The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-03 00:00:00

yards wide, clear as crystal, with a white sand
beach on each side, tempted you to jump in and

luxuriate in a bath. _
At this time of year this river is fordable in seve-
ral places. A part of the force crossed the opposite
bank and went to Kong Soon, a town of consider-
able commercial importance. Here we found a
large Chinese fair in full operation, and the natives
went on buying their fat pigs, oxen, and buffaloes
with the greatest sang frond, while the great men
of the place, in a neighharuring joss-house, were
making their humble sOmission to General Von
Straubenzee. About a Mile from Kong Soon is the
Parliament House of the League. We found the
clearest proofs in the house that it was the same
place where the European and sepoy prisoners were
either killed or died, and that it was also here the
stipulated price for the heads and hands of the
murdered victims was paid to their assassins by
those worse than assassins.
The elders of the various towns and villages on
our route waited on the General with the greatest
humility. There was no end to their " chin-
chining" and " kotowing," and they all held in their
hands as well as covered their house doors with

long strips of pink and red paper.
This is the very acme of Chinese compliment.
As the knight of old always displayed the favourite
colour of his lady-love, so the Chinese elders by
those long strips of red paper would show to the
whole of the Chinese their love and respect for the
honoured Taipans who rejoice in scarlet coats.
Such is the effect which the taking of Shek-tseng
has produced on the surrounding country. A town
of 40,000 inhabitants, looked upon and boasted of
as the impregnable fortress of the province, fell
before us in an hour's fighting. Its capture has
struck terror into the heart of the province, and
given those people a far greater idea of British
prowess than even the fall of Canton itself.
When our Consul some months since applied to
Teh Qui for a residence, the latter told him he
would not answer for his life an hour after the
troops left if he came to reside within the city.
Teh Qui in this stated the truth, but the fall of
Shek-tseng puts a seal to the Elgin Treaty that
will be respected. It has quashed a confederation
based on the principle of undying. hostility to
everything European, which gloried in the assas-
sination of unoffending foreigners, and was hard at
work preparing for an offensive war with us in the
, coming summer. The old, proud, implacable, un-
tractable spirit of Yeh survived in the league of
the Quan-Tung gentry—that spirit which, as Mr.
Cooke has well and truly set forth, must be crushed
out of her before China can take her place among
civilised nations.
The same spirit which last year filled the houses
of Canton with slaughtered women and children
was equally manifest in the crowds of women and
children left at the mercy of our soldiers in this
town, but our soldiers did not tarnish their valour
by acts of brutal licentiousness ; they did not dis-
grace the holy name they bear—even the name of
Him who came to do good to all men. With towns
and villages lying at their mercy, with the strongest
temptations and opportunities for those sins that
have special power with soldiers, our men behaved
in a manner beyond all praise, and, if ever a hostile
invasion directly tended to promote the interests of
true religion, such will be the result of the Shek-
tseng expedition.

ZAW INTELLIGENCE, March. 2.