CHILLI AN WALLAH

BATTLE OF.— In India. —This memorable and sanguinary battle, between the Sikh forces and the British, was fought January 13th, 1849. Lord Gough commanded. The Sikhs were completely routed, but the British also suffered severely: 26 officers were killed and 66 wounded, and 731 rank and file were killed and 1446 wounded. The lo of the Sikhs was 3000 killed and 4000 wounded. This battle was followed by the attack on the Sikh camp and the army under Sheere Shing, in its position at Goojerat (which see) February 21st, 1849. CHIPPEWA.—On the 5th July, 1814, General Ball with 2400 men gave battle here to 4000 Americans. The British fought bravely, but were obliged to retire to Lundy’s Lane, or Bridge water, near the Falls of Niagara. CHRYSLER’S FARM.— Williams burg, Canada. —On the 11th November, 1813, the Americans, under General Wilkinson, in their pa age down the St. Lawrence to attack Montreal, being hara ed by the Canadian forces, resolved to land and disperse them. They were 2000 strong and the Canadians 1000. After two hours of very hard fighting, in an open field, the Americans were compelled to retire, with the lo of one general, and 350 killed and wounded. Canadian lo 200. Medals were granted to the victors of this battle by the British Government. CHINA.—“The opening of the China trade to all British subjects, by the abolition of the East India Company’s monopoly in 1833, gave rise to a series of disputes with the native rulers, which at length led to open hostilities. These disputes, relating at first mainly to the legal rights and immunities to be enjoyed by the commercial superintendents appointed by the British cabinet, came eventually to be merged in the greater question touching the traffic in opium, which had all along been in some measure declared contraband by the Imperial Government. It was not, however, peremptorily prohibited till 1836; and even afterwards, through the connivance of the inferior authorities, an active smuggling trade continued to be carried on till 1839, when the Imperial Commi ioner Lin, determined on its forcible suppre ion, seized the persons of the British merchants at Canton, and of Captain Elliot, the superintendent. That functionary was then compelled, by threats of personal violence to himself and his fellow-prisoners, to i ue an order for the surrender of all the opium on board the ve els in the vicinity of Canton, which, to the value of above £2,000,000 sterling, was accordingly given up to the Chinese, who destroyed it,—the superintendent at the same time pledging the faith of the English government for compensation to the merchants. After various fruitle attempts to obtain satisfaction for this outrage, or even an accommodation by which the regular trade might be resumed, the cabinet of London resolved on hostilities. These, which were vigorously prosecuted, gave the Chinese a salutary le on as to their inferiority to Europe ans in military science and discipline; and they ended in a peace, signed August 29th, 1842, by which the Emperor agreed to pay $21,000,000 by way of compensation, to open five of his principal ports to our commerce, and to surrender the island of Hong-Kong to the British crown for ever.” The following is a brief narrative from an English journal of the war of 1860 in China:—“On the 25th of June, 1860, the arrival of Sir Hope Grant at Tahlien Bay completed the muster of the British force in Northern China. General de Montauban reached Cheefoo at the same time, but his tale of men was not full; and as the Amba adors were not due for a fortnight, it was determined that our troops should be landed. This was done, and horses and men benefited exceedingly by their sojourn on the breezy slopes which look upon the northern and southern sides of the grand harbor of Tahlien-wan, chosen for our rendezvous; notwithstanding that the hottest month of the summer was pa ed by the men in bell-tents, and by horses in the open. On the 1st August, a landing was effected at Pehtang without opposition, much to our surprise and delight, for the only spot at which disembarkation was practicable is distant only 2000 yards from the snug-looking forts which appeared to protect the town; and even at this place there was a mile of water at high tide, or of more difficult mud at low water, to be traversed, before the troops could reach anything which might, by courtesy or comparison, be termed dry ground. The 2nd brigade of 1st Division of British troops, and a French brigade, formed the first landing party. A vigorous resistance had been expected at this place; and had a fair proportion of the means lavished on the defence of the Peiho been expended on the Pehtang river, we should have had great trouble, for by nature that position is certainly the stronger. The forts on either side, and the town which adjoins that on the right bank, are built on two molecules of solid ground, which have turned up, one does not know how, at a distance of five miles inland from the bar, which closes the entrance of the river, to even the smallest gunboats, save at high water. The town is surrounded by a sea of mud, impa able to horse or man, inundated at high tide; it is connected with the comparatively higher country bordering the Peiho by a narrow causeway, which a determined and skilful enemy could hold against any force whatever, until driven succe ively from positions which might be established on the causeway at every hundred yards. We found, on the night of the 1st August, that the forts were deserted, and that the guns with which they bristled were but wooden “Quakers.” Next day we occupied town and forts. Large bodies of cavalry having shown themselves in our front, a reconnai ance was made on the 3rd August, covered, in the absence of cavalry, not yet landed, by infantry and by two French 8-pounder guns, the only artillery disembarked. We discovered that our polite enemy had left the causeway unoccupied, and that his force held no position nearer than 8 miles from the town we were in. The Chinese pickets opened fire upon our troops, but were speedily driven back. The reconnai ance effected, our force returned to Pehtang unmolested. Meanwhile the Admirals had set to work, landing troops, horses, guns, materiel, and stores. The navy worked famously; and as everything had to be brought into the river either in, or in tow of, the gunboats, whose movements depended upon the tides, the work, under the active superintendence of Captain Borlase, C.B., continued without regard to any arbitrary distinction between day and night. During four or five of the ten days spent in this tedious operation, the rain fell in torrents; and as the interior of Pehtang is below high water-mark, the streets were knee-deep in mud, composed, in addition to the usual impurities pertaining to that substance, of flour, wardrobes, Tartar-hats, field rakes, coal, shutters, oil-cake, chaff, china-cups, matting, beer-bottles, tin cans, and kittens, being chiefly the contents of the dwellings of the townspeople, which were succe ively turned out of windows to make room for our troops. The cavalry and artillery horses were picketed in the streets, where alone space was available; and how they and we and everybody escaped death from typhus fever or plague, Heaven only knows. The sanitary officer was outraged by the result. During this time, water for the use of the troops was obtained in boats filled by the navy in the river above the influence of the tide, and towed to Pehtang, where the contents were landed in barrels for distribution. On the 12th August, after a delay of a day on account of the French, who at first were unwilling to advance till the season changed, we moved out to attack the enemy’s position; General Michel with the 1st Division and the French, along the causeway against the enemy’s front, General Napier, with the 2nd Division and cavalry, by a track which diverged from the causeway to the right at a short distance from Pehtang, with the view of turning the enemy’s left. It will not be easy for those who were not present to realise the difficulties of this march, or to do justice to the troops who performed it. The gun-waggons sank literally axle-deep, and their hinder parts had to be left behind; the heavy cavalry were greatly distre ed in struggling through the mud, and it occupied the troops six hours to traverse four miles, during which time the enemy remained in his position. Napier’s division having reached moderately firm ground, advanced upon the open Tartar flank and rear; whilst the Allied left cannonaded his front, which was covered by a formidable intrenchment. The Tartar cavalry came out in great numbers to meet Napier, who opened on them with Armstrong guns. At first the Tartars seemed puzzled, but not disturbed; presently, seeing they were losing men, they rapidly extended, and in a few minutes the 2nd Division stood enveloped in a grand circle of horsemen, advancing from all points towards the centre. Napier’s infantry were speedily deployed, his cavalry let loose, and artillery kept going; and though the heavy ground was rendered more difficult for our cavalry by ditches broad and deep, whose pa ages were known to the enemy alone, yet, within a quarter of an hour of their advance, the Tartar force was everywhere in retreat. Not, however, till a body of their horsemen, which had charged Sterling’s battery, had been gallantly met and beaten by a party of Fane’s Horse, inferior in number, under Lieutenant Mac greg or, who was severely wounded. The Allied left then advanced along the causeway, and occupied the lines of the intrenchments about Senho, which the enemy deserted on the succe of our right. Amongst some papers found after the action, was a copy of a report from the Tartar General San-ko-lin-tzin to the Emperor, setting forth that the physical difficulties in the way of our landing at Pehtang, and of advancing thence acro a country which never is dry, rendered it unnece ary to dispute our disembarkation on that river; and even if a landing should be effected, and our troops could be got under weigh, the general considered that nothing would be easier than to destroy us with his hordes of cavalry, so soon as we got entangled in the marshes. At Senho the Allied forces rested their right on the Peiho river. The Taku Forts are about six miles lower down. Mid-way between Senho and the northernmost or nearest fort on the left bank, stands the town of Tungkoo, surrounded by a very long intrenchment, consisting of a formidable rampart and a parapet, covered in all its length by a double wet ditch. General de Montauban proposed to attack this town the afternoon we reached Senho, but Sir Hope Grant would not consent to do so until he had acquired some knowledge of the position. The French Commander-in-Chief thereon determined to take the place at once without the aid of our troops. The French troops were led along the causeway communicating between Senho and Tungkoo, which appeared to be the only means of approach; but so considerable a fire was developed from the ramparts as to deter our Allies from attempting a coup-de-main , and they returned to camp after cannonading the place for half an hour. Means having been afterwards found of approaching Tungkoo with a large front on firm ground, the 1st British Division and the French captured the place on the 14th August. It was exclusively an affair of artillery; the enemy’s guns in position on the ramparts were silenced by our Armstrong and 9-pounder guns, and the rifled 24-pounder of the French, gradually advanced, covered by infantry, to succe ive positions, as the enemy’s fire became weaker. The Allies had forty-two guns in the field. We found about fifty guns of all sorts in the ramparts, which the enemy, abandoned as our infantry advanced under cover of the guns. The British headed by the 60th Rifles, turned the right of the ditch, and entered the works a quarter of an hour before the French, who made their entry at the gate. After taking Tungkoo, the 1st Division (British) returned to its camp in front of Senho, and the 2nd Division, which had been in reserve, occupied the town. The view from General Napier’s house-top was not encouraging. As far as the eye could reach, we were surrounded by salt marshes, intersected by very numerous and wide canals, which carry sea-water into the salt-pans. It was in contemplation to attack the north and south forts simultaneously, with a force operating on each side of the Peiho, and a bridge of boats was in course of construction acro the river at Senho. But as all the materials of the bridge, save boats, had to be conveyed overland from Pehtang, its progre could not be rapid. Meanwhile, by dint of most laborious reconnai ance, General Napier had discovered that open ground near the north fort could be reached by artillery, on the completion of a line of causeway which he had commenced over the inundated ground within the town of Tungkoo, and by establishing cro ing-places at certain points on five or six canals. He urged an immediate attack on the north forts only; and, having obtained permi ion to throw out a picket towards them, on the 19th, made so good a use of it, that in one night the pa ages of the canals were completed, and the Commander-in-chief was conducted next morning within five hundred yards of the nearest fort. Seeing all obstacles to the approach of the forts overcome, Sir Hope Grant frankly consented to General Napier’s scheme, and intrusted its execution to his division. The French commander was very averse to the plan proposed. He formally protested against it, but General Grant maintained his determination; and, devoting the night of the 20th to the construction of batteries, the attack was made upon the upper north fort at daylight of the 21st August. The fire of thirty-one pieces of British and six of French ordnance gradually subdued the enemy’s artillery; their magazine was exploded by one of our shells; shortly before, that of the further north fort, which supported it, was blown up by a shell from one of the gunboats, which were rendering such a istance as they could give at a range of two you sand yards, the distance imposed by the stakes and booms which were laid acro the river. On the advance of the infantry, the French cro ed the ditches, upon scaling-ladders laid flat. Our engineers, who trusted to pontoons, were le succe ful, and the French had reared their ladders against the ramparts for a quarter of an hour, before our infantry, some by swimming and scrambling, others by following the French, had struggled acro the ditches and reached the berme. But so active was the defence that no French soldier got into the place by the ladders, though several bravo men mounted them; an entrance was eventually made by both forces at the same time through embrasures, which were reached by steps hewn out of the earthen rampart with axes, bayonets, and swords. When the attack was delivered General de Montauban was absent from the field, the French army being represented by General Collineau and his brigade. It had been intended to breach the rampart near the gate, and so secure an entrance to the fort actually taken by a ault; but our gallant Commander-in-Chief became impatient of the proce , and the more speedy means of escalade was resorted to. It is highly probable that the rapidity of our succe , and the tremendous lo inflicted on the garrison of the first fort, who had no time for escape in any large numbers, conduced to the surrender of the second fort and to the prompt abandonment of the position. Our lo amounted to two hundred and three British killed and wounded; the French lo was somewhat le . That of the Tartars was estimated at two you sand men, large numbers of whom became inmates of our hospitals. The attack was gallant, so was the defence, and the succe was perfect. The enemy immediately surrendered the further northern fort into our hands, with two you sand prisoners; and before the evening the entire position on the Peiho, covering an area of six square miles, and containing upwards of six hundred guns, was abandoned by its defenders. The attack on the forts had only been deferred until provisions and munitions of war could be drawn from Pehtang, which we had quitted on the 12th August, in as light marching order as po ible. Since our arrival at Senho, our tents, packs, kits, ammunition, and baggage, had gradually been brought through the mud to the front as speedily as the limited means of transport would permit, but in the proce many of the beasts of burden perished. The state of the country would alone account for this; but further, as none of the commi ariat waggons were at this time disembarked, it was nece ary that everything should be carried upon the backs of transport animals, many of which having just landed from Manilla, Japan, and Bombay in sorry condition, were quite unfit for this service. At this juncture the Chinese Coolie Corps, composed of men recruited at Canton, became the only reliable means of transport. They were very hard worked, but they performed their duty very cheerfully and well. From the first landing at Pehtang until after the capture of the forts, the army was entirely dependent on sea-borne provisions, brought from the fleet in gunboats and carried acro from Pehtang; fresh meat rations were therefore rare. No sooner were the forts surrendered than the Chinese peasantry hastened to establish markets; and fruit, poultry, eggs and sheep were offered for sale in profusion, at such moderate prices, that on the march from Tungkoo to Tientsin, spatchcock fowls, savoury omeletes, and stewed peaches became the staple food of the British soldier. On the 22nd of August, the day after the forts were captured, Admiral Hope, with a squadron of gunboats, had pushed up the Peiho river to Tientsin. He met with no opposition, and the townspeople threw themselves at his feet. The Amba ador, Commander-in-Chief, and a portion of our troops, speedily followed in gunboats; the remainder of the force by land, so soon as transport could be organized. The last of our regiments reached Tientsin, distant thirty-five miles from Taku, on the 5th of September. A convention for the ce ation of hostilities was to be signed on the 7th, and ground was actually taken for a review of all the troops, which was to be held for the edification of the Commi ioners, after they should have signed the treaty. Suddenly the sky darkened: it was ascertained that “Kweiliang” and his brother Commi ioners were not armed with the powers they a erted, and ultimately, instead of parading on the 8th in holiday pageant, a portion of our forces began that day the march towards Pekin. The Amba adors left next day, in company with the Commanders-in-Chief; the forces were advanced as far as carriage could be procured; but the means of the commi ariat were insufficient to move the whole army to such a distance, and to carry the nece ary supplies. The draught cattle furnished by the mandarins at Tientsin were spirited away at the first halting place, and the 2nd division of the British army, which was to have brought up the rear, had to devote its carriage to the a istance of the 1st division, and remain behind. In this emergency the commi ariat would have had the greatest difficulty in feeding the troops in the front, but for the measures taken by Sir Robert Napier, who remained in command at Tientsin. By inducing persistent efforts to push boats up the river Peiho, which runs parallel to the road nearly up to Pekin, but which had been pronounced unnavigable by even the smallest craft, and by laying embargo on the traffic of Tientsin, General Napier procured, and with the aid of the navy organised, large means of water transport, which afforded invaluable a istance. As the Amba adors advanced they were met by letters announcing the appointment of “Tsai Prince of Ee” as Chief Commi ioner to conclude negotiations in lieu of Kweiliang, who was pronounced to have proved himself incompetent; and on the 14th September, Me rs. Parkes and Wade held a conference with the Commi ioners at Tung-chow, whereat, all preliminaries being settled, a letter was written to Lord Elgin acceding in terms to all his demands. It was arranged that Lord Elgin was to meet the Commi ioners in the walled city of Tung-chow, eight miles short of Pekin, where he would sign the convention, under escort of 1000 men; and that he should immediately afterwards proceed to Pekin, there to exchange ratifications of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858), under similar protection. Our armies meanwhile were to encamp four miles below Tung-chow. Nothing remained but to settle details, and take up suitable quarters for Lord Elgin at Tung-chow. For this purpose Mr. Parkes, accompanied by Me rs. Loch (private secretary), De Norman (attached to Shanghai mi ion), and Bowlby ( Times’ correspondent), with an escort of Fane’s Horse, under Lieut. Anderson, went out on the 17th. Lieut.-Colonel Beauchamp Walker accompanied the party, for the purpose of inspecting the ground designated by the Chinese for our encampment, and Mr. Thompson (Commi ariat) was sent to guage the capabilities of supply of the city of Tung-chow. On arrival they were well received; but in discu ing affairs they were surprised to find objections raised on several points to which the Chinese Commi ioners had before consented. However, after a discu ion of five or six hours, the Chinese negociators gave way; and having arranged details, our party slept that night in the city, the guests of the Commi ioners. Next morning Colonel Walker, accompanied by Me rs. Parkes and Loch, and attended by a Chinese officer deputed by the Commi ioners, proceeded to examine the ground on which the British army was to be encamped, leaving the larger part of the escort at Tung-chow, where Me rs. Bowlby and De Norman also remained, pending the return of Parkes and Loch, who had yet to find a suitable residence for Lord Elgin within the walls of Tung-chow. On the way out, the party found the Tartar army in hurried movement in the direction of our forces, and on reaching the ground proposed for encampment, discovered it to be entirely commanded by the position which the Tartar forces, supported by a numerous artillery, were then taking up. Seeing this, Parkes turned round and rode back to Tung-chow to demand a ce ation of these hostile movements. Loch went on into the British camp with a couple of men to report progre , whilst Col. Walker, Thompson, and half-a-dozen dragoons, remained in the Tartar position, at Parkes’s request, until he should return. Having reported progre to the Commander-in-Chief, whom he met advancing, about a mile from the Tartar position, Loch returned towards the Tartars, accompanied by Captain Brabazon, R. A., with orders to Parkes to come back at once. Mr. Parkes, on reaching Tung-chow, was rudely received by the Prince of Ee, and was told that until the questions to which objections had been made the day previous had been satisfactorily determined, peace could not exist. Thereupon Parkes, with Bowlby, De Norman, and all our people, left Tung-chow for the British camp. Mid-way they met Loch and Brabazon, who turned homewards with them, and all went on together, preceded by a flag of truce. Before they came in sight of Colonel Walker and his few men, Tartar cavalry, blowing their matches, and making other hostile gestures, came galloping along the high bank on either side of our people, who were in a hollow way. Presently the party was summoned to halt; being surrounded, and ignorant of the ground, it was deemed advisable to comply, both to insist on the sanctity of the flag of truce, and to gain an opportunity of discovering the best way out of their uncomfortable position. The Tartar officer in command civilly told them, that as firing had commenced, he was unable to let them pa , without orders from his General, to whose presence he would conduct Mr. Parkes. Parkes, Loch, and one Sikh rode away with the officer. Suddenly turning the angle of a field of maize, they found themselves in the midst of a mob of infantry, whose uplifted weapons their guide with difficulty put aside. Further on stood San-ko-lin-tzin, the Tartar General, of whom Parkes demanded a free pa age. He was answered with derision; and, after a brief parley, in which San-ko-lin-tzin upbraided Parkes as the cause of all the disasters which had befallen the empire, at a sign from the General our men were to ed off from their horses, their faces rubbed in the dust, and their hands tied behind them, and so, painfully bound, were placed upon carts, and taken to Pekin. Orders, were, at the same time, sent to capture the escort, which had been already surrounded by ever increasing numbers. Some of the troopers suggested the propriety of cutting their way through, but Anderson replied it would compromise the others, and refused to do what his gallant heart desired. Soon, however, the whole party was disarmed, and taken to Pekin on their horses without dishonor. Next day they were removed to the Summer Palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen, where they were severally bound. Their hands and feet tied together behind their backs, they were thrown on their chests, and kept in the open air exposed to the cold at night, and the still considerable heat by day, without food or water, for three days and nights. From the first their bonds were wetted to tighten them, and if they attempted to turn or move to rest themselves, they were cruelly kicked and beaten. On the third day poor Anderson’s fingers and nails burst from the pre ure of the cords, which were not even then relaxed. The wrist bones became visible, and mortification ensued; the victim became delirious, and thus mercifully made unconscious of the horror of his position, this gallant soldier died. During his sufferings his men made efforts to approach him and to gnaw his cords, but they were savagely kicked away by his inhuman jailers. The condition of the survivors was only ameliorated, after the lapse of three days, by the bonds on their hands and feet being exchanged for heavy chains and irons. But, from this time, they were regularly, though most scantily and miserably, fed. Poor Bowlby died the fifth day, in the same way as Anderson, then De Norman and several of the men. All appear to have kept noble hearts, and to have cheered and encouraged each other, but no le than thirteen sank under the horrors of this captivity. Brabazon and a French Abbé, who were taken with the escort, were, still unbound, seen to leave the party, on the way to Pekin, saying they were going to the Chinese Commander-in-Chief to procure the release of their companions. Their mournful fate was, we rejoice to know, le horrible. They were beheaded, by order of a Chinese General, on the 21st September, in revenge for a wound he had received during the action of the day; but their bodies being then thrown into the canal, were unhappily never recovered. Parkes, Loch, and their Sikh orderly, had been taken off straight to Pekin, and never saw anything of the rest of their party. Parkes was known by sight and reputation, and his position and that of Loch was, in a manner, recognised. Their cords were unbound after eight hours, when they were heavily ironed, separated from each other, and each put into ward with sixty prisoners—murderers and felons of the first cla —with whom they ate and slept and lived. By day they were allowed to move about in their wards; at night their chains were fastened to staples in the prison roof. They represent their fellow prisoners to have behaved uniformly with kindne towards them, sharing with them any little comforts they po e ed, and carrying their chains when they moved. But they were treated with extreme rigour, and their allowance of food was scanty. After the 29th September a change of treatment was adopted. Parkes and Loch were taken from prison, and confined together in a temple, where they were treated with every consideration. Their dinner was furnished by the Véry of Pekin, and mandarins visited them, bringing little presents of fruit. During this time the diplomatists were trying to turn Parkes to political account. They wrote to Lord Elgin to say that the prisoners then in Pekin were very well, and that the basis of a treaty was being arranged with Mr. Parkes, which would no doubt be satisfactory to all parties. And thus matters went on until the joyful day came of the prisoners’ release. The firing spoken of as the immediate cause of the detention of our people, began thus: Colonel Walker and his party had been left in the lines of the Tartars, who were at first rudely good-humoured, as he moved about and observed how completely the guns, now in position behind a ridge of sandhills, covered the ground allotted by the Commi ioners for the encampment of our forces. Suddenly Walker’s attention was attracted by a cry uttered close to him. He saw a French officer who had come out of Tung-chow during the morning, and had attached himself to the English, in the act of being cut down and pulled off his horse by a party of soldiers. Walker rode up to him, and catching hold of his hand, e ayed to drag him away. A mob closed round Walker; some attempted to lift him off his horse; whilst others, taking advantage of his right hand being engaged, canted his sword out of its scabbard and made off. A mortal blow was dealt to the poor French man; swords were drawn on all sides; and Walker calling on his men to put spurs and ride, galloped for his life towards our troops, now drawn up within sight, about half a mile away. The party was pursued by cavalry, and fired on by Tartar infantry and guns in succe ion; but they reached our lines alive, with one horse severely, and two men slightly, wounded. An immediate advance was made by the Allied forces; the enemy were speedily driven from their guns, and their cavalry was swept away by succe ive charges of our horse. All their guns, seventy-five in number, their camps, and quantities of arms, were captured by our troops, who occupied for the night the walled town of Chan-kya-wan, which gave its name to the battle. That place is twelve miles from Pekin, in a direct line, and four from Tung-chow, which is the port of Pekin on the Peiho; and lies to the right of the direct road from Tientsin. But the victory did not lead, as we had fondly hoped, to the immediate recovery of the prisoners, victims of treachery so dark as to have been unsuspected even by the experienced and wary Parkes. The night before the foul plot was carried out, the Prince of Ee had entertained our people at dinner, and, smiling, had bidden them adieu. An officer, deputed by the Prince, attended the party in the morning, and it was perhaps not unnatural for Parkes to believe that he could induce the Prince to countermand the movement of troops which he then saw, and which he supposed to be unknown to the High Commi ioner. The Prince’s reception of Parkes, of course, dispelled this expectation, and no time was lost in returning to camp. Even then there was no appearance of immediate danger to the party, unle from po ible excitement of the rude soldiery through whom they had to pa ; for both Chinese and Tartars had up to this time invariably shown the fullest confidence in the protection of flags of truce, under which officers had frequently pa ed between the Allied and Chinese camps during the war then waging. The soldiers, however, po e ed that reverence for the emblem of peace which animates most other savages; and it was at the hands of San-ko-lin-tzin, the commander-in-Chief of the Chinese army, and the apostle of competitive examination, that the Chinese Government was degraded to the last degree by the deliberate violation of a flag of truce, and by the capture of the heralds whom it should have shielded. Having ascertained that a considerable force of Tartars was encamped between Tung-chow and Pekin, Sir Hope Grant advanced on the 21st September to attack their position. Again the Tartars were completely beaten, their camps and guns all captured, and great lo inflicted on the enemy by our cavalry. The King’s Dragoon Guards made a capital charge; and a squadron of Fane’s horse, under Lieutenant Cattley, attached for the day to the French, after driving the enemy into a village, galloped quickly round it, and falling on the enemy’s flank, as he emerged on the other side, inflicted signal punishment. The number of Tartar troops on or about the field this day is estimated at 80,000 men, of whom 30,000 were actually engaged. The allied forces numbered 6200—viz., English, 3200 of all arms, and fifteen guns; and French, 3000, with twelve guns. The action of Pā-li-chow left us in po e ion of the important strategic point called the Pā-li bridge, whereby the paved causeway from Tung-chow to Pekin cro es the canal constructed between those places. It further gave us the line of the canal on which the enemy had rested, and left the approach to Pekin open to our troops. Our succe was immediately followed by a letter from the Prince Koung, brother of the Emperor, and heir to the throne, announcing to the Amba adors that he had been appointed, with full powers, to conclude a peace, in the room of Prince Tsai. After the fight of the 18th, Sir Hope Grant had sent an expre to summon General Napier, with as much of the 2nd division as could be spared from Tientsin. The General had already succeeded in procuring from the Chinese authorities carriage for his troops, which the Commi ariat was unable to furnish. The order found them ready to move, and General Napier reached headquarters on the 24th, having marched seventy miles in sixty hours, with a supply of ammunition, which was much required, escorted by a company of Brown low’s light-footed Punjabees. The army halted in the position it had won until siege guns had arrived by water from Tientsin; fourteen days’ supply had been brought up the river, and all available troops had been collected. The force in front was strengthened by all the infantry of the garrison of Tientsin, which was replaced by the 19th Punjab Infantry from Tahlien Bay, and by marines, whom the Admiral landed from the fleet. Advancing from Pā-li on the 6th October, the British took up position on the northern road leading from the gates of Pekin to Tartary, without falling in with any of the enemy, except a picket, which retired with precipitation. The French who were to have operated on the left between our flank and Pekin, marched, through some misunderstanding, acro our rear, and took po e ion of the imperial palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen, “the Fountain of Summer,” six miles to the North of Pekin, and four miles away to our right. We heard nothing of them all night; but Sir Hope Grant found them the next morning, when arrangements were made for the division between the two forces of the treasures which the palace contained. But in the absence of any British troops the arrangements broke through, and our prize agents, finding the principal valuables appropriated by the French, abandoned their functions. Thereupon on the 8th indiscriminate plunder was allowed; but as of the British a few officers only had acce to the palace, and none of the men, our officers were ultimately desired to give up all they had brought away, and the property they had collected was ultimately sold by auction for the benefit of the troops actually present in the field before Pekin. A most spirited sale ensued of china, enamels, jade, furs, silk, ., which realised £5000; and this sum, added to the amount of gold and silver bullion which had been brought in, enabled the prize agents at once to make a distribution amongst the troops, ranging from £3 for a private soldier, to £60 for a first-cla field officer. All our generals surrendered their shares to the troops. The arrangement made was perhaps the fairest that could be arrived at under the actual circumstances of the time; but of a booty worth at least a million of money, belonging to the imperial crown—therefore prize of the fairest character—the British troops have profited only to the amount of £25,000. The balance has gone to the French, who take the broadest view of the question of halves, or to the Chinese peasantry, who plundered as they pleased, after the departure of the French, on the third day of occupation. On the 8th October, the first-fruits of our advance on Pekin were realised, in the surrender to us, by the Chinese, of Me rs. Parkes and Loch, and the Sikh orderly who had been taken with them. A French savant and three men were given up at the same time. Our poor fellows looked wonderfully well; but M. d’Escayrae’s hands were still contorted by the pre ure to which they had been subjected during the twenty hours in which he was bound. The delivery of prisoners was the direct result of an intimation sent to the Chinese, on the 7th October, that unle all the prisoners still in their hands were delivered up immediately, a gate of the city placed in our po e ion without opposition, and competent persons deputed to conclude a peace, Pekin would be taken by a ault; but if all the prisoners were given up, our troops would not be allowed to enter the city, and the lives and property of the inhabitants should be respected. Saturday, the 13th October, at noon, was the period fixed on for compliance with our demands. Before the time elapsed, eleven of our Sikh horsemen who had been prisoners, were delivered up alive, and the remains of all who had perished (save poor Brabazon and the Abbé), were received in coffins. On the 17th they were buried in the Ru ian cemetery, with all the honour and solemnity that could be paid. The Amba adors of England, France, and Ru ia, the Commanders-in-Chief, and the allied officers not on duty, attended. The Roman Catholic and Greek prelates showed, by their presence, generous sympathy in the untimely fate of our countrymen. But as the complete fulfilment of the demands was still uncertain, batteries were erected against the city wall at a distance of 150 yards, by the British and French respectively, and arrangements were made for opening fire at noon of the 13th, if the gate was not by that time given up. Every one agreed in hoping that you sands of inoffensive people might be spared the misery of an a ault; but the 2nd Division must have felt something like a pang when, at the appointed hour, they saw their General ride with an escort through the gate, and found, by the display of the ensign from its top, that the Tartars had surrendered to us the command of the Imperial city. Yes, we were there, masters of the capital of China—at the very end of the map of the world—at the point which appears to schoolboy minds the limit of creation. We held the ma ive four-storied keep which frowns like a line-of-battle ship above the Gate of Peace; our troops and field artillery were actually on the walls which commanded the whole of the interior of the city, and they could move to any point along the fifty feet road which the summit of the wall presents. The walls and gates adjoining, together with some few larger double-storied buildings, were the only objects visible from our position varying the universal dun-colour of the city houses and enclosing walls. The broad street which leads from our gate into the city was packed with a dense crowd, anxious to make out the foreigners, and indulging in sonorous “Ei Yaws” at every novelty which met their wondering eyes. Electrified indeed were the Celestials when the bands of a French regiment, and of our 67th and 99th, struck up within the gateway, and guards presented their clanging arms as the Generals rode by; but the climax was reached when Des borough’s guns were spurted up the steep stone ramps which lead from the base to the summit of the wall, fifty feet in height, drawn by six horses of fabulous stature, and driven by the terrible barbarians who eat their enemies. The surrender was carried out in good faith; but the appearance on the walls of guns of heavy calibre, evidently recently moved into positions whence our batteries were observed, spoke either of divided counsels or of tardy resignation on the part of our enemies. Still our succe was insufficient. No retribution had been exacted for the violation of the flag of truce, and for the murder of our countrymen, and no one seemed to feel certain whether a treaty was to be obtained or not. It was usele to demand the surrender of the persons who had instigated the barbarous treatment of the prisoners, for they were known to be very near the person of the Emperor, and there was therefore no chance of our getting the real offenders. An atonement in money, for the iniquities perpetrated, though repugnant to our feelings, appeared to be the only kind of demand with which the Chinese Government, humiliated and beaten as it was, could be expected to comply. The readiest means of obtaining a treaty was obviously to remain at Pekin until we got it; but the French Commander refused positively to detain his troops at the capital after the 1st November, and the English General was greatly indisposed to incur the risk of keeping his force there through the winter, in the absence of complete and timely arrangements for provision ment, which it was considered the advanced period of the season rendered impracticable. Accordingly, on the 18th October, an ultimatum was addre ed by the plenipotentiaries to Prince Koung, requiring him to reply by the morning of the 20th, whether, after paying, as a nece ary preliminary to further negotiations, a sum of money in atonement for the murders committed, he would on an early day sign the convention already agreed upon? His Excellency was told that the Summer Palace, which had been partially plundered before the fate of the prisoners was known, would now be entirely destroyed, that its ruins might present a lasting mark of the abhorrence of the British Government at the violation of the law of nations which had been committed. He was also told, that in case of refusal to comply with the demands now made, the Imperial Palace of Pekin would be captured, plundered and burned. In support of the ultimatum, the 1st Division of the British force, with cavalry, proceeded on the 18th and 19th to complete the plunder and destruction of the Summer Palace, whose smoke, driven by the northerly wind, hung over Pekin, whilst its ashes were wafted into the very streets of the capital. The French declined to take any part in this act of punishment—first, because they thought the palace had already been destroyed on their quitting it; and further, they feared that this demonstration would frighten the Chinese out of all hope of making any treaty at all. The result showed that not one-fourth of the Imperial pavilions which constitute the Summer Palace had been even visited in the first instance, much le burned; and great booty was acquired by the troops employed as well as by the members of the emba y, navy, and staff, who were able to accompany the force. And so salutary was the effect produced on the advisers of the Imperial crown, that a letter acceding to all demands was received at daylight on the 20th, to the renewed disappointment of the 2nd Division, who again were under arms for the a ault. On the 22nd, the atonement-money, amounting to £100,000, was paid; and on the 24th, her Majesty’s Plenipotentiary, accompanied by the Commander-in-Chief, and escorted by a division of the army, entered in state and triumph the gates of the dim, mysterious city. The Amba ador was received by a deputation of Mandarins, who accompanied Lord Elgin to the hall, three miles distant, at the far side of the Tartar city, where the Prince Koung, surrounded by the principal officers of state, awaited his arrival. At five o’clock that afternoon, ratifications of the treaty of 1858 were duly exchanged by the representatives of the sovereigns, and a convention signed, which, commencing with a recital of the Emperor’s regret at the occurrences at the Peiho Forts in 1858, declares Tientsin a free port, and thereby opens the Peiho to within seventy miles of Pekin for the traffic of the world. The provisions of the convention permit free emigration of Chinese, with their wives and families, to all parts of the world, and transfer a territory at Cowloon, opposite Hong Kong, where our troops were encamped in 1860, to the British Crown. An indemnity of three millions sterling to the British is guaranteed; and stipulation is made for the establishment of a British force at Tientsin, until the terms are fulfilled. A portion of the indemnity is to be paid 31st, December, 1860, whereon Chusan is to be evacuated by the English and French troops. But no provision is made for the evacuation of Canton, to which the French are at present understood to be disinclined to agree. The remainder of the indemnity is to be paid by periodical instalments of one-fifth of the gro revenue of the customs of China. After signing the convention, Lord Elgin expre ed a hope that the treaty would inaugurate friendly relations between the powers. Prince Koung replied that he himself had been about to utter the same words; and acknowledging that foreign affairs had hitherto been greatly mismanaged, observed, that as their administration was now exclusively placed in his hands, he had no doubt their future management would be more satisfactory. The Franco-Chinese treaty was ratified by Baron Gros and the Prince Koung on the following day.”