The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

How we got to Pekin. By the Rev. R. J. L,
M'Ghee. Bentley.
__ . _

Having been chaplain to the forces in the late
expedition to China, Mr. M'Ghee had excellent op-
portunities for observation, and the amusing volume
before us shows that he turned them to extremely
good account. He describes what he saw neither
from a military nor a clerical point of view, but as
it would appear as an intelligent and comparatively
unprejudiced spectator. His style, too, is lively and
agreeable, his philosophy is evidently that of mak-
ing the best of things, and he shows a quick per-
ception of the ludicrous. The work he has produced,
then, is essentially a readable one, and not only re-
lates the progress of the English army to Pekin, but
conveys a good idea of the country and the people.
The place at which he joined the expedition was
Hong Kong, and he was much struck with its pic-
turesque appearance, stating that it has many of
the beauties of Naples upon a smaller scale. Here
he says, " Probyn's Horse and Fane's Horse were
the objects of the greatest attraction, although the
Armstrong guns excited a good deal of attention. I
never saw anything more gay, and yet thoroughly
soldierlike, than those two Irregular Regiments.
Probyn's regiment had been embodied much longer
than the other, and yet Fane's fellows were just as
well drilled and in as good order, although they had
only been raised for service in China. The light
grey tunic and that most handsome of head dresses,
the turban (Probyn's blue, Fane's red), set off
the men to the best advantage, and some of them
were not only handsome but noble-looking fellows
on horseback—for they did not seem as if they
were ever intended to walk—their legs were not
good, and required the largo boots to hide them.
They were armed with pistols, carbine, lance, and
sword. Until I became accustomed to them I could
not help speculating as to what sort of people they
really were; they looked almost knightly when tilt-
ing with the lance ; yet there was clearly a dash
of the freebooter about them, so that one was re-
minded of Byron's criticism on William of Pole-
raine, ' Not quite a robber, yet but half a knight.'
Of the officers commanding both these regiments
there was but one opinion in China, as there bad
been but one in India—that they were two of the
finest fellows in the service, and you could hardly
avoid finding it out by looking at them." Leaving
at Hong Kong and touching at Shanghai, the author
paid a visit to the sacred island of Pootoo, which
is occupied entirely by temples in and around which
about a thousand Buddhist priests reside. " From
the landing-place you walk along a flagged road,
which ascends with an easy incline; ancient
temples on your left near the shore, and noble trees
casting a pleasant shade around them ; while on
every side magnificent camellias, 20 and 30 feet high,
are to be seen glistening with their wax-like blos •
soms to the top. Azaleas innumerable of
humbler growth, and wild flowers of various
hues, form a rich carpet of surpe,ssing beauty
the maps
latter of
being
that springs beneath your feet." Here are
so of l
tdh e picturew o world,
d, h
sarceprercieseinstlnd
elongated parallelogram, of which the Celestial
represented as
as and
an
Empire covers nearly the whole, though a small bor-
der is considerately left all round for the different
Barbarian nations; each h • aving a square patch,
and being described in a few words, whilst it is re-
presented as bringing its chief produce to China as
tribute. The expedition then arrived at Talien-
whan ; a large bay, some 20 miles
long by about
nine wide, where, as the French were not ready, the
troops were disembarked and encamped. In the
attack on the forts, which soon after followed,
the
author speaks highly of the effect of the Arr nstrong
guns. " I was standing close to Barry's 'battery,
and it was at once a beautiful and yeta fearful
sight to see the precision of their fire, as the shells
struck the exact spot aimed at, and knocked
the
guns of the Tartars about their ears, am'de t I c ouds
of dust." Strange as it
may seem, tea was not used
by the natives of that part of China, as Mr. M`Ghee
found on making excursions into the country, and
even when he did meet with it, afterwards, h e speaks
anything but favourably of its quality. The cap-
ture of the Takoo forts is well described, the Tartars
fought desperately, and our success seems to have
been owing to the dry weather which har-