A now Ministry has been formed as fol lows: Khereddine Pasha has been appointed Grand Vizier; Caratheodori, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Osman Pasha, Minister of War.
London, 9th Dee.
The West of England and South Wales Banking Company have suspended payment. Dhe liabilities are estimated at £3,500,000.
We give elsewhere the first list of subscriptions to the Mayers' Memorial Fund," and, in calling attention to it, we venture to say that none will become aware of the necessity for raising such a fund without feeling a pang of regret that so well-known and popular a man as the late Mr. Mayers should have been cut off in the prime of life and before he had time to provide sufficiently for the subsistence and education of those nearest and dearest to him. We feel sure that it is not necessary to say more on the subject to ensure a quick and sympathetic response to the appeal.
Some further subscriptions to the China Famine Relief Fund are given in another column, amounting to Tls. 1,519.02, and bringing up the total to date to Tis.
192,524.49; of which there is a balance in the hands of the treasurer of Tls. 2,512.02.
Among the passengers who left on Wednesday by the M.B. Co.'s steamer Genkai Mart, was R. T. Rennie Esq., the newly appointed Judge of H.M.'s Court at Kanagawa.
Among the passengers who arrived on the Gth inst., by the steamer Sin Nanzing, from Tientsin, was Mr. Hugh Fraser, H.B.M.'s Charge d'Affaires, at Peking, who, we hear, has obtained leave of absence and is en route for England.
Our readers will have regretted to hear of the sudden demise of another well-known and respected resident in this Settlement, Mr. F. E, Hoyden, Consul for the Netherlands.
We are requested to draw the attention of the public to the fact that the Customs' Nautical Telegraph has been revised, and that the new mode of signalling will commence on the Ist of January, 1879. The Commercial Code has been added to the list of flags at present muse, and when exhibited by an approaching vessel similar flags will be hoisted at Pootung. The numbers of the regular coast and riverine steamers have been rearranged by the Harbour Master, and from the list we ascertain the fact that Shanghai can now boast of fifty-nine regular traders.
Tt has been announced that tenders will be received for the absolute purchase or lease of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company's Foundry in Hongkew, comprising several rows of godowns, -dwelling-houses for the staff, and several rows of workshops, with all tools, complete, and covering an area of about 2} acres; also for the Company's Dock, at Pootung, covering about four acres.
The air is full of rumours respecting the future of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, consequent, it may be supposed, upon the action recently taken with respect to the foundry and dock worked by the Company in Hongkew. The latest rumour is, and we give it with all reservation, that Mr. Robert Hart is engaging a staff of employes in England for the especial purpose of working the business on behalf of the Company. Should this be trae, it will give colour to what has been said respecting both the finances and the ill-success attending their administration hitherto.—The letter of our Tientsin correspondent, given on another page also throws considerable light, on the prudent measures of retrenchment lately commenced. by the management.
The valuable real estates of the late A. H. de Carvalho, Esq., have been offered for sale by public auction. The property comprised both land and buildings, and was submitted in two lots only, the first of which was situated in the Foochow road. This was bought in for Tls. 17,000. The second lot included various properties, and was bought by Chinese for the sum of Tls. 20,600.
Mr. Holland, the manager of the Great Northern Telegraph Company here, has Kindly furnished us with the following particulars regarding the breakage and speedy repair of the Gutzlait Nagasaki cable. It was one of the quickest repairs effected on a submarine cable, and the narrative may be interesting to our readers:—On Friday evening at 9 o'clock the last message handed in for transmission to Japan was duly despatched and collated from Nagasaki, which means we had receipt for the message frum that station. At 9.30 the communication was interrupted, and Nagasaki could not be called; but a proper list was not obtained from Gutzlaff before 10.15 o'clock the same evening. On Satur. day morning the Company's repairing steamer H. C. Orsted was coaled, provi. sioned, and a lot of spare cable put on board, anc she left Woosung at 12.50 p.m. (noon), At 6,30 p.m. on Saturday she passed Gutzlaff, and next morning at 8.10 o'clock she had grappled the cable forty-one miles from Guizlaff and ascertained that the break was within three miles from that spot. At 12.30 she had the broken end on board and the cable was found broken by an anchor dragging through it, 42,2, nautical miles from Gutzlaff. The ship then announced the last splice would be ready at 1.45 o'clock, and communication with Nagasaki was re-established at that hour.
'We are informed that Mr. Colin Jamieson, Commissioner of Customs, attached to' the Chinese Commission at the Paris Exhibition, has been appointed an officer of the Legion of Honour, in recognition of his services in connection with the Chinese section.
Ithas been announced that in consequence of an agreement made with the French Post-Office, and in pursuance of instruc tions from the Company's head office, the mail steamer Peiho will be despatched from Shanghai on Sunday, the 22nd instant, instead of Friday, the 20th, as previously mentioned.
The boys at. St. Francis Xavier's school gave an entertainment at the College on Saturday afternoon, in the presence of parents and friends numbering about 250, The programme included dialogues, discussions, essays, etc., all being very well done; and there were also singing and music under the direction of the Rov. Father Basuiau, A pleasant and instructive afternoon was spent.
On Saturday afternoon, a man who Jooked like a seaman, amused himself in the Broadway, Hongkew, near the Sailors' Home, by overturning jinrikshas in which Chinese were riding, and throwing the occupants into the road. This, we are informed, he did on several occasions, but carried his pitcher to the well" once too often. A foreigner cautioned him not to interfere with peaceable passengers again, and, as he persisted, gave him a deserved thrashing. The offender, we are informed, was not the worse for liquor, and his conduct was therefore all the more Thursday's Hsin-pao remarks that the Canton authorities should not delay to take active measures against the rebel Li Yang-tsai, because of his promise to confine himself to recovering the kingdom of Annam, which belonged to his forefathers. So cunning a rabbit will assuredly have three holes to his burrow, and should he be permitted to consolidate his forces undisturbed, he will not content himself with Annam, but occasion trouble to the Yunnan and Kwang provinces. From the tone of his letter to the Manchu Commander-in-Chief at Canton,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.