The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-31 00:00:00

terferes in no way with the regimental duties, the
benefits are twofold, the time being otherwise whiled
away by a majority of the men in occupations
which lead to desertion and other crimes.

TILE BRITIS.HII.I I,t CEMVA,

MONDAY EVENING,

DECtIVIBER 81,

1860.

the Temple of the Earth, afforded a good position
for a brettehing battery; and within 190 yards of
the walls this face of the temple was screened from
view by a wall about 20 feet high, and the battery
was constructed, the outside row of bricks being
left untouched to the last day. The ground' also
outside the temple favoured the construction of a
trench, and the French from their proper left soon
got a large trench and a battery in advance of the
temple, and within probably 100 yards of the city,
in which, I presume, they intended to place their
small canons rays& Our trench led to within 80
paces of the walls, and would have gone closer had
time permitted. It was now notified to the Celes-
,
j tials that the town would be attacked, and the
palace plundered and burnt, if the remainder of the
prisoners and one of the gates of the city were not
given up, the General pledging himself to respect
the city if not molested. They were given until
12 o'clock at noon of Saturday, the 130, to make
up their minds. The Royals were marched down
to the breaching guns, and a wing of the 67th was
parading for the same purpose. The guns were
about to be loaded, when, five minutes before 12, a
gate was given up. Detachments of French and
English troops jointly took possession. I cannot
speak for certain on what date the second batch
of prisoners came in, but they consisted of several
French and some Sikh troopers. Ido not know
the numbers, and have no time either, as the mail
closes soon. I believe on the 13th we received our
Sikhs, the French came in three or four days before,
and we then became aware of the horrible end
of the poor fellows, of whose safety none of us for
a moment doubted. Let me hasten over the revolt-
ing subject as fast as possible. Brabazon and the
French Abbe were taken before a Tartar General,
who had been wounded on the 18th, and he had
their heads cut off at once in revenge ; so their
end, at all events, had nothing horrible about it.
The others were taken before Sin-ko-lin-sin, at the
Summer Palace, and one of them by signs was
asked if he wanted to wash ; on his signifying
assent he was taken out of the room and thrown
down, his hands and feet tied together behind his
back, and the rest were served the same way; the
Europeans were tied with double cords, the Sikhs
with only single ones, and they say the Europeans
were worst off. Not content with this, they tied
them in pairs together; for four days they had
neither food nor water, and then only a little rice.
You may fancy the indignation this caused in the
army, and fortunate are, the Tartar army there has
been no encounter since, for not a man would have
been spared (we took 2,000 odd at the Taku, and
sent them all adrift harmless). It was determined
to burn the Summer Palace, where the tragedy
commenced, and the Ist division, or rather what
was left of it, marched there, devoting that and the
succeeding day to its destruction. It is now a heap
of ruins, or nearly so; the cavalry marched about
five miles to the rear without coming to the end of
the grounds, and I believe far more jade-stone orna-
ments, china, gold ornaments, and old enamels
were discovered than on the first sacking; these
were a real gain to the captors, for each took what
' he got, no bono publico this time; it was a grand
bonfire, the carriages, the gift of the English, being
burnt, else some officers who had ponies there and
more loot than conveyance for were going to dig
them out of their peaceful retirement and parade
them in the English camp. The next move was
a demand of £lO,OOO for each European 'twas
said—but I suppose, as the Sikhs were only put
down at £l,OOO each, the King's Dragoon Guards
were in the same scale—as an indemnity (this
to go to the families of the deceased) before
any treaty could be entertained, the money to
be paid down on the nail, or else the Emperor's
Palace in Pekin was to be sacked and burnt. We
were in orders to attack the gate :of Victory at 10
a.m. on the 21st, proceeding along the wall of the
city, which is about 40 feet high, and about 18 yards
wide at top, paved with large blue bricks, more like
slabs, from the Anting-gate, or the " Peace-gate,"
which we held, and about two miles distant from
that of Victory. Guns had been dragged up the
slopes to the top of the wall who. wo first occupied
the aforesaid gate, and the horses had come down
to move them along to the attack on the next gate,
and the men were dll ready to fall in, when the
move was countermanded. The Chinese had pro-
cured the services of the Russian Ambassador, and
terms had been arranged, our side being only too
glad to have a treaty at this late period of the
season, and the Chinese to save their Emperor's
Palace. Peace was made on the 21st, the indemnity
paid on the 23d, the treaty signed en the 24th,
yesterday, at the Hall of Conference, near the
Emperor's Palace.
• Lord Elgin was escorted by 100 cavalry and
about 400 infantry, all the cocked hats to be mus-
tered in the army, and three officers per corps, who
could raise full dress, being allowed to attend. The
said last muster was scant indeed. Where public
transport is provided for only 701 b. of officers' bag-
gage, including half a tent, which weighs 301 b., some
more useful articles than dross coats are needed.
All the second division marched into the city and
lined the streets at the entrance to it; the Royals
were furthest into the town, then the Bth Punjaub
Native Infantry, 67th next, another Punjaub regi-
ment, and 99th near the gates, front rank on one
side, rear rank on the other. After his lordship and
his body guard, his brass hatted retainers, had
passed through, the ranks closed, and regiment
after regiment, forming column of sub-divisions,
marched on into the city, taking up commanding
positions at intervals along the road, with patrols
between each division. On his lordship's return--
for of the signing of the treaty I only heard that
PI ince Kun g, the heir presumptive, is young looking,
but showed signs of living a fast life—the same
ceremony was observed of lining both sides of the
street wherever the troops might happen to be, salut-
ing as he passed, and following in rear in clouds of
dust, the ceremony, as far as the poor soldier was
concerned, occupying from 12.30 p.m. to 8 p.m.,
and well he earned his extra glass of grog yester-
day. It is a great pity we could not have occupied
Pekin this winter, or for a month or two. It
would have had a wonderful effect, doubtless ; but
our armies have been into the city, and that sight
will not.soon be forgotten. The streets were lined
with crowds of men, women, and children ; of the
women Arsv, had the deformed feet, but I cannot say
much in favour of their faces either.