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

At the time ma last letter was despatched we were
in complete ignorance of the immediate cause that
had led to the capture of so many of our country-
men, and of the manner in which this had been
effected. The return of Parkes and Loch, however,
enables me to give you full information respecting
their seizure and subsequent treatment, and of all
that occurred to the English party until within a
few minutes of the former taking place, though
their account unfortunately still leaves us in doubt
as to the way in which the remaining and larger
number were eventually made prisoners.
To make my story more intelligible I must to
some extent recapitulate what has already appeared
in a former letter, modified by such additional infor-
mation as I have been able to obtain from the late
prisoners themselves. It was on the 17th of Sep-
tember that, accompanied by Colonel Walker,
Mr. Thompson, a Commissariat officer, Mr. Lock,
Bowlby. de Normann (the two latter as amateurs),
And an escort of King's Dragoon Guards and Fane's
horse, Parkes proceeded to Tung-ehau for the pur-
pose of having an interview with the Imperial
Commissioners, as agreed upon at the previous
meeting between them and Mr. Wade and himself
a few days before, on which occasion the principal
points in dispute between the two countries had
been fully discussed, and they firmly believed
satisfactorily disposed of, leaving nothing to be
arranged at his second coming except various
matters of detail, the chief of which were connected
with the advance of our army and Lord Elgin's
residence in the capital. They reached Tung-chau
the same morning, and were lodged in the Temple
in the suburbs, which had been occupied by Wade
and Parkes during their former visit. The Im-
perial Commissioners, in place of allowing Parkes
to wait upon them as he proposed, called upon
him here that very afternoon, and had a long
conversation with him. The Prince of I, who on
this as on the former occasion was the principal
spokesman, began by recurring to several points,
which in Parkes':opinion had been quite settled at
their last interview; he urged that Lord Elsie
should not bring his proposed escort beyond Tung-
chau, but should proceed from that town to Pekin,
accompanied only by his usual suite ; that the Eng-
lish army should not advance further on the road
to Pekin than five li, or a mile and a half on the
south side of Chang-keia-wan ; that it should be
withdrawn immediately the Convention was signed;
and fourthly and lastly, that Lord Elgin should not
insist on having an interview with the Emperor
himself. The first and third of these he did not
press as if he attached much importance to them,
and on Parkes reminding him that these very pro-
posals had been already brought forward and after-
wards given up by himself and his fellow Imperial
Commissioner, while, on the other hand, it had
never been the intention of the Commander-in-
Chief to advance beyond the spot designed in the
neighbourhood of Chang-keia-wan so long as there
NM a prospect of peace being made, he abstained
from all further discussion respecting them, and
said, they should be arranged according to Lord
Elgin's views. Not so, however, with regard to the
fourth point. About this he was for a time most
persistent, and it was with some difficulty Parkes
made him understand that it was one which he
was in no way empowered to discuss, nor had he
or Mr. Wade ever been so ; that it could not for a
moment be considered as involving the question of
peace or war, but en the contrary was a fair sub-
ject for discussion after the more important preli-
minaries of peace had been agreed to ; that under
these circumstances he was sure the Prince would
see that he had no other alternative but to decline
having anything to say to it, though he would of
eourse be glad to repeat to Lord Elgin any obser-
vations which either he or the other Commissioner
might think fit to make about it. More than once
_ _

Mr. Parkes imagined that the Prince was disposed
and about to bring matters to an issue on this par-
ticular point, and break of the interview, but he
at last gave up attending to it, and proceeded to
the settlement of the actual business that had
brought him and his companions to Tung-chau.
He appointed officers to accompany them early the
next day, to point out the precise ground on which
our troops were to encamp near Chang-keia-wan,
and others to make the necessary arrangements for
furnishing them with supplies. He named others
who were to provide transports for Lord Elgin's
baggage and prepare•suitable accommodation for
him and his suite upon the road ; in fact, before
lsaving the Temple the Commissioners had arranged
everything Parkes came to settle, and when they
took their departure late in the afternoon he felt
almost certain that his diffienities were at end.
He started at 5 o'clock the next morning, in com-
pany with Colonel Walker, Loch, Mr. Thompson,
the escort of King's Dragoon Guards, and two of
Fane's Sikhs, to meet the Chinese officers appointed
by the Prince of I, whom they expected to find on
the intended camping ground, which they were in
hopes of reaching before the arrival there of the
French and English armies, who had encamped the
night before at Ma-ton, a village distant from it
about seven miles. On their way to Tung chae,
the preceding day, they had noticed evit!ences of a
considerable force having been recently in the
neighbourhood of Chang-keia-wan, but they did
not see any large number of troops, or anything in
the shape of intrenchments or defensive works.
When allusions were made to the Imperial Com-
missioners on the subject, they replied that what
they had seen were probably the remains of the
encampments which had been occupied by Sang ko-
lin-sin's army before it received orders to fall back
on the capital in consequence of the settlement conic
to a few days previously, and there appeared to he
no reason for supposing that this statement was not
perfectly correct. This morning, however, almost
immediately after leaving Tung-chau they observed
large bodies of soldiers moving toward Chang-keia-
wan ; these increased in numbers after they had
passed through that town, and when they reached
the place which it had been decided was to be oc.
"pied by the allied armies, they found it in posses-
-8i" of the Tartar army, drawn up behind long
lines of intrenchments, only recently completed
(some portions indeed were not finished), with bat-
teries Placed at various points, in which there
were a great number of field guns already in posi-
tion, while others were being brought up as rapidly
as possible. Seeing at once that either some foul
play was intended, or that there was some most
fatal misunderstanding—which of the two it was
not difficult to guess—parkes questioned several
officers as ho rode along as to the meaning of all
those movements of troops and
preparations for re-
sistance, to which they replied civilly
enough that
they did not know, as they were •
onlyg in
which obedience to orders they had received from
their superior officers, to whom they referred him
for any further information
he might desire to
have.
Anxious to find some person in authority the party
pushed en to the extreme
front of the Chinese posi-
tion,o.ed in vainly
and Parkes was still engaged
search-
ingfor one when the advanced guard of the English
army came in sight. There would, at that moment,
have been no difficulty in the way of their all reach-
ing the English lines in safety ; but Parkes felt
that the first thing Sir Hope Grant would do
would be to ask him for an explanation of the fact
of his finding a Tartar force drawn up in order of
battle on the very ground which he had been
given to understand was to be occupied by the
English, an explanation which after his conversa-
tion with the Commissioners the day before, it was
entirely out of his power to give. Knowing this,
and unable to find any officer of sufficient rank on
the ground to whom he could apply for informa
tion, he came to the resolution taint once returning
and seeking of the Prince of I himself an explana-
tion of the extraordinary proceedings that were
taking place, and requesting him to use his autho-
rity in withdrawing the Tartars, and so preventing
a collision between them and the allied forces. He
at the same time requested Loch to ride on and in
form the Commander-in-Chief of all the circum
stances connected with their visit, and of what he
was about to do. As soon as this was settled he
started for Tung-ehau once more. Loch went en