Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-11-03
IN PEKIN IN 1860.
How French and British Allies Occu-
pied 1t at That Time.
From tha ondcp Chronicle

How French and British Allies Occu-
pied 1t at That Time.
From the London Chronicle.
At the present moment it is interesting
to recall the circumstances and some of
the incidents of the entry of an allied force
into Pekin forty years ago. After long
period of friction between Great Britain
and China Mr.. Edward Bruce was. early in
1859, appointed special envoy to Pekin to
formally ratify the treaty of Tfen Tsn.
Admiral Hope, in command Of the China
squadron, made special arrangements with
a view to protecting the envoy, having been
warned of threatened anti-foreign demon
stration-and not without reason. Mr..
Bruce was stopped on his way to rekin,
near Tien TSin, and the admiral attempted
to force a passage up the river past the
Taku forts to provide him with an escort,
but met with stronger opposition than he
expected, and was repulsed with a loss of
eighty-one killed and 800 wounded.
Stronger measures were necessary, and
France agreed to join Great Britain in a
military expedition. The British troops,
1900 in all, drawn mainly from India, were
commanded by General Sir Hope Grant
with Colonel Wolseley, now Lord Molse-
ley, as deputy assistant quartermaster gen
crab, and the French by General Montau-
French forces captured the Taku forts, los
ing 800 killed and wounded. and then
marched toward the capital The emperor,
seeing that the allies were in great force,
as well as in earnest, declared that he was
ready to conclude the treaty, but the gen
erals insisted that it could only be done
after they had reached TungChow. Con-
sui Parkes, accompanied by Henry Loeb,
Mr.. de Normann and Mr.. Bowlby, the
Times correspondent, and an escort of
twenty-six sabers under Lieutenant Ander-
son, started ahead of the army to Tung-
CHOW to make arrangements for a meeting.
orv~.,a lf,-,
been successfully concluded. Mr.. Parkes
and his party, on their return to meet the
allied forces, found themselves hemmed in
by the Chinese, and were eventually taken
as prisoners to Pekin, and Captain Braba-
ION, who had just Joined the party from
the British column, was beheaded.
The allied generals ordered their batteries
to attack the Chinese, and hot engage
ment ensued, in which the Sikhs especially
distinguished themselves, and both parties
held their ground. Attempts at negotia-
ton were followed by other engagements.
and the British and French gained the out
skirts of Pekin and captured the emperor
summer palace, from which an enormous
amount of prize property was secured and
divided among the troops.
AGAIN the Chinese protested themselves
willing to treat, and as a preliminary Mr.
Parkes and Mr.. Loeb were released after
having suffered many indgnities; Lieut.
Anderson and Mr. de Norman were never
seen alive again, having succumbed 20 the
effects of the cruelest forms of torture
Lord Elgin then refused to negotiate until
this barbarous crime had been purged by
prompt punishment; Sir Hope Grant de-
stroyed the summer palace by fire. and
f1OO,U0 was demanded and subsequently
paid as compensation to the relatives of the
murdered men. 1t had been outside the
summer palace where the British prisoners
had been most barbarously treated for the
edfication of the emperor, who watched
the proceedings from his window.
Negotiations then followed, and on Octo-
- ~
cupied Pekin, the palace of Prince Tsai,
who had instigated the anti-foreign move
ment, being appropriated by Lord Elgin as
his official residence. The treaty was
signed on October "a, and on November 9
the last Of the allied forces marched out OF
Pekin.