Kweiliang who had conducted the negotiations in 1858--in a
formal despatch gave a positive assurance that the Treaty of Tientsin
should be faithfully observed, and that all the demands hitherto made
should be conceded in full. A draft of convention was accordingly prepared
on this basis; but, when it came to the point, Kweiliang and his colleagues
declared that they had no authority to sign it without referring to Pekin;
and it became obvious that he either did not possess, or did not at that
moment wish it to be supposed that he possessed, powers equal to those
which he held in 1858, although his previous language had been calculated
to convey the opposite impression.

[Sidenote: Broken off.]

Here was clearly a deliberate design to create delay, with the view of
dragging on negotiations into the winter. It was indispensable, Lord Elgin
thought, to check this policy by an act of vigour; and accordingly, with
the concurrence of Baron Gros, he intimated to the Imperial Commissioners
that, in consequence of the want of good faith exhibited by them in
assuming the title of Plenipotentiaries when they could not exercise the
authority which it implied, and of the delays which the alleged necessity
of constant reference to Pekin would occasion, he had determined to proceed
at once to Tung-chow, in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital, and to
enter into no further negotiations with them until he should have reached
that place.

_September 8th._--I am at war again! My idiotical Chinamen have taken
to playing tricks, which give me an excellent excuse for carrying the
army on to Pekin. It would be a long affair to tell you all the ins
and outs, but I am sure from what has come to pass during the last few
days, that we must get nearer Pekin before the Government there comes
to its senses. The blockheads have gone on negotiating with me just
long enough to enable Grant to bring all his army up to this point.
Here we are, then, with our base established in the heart of the
country, in a capital climate, with abundance around us, our army in
excellent health, and these stupid people give me a snub, which
obliges me to break with them. No one knows whether our progress is to
be a fight or an ovation, for in this country nothing can be foreseen.
I think it better that the olive-branch should advance with the sword.
I am afraid that this change in the programme--a hostile in