The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-10 00:00:00

Once an exclamation made him turn his eyes upon
a bungalow that was visible through a little port-
hole opposite to him. Mr. Alabaster asked him
what he thought of it. "He was not thinking
about it at all." There he sat ; not now like a
statue of Bhudda, but a flabby mass of greasy, dis-
coloured nightshirt.

At last, he was left quite alone, and—Oh, Vic-
tory !—one of the shipboys comes up and tells us
that " the governor", has climbed up and is peer-
ing through the stern-ports. Let him peep in
peace. If he were not a lump of mean artifice, he
would come on deck like a man, and admire the
glories of this great city. He might learn some-
thing by looking at Garden Reach, so crowded with
great ships that such vessels of war as the Shannon,
the Pearl, and the Roebuck have to be sought for.
He would see a sight quite new to Chinese eyes in
that great park which comes down to the river
quay, a park larger than our Hyde Park, and in-
tersected with rides and drives broad as Rotten-
row, with monuments to Ochterlonies and Prin-
seps and Bentincks, and other names honoured
in the East, and with its three aides of forts and
palaces. In Fort-William, which occupies the
ether side that strikes the river, so trim in
its green embrasures, so white in its lines
of barracks, so formidable with its heavy guns and
zigzag ditches, he might note the difference between
a barbarian and a Chinese fortification. The dis-
tant dome of Government-house only suggests the
magnitude of the palace that occupies the opposite
boundary of the park ; but somebody would have
told him that the far away and long drawn line of
great and lofty edifices, all columns and green
verandahs, parallel to the river, are the private
residences of merchants and civil servants, and that
these last have earned for Calcutta the name of the
City of Palaces. .Yeh, however, thinks it more to
his dignity to peep stealthily out of the stern-ports,
hoping that he has cozened his captors into the be-
lief that he has no sentiment but that of sublime in-
difference both to them and to their creations.

So soon as the Inflexible dropped her anchor
Major Herbert, to whose care Yeh had been as-
signed, came on board with a retinue of red-vested
Hindoos—a glare of scarlet which much impressed
the vulgar Chinamen. The old Mandarin, how-
ever, was not to be caught. He received the Major
in his greasy coat, went on with his dinner, replied
to his many bows with a carefully modulated
courtesy, and decided that it would take three
days to make his preparations for disembarking.
This morning at daybreak Yeh landed. He is
located for the present in Fort William, but a con-
venient house is being furnished for him some little
way out of the city. Before he Went he presented
Capt. Brooker with a written certificate of his pre-
sence and good treatment on board the Inflexible.
This was done in a grave official manner, and Yeh,
no doubt, thinks it a most valuable document. He
is now in the best place in the whole world to teach
a Mandarin a useful lesson. The Calcutta people
seem to have a very general contempt for most
things, but a special contempt for China. The in-
difference which Yeh laboriously feigns they
honestly feel. Yeh would be a lion in London ;
he will not attract more notice than a five-legged
poodle in India.
Perhaps you may allow me hereafter to say some-
thing in the way of generalising the facts here col-
lected, but here ends this episode to the Chinese
expedition—an expedition which, whatever may
be its direct claims to interest, has, by its inciden-
-61 operations, relieved Lucknow and saved India.