[Sidenote: Farewell to Quebec.]
I wish I could address you in such strains as I have sometimes
employed on similar occasions, strains suited to a festive meeting;
but I confess I have a weight on my heart, and that it is not in me to
be merry. For the last time I stand before you in the official
character which I have borne for nearly eight years. For the last time
I am surrounded by a circle of friends with whom I have spent some of
the most pleasant days of my life. For the last time I welcome you as
my guests to this charming residence which I have been in the habit of
calling my home.[13] I did not, I will frankly confess it, know what
it would cost me to break this habit, until the period of my departure
approached; and I began to feel that the great interests which have so
long engrossed my attention and thoughts, were passing out of my
hands. I had a hint of what my feelings really were upon this point--a
pretty broad hint too--one lovely morning in June last, when I
returned to Quebec after my temporary absence in England, and landed
in the Coves below Spencerwood (because it was Sunday, and I did not
want to make a disturbance in the town), and when with the greetings
of the old people in the Coves who put their heads out of the windows
as I passed along, and cried 'Welcome home again,' still ringing in my
ears, I mounted the hill and drove through the avenue to the house
door. I saw the dropping trees on the lawn, with every one of which I
was so familiar, clothed in the tenderest green of spring, and the
river beyond, calm and transparent as a mirror, and the ships fixed
and motionless as statues on its surface, and the whole landscape
bathed in a flood of that bright Canadian sun which so seldom pierces
our murky atmosphere on the other side of the Atlantic. I began to
think that persons were to be envied who were not forced by the
necessities of their position to quit these engrossing interests and
lovely scenes, for the purpose of proceeding to distant lands, but who
are able to remain among them until they pass to that quiet corner of
the Garden of Mount Hermon, which juts into the river and commands a
view of the city, the shipping, Point Levi, the Island of Orleans, and
the range of Lawrentine; so that through the dim watches of that
tranquil night, which precedes the dawning of the eternal day, the
majestic citadel of Quebec, with its noble train of satellite hills,
may seem to rest for ever on the sight, and the low murmur of the
waters of St. Lawrence, with the hum of busy life on their surface, to
fall ceaselessly on the ear. I cannot bring myself to believe that the
future has in store for me any interests which will fill the place of
those I am now abandoning. But although I must henceforward be to you
as a stranger, although my official connection with you and your
interests will have become in a few days matter of history, yet I
trust that through some one channel or another, the tidings of your
prosperity and progress may occasionally reach me; that I may hear
from time to time of the steady growth and development of those
principles of liberty and order, of manly independence in combination
with respect for authority and law, of national life in harmony with
British connection, which it has been my earnest endeavour, to the
extent of my humble means of influence, to implant and to establish. I
trust, too, that I shall hear that this house continues to be what I
have ever sought to render it, a neutral territory, on which persons
of opposite opinions, political and religious, may meet together in
harmony and forget their differences for a season. And I have good
hope that this will be the case for several reasons, and, among
others, for one which I can barely allude to, for it might be an
impertinence in me to dwell upon it. But I think that without any
breach of delicacy or decorum I may venture to say that many years
ago, when I was much younger than I am now, and when we stood towards
each other in a relation somewhat different from that which has
recently subsisted between us, I learned to look up to Sir Edmund Head
with respect, as a gentleman of the highest character, the greatest
ability, and the most varied accomplishments and attainments.[14] And
now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have only to add the sad word Farewell. I
drink this bumper to the health of you all, collectively and
individually. I trust that I may hope to leave behind me some who will
look back with feelings of kindly recollection to the period of our
intercourse; some with whom I have been on terms of immediate official
connection, whose worth and talents I have had the best means of
appreciating, and who could bear witness, at least, if they please to
do so, to the spirit, intentions, and motives with which I have
administered your affairs; some with whom I have been bound by the
ties of personal regard. And if reciprocity be essential to enmity,
then most assuredly I can leave behind me no enemies. I am aware that
there must be persons in so large a society as this, who think that
they have grievances to complain of, that due consideration has not in
all cases been shown to them. Let them believe me, and they ought to
believe me, for the testimony of a dying man is evidence, even in a
court of justice, let them believe me, then, even I assure them, in
this the last hour of my agony, that no such errors of omission or
commission have been intentional on my part. Farewell, and God bless
you.

*       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: At home.]

The two years which followed Lord Elgin's return from Canada were a time of
complete rest from official labour. For though, on the breaking up of Lord
Aberdeen's Ministry in the spring of 1855, he was offered by Lord
Palmerston the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the
Cabinet, he declined the offer, not on any ground of difference from the
new Ministry, which he intended to support; but because, having only
recently taken his seat in the House of Lords, after a long term of foreign
service, during which he had necessarily held aloof from home politics, he
thought it advisable, for the present at least, to remain independent. He
found, however, ample and congenial occupation for his time in the peaceful
but industrious discharge of home duties at Broomhall. Still his thoughts
were constantly with the distant Provinces in which he had laboured so
long.

Whenever he appeared in public, whether at a dinner given in his honour at
Dunfermline, or on occasion of receiving the freedom of the city of
Glasgow, or in delivering a lecture at the annual opening of the Edinburgh
Philosophical Institute--it was with the same desire of turning to account
the knowledge gained abroad, for the advantage of the Colonies, or of the
mother-country, or for the mutual benefit of both; with the same hope of
drawing closer the bonds of union between them, and dispelling something of
that cloud of ignorance and indifference which has often made the public
opinion of Great Britain a hindrance rather than a support to the best
interests of her dependencies.

[Sidenote: In the House of Lords.]

It was only very rarely that he took any part in the business of
legislation; and of the two occasions on which he was induced to break
silence, one was when the interests of Canada appeared to him to be
imperilled by the rumoured intention of Government to send thither large
bodies of troops that had just returned from the Crimea. He thought it his
duty to protest earnestly against any such proceeding, as likely, in the
first place, to complicate the relations of Canada with the United States,
and, in the second place, to arrest her progress in self-dependence.

[Sidenote: Crimean War.]

The other occasion of his speaking was in May 1855, when Lord Ellenborough
had moved an Address to the Crown, condemnatory of the manner in which the
Crimean War had been and was being conducted. Having been out of England
when hostilities were begun, he had not to consider the question whether it
was a glorious, or even a necessary, war in which we were engaged; and his
one feeling on the subject was that which he had previously expressed to
the citizens of Glasgow.

My opinion (he then said) [on the question of the war] I can easily
state, and I have no hesitation in avowing it. I say that now we are
in the war, we must fight it out like men. I don't say, throw away the
scabbard; in the first place, because I dislike all violent metaphors;
and, in the second place, because the scabbard is a very useful
instrument, and the sooner we can use it the better. But I do say,
having drawn the sword, don't sheathe it until the purpose for which
it was drawn is accomplished.

In the same spirit he now defended the Ministry against Lord Ellenborough's
attack; not on party grounds, which he took pains to repudiate, but on what
he conceived to be the true patriotic principle--viz. to strengthen, at
such a time, the hands of the existing Government, unless there be a
distinct prospect of replacing it by a stronger.

After mentioning that he had not long before informed Lord Palmerston, that
'while he was resolved to maintain an independent position in Parliament,
it was nevertheless his desire and intention, subject to that qualification
and reserve, to support the Government,' he proceeded:

I formed this resolution not only because I had reason to believe that
on questions of public policy my sentiments would generally be found
to be in accordance with those of the present Government, nor yet only
because I felt I owed to the noble Viscount himself, and many at least
of his colleagues, a debt of obligation for the generous support they
uniformly gave me at critical periods in the course of my foreign
career; but also, and principally, because in the critical position in
which this country was placed--at a time when we had only recently
presented to the astonished eye of Europe the discreditable spectacle
of a great country left for weeks without a Government, and a popular
and estimable Monarch left without councillors, during a period of
great national anxiety and peril; when there was hardly a household in
England where the voice of wailing was not to be heard, or an eye
which was not heavy with a tear--it appeared to me, I say, under such
circumstances, to be the bounden duty of every patriotic man, who had
not some very valid and substantial reason to assign for adopting a
contrary course, to tender a frank and generous support to the
Government of the Queen.

Having come to that determination, he had now to ask himself whether
circumstances were so altered as to make it his duty to revoke the pledge
spontaneously given? To this conclusion he could not bring himself.

It seems to me (he said) these Resolutions divide themselves naturally
into two parts. The first part has reference to what I may call the
general policy of the Government with respect to the war; and that
portion of them is conceived in strains of eulogy and commendation--I
may almost say in strains of exultation. The Resolutions speak of firm
alliances, of brotherhood in arms, of a sympathetic and enthusiastic
people; but not a word of regret for national friendships of old
standing broken--desolation carried into thousands of happy
homes--Europe in arms--Asia agitated and febrile--America sullenly
expectant.

This exuberance of exultation, he said, was amply met by the exuberance of
denunciation which characterises the latter part of the Address; but it was
to his mind even less just than the former.

But even (he continued) if I could bring myself to believe, which I
have failed in doing, that censure might be passed in the terms of
these Resolutions upon Her Majesty's present Government without
injustice, I should still be unwilling to concur in them, unless I
could find some better security than either the Resolutions themselves
afford, or, as I regret to be obliged to add, the antecedents and
recorded sentiments of Noble Lords opposite afford, that by bringing
about the change of administration which these Resolutions are
intended to promote, I should be doing a benefit to the public
service. My Lords, I cannot but think that at a time when it is most
important that the Government of this country should have weight and
influence abroad, frequent changes of administration are _primâ
facie_ most objectionable. I happened to be upon the Continent when
the last change of Government in this country took place; and I must
say it appeared to me, that a most painful impression was created in
foreign states with respect to the instability of the administrative
system of this country by these frequent changes of administration. I
do think, indeed, that not the least of the many calamities which this
war has brought upon us is the fact, that it has had a tendency in
many quarters to throw discredit on that constitutional system of
Government of which this country has hitherto been the type and the
bright example among the nations.

After all, what is chiefly valuable to nations as well as to
individuals, and the loss of which alone is irreparable, is character;
and it appears to me that, viewed in this light, many of the other
calamities which we have had to deplore during the course of this war
have been already accompanied by a very large and ample measure of
compensation. To take, for instance, the military departments:
notwithstanding the complaints we have heard of deficiencies in our
military organisation, I believe we can with confidence affirm, that
the character of the British soldier, both for moral qualities and for
powers of physical endurance, has been raised by the instrumentality
of this war to an elevation which it had never before attained. In
spite of the somewhat unfavourable tone which, I regret to say, has
been adopted of late by a portion of the press of America, I have
myself seen in influential journals in that country commentaries upon
the conduct of our soldiers at Alma, at Balaklava, and at Inkerman,
which no true-hearted Englishman could read without emotion: and I
have heard a tribute not less generous and not less unqualified borne
to the qualities of our troops by eminent persons belonging to that
great military nation with which we are now so happily allied. To look
to another quarter--to contemplate another class of virtues not less
essential than those to which I have referred to the happiness and
glory of nations--I have heard from enthusiastic, even bigoted,
votaries of that branch of the Christian Church which sometimes prides
itself as having alone retained in its system room for the exercise of
the heroic virtues of Christianity,--I say I have frequently heard
from them the frank admission, that the hospitals of Scutari have
proved that the fairest and choicest flowers of Christian charity and
devotion may come to perfection even in what they are pleased to call
the arid soil of Protestantism. But, my Lords, can we flatter
ourselves with the belief that the character of our statesmen, of our
public men, and of our Parliamentary institutions has risen in a like
proportion? Is it not, on the contrary, notorious that doubts have
been created in quarters where such doubts never existed before as to
the practical efficiency of our much-vaunted constitution, as to its
fitness to carry us unscathed through periods of great difficulty and
danger? I believe, my Lords, that there is one process only, but that
a sure and certain process, by which these doubts may be removed. It
is only necessary that public men, whether connected with the
Government or with the Opposition, whether tied in the bonds of party
or holding independent positions in Parliament, should evince the same
indifference to small and personal motives, the same generous
patriotism, the same disinterested devotion to duty, which have
characterised the services of our soldiers in the field, and of the
women of England at the sick-bed. And, my Lords, I cannot help asking
in conclusion, if--which God forbid--it should unhappily be proved
that, in those whom fortune, or birth, or royal or popular favour has
placed in the van, these qualities are wanting, who shall dare to
blame the press and the people of England, if they seek for them
elsewhere?

From the tone of this speech it will be seen that Lord Elgin had not at
this time joined either of the two parties in the State. He was, in truth,
still feeling his way through the mazes of home politics to which he had
been so long a stranger, and from which, as he himself somewhat regretfully
observed, those ancient landmarks of party had been removed, 'which, if not
a wholly sufficient guide, are yet some sort of direction to wanderers in
the political wilderness.' While he was still thus engaged, events were
happening at the other ends of the earth which were destined to divert into
quite another channel the current of his life.


[1] Mac Mullen's _History of Canada, p. 527._

[2] It Is a singular fact, as illustrating the tenacity and coherence of
the Church of Rome, that while all Protestant endowments were thus
indiscriminately swept away, no voice was raised against the
retention, by the Roman Catholic clergy, of the vast possessions left
to them by the old French capitulation.--_Mac Mullen, p. 528._

[3] Despatch of December 18, 1854.

[4] Despatch of August 16,1853

[5] Despatch of December 18, 1854.

[6] Despatch of December 18,1854. The abolition was shortly afterwards,
satisfactorily effected.

[7] Vide _supra_, p. 48.

[8] The Rebellion Losses Bill.

[9] Some years afterwards, when speaking of these festivities, the Mayor of
Buffalo said: 'Never shall I forget the admiration elicited by Lord
Elgin's beautiful speech on that occasion. Upon the American visitors
(who, it must be confessed, do not look for the highest order of
intellect in the appointees of the Crown) the effect was amusing. A
sterling Yankee friend, while the Governor was speaking, sat by my
side, who occasionally gave vent to his feelings as the speech
progressed, each sentence increasing in beauty and eloquence, by such
approving exclamations as "He's a glorious fellow! He ought to be on
our side of the line! We would make him mayor of our city!" As some
new burst of eloquence breaks from the speaker's lips, my worthy
friend exclaims, "How magnificently he talks! Yes, by George, we'd
make him governor--governor of the state!" As the noble Earl, by some
brilliant hit, carries the assemblage with a full round of applause,
"Ah!" cries my Yankee friend, with a hearty slap on my shoulder, "by
Heaven, if he were on our side, we'd make  him President--nothing less
than President!"'

[10] The report of his words is obviously imperfect, but their substance is
probably given with sufficient accuracy.

[11] The great abilities of Sir F. Bruce, and the nobility of his
character, fitted him in a singular manner for this post. He died
suddenly at Boston, on September 19, 1867, too early for extended
fame, but not unrecognised as a public servant of rare value. The
_Times_, which announced his death, after commenting on the
calamitous fate by which, 'within a period of four years, the nation
had lost the services of three members of one family, each endowed
with eminent qualifications for the important work to which they
severally devoted their lives,' proceeded thus with regard to the
youngest of the three brothers. 'The country would have had much.
reason to deplore the death of Sir Frederick Bruce whenever it had
happened; but his loss is an especial misfortune at a time when,
negotiations of the utmost intricacy and delicacy are pending with a
Government which is not always disposed to approach Great Britain in a
spirit of generosity and forbearance. Seldom has a citizen of another
country visited the United States who possessed so keen an insight
into the political working of the Great Republic, and at the same time
ingratiated himself so thoroughly with every American who approached
Him.... Although naturally somewhat impulsive in temperament, he
invariable exhibited entire calmness and self-command when the
circumstances of his position led him into trial.... This
imperturbable temperament in all his official relations served him
well on many occasions, from the day when he succeeded to the
laborious duties relinquished by Lord Lyons; but never was it of
greater advantage than in the protracted and difficult controversy
concerning the Alabama claims. This discussion it fell to the lot of
Sir F. Bruce to conduct on the part of Her Majesty; and we divulge no
secret when we state that it was in accordance with the late
Minister's repeated advice and exhortations that a wise overture
towards a settlement was made by the present Government. He had
succeeded in establishing for himself relations of cordial friendship
with Mr. Seward and the President, and probably there are few outside
the circle of his own family who will be more shocked at the tidings
of his death than the astute and keen-eyed old man with whom he had
sustained incessant diplomatic fence.'

[12] It certainly was not without truth, that one of the local papers most
opposed to him remarked that 'Lord Elgin had, beyond all doubt, a
remarkable faculty of turning enemies into friends.'

[13] Spencerwood, the Governor's private residence.

[14] Sir Edmund Head, who succeeded Lord Elgin as Governor-General of
Canada in 1854, had examined him for a Merton Fellowship in 1833.
Those who knew him will recognise how singularly appropriate, in their
full force, are the terms in which he is here spoken of.




CHAPTER VII.

FIRST MISSION TO CHINA.--PRELIMINARIES.

ORIGIN OF THE MISSION--APPOINTMENT OF LORD ELGIN--MALTA--EGYPT--CEYLON--
NEWS OF THE INDIAN MUTINY--PENANG--SINGAPORE--DIVERSION OF TROOPS TO INDIA
--ON BOARD THE 'SHANNON'--HONG-KONG--CHANGE OF PLANS--CALCUTTA AND LORD
CANNING--RETURN TO CHINA--PERPLEXITIES--CAPRICES OF CLIMATE--ARRIVAL OF
BARON GROS--PREPARATION FOR ACTION.


'The earlier incidents of the political rupture with the Chinese
Commissioner Yeh, which occurred at Canton during the autumn of 1856, and
which led to the appointment of a Special Mission to China, were too
thoroughly canvassed at the time to render it necessary to renew here any
discussion on their merits, or recall at length their details. As the
"Arrow" case derived its interest then from the debates to which it gave
rise, and its effects on parties at home, rather than from any intrinsic
value of its own, so does it now mainly owe its importance to the
accidental circumstance, that it was the remote and insignificant cause
which led to a total revolution in the foreign policy of the Celestial
Empire, and to the demolition of most of those barriers which, while they
were designed to restrict all intercourse from without, furnished the
nations of the West with fruitful sources of quarrel and perpetual
grievances.'

These words form the preface to the 'Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's
Mission to China and Japan,' by Laurence Oliphant, then private secretary
to Lord Elgin. To that work we must refer our readers for a full and
complete, as well as authentic, account of the occurrences which gave
occasion to the following letters. A brief sketch only will here be given.

[Sidenote: Origin of the Mission.]

On October 8, 1856, a _lorcha_ named 'Arrow,' registered as a British
vessel, and carrying a British flag, was boarded by the authorities of
Canton, the flag torn down, and the crew carried away as prisoners. Such
was the English account. The Chinese denied that any flag was flying at the
time of the capture: the British ownership of the vessel, they maintained,
was never more than colourable, and had expired a month before: the crew
were all their own subjects, apprehended on a charge of piracy.

The English authorities refused to listen to this. They insisted on a
written apology for the insult to their flag, and the formal restitution of
the captured sailors. And when these demands were refused, or incompletely
fulfilled, they summoned the fleet, in the hope that a moderate amount of
pressure would lead to the required concessions. Shortly after, finding
arms in their hands, they thought it a good opportunity to enforce the
fulfilment of certain 'long-evaded treaty obligations,' including the right
for all foreign representatives of free access to the authorities and the
city of Canton. With this view, fort after fort, suburb after suburb, was
taken or demolished. But the Chinese, after their manner, would neither
yield nor fight; and contented themselves with offering large rewards for
the head of every Englishman.

When this state of matters was reported to England, it was brought before
the House of Commons on a motion by Mr. Cobden, condemnatory of 'the
violent measures resorted to at Canton in the late affair of the "Arrow."'
The motion, supported by Mr. Gladstone in one of his splendid bursts of
rhetoric, was carried against the Government by a majority of sixteen, in a
full and excited house, on the morning of February 26, 1857. But Lord
Palmerston refused to accept the adverse vote as expressing the will of the
people. He appealed to the constituencies, candidly telling the House that,
pending that appeal, 'there would be no change, and could be no change, in
the policy of the Government with respect to events in China.' At the same
time he intimated that a special Envoy would be sent out to supersede the
local authorities, armed with full powers to settle the relations between
England and China on a broad and solid basis.

[Sidenote: Appointment of Lord Elgin.]

But where was the man who, at a juncture so critical, in face of an adverse
vote of the House of Commons, on the chance of its being rescinded by the
country, could be trusted with so delicate a mission; who could be relied
on, in the conduct of such an expedition against a foe alike stubborn and
weak, to go far enough, and yet not too far--to carry his point, by
diplomatic skill and force of character, with the least possible
infringement of the laws of humanity; a man with the ability and resolution
to insure success, and the native strength that can afford to be merciful?
After 'anxious deliberation,' the choice of the Government fell upon Lord
Elgin.

How, on the voyage to China, he was met half-way by the news of the Indian
Mutiny; how promptly and magnanimously he took on himself the
responsibility of sacrificing the success of his own expedition by
diverting the troops from China to India; how, after many weary months of
enforced inactivity, the expedition was resumed, and carried through
numberless thwartings to a successful issue--these are matters of history
with which every reader must be acquainted. But those who are most familiar
with the events may find an interest in the following extracts from private
letters, written at the time by the chief actor in the drama. They are
taken almost exclusively from a Journal, in which his first thoughts and
impressions on every passing occurrence were hurriedly noted down, from day
to day, for transmission to Lady Elgin.

[Sidenote: Malta.]

_H.M.S. 'Caradoc'--May 2nd._--I have just returned to my ship after
spending a few hours on shore and visiting Lord Lyons in his
magnificent Prince Albert.... How beautiful Malta is with its narrow
streets, gorgeous churches, and impregnable fortifications. I landed
at about six, and walked up to the Palace, and wrote my name in the
Governor's book, who resides out of town. I then took a turn through
the town, and went to the inn to breakfast....

[Sidenote: Chance meetings.]

By way of conversation with the waiter, I asked who were in the house:
'Only two families, one of them Lord Balgonie[1] and his sisters.' I
saw the ladies first, and, at a later hour, their brother, in his bed.
Poor fellow! the hand of death is only too visibly upon him. There he
lay; his arm, absolutely fleshless, stretched out: his large eyes
gleaming from his pale face. I could not dare to offer to his broken-
hearted sisters a word of comfort. These poor girls! how I felt for
them; alone! with their brother in such a state. They go to Marseilles
by the next opportunity, probably by the packet which will convey to
you this letter, and they hope that their mother will meet them there.
What a tragedy! ... I had been _incog_. at the hotel till Sir W.
Reid[2] found me there. When the innkeeper learned who I was, he was
in despair at my having been put into so small a room, and informed me
that he was the son of an old servant at Broomhall, Hood by name, and
that he had often played with me at cricket! How curious are these
strange _rencontres_ in life! They put me in mind of Heber's image,
who says that we are like travellers journeying through a dense wood
intersected by innumerable paths: we are constantly meeting in
unexpected places, and plunging into the forest again!

[Sidenote: Alexandria.]

_Alexandria.--May 6th.--_I made up my letter last night, not knowing
how short the time of my sojourn at Alexandria might be. But at about
one in the morning I received a letter from Frederick,[3] telling me
that the steamer due at Suez had not yet arrived, that an official
reception was to be given me, and that I had better not land too
early.... Notwithstanding which, washing decks, the morning gun, and a
bright sun, broke my slumbers at an early hour, and I got up and
dressed soon after daybreak. At about 6.30 A.M. a boat of the Pacha's,
with a dignitary (who turned out to be a very gentleman-like
Frenchman), arrived, and from him I learnt that the Governor of
Alexandria, with a cortege of dignitaries and a carriage and four, was
already at the shore awaiting my arrival; but Frederick did not come
till about half-past nine, and it was nearly ten before I landed. I
was then conducted by the authorities to the palace in which I am now
writing, consisting of suites of very handsome rooms, and commanding a
magnificent view of the sea. About a dozen attendants are loitering
about and watching every movement, not curiously, but in order to
supply any possible want. At this very moment a mild-looking Turk is
peeping into my bed-room where I am writing this letter, and supposing
that I may wish to be undisturbed, has drawn a red cloth _portière_
across the open doorway. This palace, which is set apart for the
reception of distinguished strangers, is situated in the Turkish
quarter of the town, and all the houses around are inhabited by
Mussulmans. The windows are all covered with latticed wooden shutters,
through which the wretched women may, I suppose, peer as they do
through the grating at the House of Commons, but which are at least as
impermeable to the mortal eye from without. The streets are very
empty, as it is the Ramadan, during which devout Turks fast and sleep
throughout the day, and indemnify themselves by eating, drinking, and
amusing themselves all night.

_Cairo.--May 7th._--Most of yesterday afternoon was spent in drinking
coffee and smoking long pipes, two ladies partaking of the latter
enjoyment after dinner at Mr. Green's. One of them told me that she
had dined with the Princess (the Pacha's wife) a few days ago. She
went at seven and left at half-past twelve, and with the exception of
a half hour of dinner, all the rest of the time was spent in smoking
and drinking coffee. After dinner, the mother of the Pacha's only
child came in and joined the party. She was treated with a certain
consideration as being the mother of this child, although she was not
given a pipe. The Princess seemed on very good terms with her. This
child (a boy three years old) has an English nurse, and this nurse has
persuaded the Pacha to allow her to take the child to England on a
visit. The mother, who has picked up a little English from the nurse,
said to Mrs. Green, 'I am very unhappy; _young Pacha_' (her boy) 'is
going away.' The mother is no more thought of in this arrangement than
I am. What a strange system it is!... We passed through the wonderful
Delta to-day, and certainly the people looked more comfortable than
those of Alexandria. The beasts too, camels, oxen, donkeys, showed
signs of the fertility of the soil in their sleekness. What might not
be made of this country if it were wisely guided!

[Sidenote: Crossing the Desert.]

_Steamer 'Bentinck.'--Sunday, May 10th._--I write to you from the
neighbourhood of Mount Sinai, which we passed at an early hour this
morning, gliding through a sea of most transparent glass, with so
little motion that there is hardly an excuse for bad writing.... I
must, however, take you back to Cairo. We began to move at a very
early hour, about three, on Saturday (yesterday) morning. We were
actually in the railway carriages at half-past four. I was placed in a
_coupé_ before the engine, in order that I might see the road; and in
this somewhat formidable position ran over about forty miles of the
Desert in about an hour and a half. It is a wonderful sight this
strange barren expanse of stone and gravel, with here and there a
small encampment of railway labourers, after passing through the
luxuriant Valley of the Nile, teeming with production and life, animal
and vegetable. In the morning air there was a healthy freshness, which
was very delightful. At the end of our hour and a half we reached the
termination of the part of the railway which is already completed, and
embarked in two-wheeled four-horse vans (such as you see in the
_Illustrated News_), to pass over about five miles of trackless
desert, lying between the said terminus and a station on the regular
road across the Desert, at which we were to breakfast. This part of
our journey was rough work, and took us some time to execute. Our
station was really a very nice building; and while we were there a
caravan of pilgrims to Mecca, some women in front and the men
following, all mounted on their patient camels, passed by. After we
were refreshed we started for Suez; and you will hardly believe me
when I tell you, that we travelled forty-seven miles over the Desert
in a carriage as capacious and commodious as a London town coach, in
four hours and a half, including seven changes of horses and a
stoppage of half an hour. In short, we got over the ground in about
three hours and three-fourths. We had six horses to our carriage, and
a swarthy Nubian, with a capital seat on horseback, rode by us all the
way, occasionally reminding our horses that it was intended they
should go at a gallop.

[Sidenote: Retrospect of Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Egyptian ladies.]

_May 11th_.--I am glad to have had two days in Egypt. It gave one an
idea at least of that country; in some degree a painful one. I suppose
that France and England, by their mutual jealousies, will be the means
of perpetuating the abominations of the system under which that
magnificent country is ruled. They say that the Pacha's revenue is
about 4,000,000_l_., and his expenses about 2,000,000_l_.; so that he
has about 2,000,000_l_. of pocket-money. Yet I suppose that the
Fellahs, owing to their own industry, and the incomparable fertility
of the country, are not badly off as compared with the peasantry
elsewhere. We passed, at one of our stopping-places between Cairo and
Suez, part of a Turkish regiment on their way to Jeddah. These men
were dressed in a somewhat European costume, some of them with the
Queen's medal on their breasts. There was a hareem, in a sort of
omnibus, with them, containing the establishment of one of the
officers. One of the ladies dropped her veil for a moment, and I saw
rather a pretty face; almost the only Mahommedan female face I have
seen since I have reached this continent. They are much more rigorous,
it appears, with the ladies in Egypt than at Constantinople. There
they wear a veil which is quite transparent and go about shopping: but
in Egypt they seem to go very little out, and their veil completely
hides everything but the eyes. In the palace which I visited near
Cairo (and which the Pacha offered, if we had chosen to take it), I
looked through some of the grated windows allowed in the hareems, and
I suppose that it must require a good deal of practice to see
comfortably out of them. It appears that the persons who ascend to the
top of the minarets to call to prayer at the appointed hours are blind
men, and that the blind are selected for this office, lest they should
be able to look down into the hareems. That is certainly carrying
caution very far.

[Sidenote: Aden.]

_Steamship 'Bentinck,' off Socotra.--May 19th_.--I left my last
letter at Aden. We landed there at about four P.M., under a salute
from an Indian man-of-war sloop and the fort, to which latter place I
was conveyed in a carriage which the Governor sent for me. It was most
fearfully hot. The hills are rugged and grand, but wholly barren; not
a sign of vegetation, and the vertical rays of a tropical sun beating
upon them. The whole place is comprised in a drive around the hills of
some three or four miles, beyond which the inhabitants cannot stray
without the risk of being seized by the Arabs. I cannot conceive a
more dreary spot to dwell in, though the Governor assured me that the
troops are healthy. He received me very civilly, and insisted that I
should remain with him until the steamer sailed, which involved
leaving his abode (the cantonment) at about half-past three in the
morning. He took me to see some most extraordinary tanks which he has
recently discovered, and which must have been constructed with great
care and at great expense, at some remote period, in order to collect
the rain-water which falls at rare intervals in torrents. These tanks
are so constructed that the overflow of the upper one fills the lower,
and in this way, when the fall is considerable, a great quantity can
be gathered. They were all filled with rubbish, and it is very
possible that there may be many besides these which have been already
discovered, but when they are cleared out they are in perfect
preservation. Some of them are of great capacity, and it is difficult
to understand how they come to have been filled up so completely. The
Governor told me that he had, a few months before, driven in his gig
over the largest, which I went with him to see. At that time he had no
idea of its existence.

[Sidenote: Gloomy prospects.]

_May 22nd_.--As each of these wearisome days passes, I cannot help
being more and more determined that, in so far as it rests with me,
this voyage shall not have been made for nothing. However, the issues
are in higher hands.

_Sunday, 24th_.--We are now told we shall reach Ceylon in two days....
I have got dear Bruce's[4] large speaking eyes beside me while I am
writing, and mine (ought I to confess it) are very dim, while all
these thoughts of home crowd upon me. There is nothing congenial to me
in my present life. I have no elasticity of spirits to keep up with
the younger people around me. It may be better when the work begins;
but I cannot be sanguine even as to that, for the more I read of the
blue-books and papers with which I have been furnished, the more
embarrassing the questions with which I have to deal appear.

[Sidenote: First news of the Indian Mutiny.]

It was at Ceylon that he caught the first ominous mutterings of the
terrible storm which was about to burst over India, and which was destined
so powerfully to affect his own expedition. The news of the first serious
disturbance, the mutiny of a native Regiment at Meerut on the 11th of May,
had just been brought by General Ashburnham, the commander of the
expeditionary force, who had left Bombay a few hours after the startling
tidings had been received through the telegraph. Lord Elgin's first feeling
was that these disturbances in India furnished an additional reason for
settling affairs in China with all possible speed, so as to be free to
succour the Indian Government. It was only when fuller intelligence came
from Lord Canning, with urgent entreaties for immediate help, that he
determined, in consultation with General Ashburnham, who cordially entered
into all his views on the subject, to sacrifice for the present the Chinese
expedition, in order to pour into Calcutta all the troops that had been
intended for Canton.

_Galle, Ceylon.--May 26th_.--This is a very charming place, so green
that one almost forgets the heat. Ashburnham is here; we go on
together to Singapore this evening. Bad news from India. I think that
I may find in this news, if confirmed, a justification for pressing
matters with vigour in China, and hastening the period at which I may
hope to see you again.

_Steamship 'Singapore.'--May 27th_.--General Ashburnham brought with
him a report of a most serious mutiny in the Bengal army. Perhaps he
sees it in the worst light, because he has always (I remember his
speaking to me on the subject at Balbirnie) predicted that something
of the kind would occur; but, apart from his anticipations, the matter
seems grave enough. The mutineers have murdered Europeans, seized the
fort and treasure of Delhi; and proclaimed the son of the Great Mogul.
There seems to be no adequate European force at hand to put them down,
and the season is bad for operations by Europeans. Such is the sum and
substance of this report, as conveyed by telegraph to Elphinstone, the
evening before Ashburnham left Bombay. I was a good deal tempted to
remain at Galle for a few hours, in order to await the arrival of the
homeward-bound steamer from Calcutta, and to get further news; but, on
reflection, I came to the conclusion, that the best course to take was
to view this grave intelligence as an inducement to press on to China.
I wrote officially to Clarendon to say, that if this intelligence was
confirmed, it might have a tendency to lower our prestige in the East,
and to increase the influence of the party opposed to reason in China;
that this state of affairs might make it more than ever necessary that
I should endeavour to bring matters in China to an issue at the
earliest moment, so as to anticipate this mischief, and to place the
regiments destined for China at the disposal of Government for service
elsewhere.

_May 29th_.--We are now near the close of our voyage, and the serious
work is about to begin. Up to this point I have heard nothing to throw
any light upon my prospects. It is impossible to read the blue-books
without feeling that we have often acted towards the Chinese in a
manner which it is very difficult to justify; and yet their treachery
and cruelty come out so strongly at times as to make almost anything
appear justifiable.

[Sidenote: Penang.]
[Sidenote: Bishop of Labuan.]
[Sidenote: Character of Chinese.]

_Penang.--June 1st_.--We have just returned to our vessel after a
few hours spent on shore; or, rather, I have just emerged from a bath
in which I have been reclining for half an hour, endeavouring to cool