The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-28 00:00:00

telling him what had occurred about midnight of
the same day, and, starting at half-past 5, reached
headquarters by 9 o'clock on the 19th. The allied
force was in occupation of the town of Chang-
keiawan, a wretched place, and their pickets were
some distance outside on the roads leading to
Pekin. That day and the next the armies re-
mained where they were, and reconnaissances were
made with a view of ascertaining whether the
enemy were still in force in the neighbourhood.
Mr. Wade also was sent on the 19th with a large
escort to Tung-chau with a letter from the allied
Commanders-in • chief to the Prefect, desiring him
to request Mr. Parkes and his party to return to
their respective headquarters, and saying that if
any obstacle were offered by the Chinese Pekin
would certainly be taken. The Prefect assured
Mr. Wade that after Mr. Parkes had returned to
Tung -chau, about 9 a.m. (this would be correct),
he had had an interview with the Prince of I, and
again left the city. Beyond this Mr. Wade was
unable to obtain any intelligence either of him or
of any of the others. We now began to fear the
worst, for there was just the possibility of the whole
of them having reached the Chinese lines just as
the action had commenced, and of their having been
attacked and possibly cut up. On the 20th a Tung-
chau man was brought in by some soldiers, who
said he had seen some half-dozen Englishmen being
sent along the Pekin road in a cart the day before ;
but, although this gave us some hope of their
safety, he became confused when cross-examined,
and knew nothing of the Sowars.
" The reconnaissance of the 20th having esta-
blished the fact of the enemy being in great force
at the place I am now writing from, and over the
whole neighbouring country, Sir Hope resolved
upon attacking them again on the 21st. The French
had received since the 18th strong reinforcements
of both infantry and artillery, bringiflg their force
up to nearly 3,000 men and three batteries. Ours
must have been about the same, but with the ad-
vantage of some 600 of them being cavalry.
" The result of the action was precisely the same
as on the 18th, the Chinese making scarcely any
stand after the first attack, and sustaining immense
losses, and we scarcely losing a man.
" A communication was received yesterday from
Lung, a brother of the Emperor, announcing his
appointment as Commissioner to meet Lord Elgin'
in place of the Prince of I and Muh ; but I imagine
no negotiations will take place until Mr. Parkes and
the rest of the prisoners make their appearance.
That they are certain to do so is, I believe, now
beyond a doubt, for the officers who brought in this
communication said that upwards of 80 of our
people were in Pekin, in good health, and well
cared for.
" It is perhaps almost idle to try and arrive at the
real truth respecting the occurrences of the last few
days, which, had they happened in any other coun-
try than this, could only be considered as the result
of a long planned and deliberate act of treachery ;
but I am by no means inclined to think, after dis-
cussing the matter with those who understand
them best, that this is necessarily the case. It is just
as likely to have arisen from some most stupid
bungling between the civil and military authorities
as from any foregone intention to catch us in a trap.
If they had desired this, why not wait until they had
the two ambassadors safe in Pekin ? However, a
few days more and we must see our friends again,
when we shall, no doubt, have a full explanation of
the real cause of what every man now has his own
pet speculation about, which never by any chance
agrees with that of any one else."

By a letter dated from the British camp, six miles
from Pekin, Sept. 22, we learn the following par-
ticulars as to the recent events in China :

On the 13th of September the troops marched
into Ho-si-wu, and letters were received from Lei,
Prince of I, and Muh, President of the Board of
War, begging for answers to the letters they had
previously sent in. As these officers were newly
appointed Imperial Commissioners ad hoc, Messrs.
Wade and Parkes, Lord Elgin's Chinese secretaries,
pushed on to Tung-chau the same night (25 miles
distant) to negotiate a treaty; they arrived there at
noon the following day and had an interview of
eight hours, the result of which was that the Impe-
rial Commissioners yielded in all points, and con-
sented that Lord Elgin and Baron Gros should ad-
vance with escorts of 1,000 men each to a place
within one mile of Chang-si-wan, and five miles of
Tung-chau. The convention agreed upon with
Kweilang was to be signed at Tung-chau, and then
the ambassadors were to proceed with their escorts
to Pekin to ratify the treaty. On the 17th the army
continued its advance to Matow, 12 miles from Ho..
si-wu, with an effective force of about 5,000 men.
Mr. Parkes, Mr. Loch, Mr. Bowlby, Mr. De Nor-
man, Lieut. Anderson, who commanded 20 Sowars
of Fane's Horse, and five King's Dragoon Guards
as an escort, Col. Walker, Quartermaster-General
of cavalry force ; Mr. Thompson, of the Commissa-
riat ; Count de Bartard, of the French Embassy ;
and some French officers, with a small escort,
marched at daylight on the same day to Tung-chau
to make arrangements for the reception of the am-
bassadors. They observed nothing particular on the
road; but it appears that during the night about
20,000 Chinese troops moved down and occupied
the ground which had been marked out, we pre-
sume, by the party mentioned above for the Allied
camp. The enemy, though it might be considered an
armistice had been agreed upon, threw up works on
the ground, and placed 70 guns in position in various
places commanding the approaches. It does not ap-
pear there was any intention of marching the whole
of our force to Tung-chau, or that there was any in-
fraction of the understanding that the ambassadors
were to come up with only 2,000 man. However
that may be, the movement of such a force of Tartars
and Chinese secretly in the night, with a numerous
and heavy artillery, looks like treachery. When Mr.
Parkes and Col. Walker, Mr. Loch, Mr. Thompson,
and four of the King's Dragoons, who returned to
mark out the ground for our camp on the following
morning with a Chinese officer, saw what had hap-
pened they remonstrated at their ground being
taken, and Mr. Parkes went back to Prince Lei to
expostulate with him, at the same time sending
Mr. Loch back with letters to Lord Elgin and Sir
Hope Grant, and leaving Colonel Walker and Mr.
Thompson with the dragoons on the ground till he
returned from the Prince—with which party Mr.
Bowlby remained our letters do not state ; but it is
probable he accompanied Mr. Parkes, as he would
naturally desire to see all that was to be seen, and
is a gentleman of great personal activity. There
is room to surmise that he stayed with others of
the original party at Tung-chau. After Mr. Parkes
had left the Chinese were civilly inclined, to all
appearance, and did not molest Col. "Walker or his
men. Unfortunately, an officer of the French
lntendence came up with a mule, which some of
the Chinese immediately claimed. The French
officer resisted the seizure of his beast, but a Tartar
suddenly cut him down from behind. Colonel
Walker remonstrated in vain ; the Chinese pressed
round the little party ; they twice disarmed the
colonel, and tried to dismount him ; so, seeing that
things were looking desperate, he gave the word
to his men to cut their way through the Tartars
and to ride for their lives. The dragoons did so,
and, although the Chinese opened fire on them,and
wounded two men and a horse, the whole party got
safe back to the army. They had marched from
Matow in the morning, but were stopped by the
sight of the Tartar army already mentioned, which
iwas disposed in an enormous semicircle for over
taopfpaincegtehuerenfleaninks. The baggage was accordingly
brought up and packed, and the force was disposed
and were content t though
with thed r alliesvin
imaden
theno attack,Tartar
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pickets. Just at this time Mr. Igoch arrived wan
the letters, and told Sir Hope Grant what had
Hope accordingly wocictuhrreerdd.erHs,eavnodlusnirteueree
ityhoedieldsri.rPedarh,kierns
to tell the latter he was to come intog
witqhuaarfl,ear s
at once. Mr. Loch started accordingly
of truce, and Captain Brabazon, of the Royalg
party
hadty gone
some Artillery, volunteered to accompany him.
were
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wither them.and
hisl They
ar
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towards our troops, and the noise of
tiring was beard. And here, again, according to
our accounts, the proceedings are not so very in-
telligible. "It was evident," says one writer,