hand no movement to treat. This passivity is, of course, our danger,
and it is one which slowness on our part tends to increase. However,
we must hope for the best.

[Sidenote: On the Peiho.]
[Sidenote: Tientsin.]

_Yamun, Tientsin.--May 30th._--Only look at my date, does it not
astonish you? I hardly yet realise to myself where I am. I started at
about 4.30 P.M. yesterday from the 'Furious,' crossed the bar, at the
forts at the entrance of the river, picked up Gros and the French
mission, whose vessel could not get on, and moved on to this place.
The night was lovely--a moon nearly full. The banks, perfectly flat
and treeless at first, became fringed with mud villages, silent as the
grave, and trees standing like spectres over the stream. There we went
ceaselessly on through this silvery silence, panting and breathing
flame. Through the night-watches, when no Chinaman moves, when the
junks cast anchor, we laboured on, cutting ruthlessly and recklessly
through the waters of that glancing and startled river, which, until
within the last few weeks, no stranger keel had ever furrowed! Whose
work are we engaged in, when we burst thus with hideous violence and
brutal energy into these darkest and most mysterious recesses of the
traditions of the past? I wish I could answer that question in a
manner satisfactory to myself. At the same time, there is certainly
not much to regret in the old civilisation which we are thus
scattering to the winds. A dense population, timorous and pauperised,
such would seem to be its chief product. I passed most of the night on
deck, and at about 4 A.M. we reached a point in the centre of the
suburb of Tientsin, at which the Great Canal joins the Tientsin or
Peiho river. There I found the Admirals, Frederick, &c. Frederick had
got this yamun for us, half of which I have had to give to my French
colleague. It consists of a number of detached rooms, scattered about
a garden. I have installed myself in the joss-house, my bedroom being
on one side, and my sitting-room on the other, of the idol's altar. We
have a letter informing us that the Emperor has named two great
Officers of State to come here and treat, and our Admirals are in very
good humour, so that matters look well for the present.

_June 1st._--I found my joss-house so gloomy and low, that I have
ret