l parties alike
regarded as marked out at once by character and ability, and by previous
experience. On the 17th of April, 1860, Lord Russell, who was then Foreign
Secretary, wrote officially to Lord Elgin that 'Her Majesty, resolved to
employ every means calculated to establish peace with the Emperor of China,
had determined to call upon him again to give his valuable services to
promote this important object, and had signified her intention of
appointing him to proceed to China as her Ambassador Extraordinary to deal
with these matters.' His instructions were necessarily of the vaguest.
After touching upon some of the awkward contingencies that might arise,
Lord Russell proceeded: 'In these circumstances your 'Lordship and your
enlightened colleague, Baron Gros, will be required to exercise those
personal qualities of firmness and discretion which have induced Her
Majesty and her Ally to place their confidence in you and the French
Plenipotentiary.' The only conditions named as indispensable were, (1) an
apology for the attack on the Allied forces at the Peiho; (2) the
ratification and execution of the Treaty of Tientsin; (3) the payment of an
indemnity to the Allies for the expenses of naval and military
preparations.

To be called away from the happy home which he so rarely enjoyed and
enlightened, and to be sent out again to the ends of the world on such a
service, was no light sacrifice even to his patriotic spirit; and the
feeling of this was perhaps aggravated by the half-hope cherished during
the first few weeks, that any day he might be met by tidings that the
Chinese had made the required concessions, and that the affair was settled.
The following extracts from his Journal reflect something of this.

[Sidenote: Gloomy prospects.]

_Sunday, April 29th.--Off Sardinia._--So much for my chronicle; but I
write it with a certain feeling of repugnance and self-reproach. It
was very well on the occasion of my first voyage, when I wished to
share with you whatever charm the novelty of the scenes through which
I was passing might supply to mitigate the pain of our separation. But
this time there is no such pretext for the record of our daily
progress. I am going through scenes which I have visited before, on an
errand of which the issue is almost more than doubtful. When I see my
friend Gros I feel myself doubly guilty, in having consented to
undertake this task, and thus compe