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

9

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they came to the large low building indicated As thew. eettateetes,,___
treasury. Here also the doers gace way to
1 rush. - The eerprise wee cnmplete.--Thee -grads were, -ert.--e7t-tklr
dtteo•ne sleepsng, eomee ceqkinu, some snekibg, The ,
e military IManarin. in Com:naiad drew Lit sword, hat ! 7):Laysovtreit.ppwe:.:it- ahn;edis3ro:ausrte-efliii;aa:oomun:rii,, Tai ter shouldered
Ll 4. reatetelock aad p dated it at the captain, but a
ease in it had not the : ertptaid. steucks Xll tie
oit.ers werem4icielese under iliEeeece of' 13ritisit
bayonets brought to the charge within six inches of
their bodies.
For six days the Wester n-gate_ hal heels open,
and exit had bean derded to neither ewes, nor geode,
nor tieasnre. Surely there osinle he ent4sne fiefs to re
ward the captors. How can we attain our re-
to
comprehend the stolid, stupid cer.Edence of these
Chinese, officials ? The treasury was full of silver as
full probably as it ever was. Fifty-two boxes which a
man coull not singly lift were found, and G 8 packets of
solid ingots. There was also a storehouse of the most
costly Mandarin, fur dresses lined with sables and rare
furs, and there was a room full of copper cash. Now a
strange scene occurred. The instructions were to bring
array any bullion, but to touch nothing else. Thews)
orders wore obeyed with a stren,ge and self-denying
fidelity. The soldiers and officers in strict discipline
turned their watering eyes away from the rich dresses.
But how to remove the heavy lead of bullion. Crowds
had assembled in front, and a happy thought occurred to
one of the officers, " A dollar's worth of cash to every
Cootie who will help to carry the silver to the English
camp." In a moment the crowd dispersed in search of
their bamboo-poles, and in another moment there were a
thousand volunteer Cantonese contending for the privi-
lege of carrying for an enemy their city's treasure.
With their stipulated strings of cash around their necks
away they trudged with the English soldiers and the
gyms silver. Colonel Graham, who had advanced from
the s :nth to the same point, came up in time to direct
this operation. Wtien the last British soldier left the
treasury the mob poured in like a countless pack of
famished wolves. The retiring and self-denying English
could hear their yells and shouts as they fought over the
fur dresses and other stores that had been left
untouched.
Contemporaneously with these operations the
French bad followed the course of the ramparts to
the West-gate and closed it. Leaving a detachment
to secure this exit, the main body struck inwards for the
lofty poles which mark the site of the Palace of the
Tartar General. Here, if anywhere, resistance must be
expected. All is hollowness—all is sham ! They had
come to foice a palatial fortress ; they had found a rank
wilderness—colossal courtyards grass-grown and mil-
dewy ; habitations with seacs for an Imperial army, but
not safe to the tread of a single soldier; vast empty
rotting balls where bats in thousands were clinging to
the roofs, and where the floors were inches deep in their
ordure. It was not destruction they saw around them,
but decay. Upon Pslaktvei's table was found a return
from the Tartar General, saying that he had 7,000
Tartar troops under his command. Where were they
Certainly they were not, and had not for many years
been, in this yaniun. It is the cu.tona 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 passed 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 Hohoway'e party, arrived too late, awl 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 he had some information as
to Yea's lurking-glace, agreed, upon his own respoasi.
bility, to accompany him with 100 blae-jackets. Mr.
Parkes expected to find Yell 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 Ceicainan was seen inside the closet diligently
' studying one of the sacred books. Where was Yell I
How should the Chinaman know He knew nothing
of Yeh—he was only a poor student. Drawn from his
hiding-place and submitted to a sharp interrogatory, he
confessed, bit by bit, that Yeh had been there, but bad
left some days before. At last he even thought he knew
where he was—nearly three miles off, somewhere at the
south-west corner of the city, in a small yamun of one
of the Lieutenant-Governors, raking 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 Yeti'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 ssith 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 of these walls by this compass and can find our way
to them so on they went. The longest chase must have
at. end. At last the guides called a bolt at the door of
a third-rate yamun, which appeared closed and deserted .
Toe doors were forced open and the blue-jackets were
all over the place in a moment. It was evident that they
were now on the right scent. The place was full of
hastily-packed baggage. Mandarins were running about
yea 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 sit the extreme rear
of the yamun. Captaia Key and Commodore Ell.ot'is
coxswain rushed forward. Key took the fat gentleman
round the waist, and the coxswain twisted the august
tail of the Imperial commissioner round his fist. 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 hie personal safety that he
grew composed. As soon, however, as he felt himself
safe all his arrogance returned. He posed himself 'nags
nificently in his 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
otherth
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news of the capture had been sent to head-quarters ;
Colonel Hecker 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-
meets, opening inwards towards the bill, were doubtless
the private abodes of the bonzes ; two large rooms,
whose windows lo.ok over the city, were the hall and
senior common room. This quadrangleis 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 banging to
dry.
About 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 had 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 de-
scribed, and after him, with rolling step, almost gigantic
in stature, and immense in bulk, came the Tartar
General. As he passed close by me I measured him by
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 had
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 cams 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 he hasito do with
men more superstitiously obsequious to Chinese rank
than the Coolies of Canton are, so be tries to awe
them by his presence. Perhaps be 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 ? "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, an 4,
has the boldness to believe that the general principles ‘,).
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prayers for protection. Nothing of the sort OICIII'A.
The imperturbable Chinamen go on just as though
nothing had happened. We make an imposing
military promenade all round their walls, but only
crowds of the lowest classes come out and stare at
us. The Mandarin soldiers have been driven from
the suburb near the landing-place, but have been
succeeded by robbers, rho despoil the villagers
and resist our officers if they interfere. Captain
Hall had to cut one of these fellows down as he was
aiming a furtive blow with his short sword at
Lieutenant Forbes, and there are few of us who
have not a pike or a sword to show as a memorial
of some encounter with these ruffians. The tartar
soldiers are found at night creeping up to our sen-
tries, especially in the neighbourhood of the maga-
zines. The general belief is that they come to blow
us up. I think they come to steal the powder.
Gough Fort and Bluejacket Fort were mined by our
Sappers, for we have not force enough to h.ld
them. The Chinese actually, came at night and
►tole the powder laid ready to charge the mines,
and a Chinaman was found in a magazine from which
our men had been withdrawn because the roof had
caught fire, and smouldered for two days before it
went out.
On Friday Lord Elgin and Baron
.Gros came up
to camp, and sat upon the roof of the Chines© bat-
tery on Magazine-hill to see the forts blow up. It
was worth the trouble of getting up the hill to see
that sight. When the spectators took their seats
both the forts were fullof 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 appointed 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 toeir louelirvss. They never looked so

interesting as during, ithe ten.minutes which suc-
ceeded the rockets. Seated at only 500 yards' dis-
tance you could just see a small glimmering slow
match burning down. Thea came a succession o!
loud, sharp, cracking, shivering explosions, throw-
ing fragments high in air and frightening, hut not
killing, a kite at the moment hovering over Fort
Gough. There were 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 we are going to do
next, but what the Chinese are going to do Theso
curious, stolid, imperturbable people seem deter-
mined simply to ignore our presence here, and to
wait till we are pleased to go away. Yell livim
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
:s a buzz of expectation in the camp. Mr. Parkes
and Mr. Wade, the interrreers, who by reason of
the general ignorance of the language, are become
masters of the position, are looked to with ludi-
onus anxiety. There is an evident hope that the
gentleman with the tail is a mandarin with an offer
of submission.

I sonntinies think that these oracles deliver
rather apocryphal responses as to the manners and
cuitoms 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 band. 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.

TUESDAY, 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 ent.Ted the city, and before 10 we had
captured the Lieutenant-Governor, the Tartar Gentral,
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 acoomplish 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 Yea'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 ttantice 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 cams for a short distance trace the walls
to the right and to the left, and you can see far nut
in the body of the city a line of high Mandarin p. lee.
These pales denote the residences of the great public
officers, and, as our maps tell us, they open upon the
"Street of Benevolence and Live "—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
ram 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
dktAchtnent of 400 French blue-jackets, with two gone,
were advancing along the wail 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 r;fle.. Let us speed away t ) see
what the General's party are doing. They meet with no
resi-talice, 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 yatnun they
are in quest of. Colonel Holloway's detachment of four
companies 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
erec'ed a little beyond, but is not manned. The people
look on from their doors and the Coolies carry water
bucketsto and fro in the rear of the troops, juntas though
nothing uncointeo i wsro passing. 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 yatnun of Polak wei, the Governor of the city and
province. Like the front of all Chinese yamune, it is a
dismalsquare, with a wall on one side, whereon a gigan-
tic beast is palatal. The vast doors of the yamun, whereon
two great figures like Gog and Magog are daubed, fr fret
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
venoing at the doll' is 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
cloideg 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 matchlock., aro
disarmed and huddled together in the front guardhouse, I
and the pavilion is gained, hastily searched, and passed
through. Another courtyard like the former now ap-
pears—more granite terraces and causeways, more trees
and shrubs—more lateral low buildings, and another big
dingy pavilion in front. This is treated just as the
former was, but nothing is seen but miserable guards
stupefied by surprise and swarming domestics. A vast The
dilapidated hall, and still another pavilion beyond. The
paint
is houses appear a little more habitesalshlee::
is not so entirely rubbed off, the paper s
abnr(d)keanrt—ictlehsereofarcehpinoersceelalui
about. This third
a rbe npotie et
I d roof, through
nreilloywinegr-pots andfurniture,
There
pavilion is a hall. of
faruedeitennrcee,inr uthdee
tiled
dirty, but im-
posing.are"Halt," " Stand at ease,"
which an English rocket had forced its way. There
. At this
toportieres. right and left, leading evidently
apartments.de end I.qt:in the stone floor with
private curtained
and the muskets
one of the portieres is raised, and an old man,
meet
a ring which makes descend
old. shed echo
Mandarin's cap with a red button,
dressed in the ordinary blue Chinese dress, but
wearing a
appears In the doorwry. He has a black moustache,
a quick eye, and more intelligence in his face than
you usually see in China, aced he seems is say, as
painly as gestures can speak, " What can all this dis-
quietude be about 1' 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 pat a'guard round him.
The old gentleman was quietly at breakfast when th 9
English Marines burst in.

A few moments' delay occurred while a Chinese
interpreter was got up, and the Governor, seeirg he
was in no immediate danger, recovered a composure
which he had never lost the power of assuming. He was
asked for his seals of office and his pipers. It was very
unfortunate, bit he had that morning rahliid his eyes.
" Tell him," said Col. Holloway, " not to trouble him-
self, fcr I have a master key;"tand at a sign a tall pioneer
with his axe made his appearance. The Governor took
up a napkin, and the lost keys ware accidentally found
to have been underneath it.
Meanwhile, Captain Parke and his detachment has
`been equally fortunate. Turning to the left, and pro-
ceeding down the " Street of .Benevolence and Love,'