Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-11-04
The PEIHo AFFAIR.-A CAPTAIN Ian,lo

The PEIHo AFFAIE.-A Captain Langley
OF the R0tal Engineers. who was present :,
the affair of the Peiho, and being wIundsd
il the action was sent home, has given nj.
views Of the case in Il short public addro.
nj his native place, and has been ssy-ra,,
criticised by the London Times for 50 doin;
Captain Llngley says;
It is not i0r me to %criticise the acts of nv
superior officer there IS an oriental prover5
which SAYS. ''Soeech IS as Silver, but SII.,o.
is as gold, " and the Admiral is mach m-
senior that il would not become M, and
am sure YOU will excuse my giing an fur
Their INTO the matter. There is one exp,..-
sion, however, in your address, whica
would like to correct if you will allow La.
and that is lis to the ''treacherOus Chlnese.'
[ dJn't think we have any right to accuss
them of treachery, because, when Mr.. Bruc.
made his appearance, they told him to q Up
bv another wdv which was open but for
certain reasons perhaps he thought it was
not consistent with the honor Of his Country
he thought it better to attempt to force
the passage but they certainly dill offer O.
let them - up the other WAY, and therefore
there perhaps may be som excuse for them
they certainly did not fire the first shot. fr
it was not until after Captain Willis, the
AdmiraI's flag captain, had blown up ,hs
first barrier, which was -tantamOunt to % d.
claration of war by us, that they fired Ip11
him. and he retired. Next morning the
cnnboats were ordered to take up their posi-.
tons at seven o'clock, but on account OF th-
strong tide and the wind this could not be-
effected until , O'Clock in the afternoon and
during the whole Of this time the Chimes
never fired a shot. Had they opened fire
| during this intervd when the gunD0ats wer
AGROUND don't think one OF them would
have escaped bat they waited until the Al
miral had pulled up tie first row Of stakes
and zone towards the second before thev
fired upon u. Therefore | don't thInk We
can call them tredcherOus Chimes. Then,
As To the report which stated that there was
Il trap laid for us-thiS is entirely incorrect
there was no trap at ali. We saw it all
before we went we saw the masks befra
the embrasures. and Of course concluded that
there were guns behind them, and We saw
the mud we had to cross. Therefore I hope
You will hear no more about traps or treacd-
erOus Chinese. Then as to our forcing civ
~lzltion upon these barbarians, as we germit,
it appears to me to resemble such a Case as
this. a crusty old gentlemen lives IN Bisa-
op Auckland, who likes to follow his own
crotchets and keep within his W house I;
but a number Of persons meet together, g
to him, and say, You must come out and be
civilized OF, you must let US into your
house and become a Christian. Now l
think that man has d right to defend his
own house the best way he can every mans
house is his castle at least it is acknowl-
edged to be 50 in England, and | don't
know why it should not be 80 in China
IdOn'tsly that we are to give up our trade
if we can help 1t, butt don't think We are
right in forcing our civilization upon China,
don't think we show them very good ex-
amules Of Christianity, OF teach such good
Gust tina they need wish u initiate them;
and it is a fact, as stated by Lord Elgn,
that the further he went into the interior,
the better disposed the people were towards
us but at Canton and other places, where
we have been established for 200 years, they
have very bad feelings towards Us, because
they have had much %iniusti - done to them.