preferred the loss to which I have referred, to the continuance of a
state of things in which the Allied troops were plundering the
inhabitants.

_January 24th._--Baron Gros and I were conversing together yesterday
on affairs in this quarter, and among other things he told me that we
were both much reproached for our laxity, and that I was more blamed
on that account than he. I said to him: 'I can praise you on many
accounts, my dear Baron, but I cannot compliment you on being a
greater brute than I am.'

Whatever was the feeling of the British residents, and whatever excuses may
be made for it, the consistent humanity shown both in the taking and in the
occupation of the city did not fail to strike Mr. Reed, the Plenipotentiary
of the United States, who wrote to Lord Elgin: 'I cannot omit this
opportunity of most sincerely congratulating you on the success at Canton,
the great success of a bloodless victory, the merit of which, I am sure, is
mainly due to your Lordship's gentle and discreet counsels. My countrymen
will, I am sure, appreciate it.' 'This,' observes Lord Elgin, from the
representative of the United States, is gratifying both personally and
politically.'

_January 28th._--I am glad to say that this mail conveys, on the
whole, a satisfactory report of the progress of affairs, though this
letter puts you in possession of all the ebbs and flows which have
taken place during the fortnight. I send a leaf of geranium, which I
culled in the garden of the Tartar general.

[Sidenote: Canton prisons.]

_January 31st._--I visited yesterday two of the Canton prisons, and
witnessed there some sights of horror beyond what I could have
pictured to myself. Many of the inmates were so reduced by disease and
starvation, that their limbs were not as thick as my wrist. One man
who was in this condition was in the receptacle for untried prisoners,
and said he had been there seven years. In one of the courts which we
entered, there was a cell closed in by a double row of upright posts,
which is the common style of gate at Canton, and I was attracted to it
by the groans of its inmates. I desired it to be opened, and such a
spectacle as it presented! The prisoners were covered with sores,
produced by severe beatings; one was already dead, and the rats,--but
I cannot go further in description. The others could hardly crawl,