with something of a satisfactory report, we are by no means, I fear,
yet out of the wood. I took a long walk in the city of Canton
yesterday. I visited the West Gate, where I found a stream of people
moving outwards, and was told by the officer that this goes on from
morning to night. They say, when asked, that they are going out of
town to celebrate the New Year, but my belief is that they are flying
from us. The streets were full, and the people civil. Quantities of
eating stalls, but a large proportion of the shops still shut. As we
got near the wall in our own occupation, some people ran up to us
complaining that they had been robbed. We went into the houses and saw
clearly enough the signs of devastation. I have no doubt, from the
description, that the culprits were French sailors. If this goes on
one fortnight after we have captured the town, when is it to stop?...
It is very difficult to remedy.... Nothing could, I believe, be worse
than our own sailors, but they are now nearly all on board ship, and
we have the resource of the _Cat_.... All this is very sad, but I am
not yet quite at the end of my tether. If things do not mend within a
few days I shall startle my colleagues by proposing to abandon the
town altogether, giving reasons for it which will enable me to state
on paper all these points. No human power shall induce me to accept
the office of oppressor of the feeble.

[Sidenote: A sober population.]
[Sidenote: Maintenance of order.]

_January 20th._--I hinted at my ideas as to the evacuation of the
city, and it has had an excellent effect.... There is a notable
progress towards quiet in the city. Still, I fear the tide of
emigration is going on. Parkes is exerting himself with considerable
effect, and he is really very clever. There were a great many more
shops open in the streets yesterday than I had seen before.... What a
thing it is to have to deal with a sober population! I have wandered
about the streets of Canton for some seven or eight days since the
capture, and I have not seen one drunken man. In any Christian town we
should have had numbers of rows by this time arising out of
drunkenness, however cowed the population might have been. The
Tribunal convicted a Chinaman the other day for selling 'samshoo' to
the soldiers. I requested Parkes to hand him over to the