The Sun. — 1857-01-07 (London, England)

CHAS. A. ANDERSON, Staff Surgeon, Calcutta, in Medical Charge of the Force disembarked,  Government-house, Hong Kong,Nov. 8, 1856. Sir,—l have received your Excellency's despatch of the 6th inst., informing me that shot and shell had been thrown juts the most distant of the city forts and Government buildings, and announcing the destruction of a large number of Chinese war juni:s, and the capture of the French Folly Fort. I have to express to your Excellency my great and admiring sense of the consummate skill and prudence with which the military operations have been directed, and to all concerned my thorough appreciation of the promptitude, zeal, and bravery which have given them such successful results. Whatever may have been the importance of the question which necessitated the first appeal to hostilities, it has now assumed a character seriously involving all our present and future relations with China ; and I am of opinion that everything possible should be done to give effect to treaties which have been pertinaciously and recklessly violated—a small and turbulent fraction of the population of China cannot be allowed to supersede the engagements of their Emperor to the sovereign of Great Britain. I submit to your Excellency that the next step to take bhould be a notice to the Imperial Commissioner that unless, within a period to be fixed by you, your reiterated demands are complied with, the Bogue Forts will be destroyed. I think it should also be stated that the object of our entering the city is to carry forward a work of peace and amity; to put a stop to the miseries, whose infliction has been rendered imperative by the resistance to lawful requirements, and to prevent their recurrence on any future occasion.—l have, &c.,  (Signed) Joins Bemuse. His Excellency Rear-Admiral Sir M. Seymour, K.C.8., Naval Commander-in-Chief, dm, Canton.  British Consulate, Canton„ Nov. 9, 1856. Sir,—l have to acknowledge your Excellency's letter of the 7th inst., in which you dislaim the adoption of forcible measures, an appeal to higher principles as the proper guide of our actions. I deeply regret that your Excellency should not at en earlier date have kept these principles in view, for it is owing to the utter disregard of them on your Excellency's part, as evinced by your violation of treaty engagements, your diecourtesy and inattention to my demands, that the present unwilling resort to force has been rendered unavoidable, Neither is it creditable to your Excellency that, in the employment of force on your part, you should have recourse to measures so opposed to civilised practices, as that of offering a reward for the indiscriminate murder of Englishmen. I enclose you a copy of one of those proclamations, the original of which, under your Excellency's seal, is in possession of her Majesty's consul. I take this opportunity to repeat the demands already so clearly presented to your Excellency in my letters of the 30th of October, and let of November, and to again state that your Excellency's compliance therewith is the only solution of the present difficulty that I can accept. The fulfilment of the particular treaty engagements, which is the sole object of those demands, is now proved to be indispensable for the preservation of peace and amity, and the prevention in future of disastrous misunderstandings like the present. I therefore once again warn your Excellency that active operations will be recommenced, unless I receive within 24 hours your assent to all I have required. The experience of the last fortnight should have convinced your Excellency of the futility of seeking to invite the people to support you in your unjust and personal policy, and, I therefore, trust you will well consider the danger of the crisis you persist in urging on.—Accept, &c,,  (Signed)