see it again. Two months I have been there--engaged in this
painful service--checking, as I have best been able to do, the
disposition to maltreat this unfortunate people.... On the whole I
think I have been successful. There never was a Chinese town which
suffered so little by the occupation of a hostile force; and
considering the difficulties which our alliance with the French
(though I have had all support from Gros, in so far as he can give it)
has occasioned, it is a very signal success. The good people at Hong-
Kong, &c., do not know whether to be incredulous or disgusted at this
policy.... I am told a parcel of ridiculous stories about arming of
Braves, &c. I heard that in the western suburb the people 'looked ill-
natured,' so I have been the greater part of my two last days in that
suburb, looking in vain into faces to discover these menacing
indications. Yesterday I walked through very out-of-the-way streets
and crowded thoroughfares with Wade and two sailors, through thousands
and thousands, without a symptom of disrespect.... I know that our
people for a long time used to insist on every Chinaman they met
taking his hat off. Of course it rather astonished a respectable
Chinese shopkeeper to be poked in the ribs by a sturdy sailor or
soldier, and told, in bad Chinese or in pantomime, to take off his
hat, which is a thing they never do, and which is not with them even a
mark of respect. I only mention this as an instance of the follies
which people commit when they know nothing of the manners of those
with whom they have to deal.... We are steaming down to Hong-Kong on a
beautiful fresh morning. I feel as if I was a step on my way home.

At Hong-Kong he remained nearly a fortnight, that his ship might be fitted
to go to the North: his letter for Pekin being sent on, in the meantime, to
Shanghae, by the hands of his secretary, Mr. Oliphant.[1]

_February 26th._--To-morrow this letter goes, and still no mail from
England. I think of starting in a few days, and calling at the other
ports--Foochow, Amoy, and Ningpo. I have a line from Oliphant, who
took up my letter to Shanghae, and made a quick though rough passage.
We shall be a good deal longer on the way, and my captain advises me
to be off, to anticipate the equinox. I have just written a despatch
to Lord Clarendon, to tell him that perh