The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-10-18 00:00:00

THE AFFAIR OF THE PEIHO.

The Bishop Auckland Herald contains an account of •
public welcome given to Captain Longley, RE., scra of
the Bishop of Durham, on his arrival in Bishop Mack-
land. An address of congratulation having been pre-
sented to Captain Longley, the gallant captain in
acknowledging it said :—•• It is with feelings of sincere
gratification that I return you my thanks for the
addresat which you have presented to me. I have, as
you say, been a long distance from home. It was in
October, 11t37, that I was ordered to India with my
company, but tin our arrival overland at Point De Galls
our destination was changed to China. I arrived there
in time to take part in the action at l'anton, under
General Straubenzie, after which I bad the honour to
be named aid-de-camp to the General. I was present at
the affair at the White Cloud Mountaius and capture of
Namton, and remained at Canton till the arrival of his
excellency the Hon. F. Bruce. Her Majesty's Plenipo-
tentiary. and Admiral Hope. In June we left Canton
for the realm, under Admiral Hope, who we expected
would go direct to Pekin to ratify the treaty which had
been made. We found, as you know, that the passage
up the river was stopped by • strong barrier, and the
forts which had been taken last year rebuilt. Of course
we were nut able to ascend the river. Mr. Bruce and
M. Bourbounel, the French Ambassador, then placed
the matter in the Admiral'a hands, and an attempt was
made to pass the barrier, the result of *lnch is already
known to you. My company was distributed among the
gunboats, and I, with Itt men, was on board the Plover,
where we acted as sharpshootera. Ou the order being
given I went ashore with the landing party, and was in
the act of carrying the waling holders through the mud
when I was unfortunately wounded. I remained two
hours with my men, and then retunied on board to get
my wouod dressed. It is not for toe to criticise the acts
of toy superior officer; there is an oriental proverb which
says, ' Speech is as silver, but Silence it as gold.' and the
.tdmind is so much my senior that it would lint bee ttttt c
me, and I am sure you will excuse my going any further
into the matter. There is one exuression, however, in
jour addresa which I would like to correct if you will
allow me, and that as as to the 'treacherous Chierese
dont think we have any right to seam them of treach-
ery, be-cause, when Mr. Bruce made his appearance, they
told him to go up by another way which was open ; but
fur certain reasons perhaps he thought it was nut con-
sistent with the honour of this country—he thought it
beets r to attempt to force the passage; but they certainly
did offer to let, him go up the other way, and therefore
there pethaps may be some excuse fur thou. They cer-
tainly did not fire the first shut, fur it was not until after
Captain Willis, the Admiral's flag captain, had lateen up
the first barrier, which was tantamount to a dech.ratiou
of war by us, that they final upon him, mail be retited.
Next mltoralinig the gunboats were ordered to take up
their positions at 7 o'clock, but on account of the strong
tide and the wind this could not he effected until 2
o'clock in the afternoon ; and during the whole of this
time the Chinese never fired • shot. Had they
opened fire during this interval when the gun-
boats were agnoind I don't think 0110 of them
would have escaped ; but they waited utatil the
.Iduriral had pulled up the first row of stakes
and gone towards the second before they fired upon Us.
Therefore I don't think we can call them treacherous
Chinese. Then, as to the report which stated that there
WAS a trap laid for us—this is entirely incorrect—there
UM HO trap at all. We saw it all before we went; we
saw the masks before the etubrasures, and of course ewe
eluded that there were guns behind them, and we saw
the mud we had to cross. Therefore I hope you will
hear no more about traps or treacherous Chinese. Then
as to our forcing civilization upon these barbarians, as
we term thou, it appears to tile to resemble such a case
as this. A crusty old gentleman lives in Bishop Auck-
land, who likes to follow his own crochets and keep
within his own house; but • number of persons meet
tsugether, go to him and say, 'You come out and he
civilized; or you must let us into your house, and
become a Christian.' Now I think that • man has •
right to defend his own house the best way he can;
every man's house is his castle, at least it is acknow-
ledged to be so in Enpind, and I don't know why it
ahould not be so in China, I don't say that we are to
give up our trade if we Can help it, but I don't think we
are right in forcing our civilisation upon China. I don't
think we show them very good examples of Christianity,
or teach such good customs that they need wish to imi-
tate them ; and it is a fact, as stated by Lord Elgin,
that the further lie went into the interior the better des-
posed the people were towards us ; hut at Canton and
other places, where we have been established for 21.10
years, they have very bad feelings towards us, because
they have had much injustice dune to them. As to the
Part I have played in the late affair, I don't think I have
done any nature lb.'s' my duty. My wound is now healed,
and the surgeons tell me I way take any exercise I like ;
but had it nut been for nay good constitution I probably
should not have recovered. I have to thank you not
only fur the kind rummer in which you have spoken of
me, hut also for the terms in which you have mentioned
my father. I am gratified to think that he has sue-
ceeded in gaining your regard and respect during the
short time lie has been among you."