The renewed rebuffs and frustration of purpose wholi the Bri-
tish plenipotentiaries in China have encountered in their every act, threaten a distant if not a disastrous termination to -ihe expedis tion. Intelligence from Macao reaches to a date within three months`of the present time ; yet negotiations" were still, to use the words attributed to Captain Er..mor, "in a state of openness." The managers of the expedition seem to have contrived every thing so as to impress the Chinese with a sense of the helplessness and stupidity of the British. They quartered their troops in Chu- San, where they have been reduced to one-fifth or one-sixth of their strength, without the intervention of the " fierce soldiers" which the Emperor was to have sent to drive them out, merely by the climate. And, as if to help the climate, the men are fed with bad pork. Then Admiral ELLIOT exults in obtaining a truce, by the terms of which the British army is confined in the Chinese Wal- theren. He next goes to Tongkoo ; sends Captain ELLIOT to the Bogue forts with a letter; Captain ELLIOT is fired upon by the forts, and he retires—not before he had returned the tire, but still he withdraws—the Chinese will say that he is driven off. Then, again, as if to emulate Lord NAPIER, the Admiral has a return of an old complaint, brought on, it may readily be sup- posed, by chagrin ; and he gives up his task and leaves the scene of action altogether. Then Sir GORDON BREMER, who suc- ceeds to the command, threatens more vigorous proceedings ; but afterwards allows Captain ELLIOT to put the negotiations "in a state of openness.", Then, after going all the way to Pekin to ar- range an interview with a new Commissioner at Canton, Captain ELLIOT comes all the way back again, and consents to negotiate with some subordinate nameless Mandarins ! And this very Cap- tain ELLIOT, be it remembered, who is foremost in every attempt at communication with the deputed representatives of the Chinese Government, is the man who wavered so much between demanding and petitioning in the famous pin dispute, and finally gave in ; who has stood the brunt of every humiliation and defeat for many a day ; and whose clothes were soiled by the dust of the ground upon which he was thrown at the gates of Canton.
Negotiations, however, did go on ; and a rumour reached the last vessel just as it was departing, that KEsitert had begun to make concessions. These late rumours, of just possible date, are always auspicious; and they have before now insinuated most ironical an- ticipations of our Plenipotentiaries' successes.
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