The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-27 00:00:00

LORD ELGIN ..IND SIR 31. SEYMOUR.i Slaney gunboat and the Cormorant despatch boat,
which has been lightened for the purpose, I have of
course been precluded from making any movement
in advance.
" From all that I have heard and observed since
I came here I am confirmed in the opinion that if, on
our arrival, we had been in a position to move at
once up the river towards Tientsin, with a force of
from 10 to 12 gunboats, assigning, as the motive of
this proceeding on our part, to any Chinese local
officials who may have seen fit to question it, our
determination to confer with the Emperor's Govern-
ment at or near the capital, and apprising them at
the same time that, though we intended to do no
violence while unprovoked, we were prepared to
force our way if any attempt were made to stop us,
we should have been able to effect this operation
without encountering resistance. By adopting this
course we should have furnished to the Chinese
Government palpable evidence cf the fact that
foreign ships of war can ascend the river, which is
the highway to the capital, and which has hitherto
been considered a sealed channel to them. We
should, moreover, have placed our force between
the capital and the junks which convey to it at this
season the customary supplies of grain. I think
it probable that such a demonstration, under the
conditions above stated, would have sufficed to bring
the Imperial Government to terms, and that any
necessity for a recourse to further measures of vio-
lence or coercion would have been avoided.
" The chief credit of this manoeuvre, if it had
been executed in the manner which I have sketched
above, must have accrued to the British navy ; be-
cause for every single vessel competent by draught
of water to navigate the Peiho river which Admiral
Rigault de Genouilly has at his disposal Admiral
Seymour has at least five.
" I have now submitted a plain statement of the
course which I have followed, and of the reasons
which have determined it ; it rests with your lord-
ship to pass a judgment on both.—l have, &c.,
" ELGIN AND KINCARDINE."

The despatches ordered to be printed to elucidate
the differences between the late Plenipotentiary and
the Commander-in-Chief in China were published
on Saturday.
In the despatches which we subjoin each party
states his own case :

LORD ELGIN.
" Her Majesty's ship Furious, Gulf of Pechell,
April 23, 1858.
"My Lord,—ln a despatch which I did myself
the honour to address to your lordship from Hong
Kong on the 14th of November last, and which
is
No. 61, the following paragraph appears:—' As it
is, Count Pontiatine was very decidedin the ex-
pression of his opinion that nothing would be done
with the Chinese Government unless pressure were
brought to bear at Pekin itself, and that the use of
vessels drawing so little water that they could na-
viaate the Peiho would be the best means of mak-
in; such pressure effective. The Mandarins on the
Blatt, if I rightly understood him, had in conversa-
tion with him adverted with exultation to the fact
that our ships of war could not perform this feat ;
I told him that we were pretty strong in craft of
the description to which he referred : that we had,
as he, no doubt, knew, a quarrel of our own to
settle in this neighbourhood, but that when this
affair was concluded we should be prepared to go
northwards in force, and very glad to be accom-
pai:ned by the flags of other nations, interested with
us in extending commercial relations with China,
andinducing the Court of Pekin to abate its ab-
surd pretensions to superiority ;' and your lordship
is pleased in your despatch to me, No. 2, of the 4th
of January last, to state that her Majesty's Go-
vernment approve the language, which, as reported
in your confidential despatch of No. 61, of the 14th
of November last, you held to Admiral Pontiatine
on the occasion of his visit to your Excellency.'
" I refer to the correspondence because I am de-
sirous to remind your lordship of the fact that from
a period now remote the policy sketched in the pa-
ragraph which I have quoted has engaged my
attention.
" It is true that as a measure of conciliation, and
more especially with the view of giving to the non-
belligerent Powers, who were aeting the part of
lookers-on, and whose hand not being with us might
have chanced at any time to turn against us, a fair
pretext for joining us, I proposed to Baron Gros in
the memorandum to his Excellency, of which I en-
closed a copy to your lordship in my despatch, No.
18, of the 26th of January, that we should offer to
meet at Shanghai a Plenipotentiary duly accredited
by the Emperor of China, for the purpose of settling
at that place all differences pending between China
and our respective countries. That I did not, how-
ever, even at that moment, lose sight of the proba-
bility that a move in force to some point further
north might still be necessary is apparent from the
fact that in the very memorandum to which I am
referring, I stated that in communicating to the
Prime Minister of the Emperor of China the propo-
sal which I was submitting for the consideration of
Baron Gros it was my intention to add,
" ' That if before ] no such Plenipo-
tentiary presented himself, or if, when lie presented
himself, it were found that his rank or his powers
were insufficient, the British Plenipotentiary would
then proceed to Tientsin, and adopt such other mea-
sures for enforcing the just demands of his Govern-
ment on that of China as circumstances might ren-
der necessary.'
" On the 2d of March, the eve of my departure
from Hong Kong for the north, I addressed accord-
ingly to Sir M. Seymour the following letter, of
which a copy was forwarded in my despatch to
your lordship, No. 56, of that date :—' I have
already apprised your lordship that I am about to
proceed to Shanghai in the hope of meeting there
a Plenipotentiary empowered by the Emperor of
China to settle existing differences between Great
Britain and China, and to place the commercial re-
lations of the two countries on an improved foot-
ing.
" If I should be disappointed in this hope, it may
be necessary, in pursuance of the policy prescribed
by her Majesty's Government, to bring pressure to
bear at some point near the capital. With a view
to this contingency I think that it would be advis-
able that your Excellency should collect at Shang-
hai towards the end of March, or as soon after as
may be convenient, as large a fleet, more especially
of gunboats drawing little water, as you can spare
from service elsewhere'

" Her Majesty's ship Furious, Gulf of Pecheli,

April 28, 1858.
" My Lord,—With reference to my despatch to
your lordship, No. 91, of the 23d inst., I have now
the honour to report that Rear-Admiral Sir M.
Seymour reached this anchorage on the 24th inst.,
in her Majesty's ship Calcutta. As this vessel
draws about 25 feet of water, she cannot approach
within several miles of the bar of the Peiho river.
Since then his steam-tender, the Coromandel, has
arrived, towed by the paddlewheel steamer Samp-
son, which also cannot cross the bar.
" On the alternoon of the 24th Admiral Seymour
called upon me and handed to me the despatch of
which I herewith transmit a copy. From the me-
morandum enclosed in it it appears that, exclusively
of the Slaney, which left Hongkong before I did,
five gunboats of the larger class are under orders
for the north, and may be expected, if nothing
occurs to delay them, to reach this place during the
course of May. I say, if nothing occurs to delay
them, because from more recent information,l already
know that the Leven was detained at Amoy for
several days beyond the allotted period in conse-
quence of some failure in the execution of the orders
left to relieve her ; and that the Opossum and the
Bustard, which were to have sailed from Hong
Kong on the 10th of this month, had not come
down the Canton river on the 12th. _ _

" If, on the plea that it could not be spared from
the Canton river Sir Michael Seymour had declined
to send to the north the large fleet, ' especially of
gunboats,' for which I had applied. I should have
been compelled, however much I might have dis-
sented from it, to bow to his decision on a profes-
sional point, and I should have shaped my course
accordingly. If, again, he had told me that it was
not towards the end of March, but towards the
end of May,' that his fleet would be available for
service in this quarter, I should have made a corres-
ponding change in my arrangements. But in his
letter of the 2d of March he promised, in the most
uncompromising terms, to give me the support for
which I had asked, and offered not a syllable of ob-
jection to the period which I had specified as that
on which I required that the support in question
should be forthcoming. It is, therefore with a de-
gree of surprise which I have difficulty in describ-
ing, that I learn, from the information which he
has now for the first time furnished to me, that his
arrangements are su made that the very inadequate
force which he is about to supply will not arrive
here until the approach of the season when the
climate is most unfavourable to the European con-
stitution.

" In his answer, of which a copy was enclosed in
my despatch, No. 57, of the Gth of March, the Ad-
miral states In reply, I beg to acquaint your
Excellency that for some time past my attention
has been directed to this object: Ode of the gun-
boats and one gunvessel have already sailed for
Shanghai, and arrangements are in progress for
others to follow. It is my intention to sail for
Shanghai in the Calcutta, should with/lig ptcv cut,
on or about the 16th inst.'
" As ever since I arrived in China I have been

" No explanation of the cause of this most griev-
ous disappointment has been given to me, and I
do not trust myself to hazard a conjecture on the
subject. It is idle to charge the delays which have
taken place upon the monsoon, because where the
French gunboats and the Slaney could navigate
it is manifest that other gunboats of the English
squadron might have done the same ; moreover,
the Admiral has under his orders powerful
paddlewheel steamers, such as the Fury and
Sampson, which could have towed to this point a
considerable number of the smaller class of gunboats
if it had been deemed expedient so to employ them;
nor can it be alleged that there was any room for
doubt as to the policy which the High Commis-
sioners of the allied Powers were, in obedience to
their instructions, about to pursue, for, indepen-
dently of the communications, both verbal and
written, which I had myself addressed to him on
this point, Sir M. Seymour knew before he left
Hongkong—indeed, he mentioned this fact to me
when he visited me on the 24th inst.—that Admi-
ral Itigault had sailed for the north with all the
force he could collect, including, with one exception
all the gunboats under his command. In point of
fact, the whole French fleet reached this anchorage
on the 25th inst.; and at the moment when I am
writing this despatch the French flag is represented
by two gunboats within the bar of the Peiho, the
English by two despatch boats aground on the top
of it.

in constant and unreserved communication with

Sir Michael Seymour, and as he was perfectly aware
both of the tenour of my note to the Court of
Pekin, of the term fixed in it beyond which I had
resolved not to await the arrival of a Plenipoten-
tiary from the Emperor of China at Shanghai,
and of the importance which I attached to our being
able, in the event of failure in the attempt to nego-
tiate at that place, to appear off the mouth of the
Peiho with a formidable fleet of gunboats, drawing
little water, at as early a period as possible after
such failure, I confess that I addressed to him the
letter above quoted, rather ex abundante cautela
and with a view to put matters in a proper official
shape, than for any practical purpose ; and his
answer implied that he considered it in some degree
supererogatory. Indeed, I may observe, in proof
of the accuracy of this assertion, that I qualified
my request that his fleet should be at Shanghai at
the end of March by, the phrase, or as soon after
as convenient,' only because on the morning of the
day on which my letter to him was written he had
informed me that it would not be convenient for
him to leave Hong Kong before the 15th of March,
and that therefore I must not expect him to be in
readiness to move with his force from Shanghai to
the north before the end of the first week in April.
"Such being the position of affairs, and such the
nature of my understanding with Sir M. Seymour,
your lordship will no doubt have learnt without
surprise that when on my arrival at Shanghai I
found that the Government at Pekin had refused to
send a Plenipotentiary to meet me there, and had
communicated that refusal in a manner hich was
eminently significant of its determination to pre-
vent all direct intercourse between foreign func-
tionaries and the supreme Government of the em-
pire, I at once determined to bring pressure to bear
at some point near to the capital, my conviction
being that nothing was at that necessarytime to
make such pressure effective, at least, to extentthe a
of inducing the Government of Pekin to appoint
negotiator to treat with me, except the presence
within the bar of the Peiho of a small number of
foreign vessels of war, qualified by their light
draught of water to navigate that river. As I had
stated to Count Pontiatine in November last, I knew
that we were strong in vessels of this description,
and I considered the Admiral's letter to-me of the
2d of March to be a positive pledge that they would
be forthcoming in the neighbourhood of Shanghai
at or about the end of March.
"I accordingly addressed to their Excellencies
Baron Gros, Count Pontiatine, and Mr. Reed com-
munications of which copies were enclosed in my
despatch to your lordship, No. 72, of the Ist of
April.
" On the 3d of April, however, two days after
the despatch of the communication in question, the
Coromandel, tender to the flag-ship, arrived at
Shanghai, conveying, the very perplexing intelli-
gence that not only had Sir M. Seymour put off his
own departure from Hongkong from the 16th, the
date mentioned in his letter of 2d of March to
me, to the 25th ult., but that no preparations for
the immediate despatch of gunboats to the north
seemed to be in progress at the time of her sailing.
I gathered this information from the verbal reports
of the officers of the ship, for on neither point did
I hear from Sir M. Seymour.
" I had then to consider whether, in the altered
Position in which I found myself, it would ba my
duty, first, to adhere to the plan of proceeding.
which I had already communicated to the repre-
sentatives of 64 great Powers who are at this
conjuncture acting with us in Chinese affairs ;
snondlY , to await the arrival of Sir M. Seymour at
the risk of tosniargthb.oth the healthy season and the
grain junks;
plan of a movemenirdly, to abandon altogether the
those
several
terto7ards the north. After duly
weighing
alternatives I arrived at the
conclusion that I ought rally round me all the
force I could collect,'andrtoopr;tslceed without delay to
the mouth of the Peiho,
p,
Now r.icasous aced in my
despatch to your lordship, of the 3d inst.
liucu n e of this
" I have now to report that, in,
senior offi-
determination, having addressedptourtthe-
cers at Shanghai and Hongkong; letters, of
which copies were sent to your lordship in tlic de-
epatch referred to, I left Shanghai for the north on
the morning of the 10th inst., taking with me in
tow the Slaney, the only gunboat on the station ;
and that I reached my present anchorage in the
Gulf of Pecheli, at a distance of about five miles
from the bar of the Peiho river on the 14th instant.
Since my arrival Capt. Osborn, with the assistance
of the very zealous and intelligent master of the
Furious, Mr. Court, has been diligently engaged in
collecting information with respect to the depth of
water on the bar, and on other points, which may be
rueful at some future time. But having with me
only two vessels which could cross the bar, the

" I much fear that it will be found, when the
matter comes to be inquired into, that one of the
reasons for the non-appearance of gunboats here at
a time when their presence would be so valuable is
the fact that many of them are unserviceable from
the way in which they have been lately worked in
the Canton river in the discharge of duties a large
proportion of which might, at any rate since the
blockade has been raised, have been as well exe-
cuted by the ordinary passenger or merchant car-
rying craft.
" I am satisfied, indeed, from what I witnessed on
the occasion of the capture of Canton, and from
what I have since observed in my progress along
the coast, that the means at the disposal of the Bri-
tish authorities in these s 3as, if properly employed,
are ample for any objects which her Majesty's Go-
vernment may desire to accomplish in China.
" I am confident that this truth, if it has escaped
the notice of some among ourselves, has at any rate
made itself fully apparent to those who are acting
with us or standing by.
"In order, however, to the attainment of this
end, and more especially to its attainment without
an unnecessary expenditure of blood and treasure,
it is indispensable that those who control the
material force of Great Britain in this quarter
should lend to those who direct its diplomacy a
vigorous,l and intelligent support.
' have furnished the foregoing statement be-
cause I think it right that her Majesty's Govern-
ment should have the means of judging whether or
not thhtihs
ecopnodbitliioonseirsvioreali
sed
oiant theßri t
ami
na n
ins e
nr iwn
conducted,rmy i
OvnNn
China.
~ For Part, I shall continue to use my
utmost endeavours to carry out the policy which I
am commanded by my instructions to pursue.—l
have, &c.,

"ELGIN AND KINCARDINE.
" The Earl of Clarendon, K.G., &e."

cc SIR M. SEYMOUR'S REPLY TO THE EARL OF
ELGIN'S COMPLAINTS.

" Calcutta, at Hongkong, Sept. 27,1858.
have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter, No. 363, of the 9th of August
last (M.), enclosing' a copy of a despatch of the
16th July from the Under-Secretary of State for
Forei,,n Affairs, with copies of two despatches from
the Zarl of Elgin, dated the 23d and Dth of April
last, and informing me that the Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty entertain no doubt that I
shall consider it due to my character to furnish
their lordships with such explanations upon the
statements therein made as the circumstances may
require.
"2. In reply, I ha.,-e the honour to state that I
have perused with care and attention Lord Elgin's
despatches, which I regret to observe charge me
with a failure in collecting in the Gulf of Pecheli a
naval squadron, including vessels of light draught,
at a sufficiently early period to meet his lordship's
expectations and intentions. As tLese despatches
embrace a variety of charges, including an impro-
per performance of my duties as the Commander-
in-Chief on this station in the employment of the
gunboats in the Canton river, I propose to answer
them in succession.
" Loin) ELGIN's DEsrATcll. OF THE 23D APRIL.

" Lord Elgin first refers to a conversation he held
with Count Pontiatine in November last, in order.
to show that from a period now remote the policy
sketched in the paragraph quoted had engaged his
lordship's attention.
"3. Their lordships will doubtless have consi-
dered that the subject of this conversation, embrac-
ing the services and co-operation of the ships under
my command, was known to me at the time, but it
was only on my arrival in the Gulf of Pecheli, on
the 24th of April, that his lordship first mentioned
it to me, until which time I had no knowledge of 4