The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-28 00:00:00

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had crossed the forbidden barriers of those
awe-inspiring porches of Pekin, there appea Ire d
before them no more than a repetition up on
a larger scale of that spectacle of squalor and
wretchedness, of filthy ruins and unsightly ter Le-
ments, which had previously been presented to
view upon our capture of the frontier towns of the'
Empire—such places as Canton and Tien-tsin. It
has turned out to be, in regard to Pekin, what, upon
closer examination from within, it was long since
known to be in regard to Constantinople ! Namely,
that all this boasted Oriental magnificence of the
capital of China, as of the capital of
Turkey, was, in literal point of fact, but
the veriest Vauxhall Transparency ! Only,
that the modern Byzantium has this advantage
over its Asiatic rival and companion, that, when
viewed from without, it shines over the Golden
Horn with a superb veneer of the picturesque !
Whereas, with Pekin—this long talked-of, long
dreamt-of city of Chinese magnificence—the squalor
and meanness of the whole place are engrained and
undisguisable. The marvellous city of Pekin, the
capital of the gorgeous and hitherto impenetrable
Cipango, the cherished illusion of those visionaries
who believed of yore, to the east, in the gold-
running rivers of Cathay, and to the west in the
golden palaces and the jasper pavements of El
Dorado—Pekin, actually this wonderful city of
Pekin, has proved, now that it has been reached,
and entered, and scrutinised, one of the most mon-
strous shams and humbugs that has ever deluded
the European imagination;
Yet—while it is thus with regard to Pekin, it is
diametrically the reverse with respect to the
Chinese EMPEROR'S summer palace situated with-
out its walls, the truly marvellous but now utterly
destroyed palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen. There,
within that extraordinary structure, or rather
mass of structures, the fancied splendours sung of
by the Arabian Fabulists seem to have been
realised, and even in some particulars surpassed,
and that moreover upon a scale of grandeur and
profusion absolutely beggaring description. The
pomps and luxuries of many centuries had there
been gathered together. It was the favourite re-
sidence of successive dynasties, of a series of despotic
rulers over a meek and industrious people numbering
the scarcely conceivable aggregate of four hundred
million human creatures. There under the roof of
that astonishing edifice, or rather crowd of edifices,
the treasures of that immense power had, reign after
reign, been accumulated. This in truth was the
one isolated oasis of grandeur in that widerness of
squalid wretchedness. And there, after ravaging
the whole place, from parapet to basement—after
bearing away from it, for subsequent division, the
profuse spoil of its contents, in treasures, apparel,
and furniture, in costly stuffs, and precious materials
wrought with admirable workmanship—the torch
of EROSTATUS (we now know quite well How and
Why) was applied with an unhesitating hand by
the vict )rs, and this almost fabulous Palace of
Yuen-ming-yuen was reduced inexorably to ashes.
The destruction thus of Yuen-ming-yuen, let it be
Observed at once, was no act of wanton vengeance.
It was a deed of simple and richly merited expiation:
The crime perpetrated by the Chinese rulers, by
the Tartar generals and the Tartar mandarins, was
a crime of peculiar atrocity and of flagrant
magnitude. It was in notorious violation of the
sacred law of nations, the .7-us Gentium. It was a
crime singularly treacherous in its commencement
—the seizure of a little bluster of the Allies,
bearing with them two flags of truce. It was a crime
carried out with execrable cruelties to its gradual
consummation through a succession of dreadful
deaths—deaths produced by long torture and
by frightful mutilation! Among the party of
Europeans who had been thus lawlessly taken pri-
soners in spite of the sacred flags of truce they
carried there were in all exactly twenty-six men
from the British contingent—nineteen Sikhs and
seven Englishmen. Eleven of those nineteen
Sikhs were eventually released—and two of the
seven Englishmen. Those two Englishmen, almost
miraculously spared to us, being Mr. PARKES, her
MAJESTY'S Consul, .and Mr. Lour, the English
Ambassador's Private Secretary. The last men-
tioned of those gentlemen, it will be perceived
through an account given in another column,
landed again upon our shores at Dever only yes-
terday, meeting there with a reception that might
readily have been predicted for him. Who would
not like to grasp his hand in sympathy - and
give him welcome kick to old England?
Heartily do we trust that this gallant-hearted
Englishman will meet with his reward, and that
the heroic resolution shown from first to last by
his noble spirited companion iu peril, Mr. PARKES
her MAJESTY'S Consul, to whose unflinching deter-
mination the preservation of the lives of every one
of those who escaped was alone (under God) attri-
butable—eventually do we hope that Consul PARKES
Will, on his return homewards, meet with a befitting
recompense. A baronetcy were not too much to
award to this' long tried and ever active servant
of the Crown and of the Country. As
to Sir HorE GRANT, the Commander-in-Chief, and
the Earl of ELGIN, her' MAJESTY'S Ambassador—
the former has nobly earned his Marshal's baton,
and the latter his advancement to the Marquisate !
This moreover not only for the victorious occupa-
tion of Pekin and the triumphant negotiation of
the new.treaty of peace with the Government of
China, but yet more, if possible, for the noble course
pursued by each in regard to the. treatment of the
r&tnains of the poor murdered prisOners, and the
avenging thunderbolt struck at the very place
where the slow assasination of those ill-fated pri-
soners commenced, namely, the gigantic and sump-
tuous palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen !.It is impossible to
peruse without emotion the record of the burial of
BE NORMAN and BOWLBY and PFIIPPS and ANDER-
SON (poor BRABAZON'S remains were never re-
covered)—with Mr. PARKES and Mr. Low walking
among the number of pall-bearers, and Lord
ELGIN and Sir HOPE GRANT following as Chief
Mourners in that melancholyprocession. It is equally
impossible to remember without a thrill of exulta*
tion, that the resplendent palace where those mur-
dered Englishmen were first tortured, has ,been

burnt to the ground, in expiation of the crime,

and that a vast heap of mouldering ashes seven
miles in length alone marked (when our last acfvices

[eft) the historical site of Yuen-Ming-Yuen.

The members for Edinburgh have barely escaped
a vote of censure from a meeting, we cannot say a
public meeting, of their constituents. So great
indeed, was the apprehension of a hostile vote that
the exclusion policy was deemed the only safe one.
Known supporters were admitted by circular' some
time before the doors were thrown open to the
public, and thus the platform and orchestra were
filled with supporters ready to drown, if possible,
with "Hurrahs" the tremendous hootings which
were expe
cted from the body
proved
the
excellence
othe f
of the hall.
general-
ship Th
result
; only the proximity of the hurrahs availed to
prevent the shouts of disapprobation from echoing
much the more loudly in the ears of the represen-
tatives of the Modern Athens.
The cause of all this was a double apostasy on
the part of Mr. BLACK, and the carrying ofan
unpopular measure on the part of his colleape,o