The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-28 00:00:00

THE WAR IN CHINA.

The arcr./trivi C'hind of 14;1i October,
mentions that the London mail of the 15;•tth of
'August had arrived on the 9th of October.
Ilk journal, in reference to the negotiations,
with tree the capture of Mr. Parkes and
Other kiteosegnent defeats of the
Tartar Horse, says-- =,
• ,
Y.nioni.last.O'verland we mentioned thaf negotiations
had beep broken' oil at Tien-tsin, and' that
,the ist dioi-
sion of the force was marching, upon Pekin: Title
Imperial Commissioners are pa.7.led 1S! the ,deMands
for a permanent residency at Pekin, anti fOr. ari
immediate and large instalment of indemnity trio-icy.
Their counter-demand for delay was met by the advance
of Lord Elgin with a great portion of the allied force.
Seen the towns upon the march were found to he in a
great part deserted, and supplies had to be taken by
force. The large toiitt, Ho-si-wit, was completely looted
by the fOrde, and it became etldent that there must be
another appeal to arms. On the inornitig of the 18th
of geptthnber Mr. Parkes and his party fell into the
han'ds of the Chinese, and it was found that the army
Was sWrfounded by. Tartar troops at the village of
,110-
ko-chuang. An thigragem'ent imatediately took place,
which caused the Tartaia to' retire *IA sortie less. A
second engagement took place' thl the 2fst of gepternberf •
when about 25 of our force and several Idadreds of the
enemy were placed hors de comber. The nett day a flag
of truce was sent in from Pekin, and proposals were made
to re-open negotiations. On the following day supplies
were sent in by the Chinese for the use of the Allied
army, Which saved Tung-chau from being looted. The
latest Iletts We hare is by verbal communication with a
French ,steariterf which entered the Yang-tse as the
mall from Shanghai was hating. It brought intelli-
gence frOM the seat of war up to the 27th or 28th of
September, when the allied army was still in its posi-
tion, gefen.' or tight miles from Pekin, and two' or three
from Tung-amt.:- The statement was confirmed' that
that the prisoners were well treated!"
The following letters, received from the neigh-
bourhood of Pekin; give an interesting account of

THE PROGRESS OF THE TROOPS.
SEVEN MILES rnox PEKIN:, Sept. 22.
An attempt has been made at negotiatio'n, which has
ended in the smoke of more gunpowder, the partial
deception of Lord Elgin and Mr. Parkes, and, I grieve
to say, the capture of the latter by the Tartars, with
the Times correspondent, Mr. Loch (Lord Elgin's
private secretary), Mr. De Norman (Attache), .Captain
Brabazop, of the Artillery, and the Adjutant of Fane's
Horse, with 'some 20 " Sowars," and the murder 'of:
a French officer. But I must, as well as my memory
will. enable me, take, up my narrative . where I dropped

it on the 26th ultimo. The whole of our force
were then encamped at or near the Take Forts ; now
they are scattered over a space of some 80 miles, to say
nothing of the 44th Regiment, who were packed off in
hurry, on the 27th or 28th, to relieve Shanghai, where
it appears -they were not wanted, the Royal Marines
having "settled the hash " of the rebels before their
arrival. It was not until the Ist instant, I think
4(unfortunately I have lost the few notes I kept), that
the first move was made towards the North. This con-
sisted in the advance of our Ist Division, which crossed
the Peiho over a bridge of boats, about two miles
above Tongku, and were followed on the 2nd by the
2nd Division (with the exception of a wing of the Buffs
who were left to garrison the Take Forts), the French
marching' along the left bank of the river. The first.
halting place was about half a mile from the bridge of
boats, on a plain nearly encircled by orcliardi full of
grapes, peaches, apples, pears, and water-melons. The
second march was to a place called Kikko, the third to
Kih-tang-kou, and the fourth brought the whole army
to Tien-tsin, the marches, consequently, averaging
.about eight -miles each. But although they were so
short, and the start was" generally made before day-
break each morning, still they were much more fatiguing
than any one would imagine, as they were never
finished in less than four hours, during the last
two of which the heat was always very great, and
to men carrying heavy packs as well as their
rifles and ammunition very trying. At Tien-tsin the
army halted for nearly a week on a magnificent plain
immediately outside the town, living in clover in more
senses than one, while the French occupied. aposition'on
the left bank of the river, and an attempt was made at
negotiation, which, as I have already said, has ended in
smoke, the Chinese Commissioner sent down to treat
with us having declared Himself afraid to sign any con-
vention 1m his own responsibility, and almost hinting,
I believe, that our best plan would be to advance upon
Peki-r, and so frighten the Emperor into submissidt by
a warlike demonstration at his very door.
On the ,9th instant, accordingly; a force consisting of
the King's 'Dragoon Guards, Fane's and Probyn's Horse,
Baring's, Desborough's, and Stirling's BatterieS, the
Royal Marines, the 99th Regiment, the whole under
command of General Mitchell, marched past Tien-
tsin, to a place called Pookoo, ten miles distant. On
the following day they marched to Yang-tsin, eight
miles further ; and the next day to Nan-tsin, eight
miles further; and the next to Hoo-si-woo, when they
halted for five days again, until the 2d Queen's, the
60th. Rifles, and some 2,000 French came up. Almost
the whole.of the road for these last four marches was
through endless fields of millet, extending as far as the
eye could reach, and the camping ground at the end of
each of them was nearly as comfortable as a bed of
thorns, being upon half-cut beds of millet, the spikes of
which were' nearly as sharp and strong, ris those sur-
rounding the Take Forts, and had, I verily believe,
been left so by the Tartars, in the hope that they would
effectually prevent our advance, without any further aid
from their 'prowess. So far, 'not one of them had shown
his face within range since the dressing they got at
Take.
IHE CAPTURE. OF MR. PARKES AND THE
OTHER PRISONERS.

•
At Hoo-si-woo, accOrdingly, Mr. Parkes was embol-
dened to ride forward to Mut-ow., about ten miles fur-

ther on, attended by a cavalry escort and the gentlemen
I have already mentioned, in order, I believe; to 'propose
to the inhabitants that if they. would send us out sup-
plies of fuel, flour, &e., we would notmolest ,them, but
encamp outside, as we had previously done in the case
of every village or town we had passed.. As far as
I can make out. from the various reports I hear, they
first of all tohi him that they would consent to. furnish
its with supplies, if we would agree to their kelecting the
camping ground for us; but on ins Koplying• that the
General could not agree to any such condition, they
immediately made him and all his companions prisoners,
with the .exception of a few King's Dragoon Guards,
who succeeded in cutting their way out. Colonel
Walker, of the Bays, and Mr. Thomson, of the cola-
missariat, who had ridden out in the same direction,
were also very nearly taken prisoners, a French officer
who accompanied them being cut to pieces—Colonel
Walker only escaping with the loss of his sword, and a'
cut over the hand, and Mr. Thomson with a lance
wound in his back.
ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE TARTAR HORSE.
The Cavalry, Artillery, 2nd Queen's, Royal Marines,:
and 99th Regiment, were immediately ordered out by
Sir Hope Grant, and about midway between Hoo-si-woo,
our friends of Singho celebrity, and whom we had heard
had never drawn rein after that affair until they reached,
Pekin, again came in sight, extending in a wide semicircle
before Mut-oW as far as the eye could reach • The Queen's,'
who were in advance, were immediately ordered to halt,
until the' rest of the regiments came up, and aline of
battle was formed, the French taking the right, the
Queen's the centre, Royal Marines and 99th the left, and
Artillery and Cavalry the flanks. They had not advanced
far in this order before fire was opened on them from
some dozen points in.the aforesaid semicircle, while the
Tartar Cavalry threatened our . flanks. They were
promptly met, however; byours, but the Irregular Horse
who were on the right flank, the King's Dragoon Guards
being on the left; alone succeeded in getting among
them, with the to-be expected result of " chawing them
up' completely of course. Our artillery, meanwhile,
thundered dreadful responses to theirs, and with very
unequal' effect—theirs doing little or no damage, ours
telling with deadly effect, and 'finally completely
silencing all their batteries; which were planted
in: all sorts of
,extraordinary -positions, and were
evidently of quite an impromptu construction, some
at -the entrances to villages, others among clumps
of trees, and others behind natural embankments.
The infantry then advanded,.and threw in a smart fire
on them as they retreated, our nimble and gallant
'allies even getting among them with the bayonet, I
believe;and killing great.nambers. The enemy .fled in
every direction, and did not even attempt. to defend
Mut-ow itself, which was accordingly entered and taken
possessien,of the same evening, and proved'th be aniNl-eirey
comfortable and picturesque little town, with
a tumble
down old brick wall of great height, and once doubtless
say n.f
of great strength. The following day was madtehe
and had really a hard
rest, and yesterday the force advanced into
had plot
more than about three miles before
.thiec.ecneln againmet
presented themselves in a vast semicircle. N.
us day, but got'
them pretty inneli as we did on'the previous
the Irrecrular,
day's fighting. They not g
closer to them on several occasions— both
well among
Horse and King's Dragoon Guardsyrreed'part of infantry
them, as well as our more
intersected by wide ditches, and
fields of: cut
d Ise thickets), and their
separated here and there by dense —although, from the naturea(l advanced
the ground (endless
If we had d infantry
all.
had
actually might l ir.ve had the
alone, I believe they ,
knowledge of how to avail themselves of it, it was very
difficult to get near them at
they
enough showed themselves, on
both d
audacity to close with us (as they were evidently plucky
impressed with..a very salutary; dread of our,
artillery and cavalry, and although they made several
apparentot
men) but, as it was,
charges at our cavalry, I believe they were
almost all 'feints to draw them into
,some trap or other
(such as a concealed ditch or ,rough piece of ground),
While entangled in Which they might have an opportn-