considerable force "including artillery" to march to reduce it. It is said to be connected with "the tyranny
of tax-collectors"—a fruitful source of rebellion.

The Overland Mail has brought news from Bombay
to the 17th, from Calcutta to the 7th December, and
from Hongkong to the 30th November. From Bombay
information is brought that more plotting against our
rule by the fugitive Rance has been discovered; agents
had been tampering with our troops, and thus had, as in
many late instances, been delivered into the hands of the
authorities by the honest native subalterns. The young
Maharajah had been sent under strong guard to
Futtehghur. The chieftains whose arrest for plottings
in higher regions were mentioned in late accounts, were
to be sent to Calcutta, there to remain under surveillance
for life. The Governor-general was on his way down
the Indus, and would be at Moultan on the 13th or 14th
instant; Lady Dalhousie was coming home ill, and her
husband proposed to accompany her as far as Suez.
From Calcutta there is an account of personal adventures
of two of our officers, which have ended in their
imprisonment by the rajah of Sikkim. Dr. Campbell, the
British resident of Darjeeling, a station near the Thibetian
frontier of Bengal, and Dr. Hooker, a botanist, son of
Sir William Hooker, went on a botanical exploration
over the Thibetian frontier, and were arrested by the
Tartar authorities; they were sent under guard to the
rajah of Sikkim, whom the Tartars hold responsible for
the sacredness of their frontier. The rajah sent word to
our resident at Darjeeling, that he would keep his
prisoners in custody till he obtained satisfaction for
grievances he had been writing about to our Government
for three years past; he was answered with a demand
for the prisoners instanter, and with advice to rely on
the impartiality of the Governor-general for justice.
Meanwhile, the captives were treated with great personal
cruelty.

From Hongkong the only news of interest relates
to the expedition, consisting of the Phlegethon and
Fury war-steamers, and the Columbine frigate,
under Commander J. C. D. Hay, against the pirate
Shapng-tsai, which set out from Hongkong on the 1st of
November, just before the last accounts were despatched.
The pirate fleet had retreated to Hainan, and thence to
the Bay of Tonquin; the chief trusting to his knowledge
of the difficult waters. On the 17th November our ships
fell in with one of his look-out vessels; she took to the
shallows, but was disabled by the Phlegethon's guns,
and then pursued and destroyed in the shallows by the
Phlegethon's boats. On the 20th, the pirate fleet was
discovered in the mouth of a river twelve miles beyond
Hoo-nong. It consisted of a large junk mounting 42
guns, commanded by Shapng-tsai himself, and sixty-three
other war-junks mounting armaments ranging from 34
guns down to 6 guns; the whole force afloat being some
1224 guns and 3150 men. Our fleet was steered into the
river by a pilot who had escaped from the shore. In
forty minutes our three ships were all engaged; in
another hour the fire of the enemy had been silenced;
and before eight p.m., twenty-seven junks were in flames
and nearly all the rest cut off from retreat. Upwards
of 1000 pirates deserted their ships and took to some
islands, and were there attacked by the natives whose
villages they had ravaged. Next day, twenty-four more
junks were destroyed. In the end, only six of the
smallest junks escaped, with the pirate chief
himself on board, and these the mandarins declared they
would shortly destroy. Our fleet was assisted by a
small force of junks, despatched under a mandarin.
Major-general Hwang, by the Governor-general Ho;
and it is stated that he distinguished himself by his
courageous and intelligent command.

The Jamaica House of Assembly have passed a bill,
for one year, giving the Governor a salary of £4500;
and at the same time a memorial has been transmitted
to the Queen, praying her to relieve the island of this
heavy expense, and requesting that it may be paid from
England as is done in some other islands. This bill is a
renewal of a previous bill, also for one year, which
expired on the 31st of December last. Another bll has
been brought in to raise a revenue, by a duty on
imports, to pay the interest of the island debt. A petition
was getting up against it, to be sent to the Council,
should it pass the House. The island was healthy, but
business was very dull.

In Barbados a Public Meeting to promote an extension
of the franchise had been held, and resulted in the
formation of a committee in furtherance of that object.
Two anti-slavery meetings had been held, the first
called by the Lord Bishop, the Chief Justice, the President
of the Council, and Speaker of the House of
Assembly. This meeting adopted a petition to the
Imperial Parliament, praying for the enforcement of the
treaties with foreign Powers. The second meeting was
called to afford a deputation from the Anti-Slavery
Society of England an opportunity of addressing the
people. These meetings were well attended, the
speakers consisting of white, black, and coloured
persons. The weather was highly propitious for the
ensuing crop. A much larger yield of sugar was
expected than in 1849. The corn and provision crops
were good and abundant, with the exception of the
yams, which had again been destroyed by blight.

Advices from the Cape of Good Hope, which are to the
16th of November, state that in answer to innumerable
petitions to send the convicts away, without waiting for
the receipt of the order to do so from England, the
Governor said that he would not commit an act so illegal,
impolitic, and of dangerous example. The persons
who, in defiance to the Anti-convict Association and the
pledge, had furnished supplies to the government
officials and the military, had lost all their customers.
Some of them had intimated to the newspapers, and
especially to the South African Advertiser, that actions
for damages were to be brought against them. In one
instance the damages were laid at £500.

The accounts from Canada state that the Government
had dismissed seventeen Magistrates from the commission
of the peace, as having been parties to the address
for annexation to the United States. Sixteen of these
persons were men of station in Montreal; two of them
—Mr. Jacob de Witt and Mr. Benjamin Holmes—
members of the Colonial Parliament. Mr. Holmes had
replied to the official notification of his dismissal with
the resignation of his place as member of the commission
for the management of roads, an office he filled with
much advantage to the community.

News from Western Australia have been received to
the middle of November. The Swan River settlement
had been thrown into great excitement by the official
announcement that the colony had been converted into
a penal colony from June 1849, without the countervailing
boon of a protective force and parliamentary
grant, which had been tacitly calculated on as certain
accompaniments of the convicts. The journals inveigh
with much warmth against the trick by which they
have suffered; and express great indignation at the
loathsome contamination of their shores which the
Colonial Office purposes.

PROGRESS OF EMIGRATION AND COLONISATION.

An interesting letter from Mrs. Chisholm, on the
subject of Family Colonisation, has been published.
It contains the following observations:—"There is
one fact I feel most anxious to impress upon the
minds of all who are interested in the amelioration
of the poor by means of emigration, viz., that their
emigrating to Australia improves under ordinary
prudence the circumstances of the individuals, and, if
they conduct themselves with propriety, raises their
position in society. With young women the greatest
caution is necessary in this respect, for their opportunities
of doing well and advancing themselves by marriage