...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Revolutions In The Eas * In Tho There Ca...
^ oeitiea denounced a Conservative unexcep-? Sblf hue ; but there has been , a peaceful revXtion in Siam , there is progressing a bloody revolution in China , and a step taken on the part of the East India Company pregnant with important influence on the history of Hindustan . The Siamese revolution is curious—nothing less than a restoration of legitimacy , accompanied by very peculiar circumstances . Onthe 3 rd of April , before Creak of daythe late King of Siam died He had
, usurped the throne in 1824 , and seems to have been in everv way a very ill-conditioned sort of person ; having no " regularly constituted " Queen , conseauentlv , no regularly constituted issue . He was the eldest son of the King who died in 1824 , though not legitimate . He had ruled twenty-seyen years , oppressing the people , oppressing the missionaries , taking no steps for the preservation of morality , nor the encouragement of learning or commerce . When it was known in January last that he was seized with a
mortal disease , the question of succession was warmly discussed . There were three parties : the King ' s party , which desired that his sons should succeed him ; a second party , who wished to elevate the King ' s brother , for a long time chief judge , to the throne ; and a third party , who espoused the cause of Chonfah Mungut , legitimate son of that King who died in 1824 . It happened that the Minister for Foreign Affairs , the most powerful of the Kinff ' s servants , and who had been the most
prominent of those who had placed the King upon the throne in 1824 , declared himself in favour of Chonfah Mungut . This put an end to all opposition . The declaration of the powerful Minister to his opponents was , that , if they wanted to flight , if they waited until the King ' s death he would be ready to encounter them ; but that he certainly intended that Chonfah Mungut and his younger brother should succeed to the throne . On the 3 rd of April the old King died ; and accordingly , without-bloodshed , with the consent of the High Council—with the approbation of the people , Chonfah Mungut took possession of power . He is , with his brother , King of Siam .
Now , the importance of this event to us is great . Chonfah Mungut is very fond of the English and Americans . He has studied' the English language ; he is favourably impressed with English ideas and fond of . science ; He was a priest , and he has changed his order , it is said , very unwillingly . But the great peculiarity is this . Dr . Bradley , " an old and wellinformed resident of Bangkok , " is the narrator : — " But a few daj r s before his Royal Highness left the priesthood , " writes Dr . Bradley on the 10 th of April , " I had the pleasure , in company with my colleague , Professor John Silsby , of a very friendly and familiar interview with him at his temple . He
received us in an upper room , and gave us a pleasant entertainment , and spoke encouragingly to us of his purposeBwhenhe should come into full power as King of Siam . One of the improvements he proposes to make is to have his reign practically a limited monarchy ; the spirit of what he said was , that he could not think that it was good either for King or People to have only one will to rule a kingdom , as had been the ease during all the late reign . Another encouraging thing , he said , was , that he was pleased with the proposition , we made of having a high school established in Bangkok , for the purpose of teaching
Siamese youth the English language and the sciences connected with it , and that he would give this subject due attention at the beginning of his reign . " This new King of Siam proposes to do many things in addition to those above-mentioned , among others , to have " a number of quite new ships and two steam-boats built . " He has already received the missionaries and merchants of Bangkok in the most friendly spirit . It appears that opium sucking , spirit drinking , and , above all , gambling , are the great evils of the country ; and these , the sanguine admirers of Chonfuh ( Lord of heaven ) Mungut , hope he will destroy .
Through tho southern provinces of China rings the war-cry of rebellion , shortly , it is said , to bo the triumphant shout of successful revolution , of " Down with the Tartar Dynasty . " Through the conflicting accounts of the Chinese papers we see dimly and vaguely a huge insurrection , dark and foreboding for that name Tartar dynasty . Canton is menaced , po & tribly by this time taken , the Imperial celestial court i « seriously ularmed , and an officer of eminence hau been lecturing the Emperor upon self-government . It is certainly a notable tiling , that in 1851 , " ( 'hina for tho Chinese , " the European equivalent of *• Down with the Tartar Dynasty , " should be the
watchword of a revolution . Evidently a great change ih taking placo in the East . China is in revolt ; Chinamen are emigrating in considerable numbers ; and we have recounted how it is expected a species of constitutional monarchy will be set up in Siam . 1 he Hong Kong Itegiater upeukH with great coolness of the insurrection ; the China Mail , leBH calm , writes 1111 article , which by no moans leads us to believe that the outbreak is one of mere banditti ; while- the i ' ntmd of China , June 23 , writes au follows : — ' A few more months will uHnurodly decide tho fate of ine empire . At enmity with the very name « Tartar Dyuuaty —ttu onmity which every individual whose heart
is in the right place will feel , when he remembers the career of barbarism the blood-thirsty despots have run during the last quarter of a century—we indulge the earnest hope that a better fate is about to dawn on China ' s relations with foreign countries—that the benighted millions of it 3 population will be permitted to hold with us a freer and more social intercourse—and ^ that , so long closed against any advance in civilization , it is now about to be opened indeed . " ^ If we add to this a passage from the letter of the correspondent of the Daily News , our readers will be able to form some notion of what is going on .
" The insurgent mass is moving gradually but irresistibly onward , involving ruin in its course , unless the mandarins declare themselves and hasten the downfall of the present dynasty—fall it assuredly will , and it will be -well if the event finds our countrymen with sufficient naval force for their protection . Already the military commanders and civil commissioners appointed to suppress the rebellion have be en carried off by death , lured by the charms of future reward , or dismayed at the number , strength , and success of the revolutionists . The man put forth as the leader of the movement has assumed regal honours , to the terror of the reigning and legitimate the disaffection of his
sovereign , who , fearing troops quartered or raised in the disturbed provinces , has ordered choice soldiers from the capital ; if these soldiers , in example of the local force , fraternise with the rebels , and reecho the rebel shout , * Down with the Tartar Dynasty , ' the consummation will be reached sooner than the friends of the pretender expect . The local papers , after cavilling at my sources of information , and in plain terms denying the existence of any general organized plan for bringing about a change of dynasty , a reform of the constitution , or rather , the granting of one , are now unanimously of opinion that the peace of the country is in imminent danger . "
The Indian news is of a different order of importance ; though , politically and socially , the steps about to be taken by the Indian authorities may in their consequences prove equal to a revolution . Intelligence has been received from India to the effect that the Government of Calcutta has at length determined on immediate interference in the affairs of the Nizam . 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 parks of the Nizam ' s dominions unless he repays at once
the moneys due to the Government of India , amounting to upwards of 80 lacs 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 , Bachore , and Neildroog , besides Berar . This menace has been so long suspended over the Court of Hyderabad , and the embarrassments and disorganization of the Deccan have constituted so interminable a subject of remonstrance and report , that the information thus communicated will , perhaps , appear to carry little novelty or interest . Yet the conjuncture is not without an importance of its own .
The Nizam , or " Administrator , " of the Deccan , is the representative of a family founded about a century ago at the dissolution of the Mogul empire . The word " Deccan" signifies " South , " and was applied to the portion of India between the rivers Nerbuddah and Kistnah , which stood in that geographical relation to the seat of Imperial power . To this spacious territory there was despatched from the Court of the Great Mogul a renowned lieutenant of the Emperor , with the title of
" Nizam , " a distinction which he perpetuated by transmitting it to his descendants along with the province which he had been sent to superintend , and which , after Eastern fashion , he had converted into a princely inheritance . On our first intervention in Indian politics we found the Nizam of the Deccan a formidable Sovereign , though he was brought before the close of the century to hold his crown by our protection . The alliance between his State and the British
Government was serviceable to both in turn , but it ended in arrangements which have led by degrees to the present crisis of uffairs . Ah the strength of the native Powers declined , and that of the British increased , it was natural that our contributions towards a common object should take the form of military force , while those of the Nizam Hhould be confined to pecuniary subsidies . Some of the obligations thus accepted were commuted for territorial cessions ; others retained their originul form ; und tho ultimate pacification of Peninsular India left the Nizam under engagements with the Government of Calcutta to defray annual charges to a very considerable amount .
These unnuul charges luivo not been regularly defrayed . The peculiar HyHtem of government adopted in the Deccan , and tho natural antagonism between the English Resident und tho Nizam , produced in due time disorder , excess , and extravagance ; until tho Hum duo from the latter to the Exchequer at Calcutta , amounts to some £ 8 /> 0 , 0 () 0 . Moreover , the BoUliern whom tho Nizam has had to maintain , havo proved a constant drain upon his Exchequer . To dismiss theBo troops is impossible , for there are no meant * of HutiafyiiiK their demands , nor m it probable indeed that they would consent to be dislodged from a settlement « o congenial to tUoir habits ; bo that the Seikha from the Punjab , Arabs from tho Gulf ,
Boloochees from Scinde , Rajpoots from the north-west , and Patans from Affghanistan—all the fiercest foes , in short , of all our Eastern wars—are now mustered for mischief in the Deccan . At this moment the revenues of the Nizam amount , we believe , to about £ 1 , 000 , 000 sterling—a sum so inadequate to the exigencies thus induced , that was a deficit of some £ 300 , 000 an annual event . From this income the British Government proposes to intercept some £ 350 , 000 , so that the deficit will be more than doubled . It is believed that the Nizam could , if he pleased , meet the demands of his cre-^
ditors from his privy purse , but it is not conjectured that he will so incline . Another method lies in the resumption of " jaghires , " Crown revenues , from the favourites on whom they have been so profusely bestowed ; but these favourites retain small armies of Arabs , who will incontestably fight to the death , if not for their masters , at least for their pay . In fact , the whole revenues of the Nizam and his followers may be described as pledged to a powerful and extortionate band of military creditors , holding actual possession , and likely to surrender their advantages only with their lives .
By Of When He Remembers Thechees From Sc...
by of C Am . 23 , J 851 J » g 9 , t ** $ t . 793
The Formosa Massacre. The Last Indian Ma...
THE FORMOSA MASSACRE . The last Indian mail brought intelligence of another of those acts of bloody cruelty which make the Eastern Archipelago so terrible . The natives of Formosa are Chinese ; they have sinned before ; they are as infamous as the Algerines for inhospitality . Surely , summary measures ought to be taken to render these people harmless in future . The story of the new victims is as follows : — " On May 1 , the Antelope , an American barque , was lying becalmed off the southern extremity of Formosa , when she perceived a boat , rowed by three men , approaching from the shore . The captain , aware
of the infamous character of the islanders , ordered his carronades to be loaded , and fired a shot over the heads of the boat ' s crew ; but the latter continued to pull for the ship , and were soon discovered to be three Englishmen , of the names of Berries , Blake , and Hill . The account these poor fellows gave of themselves to their preservers was deplorable enough . The Larpent , they stated , sailed from Liverpool for Shanghae on the 18 th of May , 1850 , with thirty-one souls on board . On the night of September 12 , she struck on a rock ; and at two on the following morning it was necessary to abandon her . Captain Gijson , the mate , and six men , got into the starboard quarter-boat ; while the
rest of the crew—twenty-three in all , including the narrators—took to the lanch . They found themselves at daybreak close to shore , near a place called Matfaer , in the island of Formosa . Here they landed , in order to obtain water , and to caulk the launch ; but the natives , coming down in great numbers , plundered them of every movable , so that they were compelled again to put to sea . The two boats then separated . Captain Gilson ' s party gave out that they should attempt to reach Hong Kong ( a distance of lost
more than 400 miles ) , and they were soon sight of by the heavier-laden launch , winch was once more forced , owing to its constant leakage , to be hauled ashore . The crew , of course , took care to land this time at another point ; but no sooner were they out of the boat than they found themselves in the midst of a murderous fire of matchlocks . The butchery was frightful . Mr . Bland , a passenger , was the first to fall ; and eighteen others shared his fate . Hill and Blake saved themselves by swimming under shelter of a coral rock ; Berries , ivnd a mim named
Harrison , found cover under another ; and from these hiding places the wretched men saw their comrades massacred and mangled , one after another , all their heads being subsequently hacked off and piled together on the beach ! The natives at last disappeared . Poor Harrison then swam for a junk which was seen nearing the spot where they were concealed ; but he had scarcely reached it before he was shot and beheaded . Blako and Hill escaped by night to the mountains , fearful of showing themselves ; but ,
after five day spent iu the agonies of hunger , Blake —who , us he subsequently declared , began to bo conscious of the insane yearnings of cannibalism towards his companion . —resolved on discovering himself" to somo villagers who were working in a field . Fortunately , the lives of himself and his comrade were spared ; but they were taken into servitude . Berries subsequently joined thorn . They wore sold , at the end of live months , to a new master , and they finally made their escape to tho Antelope , after a
captivity of seven mouths and sixteen diiys . What became of Captain GiIhoii and his party is , an we have said , unknown ; but lllakc and Hill heard , while in Formosa , that two wliito slaves besides themselves wore in the island ; and this , coupled with the report that the missing party landed near South Capo lor water , has led to the conjecture that two at leant of their number may yet Hurvivo . "
Notes'ol«' Tkavkl And Talk. Nt)W«Khtl«;-...
NOTES'Ol « ' TKAVKL AND TALK . Nt ) w « KHtl «; -ii | Miu-Tyiu > , August IN , I 8 f > l . I left Fleetwood in tho stomnor lor Hellant , at dusk in tho evening of Monday tho 2 nd of Juno ; and a »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1851, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23081851/page/5/
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