d prospects, and so bold an assumption
of responsibility. Proofs were not wanting afterwards that the sacrifice
was appreciated by the Queen and the country; but these were necessarily
deferred, and it was all the more gratifying, therefore, to Lord Elgin to
receive, at the time and on the spot, the following cordial expressions of
approval from a distinguished public servant, with whom he was himself but
slightly acquainted--Sir H. Ward, then Governor of Ceylon:--

"You may think me impertinent in volunteering an opinion upon what in the
first instance only concerns you and the Queen and Lord Canning. But having
seen something of public life during a great part of my own, which is now
fast verging into the "sere and yellow leaf," I may venture to say that I
never knew a nobler thing than that which you have done in preferring the
safety of India to the success of your Chinese negotiations. If I know
anything of English public opinion, this single act will place you higher,
in general estimation as a statesman, than your whole past career,
honourable and fortunate as it has been. For it is not every man who would
venture to alter the destination of a force upon the despatch of which a
Parliament has been dissolved, and a Government might have been superseded.
It is not every man who would consign himself for many months to political
inaction in order simply to serve the interests of his country. You have
set a bright example at a moment of darkness and calamity; and, if India
can be saved, it is to you that we shall owe its redemption, for nothing
short of the Chinese expedition could have supplied the means of holding
our ground until further reinforcements are received."

For the time the disappointment was great. His occupation was gone, and
with it all hope of a speedy end to his labours. Six weary months he
waited, powerless to act and therefore powerless to negotiate, and feeling
that every week's delay tended to aggravate the difficulties of the
situation in China.

_Singapore.--June 5th._--It is, of course, difficult to conjecture how
this Indian business may affect us in China, and I shall await our
next news from India with no little anxiety. Await it, I say, for
there is no prospect of my getting on from here at present. There is
no word of the 'Shannon' and till she arrives I am a fixture.

[Sidenote: Convict establishment.]

_June 6th._--This morning the Governor took me on foot t