The Express.
London, England, 1860-12-28 00:00:00

THE =US& • ERIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 28, 1860.

SZOOND-HAND PIANOFOETES.
Mum% ma" sad Oa have a large meat of
Apecodimill Missloybis. by the most antismog arbors, at
waft missal pilaw.—fol

STOLEN KISSES and BOX-HIS-EAR&
nip now Peitivii Patois= ter INL

Tril7-80-26-8'.'111111%

T. JAMES'S HALL RESTAURANT,
logooSolrset sad Plow Lilly.
Dimas, son, to., tor loarillos, Wks,
W ellethellelL Whose, Lip WIL DONLLD, Progristor.

gbe erprelili.

Lavarimosts Lawton !Twain,
meslb• M 110, OMOO, 10, Bouvarl•Mreet, by Two
S. is 100 day et gmblk•Uon.

HAW,

Tins imam jgj bawl'. Mr. Beek-
stone . Mho Fanny &btu& lbs. B. ntowllßen.—And QUEEN
LADYBIRD AND HMI CMDBIN: or gaeleenhe mad a House
on Fire. Ben Cole, TheLecloreqe, M rWrlght,KbeE.Weekes.

PIINCEHrit.
TUN Immo, ERIM Mann. Cathcart and J. 0.
Snore. Was Heath, and Kim C. Ine',req. —And ItHHINION
CRVESOZ or, Harlequin Irr, and The K ins of the MEOW,
Islands. Mona. Kaplan's M. Daallatre, Mr. A. Forma

AT. JAIEIIYI.
Tare Evinctoo, THE Ing OF AT. TEQPIZ. Messrs. A. Wipn
and Immo; Mrs. Backbegbank Whila.—And an extravaganza, en-
titled KEDYMION or, nu Naughty Boy thatCriad for thalfoon.
Mem C. You( and Emery; 111aais St Nam, Harbert, & Zoom

HIGH WATER AT LONDON HLIDOL
Tim DAr —Homing, lh. I 9 Mom" Et 21m.
Tallonow—Morabag, Sh. 42:A Attarsom WA 2=

LONDON FRIDAY, DEC 28.

Tas full accounts of the events in China, par-
tially and enigmatically reported through the
telegraph early in the week, make the overland
mail from China distributed this morning one of
the most interesting which has ever reached
Europe from the East. The last letters from
before Pekin left Lord ELGIN expecting the reply
of Prince Ktrito to his demands. The north gate
of Pekin was in the hands of the Allies, and the
Plenipotentiaries were making use of their com-
mand of the capital to compel the surrender of
those English and French prisoners remaining after
the restoration of Mr. LOCH and Mr. PAaran
It soon appeared that the unfortunate gentle-
men had fallen victims to Tartar cruelty,
and their bodies were all that the Chinese
could produce. The corpses of Mr. BOWLEY,
M. DI NOILMEN, and Lieutenant ANDERBON, with
those of one European and eight Sikh soldiers,
were given up with marks of the most cruel treat-
ment upon them. It is stated that they were
tied up in the brutal manner in which the Tartars
are accustomed to treat their prisoners, and, being
scantily supplied with food, expired beneath the
seventy of their sufferings. It would be gratify-
ing to know that the perpetrators of these outrages
had been brought to justice. We always please
=wives while • war is in programs with the
thought of the righteous retribution which will
attend its close ; but as the prospect of peace
opens, we willingly let the guilty great go free
that we may snatch its benefits. The " Old Man-
" &rine" and savage Tartar Generals, whose chas-
tisement hse been so often promised, have got off free,
as from the first they were sure to do. In this case
all that Lord Emu( could do, after having caused
the remains of our lamented countrymen to be honour-
ably interred, was to demand • sum to be given for
the benefit of their families. The amount obtained,
100,0001., appears singularly inadequate, con-
sidering that, including Captain Baasezos, four
of the victims were gentlemen of social position. We
quite expect to find that Lord &ors accepted this
miserable sum for some special reason. The pay-
ment does not figure in the articles of the Con-
vention of Pekin as they are at present known ;
and it was obviously not the policy of our Pleni-
potentiary to multiply the conditions of a peace,
at that time uncertain. Mr. BOWERY and
his companions were buried on the 17th,
and on the 18th the Yuen-ruing-yueu Palace,
which had been sacked • few days before,
and where, it was believed, many of the cruelties
suffered by the European prisoners had been per-
petrated, was burnt to the ground. Some may,
if they please, call this an act of barbarism ; but,
to our minds, the moral significance of the act,
effectually marking, as it was intended to mark,
our detestation of the cruelties inflicted there,
raises it far above that imputation. It was pro-
bably the only way in which we could reach the
EMPEROR, who most be considered responsible for
deeds which he might have prevented but did not.
It is a thousand times better that the wrath of
the army should have broken forth on the luxuries of
the Emrsaint than that we should have afflicted
the women and children of Pekin with the horrors
of an occupation, to say nothing of the destruc-
tion of their dwellings, " street by street and
" house by house."
The signature of the Convention of Pekin and
the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin by
Prince Kuno, the brother of the EMPEROR, took
place in the very heart of Pekin, into which three
thousand of the QUEEN'S troops were marched, the
band playing the National Anthem. All the de-
mands of our Ambassador have been ceded, on
paper, and it is probable that if they had been
much more onerous they would have been assented
to. The only one of them which really touches the
Chinese Government is the so-called indemnity.
According to the Shanghai papers the amount of
this payment has been doubled in consequence of
the necessity of advancing on Pekin ; but this is
not true if, as they also state, the Chinese are
to pay only 8,000,000 teals on that account, since
that was the sum demanded by Lord Eton! in
the abortive negotiations at Tientsin which pre-
ceded the march to Pekin ; 2,000,0001. is • ridi-
culous sum to take as an indemnity, so ridiculous
that we prefer to see Lord Euas'a despatch before
discussing the item any further. The regret in
the name of the Elusion for the affair of the
Taku Forte costs his MAisarT little, even if he
has heard of it. The formal cession of Cowloon
beneficially extends our jurisdiction to a place
which we have already occupied under a lease.
The relinquishment by Lord Elam, in 1858, of
the treaty right of our Minister to reside perma-
nently at Pekin was a friendly concession, and has
of course been revoked. But the exercise of this
right, unless very wisely managed, will be
attended with numerous embarrassments. If

we are to have a Minister at Pekin, it would
have been well to have had him installed there,
and placed in communication with the Mimeos,
if possible, before our troops were withdrawn
from the capital. After marching the army
thither we ought not to leave any questions
open or any obstacles to be overcome. The
opening of orient in to trade, and the permission
of emigration, are provisions in which so many
Chinese anti English interests coincide that upon
them few difficulties may be expected to arise. The
Treaty of Tientsin and tho Convention of Pekin areto
be promulgated throughout the Empire. Practically
this means wherever the British and French are
able to supervise its pnblic►tion, for the govern-
ment cannot be expected to exert itself with much
enthusiasm to destroy its infinence over its !sub-
jects.

Now that the Treaty is signed, we trust that it
may prove capable of becoming a starting point for
new and permanently improved relations with
China. How far this is possible events must
show. Those who know the Chinese best are
always telling us that one can never tell what they
will do from a calculation of what Europeans
would do in the same circumstances. It may
be that this Treaty, like that of Tientsin,
extorted by appeals to fear, will be observed
better than that has been. It probably will be, if
those who are entrusted with the direction of our
political relations with China will honestly re-
gard it as above and before all things a means
of extending friendly intercourse with that
people. At all events the actual results of
this expedition, prepared with so much care
and at such enormous cost, will surely teach
our rulers that war is, of all expedients, the
one which can do least to advance that end. We
have accomplished the long-threatened march to
Pekin, which we found too remote to govern and
too populous to bombard or sack, and we have
come away with a piece of paper, and a beggarly
spoil which will not pay one-eighth part of the
cost of the campaign. And having done this, we I
have now to set about the real work of peace,
pretty nearly at the point at which Mr. Minus
found it last July.