The Express.
London, England, 1859-09-14 00:00:00

CAUSES OF THE WAR.

On the first arrival of the news at Shanghai the
North China Herald, which is referred to by the
Hong Kong press as the organ of our diplomacy in
China, published the following statement:

The Mandarins said that Mr. Bruce would be
received at Pekin by going tome roundabout way,
but that the river was blocked up by barriers,and no
man of war would be allowed to pass. Mr. Bruer,
on the other,hand was determined that he would go
by the river, and force the passage if neoewry. Of
counts the matter now fell into the Admiral's hands,
and warlike operations were immediately commenced.
An officer with an interpreter was sent to the
Chinese, with a message stating that the British
plenipotentiary had arrived with the treaty, and u
he was proceeding to Pekin to exchange the rati-
fications, as was customary, he desired that the ob-
structions in the river might be removed. The Man-
darin, one of low grade, was insolent in his demea-
nonr, and said they would not be removed, that
indeed he had no force with him. He was told that
unless a passage for the expedition was opened in
three days, it would be done by our own forces. The
officer was not allowed to land, the parley taking
plain in a boat. There was no demonstration or ap-
pearance of any force within the forts. No flags fly-
ing, as on the former occasion, and all was still, as if
they were occupied only by a small force. The gnu
were all masked.

Subsequently, however, the same journal pub-
lished the following correction
It seems that no mandarins appeared at the
months of the river at all. Some of the common
people, calling themselves braves, under a leader,
and a contractor engaged in fixing the piles and
booms which crossed the river, presented themselves,
but maintained positively that there were no man-
darins near the place, and that the works in pro-
' puss were undertaken at the expence of the people,
I and without any authority fram the government ;
also, that their object was the defence of the coast
against rebels or pirates, and not hostile hindmost*
to us. Indeed the contractor promised to have the
way clear for us in two days.
We are also glad to be assured that Admiral Hope's
appearance at Takes in the first instance was so un-
mistakeably pacific in character. A solitary mar-
of-war"s boat carried in his first message. The Fury
and two gunboats were left outside the bar; the rest
of the squadron was lying thirty miles off at Stably-
teen, and when the admiral did come in he is stated
to have handed a letter requesting that $ market
might be opened at the fort, as his ships would
remain there until Mr. Braced return from Pekin.
There is another error io our last issue; that
several letters and messengers passed between Mr.
Bruce and the mandarins, who said Mr. Brace would
be received at Pekin by some roundabout way, but that
the river was blocked tip and no man-of-war would
be allowed to pußruce, g. Mr. it appear', received
but one communication from the shore, the enntents
of which have not transpired. It WWI brought from
, the mouth of another stream, not, se far as we can
ascertain, a branch of or connected with the river we

sail the Pel-ho. The place wee visited sobeequeutly
by the Americans, who found the water too shoal
for 11, ir boats, and consequently had to wade in to
the i!.ure. They tried another landing, and were
pursued into the water by some cavalry. The letter
brought to Mr. Bruce was found to have been two
days on the road, and was delivered on the 26th June;
but • few hours before the admiral, as he bad given
notice he would, attempted to pus the boome, when
the firing began.
Wo gather, from all we can collect on the subject,
that if the Chinese government did inteadeventaally
to admit us by some new route, it took care not to
inform us of the fact ; for some reason or other it
kept away from Taku any one who might have
informed us that the old route, which is not closed to
trade. for junks were seen thick above the fort, was
cloud to the ministers, who, all the world has been
aware for a twelvemonth, were coming to Pekin to
exchange ratifications of the treaties. If a foreign
minister had been told by • responsible authority,
" You cannot pass this way; by the Emperor's
orders you must go round by such or such • road,"
he might have had difficulty in calling on his admiral
to force the passage. Bat this is precisely what
the Chinese government did not do. On the con.
troy , it appears to have taken every precaution to be
aorepeweented in the matter, quite prepared, we =-
mot but think, had Admiral Hope's movement sae-
seeded, to throw the entire blame on the country.
peop!e, who, se they themselves alleged, had run up
those works without its orders and tired without its
authority.
Torre are some contradictions which we cannot
explain. Why should an unwerlike and very em-
barrassed government fight at all? Was it out of
revenge for the half-hours thrashing we gave it last
year' oe was it that it thought that we were coming
to get something more out of it ? or was it deter-
mined not to leave as in the enjoyment even of what
we had extorted?

Our Chinese gossips were agreed from the that
that molly conditions in the treaty of Tien-tein the
Emperor would never consent to carry out, and
have pointed to the fact, which the Pekin Gazegte
puts beyond dirpote, that Sankgolinain had so early
as list winter assembled a very large force in the
neighbourhood of Tien-tsin, as evidence of &determi-
nation to keep us out of Pekin. When it was an-
nounced, however, that the foreign ministers were
ssercl7 about to visit the capital and did not intend
to mid, there, a rumour, which we have before
noticed began to grow, that the Emperor himself wee
anxious for peace, and had issued his inaructiona
wording/oy. Still we see Sangkolinsin did not
break up his camp, and we find en opinion cow cur-
rent moot, the Chinese, sod supported in some de-
gree by what has fallen from Romish mimicioaries
Motioned in or near Pekin, that he had declared,
happen what might, our ship, should not enter the
Tien-tsin Weer. The Emperor, it is said, Mandela
much awe of this Mongolian and his followers, to
whom he was ranch beholden in 18,54, when the
Tai-ping rebels came so close to his capital. On
the other hand, we repeat, no one can doubt that,
however much he might dread the consequences
of a failure, provided his Majesty could so screen
himself as to be able subsequently to disavow en set
of hostility, he would ant object to seeing the bar-
barian's bend broken. What he, or whoever it was
whose war cannot's prevailed, has overlooked, is the
certainty that the barbarian will not give in merely
because be has come to grief in the first round. 'rho
cheek we bare sustained, and with us oar gallant
Where, of the conduct of whose mill quota one
wake in the highest terms, is too prominent to be
Wt where it lin.

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