The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-15 00:00:00

THE WAR IN CHINA.

We ( limes) have been favoured with the fol-
lowing most important letter from head-quarters :
CAMP BEFORE PEKIN, on the N.W. Side,
Oct. 9, 1860.
At the time of closing my letter, written from the
camp at Pa-li-chiao, on the 23d of last month, I was
induced, in consequence of the confident anticipa-
tions to that effect entertained by all those who
were aware of the nature of the communication
that had just been received from the newly ap-
pointed Imperial Commissioner, the Prince of Kung,
to express strong hopes that before the departure
of the present mail the whole of the party made
prisoners on the 18th ult. would be liberated and
have rejoined our camp. These anticipations, I re-
gret to say, have been only partly realised. Parkes,
Loch, the Count l'Escayrac de Lauture, a gentle-
man attached to the French army in some scientific
capacity, one of Probyn's Sikhs, and four French
soldiers, who, it now appears, were the only pri-
soners confined in Pekin itself, were brought into
the Camp yesterday afternoon ; but the others, who
from the latest and most reliable Chinese account
given by Hang-ke to Parkes himself only two hours
ago, have been imprisoned in various district towns
in the neighbourhood of the capital, cannot by any
possibility make their appearance before the day
after to-morrow at the earliest, so that another
fortnight must elapse before their friends at home
can receive the assurance of their being once again
in perfect safety.

I should be glad were it in my power to give them
some comfort by stating that we had been able to
learn something about each of the prisoners indi-
vidually, but, from the fact of their having been
separated immediately after their capture, and all
communication between them or about them strictly
prohibited by the chief authorities, it has been
found impossible to trace any one of them, and
absolutely nothing is known respecting them but
what Hang-ke has told Wade and Parkes within
the last two days, to this effect—that with the •
exception of the party confined in Pekin, who
were liberated yesterday, they were for some time
subsequent to the 18th of September kept in con-
finement in different camps situate between Tung-
chau and Pekin. When it became evident, after
the second defeat of the Tartar troops on the 21st,
that these were no longer to be relied on as places of
safe custody, they were removed, as stated above, to
several towns in the vicinity—the names of which
he (Hang-ke) declared himself to be ignorant of,
with the exception of one, Tang-ping-chau, about
200 li or 50 miles from Pekin. He stated most posi-
tively that he did not know either the names or the
exact number of the persons so confined, but he had
been told that several of them were black, and not ,
of the same nation as the English and French ; this,
of course, would apply to the Sikhs. I may add that
both Messrs. Wade and Parkes are of opinion that
Hang-ke really told them all he knew on the sub-
ject.

Having now made you acquainted with everything
that it has been possible to ascertain respecting
those who still remain in the hands of the Chinese,
, I must, before giving in some detail an account of
what happened to Parkes and the others during the
time of their detention, let you have a summary of
the proceedings of the army, and of the communica-
tions that have passed between the Ambassadors
and the Chinese Government on the subject of the
prisoners from the 23d ultimo up to the present
time, in order that your readers may be enabled
to follow without much difficulty the somewhat
shifting course of events in this part of the world.
It may be as well to remind them that in my last
lettter I mentioned that two communications had
been received by Lord Elgin from the new Com-
missioner, Prince of Kung, and brother of the Em-
peror; the first merely announcing his appoint-
ment, and expressing strong hopes that a pacific
solution of the existig difficulties might be arrived
at ; to which an answer was immediately sent, sal'
ing that it was impossible for the ambassador to
think of treating so long as the British subjects
wrongfully made prisoners on the 18 th were de-
Wised by the Chinese Government. The second, in
reply to this, acknowledged that there were certain
British subjects kept prisoners by his Government,
a feet which he had not thought it at all necessary
to allude to in his first letter, but maintaining that
they could not, on any account, be set at liberty
until after the convention had been signed and the
allied armies had been withdrawn from the country.
He did not, I believe, in this answer attempt to
justify their capture in the first instance, or subse-
quent detention, but in some of his later commu-
nications he has not hesitated to do so, On the
ground that they had been taken within the Chinese
lines after the action had commenced, and conse-
quently ought not to be given up as long as England
and China continued to be at war; ignoring entirely
the not unimportant fact that the people they were
thus detaining had gone into Tun g-ehau under a flag
f truce,
theall
Chineseval u e
high officials, military as well
of
which was perfectly under-
stood by
as civil, and which they were bound to respect
under any circumstances, more especially such as
o
those which led to the capture in question, which
even by his own admission could never have occurred
but for a battle which was certainly brought about
' by their own treachery, and, more than this, begun
by themselves. To this second letter of the Prince
of Rung's there could be of coure but one answer
—that the prisoners must be given up, and that s°
far from the army being withdrawn, it would, on
the contrary be pushed forward with all possible
rapidity, in which case the consequences could not
fail to be most serious for the capital in the event of
its being attacked, and possibly for the dynast,'
itself in the event of its being captured and
reply
• destroyed. While feeling convinced that a reP_
in this sense was the only one it was fitting to
make, Lord Elgin was extremely desirous of put-
ting it in such a shape as would be most likel9 to
lead to a speedy liberation of Parkes and the
others.
He thought it possible that the Chinese Govern'
ment, judging of others by its own standard, might
-
not improbably imagine that if they gave up the
Prisoners Prisoners at once and before peace was declared,
the two Ambassadors might insist on some
further demands besides those contained in the con-
•
ventions negotiated at Tien-tsin. Wit h the via(
'
of removing all suspicions of this nature he resolved
to leave it open to the Chinese Government to
•
make the restoration of the prisoners and the sign'
ing of the Convention simultaneous acts. Baron
Gros fully concurred in Lord Elgin's opinion, both
worded to this effect. As it
their despatches were wo
n
was very desirable, i the event of the Chinese re-
fusing to concede the point as to the liberation of
military
rotl
the prisoners, that the movements of the
de'
commanders should be of the most prompt and
Were
and s
cisive character, a _ome days must elapse