d troubled days, is naturally
imperfect. One brief entry sums up his feeling on the main subject.

_Camp near Pekin.--October 14th_.--We have dreadful news respecting
the fate of some of our captured friends. It is an atrocious crime,
and, not for vengeance, but for future security, ought to be severely
dealt with.

[Sidenote: Burning of the Summer Palace.]

The form which the retribution took is well known. The Palace of Yuen-ming-
yuen, the Summer-palace of the Emperor, the glory and boast of the Chinese
Empire, was levelled with the ground.

The reasons which led Lord Elgin to decide upon this act are fully stated
in a despatch dated the 25th of October. After dwelling on the necessity of
inflicting some punishment at once severe and swift, that should leave
Pekin untouched (for he had engaged not to harm the city) and should fall
specially on the Emperor, who was personally responsible for the crimes
that had been committed, he goes on to discuss the different courses that
were open to him. He might inflict a fine; but it could not be exacted
except by appropriating a further portion of the Chinese revenue, already
seriously trenched upon by our previous demands. Or he might require the
surrender of the individuals guilty of violating the flag of truce: but if
he named no one, some miserable subordinates would be given up; if he
specified the real culprit, Sang-ko-lin-sin, the demand would infallibly be
refused and could not be enforced. Dismissing these alternatives he
proceeds:--

Having, to the best of my judgment, examined the question in all its
bearings, I came to the conclusion that the destruction of Yuen-ming-
yuen was the least objectionable of the several courses open to me,
unless I could have reconciled it to my sense of duty to suffer the
crime which had been committed to pass practically unavenged. I had
reason, moreover, to believe that it was an act which was calculated
to produce a greater effect in China, and on the Emperor, than persons
who look on from a distance may suppose.

It was the Emperor's favourite residence, and its destruction could
not fail to be a blow to his pride as well as to his feelings. To this
place he brought our hapless countrymen, in order that they might
undergo their severest tortures within its precincts. Here have been
found the horses and accoutrements of the troopers seized, the
decorations