The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-26 00:00:00

INDIA AND CHINA.

CAPTURE OF CANTON.

We have received, by Extraordinary Express,
papers and correspondence from Canton to Jan. 15,
and from Calcutta to Jan. 23. Our Bombay corre-
spondence has not yet reached us.

FROM THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OP THE " TIMES."
CANTON, SATURDAY, JAN. 2.

We have now been five days upon the heights
and 'walls of the city of Canton, but the plain of
chimney-less roofs which lies at our feet is as im-
pervious as ever. Our lines down this Magazine-
hill are net very extended, and our quarters are
not very luxurious. In the great open joss-house
on the top of the hill, colonels, and subalterns, and
orderlies, and servants, huddle almost indiscrimi-
nately. We sleep on the stone floor, wrapeed only
in our blankets. We make fires to cook our food
in the bronze sacrificial urns ; the servants, who
have no blankets, wrap themselves in the dusty
altar cloths ; the stores of red votive candles serve
to faintly illumine the dingy building, and also to
grease our boots ; the table where the offerings
were laid is applied to the purposes of the officers'
mess ; the Brigade Major has made his office in one
corner. The great gilded idol looks down serenely
upon his new race of votaries. Fi•rtunately, the
roof is unbroken, but the appearance of the neigh-
bourhood is not one of perfect repair. A 13 inch
shell has burst upon the stone-terrace in the imme-
diate front, and made a crater from which every
near-lying thing flew up in fragments. At the back
there is a Chinese battery with long guns of curious
antiquity, mounds of grape shot, and inconve-
nient quantities of loose powder ; but this has
received so many attentions from those dis-
tant ships whose square-yards are only just
visible here, that we climb about at the risk of
dreaking our shins, or bringing down upon our
heads a tottering shed. The spot where I hav«,t,
sought shelter is the very point to which all our
fte.tvy ordnance was directed • for it was the key of
the city defences. Against these !fortress temples
the monster mortars on the Dutch Folly roar,
hitherwards the French Phlegethon thew her great
conical shells and the guntioeis pointed their 10-
inch guns. Downwards many steep wide flights of
granite steps descend. Sometimes they are lost to
sieht by the roofs of the joss-houses and villas lower
down, sometimes they are hidden by the trunks or
foliage of the ancient trees. We know nothing yet
of what is below, for a pattering fire salutes any
one who ventures a few yards away, and the orders
are strict not to provoke this, lest we be obliged in
returning it to damage the city. We see enough,
however, in the upheaved terraces and perforated
roofs to tell us that this must have been an unquiet
residence on the day and night of the 28th of Dec.,
and we are not greatly astonished at knowing that
the garrison was found much disheartened on the
morning of the 29th.
But, although we cannot yet walk about leisurely
at the foot of Magazine-hill, we can walk the walls,
and in another day or two we shall be able to pass
without an escort to our ships. Captain Hall is
making a new landing-place at the sowith-east point
of the city, and it is already loosing so smart and
trim that people call it " Hall's-terrace." But this ,
is quite a new affair. Order is only beginning to
reign in our communications. It was quite a
different thing when, on the second day after the
assault, forced by hunger and by thirst, and by sore
bones aching by contact with those joss-house flag-
stones, I descended from cur heights era the despe-
rate enterprise of getting up a certain portmanteau
and warm wraps, a two-dozen case of sherry, and
another case full of preserved meats, all which I bad
deposited for safety on board one of her Majesty's
ships. This was a more hopeless quest than any ever
made after a golden fleece, and as it was successful
only after two days' incessant work and watching,
it gave me full opportunity of seeing- everything,
that was going on, from the landing-pltace to head-
quarters. Talk of Balaklava, that interesting village
in its palmiest days was not such an entanglement
of confusion as the lauding-place which formed the
terminus of the communication between the army
and the ships. The point is where a shallow stream-
let or drain falls into the river, about a 'mile to the
east of the south-eastern corner of tire city wall.
Suburban waterside hovels once covered the area
upon which the promiscuous crowd is now raging
and shouting and pushing and struesgling ; but
those hovels are now only heaps of rubly:sh. 20 or
30 ships' boats have their bows against the hard,
the Commissariat lore], the General's chop-boat
(which in the confusion was once seized upon by a
French ship-of-war and taken down Ithe river),
several gunboats, and the Coromandel lies off in the
river. Packages innumerable, btggages and bales,
barrels and cases, munitions of war and munitions
for the stomach, are piled about in mountains.
Soon after I first saw this scene the thro raging mul-
titude were hushed, for a strong escor t appeared
bringing down the wounded. Many a wan face
passed by which we were glad to recogaise, even
theugh distorted by pain or flung bate in lassi-
tude ; for when a man is hit the rumour
always spreads that he is killed, and many of
them had been already spoken of as de.ail. No-
thing could be more promptly or more tenderly
done than the removal of our wounded. Large
hospital ships'-boats, previously fitted to r even a
greater emergency, were near at hand • and in those
capacious floating houses they were all ly placed
as swiftly as could be gently done. Then the Babel
recommenced ; everybody wanted an esictort, and
everybody wanted a troop of Coolies. Oh those
patient, lusty, enduring Coolies! It was a valuable
legacy which Colonel Wetherell left us, tlt at Cooly
Corps. They carried the ammunition on. the day
of the assault close up to the rear of our columns,
and when a cannon shot took off the head of one of
them the others only cried" Ey yaw !" and laughed
and worked away as merrily as ever. Their conduct
has throughout been admirable, and Capt Temple,
"the King of the Coolies," deserves credi 't for the
manner in which be has handled theme -Well
dressed and well fed, wearing the cotton me ;form of
a Chinese soldier—except that the Chinese charac
tern on the jacket of the Imperial " ping' are re-
placed by an English number, and that flee. words
" Army Train" are written in conspicuous, charac-
ters round their conical cape—these stout fellows,
with their bamboo poles, are at once the crivy and
the terror of the Chinese population. "Twe, Coolies
and leave to join an e;cors" form the hi ;;hest im-
mediate earthly aspirations of many an offis :er of no
mean rank who is without a change of raimi ant, and
who has worked hard for three days and to sted no
porter, Other ()More, numerous clam DI '0 such

more interested about their men than about their
own creature comforts. They are asking for gun-
boats and troops of Coolies to get their men's kits
over from Henan; they might as well invoke Her-
cules and Neptune. The French are already
passing in strong be lies, carrying up their heavy
baggage to the front. Ever and anon some gaping
Chinamen is urged by curiosity to approach the
crowd. Quick as lightning, Johnny Frenchman
seizes him by the ear, peps the end of a bamboo
pole upon his shoulder, gives him a kick in the rear,
and makes him trot off, a pressed porter, amid the
jeers of our Commissariat Coolies. When a long
pile of baggage carriers has been formed an escort
is given, and away they go through the dangerous
debris of wracked houses which intervene between
the landing-place and the East-gate. Daring this
transit of about a mile and a-half the men are fired
upon from odd corners, slugs and gingall balls come
down from the roofs of those square fortresses, the
pawnbrokers' warehouses, and the escort keeps up
a constant fusillade in return. The line of march
crosses a creek, and tue southern parade-ground,
and through a long silent street, and at last reaches
Colonel Graham's post at the East-gate, whence-
forward there is a now safe passage along the city
wall, held as this is by constant posts of riflemen,
who allow no Chinese head to show itself on the
rooftops. In one of these transits, whereof I had
occasion to make five in one day, I was near being
witness to a bloody battle. As we debouched from
the parade-ground a Chinese banner was seen
flaunting above the ruins a-head, and a tramp of a
large body of men was heard. Quick as lightning,
the rifles were at the shoulders of our men, and
every revolver was pointed. The officers shouted
and struck up the weapons just in time—it turned
out to be a body of bluejackets marching down,
imprudently demonstrative of their trophies.
If I try to paint these SCNISS it is with no idea of
imputing blame—for no blame is due. Immedi-
ately after the taking of a city of a million of inhabi-
tants we cannot expect the single landing-place to
be more orderly than the door of the Opera-house
or the Epsom entrance to a railway station. The
men had four days' provision in their haversacks,
so they did not suffer ; and there were
officers of willing energy present trying to
gradually mould the chess into order—men
who made no difficulties, who appeared übiquitous
and indefatigable, fertile in expedients, and never
out of heart or out of temper. As I sat for hours
watching my opportunity to furtively slip my cases
among some heap destined for head-quarters, I had
full leisure to note how much may be done by indi-
vidual tact and firmness. During this time Capt.
Hall, of the Calcutta, Major Crealock, Deputy-
Assistant Quartermaster-General ; Mr. Power, of
the Commissariat ; Major Clifford, Assistant Quar-
termaster-General ; and Captain Temple, " the
King of the Coolies," were the presiding genii of
order. After I left I doubt not that others of
equal vigour succeeded them. But having slipt
my last article in among the Government stores I
lost my interest in the scene, quietly followed the
ybyprtohpee crroynlies.
Any
virtuous
convoy till it got to Magazine-frill, and then inno-
centlyas having been car-
riedakem
M.P. who may hap to be indignant at this ruse
off reclaimed
by a
is
must recollect that the Commons of England have
solemnly decided that a Times correspondent shall
not draw rations, and shall starve if he cannot
forage for himself. My mess that evening had soup
and ph,t e and capital sherry for dinner, while the
General was dining on biscuit and tea.
There is, however, a lesson to be learnt from
this experience. The systeri is still bad. That
landing-place scene still proves that a British regi•
ment, as now constructed, cannot take the field.
The first object and duty of a General is to secure
his position. For this he employs in guards or
fatigue parties all the men who are returned to him
as fit for duty. Every regiment should have
attached to it a transport train, not retained for
military duty, but under command of the regi-
mental quarter-master, and confined to the trans-
port of baggage and provisions. Without this we
can never march ten miles inland without renew-
ing the scenes of the Crimea.
Ater the time of which I have been speaking 70
hours cf rain fell. It was an unlooked-for event,
but the misery it caused was incalculable. No tents
had been brought from the depot on the river, the
Coolies were knocked up, and Colonel Lemon's
battalion of Marines were in the open nearly all the
time. The loss of efficient men by sickness was
almost as great as that effected by all the Chinese
guns and spears and rockets.
MONDAY EVENING.
rn a few days we settled down in our new posi-
tion. "Hall's-terrace" is now complete, and we
can walk about in tolerable security and revisit the
scenes of Tuesday's struggle.
The men are cooking their food upon the walls,
and there appears to be great affluence of pork and
fowls. Never was an army kept under stricter dis-
cipline. The eccentricities of the British sailor are
held under strong repression by Captain Morrison,
the Provost-Marshal, and his assistants ; and if a
man is found ten yards in front of the outposts he is
flogged incontinently, unless he happen to be a
Frenchman. Yet somehow pig is very abundant.
" Where did you loot that pig, Jack t"
" Loot, Sir, we never loot ; there's an order
against looting, and it's pretty strict, as we knows."
" But how do you get all these pigs b"
" Why, d'ye see, we lights our fires o'nights and
I thinks the pigs must all come to the light, and the
sentries must take 'em for Chinamen and fire at
'em, for we generally finds two or three with their
throats out in the morning."
I hope Captain Morrison and the Chinese find
this explanation satisfactory. It was allg could get.
There was also a great quantity of fine carp fry-
ing and stewing, but these were better accounted
for. A Chinese magazine blew up under very sus-
picious circumstances, dreadfully burning 16 of
our men. Another was soon discovered, and the
powder was emptied into a tpond adjoining to a
joss-house. Many thousands of pounds were thrown
into this pond, and a few minutes after many hun-
dreds of great gasping carp came floundering to the
surface. Upon those sacredcarp the irreverent mem-
bers of the British force are now feasting.
About half a mile to the north of the East-gate we
come to a part of the wall where the embrasures are
knocked down. This was where the men of the 59th
and the French, with the English - Engineers and
Sappers attached to the French, escaladed. There
is a bastion here—a protruding half square tower—
and on either side of this the scaling ladders were
fixed. The wall rests upon a bank of earth about 20
feet below, and at the foot of this bank runs the
wide, shallow ditch. There is 'still a village not
greatly damaged on the oilier
side.
On the mor • f the
'lug e 29th this village was occu-
pied by the French
and by some companies of the
59th, which, although forming the covering party,
had crept up to the front. Capt. Rotton's guns,
ces
and four French field-pie
under Lieut. de ees-
se ru Ver lllniot, from be • a the village, were bat tering
away at the walls, and had knocks f over the parapet
for a distance of thirty feet, and the shells and
rockets from the Dutch Folly and the ships in the
river were from an unseen distance bursting along
the whole lino of fortifications. The orders (agreed
to by all the chiefs, both Preuch and English) were
that the assault should be made at nine o'clock, but
the men had been all night in the open ; they were
drawn up at daybreak in position and the emula-
tion between the French and English added to their
impatience. However we may despise the Chinese,
it required no small amount of courage to continue
to crowd those walls, and ply their hidden assailants
with guns and gingals and spear rockets, while
those shells were bursting over their heads, and
those guns were crumbling heir embrasures, and
the riflemen were dinging their deadly bullets
through the loop-holes. Twenty minutes before
the appointed time the French advanced, and of
course the English could not be kept back. They
bad crossed the ditch, and were clustered under the
wall before the scaling ladders could be brought up.
A dare-devil young Frenchman had taken off his
shoes and gaiters, and was trying to work himself
' up the southern angle of the bastion aided by Major
Luard, who was,propping him up with the muzzle of
the Frenchman s own fitelOCk, when a ladder was
placed, and Luard leaping
1113011 it stood first upon
the wall. He was followed by a Frenchman, the
bandmaster of the 59th, and Col. Hope Graham.
At the same instant of time Stuart, of the Engineers,
was balancing in air upon a breaking ladder at the
north side of the bastion ; but, although he sprang
to another and got upon that, I believe that two or
three Frenchmen springing to the wall from the
breaking ladder got up before him. Let me men-
tion, also, Corporal Perkins and Daniel Donovan,
both volunteer Sappers, who held their place well
among the French assailants, and were among the
first over the wall. Meanwhile, the Chinese had
been tumbiing down all sorts of
but when
the allies were once upon the wall the great body of
them retired. They poured down into the city and
fired from the streets, they dodged behind the build-
ings on the rampart', and aimed their cumbrous
matchlocks from behind them. A few single en-
counters took place, and a Lu rd's revolver disposed
the general move was to fire
of one lingerer, but
eight itud left, Awl liturY to the right to sweeP the

We have followed their path thus far. Here let
us pause and contemplate. At a broken embrasure
about 200 yards south of the North-east gate, close
by a battered shed, where Commodore Elliot now
finds scanty shelter, a scaling ladder yet stands.
You can reckon the height of the wall by the rounds
of the ladder—it is 20 feet. The legs of the ladder
rest upon a bank of earth at the wall. At the base
of this bank lies the wide ditch, perhaps 40 yards
in breadth. The bottom is covered with patches
of water-loving vegetables, except in the middle,
through which a muddy streamlet ripples. Look
up the broken and shelving bank of red earth on
the other side, and you see an enormous tree,
which almost hides a village behind its branches.
Further to the left, and separated from the village
and the tree by a wide footway, is a white mud-
built cottage, its blank gable-end turned towards
us. Pei hips it is distant 100 yards from this em-
brasure. It stands in a patch of vegetables, and
12 yards distant from the ditch. There is a low
earthen fence and bunches of high reeds, which
must prevent your seeing from this cottage down
into the ditch. That bunch of reeds is the scene
of poor Bate's death. This broken embrasure is
where the bluejackets and the Marines scaled the
wail. In that cottage in early morning of the 29th
the chiefs of the British force were assembled—the
Admiral, the General, and the member' of their
staff. On the overhanging hill just beyond, by no
means out of fire, but out of the fury of the fire,
were some troops and divers lookers-on. Among
others might be noticed Mr. Oliphant, Lord Elgin's
private secretary, who with other amateurs was
sometimes intrusted with messages from the Gene-
ral, which brought him into dangerous proximity
with round shot and rockets. As to the white
cottage, where the chiefs found refuge, five large
holes made by round shot still show the attention
it received. A storm of balls and rockets from
the wall hurtled all round this spot, and no
one could cross the footway to the tree and the
village without imminent danger. It was neces-
sary, however, that some one should cross that
open patch of vegetables, and look down into the
ditch to see where the beat point for placing the
ladders would be. Captain Bate at once volun-
teered to go, and Captain Mann, of the Engineers,
accompanied him. Bate was one of the most
scientific of our naval surveying service, a right
good officer, and a popular commander. He was,
moreover, an eminently religions man. "My
pluck," as I heard a (very gallant officer say some
weeks before this event, " is quite a different thing
from Bate's. Igo ahead because I never think
of danger; Bate is always ready for a desperate
service because he is always prepared for death."
Bate had run across the open patch, and was look-
ing down into the ditch, when a shot traversed his
body. Dr. Andersen, who saw him fall, rushed
out through a fire from which some who saw it
feared he would not return, and a seaman, I think
Bate's own coxswain, accompanied him, but the
striken man never spake.
Meanwhile a gun had been brought to bear from
behind a house in the village, and it was worked by
Major Crealoch, and Major Clifford, and Cohn
Campbell, of the Opossum, and the other members
of the Staff. Captains Blake and Cooke had brought
up their Marines and kept up a fire at the embra-
sures. How hot the fire was may be judged from
this, that Captain Blake out of his half-company,
firing from under cover, had one man killed and
six wounded in a few minutes. When the fire was
a little quelled the scaling ladders were advanced,
and of the blue jackets Commander Fellowea stood
first upon the wall—just in time to meet the
party which was advancing after their success-
ful escalade to the south. Others came
tumbling up, and we may be sure that the
Admiral and the General were not far behind.
Commodore Elliot was well in front. The hurrah
was now along the wall to the height, as I described
it in my former letter, and the pace was tremen-
dous. There were several hand-to-hand encounters,
and it is said that even the General had to use his
revolver to disembarrass himself of a pertinacious
Tartar. However, they ran, and rallied only at
distant points and for short conflicts, until they
were obliged to form and attack the Magazine-bill
with more deliberation. Lieut. Davison, of the
Furious, had the satisfaction of firing the first Chi-
nese gun from the battery on Magazine hill. It
was about this time that the flank fire from the
streets grew hottest, and that Lord Gifford and, I
think, poor Bowen and several others were hit.
This escalade was accomplished under the fire of
our own ships. Some men were wounded by our
shell, one Frenchman was killed, and Captain Bush
was twice obliged to halt his company because the
line of our own fire was across their path. The loss
would have been greater had not Major Sohom-
berg, from his crow's-nest on the Dutch Folly,
seen our men on the walls and discontinued the
mortar and rocket firing. It was, however, not the
fault of the ships, but the impatience of the assault-
ing party, which caused this untoward mistake.
The ships ceased firing at the appointed hour.
General Straubenzee was hardly upon the wall
before he was obliged to leave it. An army of
Chinese, just about the time of the assault, had
issued from the north of the city, and came forth int o
the open country—bare, undulating moors, like the
come try between Buxton and Sheffield—waving their
banners and beating their tom-toms and brandish-
ing their shields, and, drilled to advance or halt or
wheel according to signals made by flags, they ad-
vanced threatening the flank and rear of assail-
ants. But Colonel Holloway, with his brigade of
Marines, had been stationed to the north-west of
Lin's Fort expressly to meet this very probable
emergency. Covered by the inequalities of the
ground and by the graves, the Tartars came on in
excellent skirmishing order, and many of them
exhibited great individual bravery. The fire was
so hot that Col. Holloway's adjutant was shot by
his side, and a few minutes after the colonel him-
self was shot in the knee. The wound did not,
however, drive him from the field. His presence
and energy were required to prevent his men from
rushing in upon the scattered foe, who were firing
from under cover. The Tartars had already been
driven out of a little village and a small wood which
they had occupied in force, and the Marines were
pressing forward to convert their retreat into a
flight,
when successive messages came from the
general to recall his men. This command has been
much criticised. It was difficult to obey, and had
it had dot been given the defeat of this body of the
enemy would have been more disastrous to them,
but not, perhaps, without some loss to ourselves.
Straubenzee's acknowledged tactics have been
throughout not to expend men against such a foe.
The general was acting up to his system, but the
Marines grumbled furiously and growl still. The
men had thrown off their knapsacks in the heat of
the fire, and when they were recalled Col. Hollo-
way and his Aide-de-Camp (Capt. Ellis), assisted
by a few others, were obliged to remain in front and
bring them in, while the men were almost frantic at
being withdrawn.
There are many episodes of this siege which I
should like to tell, were I sure that the English
public would care to road them. I must, however,
rectify one error I made in my hasty sketch written
while the conflict was still going on. Although it
was upon the testimony of my own eyes that I stated
that at the same moment the English and French
colours were waved from different embrasures of
Lie's Fort, I now find that the French were in
first. It is not of much consequence, for the Chi-
nese were out before either party entered. How-
ever, let our brave and agile allies have honour due.

Our loss in killed and wounded during this short
siege does not amount to more than 96 English and
34 French, and of these the wounds are under the
average severity. The surgeons say that this is to
be accounted for by the want of propulsive power
in the Chinese weapons. When the Minie ball would
have crushed the bone, the Chinese bullet glanced,
and lost its energy among the surface tissues. When
we consider the mass of missiles flying about for so
many hours, and when we hearof the narrow escapes
which almos't every individual of the force employed
had, the number of men hit seems miraculously
small. Let us not, however, undervalue the courage
of our Chinese enemy. They have no knowledge of
the military art. The commonplaces of attack and
about
defence, which every tyro subaltern knows, are
astonishing pieces of strategy which surprise and
confound them—their weapons, terrible as they are
among themselves,
and field pieces, and mortar batteries, with shells
such odds of
t againstt e t u s
nighto
sukr
w, rifles
he ow
1 onSdeaPy°s7
twouldhat fall ll an
Europeand
troops
arekiesntemaffini mines.
againstinefficient
discipline, and strategy, and weapons ? Depend
upon it the Chinese have the stuff in them whereof
good soldiers may be made, and this is a fact which
should not be neglected when we are casting
ui tens tdea fory
nightour vanisheduntil army.
forFaroBmubT
re-
mained in position upon the hei 1
g its and walls,
waiting, apparently,that the city,-now at our mercy,
should C 04443 to 41,Xitil 9ii.CTI Of Flublaisaion ancV

On Friday Lord Elgin and Baron Gros came up
to camp, and sat upon the roof of the Chinese bat-
tery on Magazine-hill to see the forts bloW up. . let
was worth the trouble of getting up the hill to see
that sight. When the spectators took their seats
both the forts were full of men. The French, who,
having no Engineers of their own, were directed
by Captain Stuart, took Bluejacket Fort, and
Gough Fort was mined by the senior Engineer
officer, Captain Mann. When the app Intel time
had come and passed—for nothing is done here at
the appointed hour—a rocket went up, the men
hurried out, and the old solid stone buildings stood
intact in their loneliness. They never looked Ro
interesting as during the ton minutes which suc-
ceeded the rockets. Seated at only 500 yards' dis-
tance you could just see a small glimmering slow
match burning down. Thou came a succession of
loud, sharp, cracking, shivering explosions, throw-
ing fragments high in air and frightening, but not
killing, a kite at the moment hovering over Fort
Gough. There wore at least 20 successive explo-
sions at the larger fort. When the smoke cleared
a thousand years seemed to have passed in a few
seconds. The square substantial fortification was
a picturesque ruin such as we see at Caernarvon or
Drachenfells. It was intended that the two forts
should go up together, but the French were ready
first, and the spectators were tired of waiting, so
the drama was divided into two parts.
People still ask, not what Ice are going to do
next, but what the Chinese are going to do These
curious, stolid, imperturbable people seem deter-
mined simply to ignore our presence here, and to
wait till we aro pleased to go away. Yeh lives
much as usual. He cut off 400 Chinese heads the
other mornin and stuck them up in the south of
the city. Our leaders seem to be puzzled by the
tenacious, childlike, helpless obstinacy—the passive
resistance of their enemy. When petitioners come
up to complain of some plundering straggler there
is a buzz of expectation in the camp. Mr. Parkes
and Mr. Wade, the iutercre'ers, who by reason of
the general ignorance of the language, are become
masters of the position, are looked to with ludi-
craus anxiety. There is an evident hope that the
gentleman with the tail is a mandarin with an offer
of submission.

I sometimes think that these oracles deliver
rather apocryphal responses as to the manners and
customs of modern Chinamen, but they certainly
work like horses ; and, as our leaders must lean
upon external aid, it is well they have men of so
much pluck and energy at hand. It is, however, an
evil--one of the many evils unavoidable in China,
that the responsible men cannot form their own
judgments and directly superintend their own mea-
sures.

TMCSDAY, JAN. 5.
At length, after a week's pause, we have made a
move—and a decisive move. At half-past 7 o'clock
the troops entered the city, and before 10 we had
captured the Lieutenant-Governor, the Tartar General,
the Treasury, 52 boxes of dollars, and 68 packages of
syce, and, lastly, the great Yeh himself. It will take
me longer to recount how all this happened than it
took the troops to accomplish it.
Last among the tiers of temples which cover the
Magazine-hill stands the only house in Canton city
which an English gentleman would think inhabitable.
All the rest are huge, dusty, ruinous, dilapidated
shams. It is called Yeh's House, and was yet un-
finished when the city was taken. The lattice work
is new, the paper which does duty for glass is
unbroken, the grotesque decorations are fresh, and the
whole place is clean. From the tarace of this house
you have the best and nearest view of the city. You
look up one narrow street running southwards, and
you catch glimpses of two others passing in the same
direction ; and can for a short distance trace the walls
to the right and to the left, and you can see far out
in the body of the city a line of high Mandarin vies.
These poles denote the residences of the great public
officers, and, as our maps tell us, they open upon the
" Street of Benevolence and Love "—a principal street
of Canton, which crosses at right angles the three
streets we look up from this terrace.
At half-past 7 o'clock on Tuesday morning, while the
rain was still falling, we could see from the terrace
three columns of English redcoats penetrating into
the city down these three narrow streets, while a
detachment of 400 French blue-jackets, with two guns,
were advancing along the wall to our right. They are all
soon lost to sight, and we must descend and follow if we
would see more. There is heavy firing on our left, and,
of course, we hurry there first. It is only Col. Lemon's
men discharging their rifiee. Let ua speed away to see
what the General's party are doing. They meet with no
resistance, except from the intricacy of the streets. But
they have lost their way, overshot their mark, and in the
labyrinth of narrow ways cannot find the yamun they
are in quest of. Colonel Holloway's detachment of four
compaures are more successful. They have marched
rapidly down the street in which we saw them, and
they have paused for a few moments before a closed
gateway. It is only a passive resistance. The pioneers
with a few blows of their axes open a way through this
obstruction, as they do through a barricade which is
erected a little beyond, bat is not manned. The people
look on from their doors and the Coolies carry water
buckets to and fro iu the rear of the troops, justas though
nothing uncommon were pass ng. Now the troops arrive
at the cross-road where one street strikes the Street of
Benevolence and Love—a fine broad avenue in the map
a hovel-crowded alley ten feet wide in reality. Here
Colonel Holloway detaches Captain Parke with two
companies to the left, with instructions to advance and
seize the treasury, while he leads the rest of his men
round to the right. A hundred paces bring him in front
of the yamun of Peh-kwei, the Governor of the city and
province. Like the front of all Chinese yamene, it is a
dismal square, with a wall on one side, whereon a gigan-
tic beast is painted. The vast doors of theyamun, whereon
two great figures like Gog and Magog are daubed, freat
this monstrous effigy. This is the place indicated in the
Colonel's instructions. " Quick" is the word. A rush
from the pioneers and the unbarred doors move open
with unexpected ease. "Front form," cries the Colonel,
and in a moment the redcoats are four abreast and ad
vanotng at the dote le up a broad granite paved causeway
in the middle of an immense courtyard—trees and shrubs
on either side the causeway, low buildings forming the
right and left sides, and a huge barn-shaped pavilion
closing the square in front. In obedience to a few words
and a few gestures sentries are thrown out, and while
the main body is yet hurrying on every spot is guarded.
A few Chinese guards, with pikes and matchlocks, are
disarmed and huddled together in the front guardhouse,
and the pavilion is gained, hastily searched, and passed
through. Another courtyard like the former now ap-
pears—more granite terraces and causeways, moro trees
and shrubs—more lateral low buildings, and another big
dingy pavilion in front. This is treated just as the
forerer was, but nothing is seen but miserable guards
stupefied by surprise and swarming domestics. A vast
0. TO habitable ; the paint
dilapidated hall, and still another pavilion beyond. The
lateral houses appear a little 60
is not so entirely rubbed off , tixhoepear.ppeortasaashneds
faurrennitontrse:
broken—there are porcelain
apnavdilainrnticialesa
befall Chinese
of au d e /nu:ea, lying
rude
but This thin
d.
annbodutdirty, .
which an English rocket had
nd left, leading evidently
posing. There is a fracturedinforthneedtilietad
wroaoyf., through
e
are curtained portieres rigbt a
t,
the "
stone
ed
floor
withs "
and the muskets
to private apartmdenest
Lind anon
a ring which makes the old shed echo. At this mo-
ment one of the portiere." is raised, and an old man,
dressed in the ordinary blue Chinese dress, but
wearing a Mandarin's cap with a red button,
appears in the doorwry. He has a black moustache,
a quick eye, and more intelligence in his face than
you usaally see in China, and he seems is say, as
plainly as gestures can speak, " What can all this dis-
quietude be about I" Every one felt that this could be
no other than Peh-kwei. Col. Holloway put his hand
upon his shoulder, led him gently back into his apart-
ment, seated him in a chair, and put &guard round him.
The old gentleman was quietly at breakfast when the
English Marines burst ias.

A. few moments' delay occurred while a Chinese
interpreter was got up, and the Governor, seeirg be
was in no immediate danger, recovered a composure
which he had never lost the power of assuming. He was
asked for his seals of °Eta and his papers. It was very
unfortunate, lyit he had that morning mi!laid his eyes.
" Tell him," said Col. Holloway, " not to trouble
self, fcr I have a master key;";and at a sign a tall pioneer
with his axe made his appearance. The Governor took
up a napkin, and the lost keys were accidentally found
to have been underneath it. Es
Meanwhile, Captain Parke and his detachment ha
.
been equally fortunate. Turning to the left, and
ceotiirg down the" Street of J3enevolenoe mud

. .
from the Tsrtar General, saying that he bad 7,000
Tartar troops under his command. Where were they !
Certainly they were not, and had not for many years
been, in this yamun. It is the custom to let Chinese
soldiers live at their own homes, but surely they might
be expected to be called in and posted in guard when
an enemy had occupied all the fortifications. Yet the
evidence afforded by the place itself is indisputable. The
Tartar General must have lived here almost alone. A
hundred men would have trodden down this rank grass,
and dispossessed these horrible clustering bats. A few
days after this event I pa,sed two hours in this yamun
in the company of several English and French officers,
who came to allot it for quarters. After close inspection
they came to the conclusion that there were only two
rooms fit for the dwelling of a civilized man. From one
of these the French chased the Tartar General, and they
took him in a closet close by.
We must now go back to the general starting
point, and accompany the chase after Yeh. Mr.
Consul Parkes, who was attached as interpreter to
Colonel Holloway's patty, arrived too late, and was
without an escort. While he was deploring his ill-luck
he met with Commodore Elliot, who, fired by Mr.
Parkes telling that him that be had some information as
to Yeh's lurking-place, agreed, Noon his own responsi-
bility, to accompany him with 100 blue-jackets. Mr.
Parkes expected to find Yeh at the Imperial library,
but upon arriving at that high-tilted edifice he found
only a great empty house. Having ransacked every
corner, they were coming away disgusted when Mr.
Parkes put his foot against a closed door. It gave way,
and a Chinaman was seen inside the closet diligently
studying one of the sacred books. Where was Yeh ?
How should the Chinaman know ? He knew nothing
of Yeh—he was only a poor student. Drawn from his
hiding-placa and submitted to a sharp interrogatory, he
confessed, bit by bit, tbat Yeh had been there, but had
left some days before. At last he even thought he knew
where ho was—nearly three miles off, somewhere at the
south-west corner of the city, in a small yamun of one
of the Lieutenant-Governors, Taking this "student"
along with them, the party now proceeded to the Go-
vernor's yamun. The Governor was by this time in
custody of Colonel Holloway, and the Admiral and the
General had arrived there. An examination took
place, and the Governor, after some admonition,
admitted that he also knew Yeh's retreat, and named
the same place which the student had named. He was
made to send a second guide, and the two Chinamen were
placed in front of the bluejackets. These unwilling
guides, as they were urged along at a gallop through
the narrow streets of the Tartar city, did not cease
to shout to the crowds which ran together, " Good
people, go about your affairs. These gentlemen have
just had an interview with Peh-kwei, and they are now
going to have another interview Yeh." " Very well,"
said the crowd, habitually deferential to the cap of the •
Mandarin. As they got deeper and deeper into the
maze of streets some of the officers seemed to think they
were doing an imprudent thing. "If the worst comes
to the worst," said Captain Key, "we know the direc-
tion cf these walls by this compass and can find our way
to them so on they went. The longest chase must have
an end. At last the guides called a holt at the door of
a third-rate yamun, which appeared closed and deserted .
The doors were forced open and the blue jackets were
all over the place in a moment. It was evident that they
were now cn the right scent. The place was full of
hastily-packed baggage. Mandarins were running about
yes, running about; and at last one came forward and
delivered himself up as Yeh. But he was not fat
enough. Parkes pushed him aside, and hurrying on,
they at last spied a very fat man contemplating the
achievement of getting over the wall at the extreme rear
of the yamun. Captain Key and Commodore Eli ot's
coxswain rushed forward. Key took the fat gentleman
round the waist, and the coxswain twisted the august
tail of the Imperial commissioner round his fi=t. There
was no mistake now,—this was the veritable Yeh. In-
stinctively the blue-jackets felt it must be Yeh, and they
tossed up their hats and gave three rattling cheers.
Yeh is by no means the hero people thought him.
He trembled violently when he was taken : he
strenuously denied his identity ; and it was not till Mr.
Parkes had several times had the satisfaction and triumph
of assuring his old enemy of his personal safety that he
grew composed. As soon, however, as ha felt himself
safe all his arrogance returned. He posed himself mag-
nificently in Lis chair. He laughed at the idea of giving
up his seals, and also at the idea of his being led away.
He would wait there to receive the men Elgin and
Gros. They searched all his packages for papers, and
thrsetcoer,igainnadlAramtiefircicaatt;ontsheoy
were, of
unimportant
three documents
hours.
be The
thefu found
tmi withe7g other
things England, F
intimated,This toosearchlasted
Inews of the capture bad been sent to head-quarters ;
w sente as
to h Pekin.e
Colonel Rocker was despatched with a strong body of
Marines, and Yeh again trembled as he entered his
chair as a captive.

At the foot of the terrace, before the great joss-house
on Magazine hill, off-setting from the broad steps, is a
collegiate quadrangle. Here the dons of the ecclesias-
tical institution clustered. Some small cellular apart-
mute, opening inwards towards the hill, were doubtless
the private abodes of the bonzes ; two large rooms,
whose windows look over the city, were the hall and
senior common room. This quadrangle is a little changed
in its uses. It is become the British head-quarters. The
Admiral and General have appropriated the hall and
common room, and the Staff are contriving possibilities
of residence in the cells. The servants have utilised the
small area—a dozen Crimean shirts are there hanging to
dryA.
bout twelve o'clock on Tuesday the colonnade of
this small quadrangle was loosely thronged by post-
captains and colonels and smaller barbarian mandarins.
The news that the city bad been dragged and all the big
fish taken had spread. Every one was anxious to see the
prisoners brought in.
First marched Peh-kwei, whom I have already do-
irnollbinuglk, came
step,
the Tartar
almost gigantic
FinCrisb
General. As he passed c:oso by me I measured him by
stature, ur e and, after
and immense him, with
myself; he must be quite six feet four high. They were
ushered into a small room at the end of the colonnade,
where the General and the two Admirals were assembled.
The two mandarins took their seats as though they bad
come of their free will to pay an ordinary visit. The
Tartar General, with his head thrown back so that you
saw only the inside of the brim of his Tartar cap, looked
not unlike our own Eighth Harry as Holbein shows him.
There is great show of dignity and courage that martial
Tartar, but he is only a type and specimen of the great
Imperial sham of which he forms part. He is an empty
imposture. During the fight he never appeared upon the
wall, After the fight he did nothing to gather his 7,000
men around him. When the French came he made no
defence, but ran from room to room, and was dragged
from a filthy closet. If he had been taken by Tai-pings
instead of Europeans he would be howling at their feet.
Knowing himself personally safe, he swells himself and
tries to look majestic. He believes ho haft.° do with
men more superstitiously obsequious to Qhinese rank
than the Coolies of Canton are, so he tries to awe
them by his presence. Perhaps he is right. There is
too much of this nonsense. The interpreters catch this
mania of Mandarin-worship from their teachers and their
Chinese books, and our leaders—predisposed by the
truly English deference for high-sounding titles—catch
the infectious folly from the interpreters.
What shall be done with these men I " Send them
both aboard ship," advises one interpreter; "Send them
back to resume their functions and to save the city from
pillage," advises the other. Lord Elgin is consulted, and
has the boldness to believe that the general principlesbyp ofsper
human nature are not to be extinguished,
Let them
lanterns and peacocks feathers. He advises
i re.establish
both return under conditions. Let Peh-kwe
operation.
with
his court under the authority of and in co
return under
an European tribunal. Let Tseaerkau" • •
troopS and delivering up
conditions of disbanding
his
they couldn't do it ; con•
their arms." "Impossible; &c. Try." The trial
trary to all Chinese precedent,
nt Mandarins laugh loudly at
and the iDdlgna
Left together for a night to
is made,
t egeetion.
the iraPudeu- 6"-
consider the matter, they are found in the morning like
"
pricked windbags, ready to surrender their ihiatioi

-~a;;~