or of any other of the great officials sent to Canton to uphold the Emperor's dignity.

The Chinese commanders had selected a position along the hills which lie north of the city, and this they had fortified with no mean skill, and had connected their lines with several forts. Their position resembled a series of fortified camps, and in these were gathered many thousands of the picked soldiers of the southern provinces. Little fault could be found with the judgment they had shown in the selection of their position, and, although the result of every previous encounter had been unfortunate, there is no doubt that both the Chinese leaders and their men were sanguine that the fortune of war was about to delare itself in their favour. Their anticipations were not without some reason, as their more strenuous resistance sufficiently testified.

The English force* was divided into two columns, which advanced in parallel lines upon the Chinese entrenchments. The advance was slow, for the difficulties of marching through the paddy-fields, which were rendered harder of passage from being frequently occupied as burial-grounds, effectually restrained the ardour of the men; and here again the military incapacity of the Chinese was made very apparent by their allowing the English force to cross this tract without opposition. When they did attempt to hinder their advance, it was only by firing from their forts at too great a distance to do any harm. As soon as the troops had made their way through the rice-fields, the artillery began to play with effect on the Chinese positions. After an hour's bombardment the Chinese made a movement which may have been misunderstood by the spectators, but which certainly appeared to signify an inclination to take to flight; but if such was their intention, it was promptly abandoned on the advance of the

The force comprised two line regiments, the 18th, 26th, two native regiments, 37th and 49th Madras Infantry, a large number of Royal Marines, 460 blue-jackets, a detachment of Bengal Volunteers, artillery, engineers, etc. etc. The guns included 4 howitzers, 5 mortars, 52 rockets, and 4 9-pounders and 3 6-pounders. Lieut.-Colonel Morris commanded one column, Major-General Burrell the other-the whole of the arrangements being under the immediate supervision of Sir Hugh Gough in person,

English troops to attack their positions. It will never be known whether they feared the artillery more than the foreigners personally; but certainly when the English advanced to storm their forts, they stood to their guns with no small degree of fortitude.

The task of carrying this line of entrenchments and the detached forts was by no means easy or without danger, especially as the walls of the city, which at one place were not more than 100 yards distant, were lined with gingall* men who kept up a sustained fire upon the English troops both while marching to, and while engaged in the attack. The four principal forts, which had nearly fifty pieces of artillery in position, were attacked simultaneously. Three of these forts were hurriedly evacuated by the Chinese; but in the fourth the garrison refused to retire, and, continuing an ill-directed resistance, were cut down to a man by the sailors to whom the capture of this fort had been entrusted. It was in this particular assault that the English suffered most severely, principally from the cross-fire kept up from the walls, but also in the hand-to-hand fighting that took place in the interior. The capture of the forts closed the first part of the battle, but more remained to be accomplished before the operations of the day could be considered at an end. The Chinese forces had retired to and rallied upon an entrenched camp situated about a mile from the scene of this contest, and acquiring fresh courage from their numbers they seemed disposed to make a resolute defence, and bade loud and prolonged defiance to the barbarians of the West. Their new-found confidence failed to supply the deficiencies of discipline and arms; and a vigorous attack by one English regiment the Royal Irish, who have distinguished themselves on more memorable fields, although never more conspicuously-led to their speedy discomfiture and the capture of their camp. With this incident, the battle † of the 25th of

* The gingall is a long heavy gun, something like a duck gun. It is fixed on a tripod, and carries a 2-lb. ball about 1000 yards.

†The English loss amounted to seventy killed and wounded; that of the Chinese was never ascertained. Sir Hugh Gough had "a narrow escape, having been at one time completely covered with dust from a

SURRENDER OF CANTON.

109

May closed, and the English army bivouacked in its position as comfortably as the galling fire maintained from the city ramparts during the night would permit.

The following day, which was to have witnessed the storming and destruction of Canton, beheld instead the warring of the elements; and the deluge of rain, by delaying the arrival of the needed ammunition and ladders, saved in probability the city from the horrors of being carried by storm. In place, therefore, of any further operations against Canton, the 26th of May was marked by inaction within the lines of the English force, and by the precipitate withdrawal of all those among the Chinese who possessed the means of retiring to a place of safety. The suspension of military operations was utilized for another purpose-that of negotiating a pacific arrangement. The main object with the Chinese had become to save the city; and in order to effect that they were quite prepared to make every concession, if they only attached to their pledges a temporary significance. These negotiations only served to while away the wet day on the land-side, where Sir Hugh Gough saw the city at his complete mercy, and was very loth to provide Chinese tergiversation with fresh opportunities. On the 27th of May every preparation had been made for delivering the assault, but at the very moment of the signal for the attack a special messenger arrived from Captain Elliot to announce that he had come to terms with the Chinese, and that all hostilities were to be immediately suspended.

The Chinese authorities, and particularly those responsible to the people of Canton for their homes and property, entered into negotiations with Captain Elliot in person, and, in striking contrast with their usual dilatoriness, complied within a few hours with all the terms demanded of them. These terms were that the Imperial Commissioners and all the troops should leave the city within six days, and withdraw to a distance of not less than sixty miles, and that six millions of dollars should be paid over "for the use of the English Crown." The promptitude with which these conditions were

shot that struck the ground close by his side."-Chinese Repository,' vol. x. p. 393.

acceded to and complied with brought into stronger relief the delay and deception previously practised by the Celestials; but it remained far from certain that they were moved to this decision by any more sincere desire for peace than their temporary difficulties imposed upon them as a matter of imperative necessity. To the military authorities the conditions appeared totally inadequate, and a fresh proof of the precipitancy of Captain Elliot.

If there was ever any doubt as to the action of the Chinese being directed by opposite counsels, it was removed by the extraordinary contradiction that was revealed in their subsequent action on this very occasion. Five million dollars, more than one million sterling, had been actually paid over to Captain Elliot; and, so far as the attitude of the Canton population went, nothing could appear more remote than the idea of their resuming a hopeless struggle. Yet even at this eleventh hour Yihshan, and his fellow-Commissioners, had not abandoned all hope of reversing the decision of war; and impelled by alarm at the penalties that their failure entailed, or possibly encouraged to believe in the chances of success by the English confidence in their security, they made a sudden attempt to surprise Sir Hugh Gough's camp, and to retrieve many disasters at a single blow. The plan was not without some hope of success, although it demanded very prompt execution, and no hesitation in coming to close quarters. And the latter was precisely the point which the Chinese never seemed to understand. They could remain to be shot down without revealing the least symptoms of fear, or they could die with a certain phlegmatic desperation when driven into a corner. They could even, and this was more conspicuous among the Manchus than the native Chinese, turn their weapons against their own persons to escape the military dishonour of acknowledging their discomfiture. But when it came to making an assault, the whole success of which depended on its being delivered with vigour and rapidity,

* Sir Le Fleming Senhouse, who had greatly distinguished himself throughout the whole of the operations, and who died a few weeks later at Hongkong on the 13th of July, declared his objections in emphatic language: “I protest against the terms of the treaty in toto."

A DEMONSTRATION.

III

So

their ignorance and hesitation became plainly visible. it was on this occasion. A large body of troops and armed men, between ten and fifteen thousand strong, suddenly appeared on the hills about two miles distant from the English camp; but instead of seizing the opportunity created by the surprise at their sudden appearance, and at the breach of the armistice, they contented themselves with waving their banners and uttering vain threats of hatred and defiance. As an expression of national scorn and antipathy this demonstration was not without character; as a mode of delivering the land from a foreign invader it can only be described as ineffectual.

The probability seems to be that the great majority of these men were armed villagers who had been incited to take up arms by the warlike proclamations of Taoukwang, and by the lavish rewards promised to approved valour. There must also have been a strong leaven of "braves" from the garrisons of the southern provinces, for they stood well under fire, and only dreaded coming into close contact with the foreigners. The English pursued them for three miles, without, however, succeeding in bringing them to a regular engagement, and further pursuit was rendered impossible by the outbreak of another tremendous storm which flooded the country and rendered the muskets of the English soldiers useless.

That the Chinese could not have suffered very heavily was clearly shown by the vigour with which they in turn harassed the line of retirement. In a novel form of combat they succeeded in pulling over several English and native Indian soldiers by means of a crook fastened to the end of a long bamboo stick, when they despatched them with their swords. Such success as they obtained was due to the fury of the storm, not to their own valour; but they very nearly obtained a more striking advantage than the cutting off of a few stragglers. A company of native infantry lost its way, and became detached from the main body. Its absence was not discovered until the force had regained its original position, and then the men were so saturated and exhausted that it was out of the question for them to attempt to discover and bring in the missing company. Fortunately, there