The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-06 00:00:00

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THE WAR IN CHINA.

steamer Crusader,
Maffitt, and conveyed W - _
where we were discharged, after rece:
courtesy and hospitality that could be ren,

4D. STAMPED, 5r

The Government has made haste to publish such
part of the despatches from the Peihct as they think
fit to be generally known. So far as the military
and naval achievements are concerned, they are
most satisfactory. The most perfect harmony
reigns throughout the expedition. Sir Hope
Grant and General De Montauban are like brothers
in command ; Sir Hope is eager to report "how
cordially and sincerely our French allies have co-
operated with us, and what admiration he feels for
their gallant conduct in the field." He is also for-
ward to testify " what a valuable and efficient col-
league he has found in Admiral Hope." Every-
thing is under the happiest auspices, and the official
seal
t.ois v
de edt nat
their
set
of
rfst to our
superiority
peeri
or events.ty
o correspondent'sroerurtheik Sikh
Tartars,
rmot
raosrresen: ae horsemen
dhosry interest-
ing e
pArmstrong guns have proved their superiority over
everything tubular in that part of the world. Sang-
ko-lin-sin has awakened to the fact that he his to
deal with an enemy against whom bows and arrows
and gingalls are of no avail. One lesson, the bat-
tering down of one fort has been sufficient. China
lies open before us. The tactics of Montauban would
have placed the Tartar army between the European
bayonets and the muddy sea; the more merciful
strategy of Sir Hope Grant left the country open to
their flight; but for the Tartar Prince and his
army the milder lesson has been enough. They are
dispersed in panic. Those great fortifications on
the South side fell without a blow, the impediments
in the river have been removed in a single night,
the great fortifications at Tien-tsin have been
evacuated while the European troops were yet at a
distanae, Sang-ko-lin-sin, that redoubtett Yen,has
ngaliepearightevrAy wittiotwairutttng the -rip
of a single Arinstrong shell, and, avoiding Tien-
tsin, has gained Pekin with a hundred followers.
There is no further defence, and there is;no further
hope, for the Chinese Government in military
force. The people, as usual, directly the Man-
darins are chased away, throng about us in mul-
titudes, driving their oxen and sheep into our
camp, showing full confidence, and eager to trade.
The roads are so good that our cavalry galloped on
to Tien-twin as quickly as the gunboats could steam
up the river. Thence to Tungchow is 90 miles,
but with navigable rivers and with broad high.
ways. "In Chih-li," says De Guignes, "the roads
are broad and shady and very dusty," and it is but
a promenade to Tungchow, whence that broad,t 12
miles long avenue, with its marble bridge, so cele-
brated by Macartney, conducts direct to Pekin.
Will the Tartars muster for a last fight under the
walls ? It is not very likely. Sang-ko-lin-sin, if
he would not fight the South Forts or the Tien-tsin
intrenchments, must have his love of fighting quite
knocked out of him. General Grant and Admiral
Hope have a force that can go anywhere and do
anything, and all China lies flat before them, with
unimpeded rivers and broad highways, with a wil-
ling people and an utterly disorganised enemy.
China, then, is humbled ? Not so. Everything
is subdued, " prater atrocem animuln Catonis." The
old Mandarin spirit at Pekin is as obstinate as ever.
What care the Mandarins at the capital for a few
hundred people killed down the sea-coast ? They
are in the habit of hearing daily of first-class cities
being: utterly depopulated by the Tai-pings, and it
never moves their minds. The soldiers may have
lost heart, but they have other resources. They
have read our House of Commons debates, and they
know that this army will never come up to them.
They are sure that they have only to do what they
did two years ago, and that army will melt away,
and then they will have got rid of all their trouble
for another two years. They have only got to
" sign anything," as the Viceroy offered to do the
other day when threatened with a recommencement
of the bombardment, and they will at once be
freed of all these importunate barbarians. They
are a little astonished, no doubt, to find that we
really are, as they say in their intercepted despatches,
such astounding fools as to say beforehand what
we are going to do ; but they are not about them-
selves to do violence to all Asiatic traditions by
following our example. After we had broken into
their intrenched camp, and on the very afternoon
of the morning on which we had stormed the
Peiho Fcrt, the truthful Mandarins had placarded
Tien.tsin with the news that the Barbarians had
been utterly beaten, and were then suing for peace.
That somewhat forced interpretation of recent
-vents was undoubtedly favoured in some degree by
the alacrity with which Mr. Harry Parkes hurries
uff, whenever he sees a bit of white handkerchief upon
the end of a bamboo, to know what it means, and
whether there is anyl2ody inside who really wishes
to treat. Not quite without encouragement from
these rather impolitic manifestations of an im-
patience to be again cajoled, the Mandarins drop
again into their own free and easy style. They
are glad to find that the war is at an end; they
beg Lord Elgin not to bring many war ships up
to Tien-tsin, lest he should alarm the people. They
assure him that the Emperor has commissioned a
public officer to meet him on his arrival at Pekin,
and to discuss matters with him,—all the old moves
of which the Chinese diplomatic game consists are
being played off calmly and sedately, just as if
there was not a British or a French soldier on the
soil of China. No doubt, Pekin has long since been
placarded with most glorious victories, and if Lord
Elgin should visit that capital with his escort of
horse, he will pass in, as Lord Macartney, who also
had an escort of English soldiers, passed in, to the
tune of " Subjugation consummated," or, " See the
slave of China comes." Confident as these Man-
darins are in the weakness of Europeans in matters
of diplomacy, they have not even now surrendered
one point, or even condescended to make reference
to the demands made in our ultimatum. Their
real, unbroken obstinacy appears at this moment,
as usual, admirable in their acts. The Viceroy,
when he signed a capitulation, intimated plainly
that he was signing his own degradation, and
Sang-ko-lin-sin no sooner arrives in Pekin than.
he has his peacock's feather taken from him,
is dismissed from every post of honour- The
Mandarins pursue their own policy, and ruin everT
.or
one who yields a step, even to force, and yet
Lord
Elgin expects they will do themselves what
aeeoru-
punish in others. Lord Elgin, howvert
proof that
ing to these despatches, sees in all
tkcals,” and that
the Emperor of China " desires
instructed to demand will be surmounted " his reluctance to concede all thatp Lordeted Einlgignooisi
time."
ionatlus
notwuepl
with the conduct of our diplomacy
indicated in the fretful acti-
vity, confess ourselves to beutterilny
tdhisisapapffoaiinrt,esdo
far aa.it has yet been
of his chiefs, and by
treated. It is not thus that
vity of Mr. Parkes, ext c
the
tfi
fragments
mo
ef
nc
suros
fe , th e or de r
despatchesorders
to which we are row
treatythus starloonnge,
butin i arms,
n order not in
o
gthot
in-
flictofa permanent peace is to be obtained with China.
ewwer have
etche d
ar
policy, we went theraeu
4;Wradneei,rewheLtnoat obtaintoC.h
Ifl.
th
perfidy
punishment, soldiery
whom we found defending the mudbanks upon the
manly nonoureft
seacoast, nor upon the poor trembling underlings
who in their duplicity were but obeying the orders
they had received from their superiors, and who
were acting under fear of immediate r • we
went there to strike at the directing head
in
;
the treachery from which we suffered
planned,m which
and to humiliate in the face of the
was.
th
vernment which had perfidiously seheediugreublouodgoui
our countrymen. To this end there was but one
proper course, and that course was to refuse to
accept again promises which had already proved
so worthless ; sternly to refuse, instead of eager to
solicit all overtures for peace until the avenging
army had reached the walls of Pekin, and there to
exact the most public apologies for the breach of
faith publicly committed, and public assurances
that the Treaty of Tien-tsin should be faithfully
fulfilled. This, with the smart of the payment of
the expenses of the war—which in no other way
will ever be obtained—would be at once humane,
honourable, and effective. Such a signal humilia-
tion would be felt to the uttermost ends of the
great empire. It could net be explained away or
falsified, and all China would come to know that
the Emperor himself had no choice in
is
matter, and that the only safe policy was to
open
fleet Beep
faith with foreigners. That course
was
behind
to Lord Elgin. H had an army and a
end
of China
him which could carry him from oneefenr
his work,
to the ()Then He had plenty of tipmeek
Pekin in October,
for when Lord Macartney quitted
to be pleasantly
the weather had only just begun t? ?
We can but
cool. Will he use his opportunity
honour will this expedi-
hope he may. But what
only in the battering
tion, bring if it should
end
P What advantage will
down a Chinese fortificationif
Treaty it results only in a ratifica-
tionthis embassy secure,
of
Tien Tie tsin P The treaty itself
has been broken
of the Tre.yof
what
greater value can be a
ratification co
descendingly granted to an ambas-
sador who y
amount of indignities
y or may not be subjected to any
amount or delays ? What -
success
who should
by an ambassador
be deserved
can as a suppliant to an insolent choose to go u P • enemy,
and
who should willingly leave behind him the
army which ought to be around him to
give weight
to his mission, and to impress upon the people of
Pekin his country's power ? If Lord Elgin has
really acted thus, he is as inveterate a Chinaman as
old Yeh himself,—Ximes.

the prisoner's counsel even stigmatised the pro-
ceedings as un-English and exceptional, if not actu-
ally in violation of constitutional maxims. The
truth is, there is a kind of dilemma in the case, and
we seem compelled either to sit down under a failure
which we believe to have been avoidable, or to right
ourselves by measures of doubtful propriety. There
are obvious reasons against reopening the case un-
der fresh authorities, and reasons just as obvious
against committing it to the same authorities as
before. It was mismanaged at the first, and the
result of that mismanagement was to destroy the
best chances of success. After the coroner's inquest
the scent was lost. The tracks of crime, whatever
they may have been, had been then effaced, and all
future inquirers found themselves at fault. It is
no imputation on the local authorities to say that
their senses have been, as it were, blunted by false
alarms and abortive exertions. They have certainly
not been apathetic, but they have as certainly not
been successful, whereas it seems the instinctive
conviction of almost everybody on the spot that
success is attainable. The inquiries are said to have
been neither sufficiently comprehensive nor effec-
tively organised. We do not place much faith in
popular representations on a subject like this.
Crimes of this character have a tendency to set
morbid minds at work, till at length persons are
found even to make false confessions. Still, with
such reports as are current abofit available evidenee
and suppressed information, it would be better, in the
interests even of public tranquility, that such an in-
quiry should at length be instituted as would either
disclose the truth or show that it could not be dis-
closed. Where a case is hopeless_we awn onlyenbmittti-
the resulti ; hitt where it. is believed, whether
erroneously or otherwise, that failure has occurred
from mismanagement alone, the safer course lies in
prompt and definite action. Of one thing, how-
ever, we are certain, and that is, that if the
inquiry into this mystery can be reopened at all it
should be done by open, constitutional warrant, in
solemn form, and with high and avowed authority.