The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-29 00:00:00

Enclosure 4.

Pa-li-cbiao, Sept. 23.
My Lord,—lt had been of course the intention or Mr.
Parkes and myself to report formally to your Excellency
the result of our expedition to Tungchow, and the evening
before Mr. Parkes left Ho-ii-cou. We carefully wont over
the whole ground together. From our joint recollection of
what took place, aided by some rough notes made during
our interview with the Commissioners by Mr. Parkes, I
prepared a memorandum of considerable-dimensions. This
was to have been put into shape and signed by us both,
but my own movements, as your Excellency is aware, have
been such as to render its reduction ispossible, and I must,
therefore, limit myself to a précis of the paper, trusting that
ere the departure of next mail I shall be able to present it to
you with Mr. Parkes's signature.
We reached Tung-chow about noon on the 14th, not
having spent the night at Ma-tan, the village at which your
Excellency had expec:,ed we should find, the Imperial Com-
missioners Tsai and Muh. Ma-tan is &most wretched place,
and the Commissioners had left it, I presume, on hearing

of our advance to Ho-si-cou.
Along the road to Tung-chow we saw sufficient evidence
of the neighbourhood of a large force, but none of the works
or batteries found by the Allied force on the 18th instant.
We reached the city about noon and took up ouLabode
in the yamun of the chief civilian, and about fouriVclock
proceeded to the temple outside the east gate, in which the
Commissioners were waiting our arrival. Our approach
had been announced the evening before from Ma-tan.
We were shown into a side room, and the Commissioners
almost immediately followed. Tho Prince Tsai (I-tsin-
wang) is a tall dignified man 'with an intelligent counte-
nance, though a somewhat unpleasant eye. Muh-yin, the
President of the Board of War, sof;:er and more wily in his
manner, but also intelligent. Both were extremely polite,
the Prince especially, and without condescension or affecta-
tion. . _

The Commissioners relieved us of the necessity of pro-
ducing our letter of credence, by requesting to be informed
what had dissatisfied your Excellen :y, to whom they had
written once and again. We said that your Excellency
found difficulty in deciding whom to trust as representative
of the Chinese Government, or by what forms it world
consider itself bound, and in explanation we reviewed briefly
the history of our intercourse for the last three years. The
Prince deprecated allusion to the past, defended Kweiliang
as very old and infirm, and insisted on the guarantee
afforded by his own high rank for the validity of any
enagereents he might accept for his Government. We
contended that reference to the past was unhappily inevi-
table, and closing with what he advanced in support of his
own superiority as Imperial representative, we endeavoured
to draw from him what authority ho would be able to pro-
duce to your Excellency for his exercise of the plenipoten-
tiary powers assumed by Kweiliang.
He denied that the formula employed by Kweiliang was
Chinese. We cited the decrees of 1842 and 1858, and after
much discussion on the nature and object of powers, and in
particular upon the national obligations arising out of con-
tract signed by Plenipotentiary Ministers, the Prince having
first declared that what he signed would be as though the
Emperor signed it, agreed to procure such a decree as would
correspond to our definition of the powers required.
This obtained, he wished to know what would be be
required to sign? We assumed that he knew what had
passed at. Tien.-tsing. He ignored the convention alto-
gether, although in two of his despatches already written
he had promised to sign it. I reminded him of this, and
produced a copy of the convention, which I had is my
pocket. He read it rapidly, remarking at first that if he
could promise all the rest he could not promise the pay-
ment demanded within two months at Tien-tsing • if the
money were not forthcoming, we should be charging
China with another breach of faith; could we not promise
to make the terms five months? Of course we could
promise nothing. Then he could not promise anything till
he had conferred with your Excellency.
I think he here rose and left the room, Muh-yin mean-
while perused the draft, and although he had professed
difficulty in understanding our Chinese, and had even
affected a little deafness, he showed himself well up in all
that had just passed, and, indeed, in all the questions at
issue.
Presently the Prince returning, Mr. Parkes asked him
whether ho would point out any other articles to which he
took exception, and he then objected to the disposition of
the troops, the residence of her Majesty's minister at
Peking, the payment of indemnity,. the opening of Tien-
tsing to trade, and lastly, though this was not in the Con-
vention, to the escort which ho had heard was to accom-
pany your Excellency.
All this, however, with HUN. show of earnestness; the
old arguments against Our coming north at all, the climate,
the disposition of the people, &c., were urged, but not as if
it was expected they would influence us. After avast deal
of desultory debate, however, we arrived at the following
position :
We explained that your Excellency having declared your
intention not to sign the Convention elsewhere than at
Tung-chow, would infallibly come to that city for that
purpose; that it would make no difference to your Excel-
lency whether you came with the large force now on its
way from Tien-tsing or the escort originally mentioned to
Kweiliang ; but that your Excellency, assuming that it
would make every difference to the Chinese Government,
had sent us to wart on the Prince and his colleague for the
purpose of impressing upon them the conditions on which
the advance of the force upon Tung-chow might be stayed.
We were come simply as witnesses to your Excellency's
desire for a pacific termination of the present misunder-
standing, should it be possible, but we were not authorised
to promise any abatement of the demands already known
to the Chinese Government; indeed, it was rather to be
assumed from what had passed since our arrival at Peh-
tang, that further postponement of the satisfaction of
these would but lead to the addition of others ; the most
we could undertake to say was that, if we were enabled to
report to your Excellency that the Commissioners were
ready to sign the Convention, to produce the necessary
powers, and to furnish some adequate guarantee for the
adherence of the Chinese Government to the engagements
he was to contract for it, the British force would not ad-
vance beyond a camping ground to be selected to the south
of Chang-kia.-wan, an old town of some substance about
four mile. snush Ture•-chow. We had already had a
the (.:em t
was to be sent with your Excellency, and the readiness
with which we admitted the perfect right of the Chinese
Commissioners to be attended by an escort of equal
strength, or if they witihed it 0 groter ktroligth, 1104