We select the following notices from the Hongkong Register. His Excellency, Mr. Bonham, immediately after the departure of last Overland Mail, embarked in the Medea steamer and proceeded to Shanghai, calling at Amoy, Fuh-chow-foo, and Ningpo by the way, and having an interview with the authorities at each of the ports. The steamer having performed her work in gallant style as usual, returned to Hongkong on the forenoon of the 15th, without any thing remarkable occurring on the passage except the loss of a seaman, who unfortunately fell overboard as the vessel was leaving Ningpo under the full influence of steam and sail before a favourable wind. A boat was lowered as soon as possible but too late to save him. PUBLIC NOTICE. 'The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's Officiating Consul, has received a communication from the Superintendent of Maritime Customs at this Port, in which that functionary desires British merchants to be informed, that hereafter, whenever a British vessel leaves the port, no matter under what pretence, she shall on again entering, be liable to pay Tonnage dues a second time. The Hoppo's communication refers particularly to vessels proceeding to Hongkong upon plea of procuring ballast, &c., &c., and on re-entering port requesting the remission of the Tonnage dues. Canton, 21st July, 1848. ADAM W. ELMSLIE, H. M.'s Officiating Consul. British Consulate. To The British Mercantile Community, Canton. (COMMUNICATION)-NOTES ON THE NATIVE TRADE-RAW COTTON. By statements received from the dealers in this article, the following estimates are given of the quantities of last year's crop shipped seawards, and also of the shipments in bonts for consumption in the upper provinces. These estimates are believed to be rather under than in excess of the actual amount, but in a country where so little regard is paid to Trading Statistics, such can only be received as an approximation to the truth. It has been inferred from the export and large Production of Cotton in this province, that it is not likely ever to become an article of Foreign Import into Shanghai, but there is not sufficient ground for coming to this conclusion, inasmuch as Keang-soo not only exports seawards, but as will be seen below, sends considerable supplies up the Yang-tsze-keang to Hoo-kwang, Sze-chuen, and other central and western provinces. The probabilities of the introduction of Foreign Cotton into central China, depend mainly upon whether the article can be supplied at such a price as would induce its consumption in preference to the very fine quality produced here, and which varies in price in different years from 34d. per lb. (the value last season when the crop was an abundant one) to 6d. per ib. at this port. Freight and Charges for the voyage up the Yang-tsze-keang to the great mart of Han-k'how in Hoo-kwang, which occupies two to three months time, are said to augment the cost about 40 per cent, and the opening of the navigation of the Yang-tsze-keang to foreign vessels while it would greatly extend the consumption of Foreign Mannfactures, would peculiarly tend to promote the Cotton Trade. While Raw Cotton was quoted here during the past spring, at about $8 a 9 per pecul, the boats from the interior were at the same time bringing quotations from Hoo-k wang of $15 per pecul. No estimate has ever been given of the annual production of Cotton in China, but as regards this province, the eastern part of which forms probably the most extensive Cotton field in the Empire, the amount retained for domestic manufacture, the process of which by hand-loom may be witnessed in every hamlet and cottage, is perhaps greater than that shipped to other provinces : RAW COTTON SHIPPED FROM SHANGHAI IN CHINESE VESSELS, To Southern China, do. To Central China, To Northern China, do. To Upper Provinces, do. SEPTEMBER 1847 TO JULY 1848. To Chaouyang and other ports in the east of do. do. Uncleaned 60 104 60 100 To ports in Fuhkien Cleaned catties weight. Shipments to Southern and Central China are on account of, and made by, Merchants from that quarter temporarily, or who have established themselves in business here: to Northern China, on account of the owners of the Junks belonging to this port and Tsungming Island, that carry on nearly all this trade, and to the upper provinces, the shipments are made by Merchants, who come down with large boats. In no case do the dealers in Cotton here, ship to any extent on their account. British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai, June 30th, 1848. CIRCULAR. JAMES MACDONALD, TO THE BRITISH MERCHANTS, AMOY. H. M.'s Consul in conjunction with the Hae-kwan has arranged that British merchants who desire to ship off or land goods, shall apply to the Consul, and state in English the description and quantity of goods to be shipped or discharged, and also the vessel's name. This paper will be made out in Chinese, as per accompanying form, and will then be sent by the Consul to the Hae-kwang, who will direct his officers to examine the goods, which until examined and passed, the Hae-kwan will prohibit the shipping or landing of. The British merchants are to notify to the Consul, only such a quantity of goods as can be landed or shipped off, in the course of the day, as the chops sent in to the Hae-kwan will be in force for that period only. British merchants intending to despatch vessels outwards, wil! first intimate the same to the Consul, who will apply to the Hae-kwan for the amount of duties paid on the goods, and on receipt of such a document from the Haekwan, the grand chop will be applied for, and sent to the consignee of the vessel, who can then apply for the ship's papers. (Signed) British Consulate, 4th July, 1848. CIRCULAR. T. H. LAYTON, H. M.'S CONSUL, AMOY. TO THE BRITISH MERCHANTS RESIDENT AT AMOY. It is hereby notified, that the following arrangements to be hereafter adhered to, in clearing ships leaving the port, have been determined upon by H. M.'s Consul in conjunction with the Hae-kwan. When desirous to clear a vessel the consignee will repair to the Consulate and give notice thereof, when a paper will be given him, as per form accompanying, which he will give in at the Custom-house to be filled up and seal. ed: this the officers attending there have been instructed to do at once, and forthwith return the paper thus filled up to the consignee. He will then collect all receipts for duties and tonnage dues, which have been paid upen the inward and outward cargo, (which the Government shroffs are under strict orders to give to all persons paying duties), and enclose them with the paper filled in at the Custom-house to the Consulate, and on the several amounts as per account taken at the Custom-house by the shroff's, and at the Consulate being found to agree, application shall be forthwith made for the grand chop, which will be sent by the Hae-kwang to the Consulate, and forwarded thence accompanied by the ship's papers with all despatch to the consignee, the receipt given at the Consulate for the ship's papers can be forwarded with the shroffs' receipts and duty paper. Should any part of the cargo of a vessel clearing the port be Chinese owned, the amount of duties paid upon it, will be separately entered in the grand chop. W. H. MEDHURST. Officiating Vice-Consul. (Signed) From the China Mail, July 20th. WE give the following as a Text for Exeter Hall:-The Rev. V. Stanton, in the exercise of his sacred office as Colonial Chaplain, is in the practice of visiting the Gaol, the Police Stations, and the Hospital, administering the consolations of religion to all, but urging them offensively on no one. Last week, in the ordinary round of his visits, at one of the Police Stations he found a constable named Smith dangerously ill with fever, and on Friday the 14th, called again, when he was told the man was considered to be in a dying state, and being a Roman Catholic, had expressed a wish to see one of his own priests. To this Mr Stanton offered no objection, and departed leav ing with the constable in charge a copy of the New Testament for the use of the sick man. The Priest was sent for that day or the next, and administered extreme unction to Smith before his death, on Monday the 19th. He was of course informed of the Colonial Chaplain's visits, and the New Testament left by him was produced. At this the Priest expressed great indignation, and seizing the book, tore out the leaves and threw them on the ground, telling the Constable who had received it, himself a Roman Catholic, to inform Mr Stanton what he had done, and to add from him in future it would be ad. visable that the Chaplain attended to his own affairs and to people of his own treed a very discourteous message, to say the least discourteously conveyed. And it is proper to add, for the sake of those who do not know the parties, that in visiting the Police Stations the Colonial Chaplain is only doing his duty, and that no man can be less sectarian and ostentatious than he is in ministering to the sick and the afflicted, or more desirous to avoid strife and malice in discharging his duties towards them. From what we know of the reverend gentleman, and have heard from others, we feel confident that while he would faithfully offer the bread of life to those who are read to perish, he is so much of a Catholic Christian as not to raise discussions on speculative distinctions of creeds with men standing on the the threshold of eternity. From the Friend of China, July 22d. During this and the past month there has been much sickness in the colony; and among the military a melancholy loss of life. The disease appears to be similar to that of 1843 and 1844,—the fever of the tropics in its most virulent form. H. M. 95th regiment has suffered severely; many of the victims were sober soldierlike young men, by no means like to have courted disease by imprudence. Bad as matters are they have been exaggerated, unintentionnally no doubt, but rumour is always in excess. From our inquiries we learn that the 95th lost eight men in June, and in July, twenty-three from the 1st of the month to the morning of the 20th. This is very distressing, but far short of what has been alleged. There are now ninety-one cases in the Hospital; also about one hundred convalescents-many of them rapidly regaining strength,-taking exercise on the water every evening in a launch placed at their disposal by a mercantile gentleman. * We have seen the fragments of the Book. The leaves have been torn out in handfuls the only portion remaining entire being from the beginning of St Matthew to the 7th chapter of St Mark, ending with the 6th verse He answered and said unto them. Well hath Esaias prophesied of vou hypocrites, a. 1 is written. This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." THE CHINESE REPOSITORY. VOL. XVII-AUGUST, 1848.-No. 8. ART. I. residence Memoirs of Father Ripa, being thirteen years at the court of Peking in the service of the Emperor of China; Chiwith an account of the college for the education of young nese at Naples. Selected and translated from the Italian by Fortunato Prandi. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. THIS is a little volume of only 174 pages, of autobiography, containing many details, which are for the most part equally amusing and instructive. Ripa was a remarkable man, and his sojourn in this country was during the most illustrious days of modern China. Of his early history he thus speaks: "In the year 1700 as I was strolling one day about the streets of Naples, in search of amusement, I came to the open space before the viceregal palace just at the moment when a Franciscan friar, mounted on a bench, began to I address the people. I was only eighteen; but though so young, was then leading a life which I could scarcely describe without shocking the reader. Amid all my vices, however, it was fortunate for me that I always listened with pleasure to religious discourses, not indeed with a view to derive any profit or instruction from them, but merely out of curiosity. The preacher took for his text these words of the prophet Amos, " For three transgressions of Damascus and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof;" and he proved that there were a certain number of sins which God would forgive, but that beyond that number there is no salvation for any one. From the proofs he passed to the morality of the doctrine, and here he brought in the beautiful illustration of the scales, which, when equally balanced, the smallest addition will weigh down "Thus," said the worthy father, "if when our sins are equal to our counterpoise we commit one more offence, the beam, on which our lot is weighed, wil! turn and fix our eternal perdition and as we do not know when out scales are balanced, if we transgress at the risk of such a punishment we deserve condemnation." This was not to me a mere figurative illustration, it was a gleam of heavenly light by which I perceived the dangerous path I was treading; and me. thought I saw God himself menacing me from above, while below the torments of hell lay ready to receive me. On recovering from the horror I felt at the sight of the danger to which I had so long thoughtlessly exposed myself, I ardently thanked the Almighty for thus recalling me to Himself, and, full of repentance, I resolved to devote the remainder of my life entirely to his service. When the Franciscan had finished his impressive sermon, to strengthen my purpose I proceeded at once to the church of the great apostle of India, St. Francis Xavier, which was close by; and there, having found a Jesuit, who, by the will of God, was preaching on the same subject in the presence of the Host, I had the most favorable opportunity of fulfilling my object." ་་ "conver Here, in few words, we have Ripa's account of his own Sion," with a very explicit statement of the doctrinal principles which led to that conversion. We have marked them with italics; and they are the saine, we suppose, that are generally instrumental of conversions in the same churches to this day. In following this missionary and his successors, and in estimating his and their success, in making converts, these principles should be ever kept distinctly in view. Those who have read Scott's "Force of Truth,"and who, that loves the truth, has not ?-need not be told that there are principles and conversions widely different from those set forth by Father Ripa. Begging the reader to keep these differences in mind, we proceed. Immediately after his conversion, Ripa conceived a strong desire "to found a new community of regular priests;" and while yet, as he says, so ignorant in religious matters that he did not know that, even in the path of virtue, it is necessary to have a guide, he fortunately made the acquaintance of Don Niccolo Vinaccia, by whose recommendation he was induced to read the Filotea of St. François de Sales, and was made to see the necessity of having a spiritual guide;" and on the 10th of May 1701," he goes on to say, "at the suggestion of Don Niccolo. I confessed for the first time to Father Antonio Torres, of the Order of the Plous Laborers, to whom I |