CHINA.

Otago Witness, Issue 475, 5 January 1861, Page 6

CHINA.

A letter from the camp, dated the 9th October, says: —

" We encamped on the 6th, within a mile of the north-eastern gate of Pekin. On tbe same evening the Emperor's summer palace, Yuen-min-Yuen was taken possession of, and yesterday Messrs. H. S. Parkes and Henry Loch were liberated, and returned to the embassy. i On the sth the allied forces were on the march in search of the Tartars, wlio were supposed to be in great numbers about four or five miles off. The front of the two armies stretched over a large extent of country, but the enemy was not seen, nor any sign of an abandoned camp visible. We halted at 1 o'clock p.m. Reconnoitring parties were sent out at night, and they fell in with the Tartar pickets, who fired three shots at them. On the morning of the 6th, we were again on the move at an early hour, but on reaching the ground where the pickets had been seen- all was still. Here are some very high brickkilns, from which several gates, and, other structures within the walls of Pekin, were distinctly seen about five miles distant. Still in pursuit of the retreating enemy, we marched on through a thickly- wooded country until within half a mile of the earthwork which extends along the north side of and distant one mile from the capital, where some Tartars were seen among the houses close to. The King's Dragoon Guards went in at them, and they fled, leaving eight dead or disabled, and one of the dragoons -was wounded in the i skirmish. In a short time after, the earth- • work was reached, and a gap of 60 or 80 yards opened upon a straight road of the same width leading to the N.E. gate of Pekin. The troops entered by this gap, and wheeling to the right halted where we now are, within the earthwork — an embankment 40 to 80 feet high, which would be a strong defence in the hands of efficient troops. Here the greater part of the British army encamped ; why it did not proceed to the Summer Palace at once, as was planned, Ido not know. The French, and most of our cavalry, with some artillery, did so, but the former did not arrive on the ' spot until two hours after the latter, who were waiting for the remainder of our army. On the French coming up, the brigadier offered i to co-operate with them. They asked him to go round to cut off the .Tartars, whilst they attacked the palace. This they did, and found 300 eunuchs in charge of it and 40 men who took care, of the gardens, only 20 of whom had guns. They made a slight resistance ; two eunuchs were killed, and two French officers wounded, and they then took possession of the palace. " In the evening, a communication was made to the' authorities, demanding the release of the prisoners. A promise was given tbat those who were in the capital should be released next day. The surrender of the gate was also demanded, with an intimation that it would otherwise be taken. The first has, happily, been complied with, so far that we had the pleasure yesterday of welcoming the return of Messrs. Parkes and Loch, with' a French officer attached to the Societe Scientifigue, and six or eight French and privates of the Seikh cavalry. They were, whilst with San-ko-lin-sin's army, treated in a most cruel, manner, forced to kneel before every mandarin, however petty, their faces rubbed in the dust; they were* bound with their hands behind them and carried on horses to Tung-

chow, and then^urtre*s^inrstate, in one of the carts of the country, to Pekin, when they were placed in dungeons, and remained so until 10 days ago. Mr. Parkes was beaten when he did not instantly reply to a question, and Air. Loch because he could not speak Chinese. Within the last week, these atrocities have been discontinued, and they have met with some consideration. It appears that when ■ the party was returning from Tungchow, where Mr. Parkes went to remonstrate against the Tartars encamping on the ground appropriated to the British army, they arrived at Chang-kia-wan, where the battle of the 18th was fought, and seeing preparations for an attack, they consulted together whether to charge through them, or to apply to San-ko-lin-sra, who was a short distance behind, for a pass. They resolved on the latter course. He received them with insult and abuse, and made prisoners of them. They do not know where the rest of the captives are, but suppose them to be with San-ko-lin-sin's army, whether in or out of Pekin is not known.

" The Summer Palace is about five miles by a circuitous road N.W. of this camp, ftutside the earthwork. Indiscriminate loot has been allowed. The public reception hall, the state and private bed-rooms, ante-rooms, boudoirs, and every other apartment has been ransacked; articles of vertu, of native and foreign workmanship taken, or broken if too large to be carried away, ornamental lattice- work, screens, jadestone ornaments, jars, clocks, watches, and other pieces of mechanism, curtains and furniture, none have escaped from destruction. There were extensive wardrobes of every article of dress ; coats richly embroidered in silk and gold thread, in the Imperial Dragon pattern. Boots, head-dresses, fans, &c. — in fact, rooms all but filled with them. Store-rooms of manufactured silks in rolls, such as maybe bought in Can-ton at 20 dols. to 30 dols. per piece. By a calculation made in the rooms, there must have been 70,000 or 80,000 pieces. Hundreds were thrown down and trampled on, and the floor covered thickly with them. Men were throwing them at each other, and all taking as many as they could carry. They were nsed instead of rope to secure the loading of carts filled with them. Throughout the French camp were hundreds of pieces, some heaped up, others used to make tents, or beds and coverlids. In the afternoon, yesterday, a party of French went through the apartments with sticks, breaking everything that remained — mirrors, screens, panels, &c. It is said that they did so in revenge for the barbarous treatment the released prisoners, their countrymen, had received. A treasury, containing a large quantity of gold ingots and sycee silver, is under charge of a guard, and is to be divided between the English and French. The total value of property destroyed would amount to a large instalment of the indemnity claimed.

" In one of the ante-rooms of the state bedroom at the Summer Palace, the Treaty of Tientsin in English and Chinese, signed by Lord Elgin, was found. It had been thrown on the ground by some one, and lay in the heap of broken articles, till the English paper evidently attracted the eye of the person who discovered it."

Hollowatc's Pills. — Rheumatism and Gout. — No disease affecting: mankind harass more than these, none excite less pity ; none exceed them in severity of suffering. In the blood lies the poisonous cause of both distempers, which, fortunately, may be constitutionally and locally expelled by Holloway's soothing Ointment and purifying Pills 5 the former speedily relieves the pungent shooting pain and acute inflammation of the affected joints. The Pills oast out from the whole system all noxious substances with which gout, rheumatism, and disease disappear, and for a long time remain absent. Holloway's preparations purify and cleanse, by filtering out the elements of all disorders; w kereby- present comfort is ensured, happiness and cheerfulness are secured, and lasting benefit is conferred.

TO THE PEOPLE OP OTAGO. pELLOW COLOOTSTS-I address you -*- upon a trying and to me most painful occasion. Subjected as lam to reproach for acts done on the importunities of my official superior, a friend in whom I trusted, nnd who, instead of misrepresenting my conduct, ought to have taken the blame of it upon himself, I would indeed feel overwhelmed were 'I not conscious that I intended no evil, and that no evil would have happened had he not acted deceitfully by handing me cheques on a Bank in which he had no funds, and giving me assurances which he did not fulfil.

Unfortunately for the Superintendent, upon the appointment of the Committee of inquiry into the Public Accounts, he resolved upon concealment and defiance. If he had reasons for that line of conduct, they did not apply to me. I had, by remonstrances, entreaties, upbraidings, and even threatenings, done all I could to induce him to put things right ; which not being done, I warned him that I would give such explanations as the Committee asked from me. And I did no more. I volunteered no statements to injure him ; and what I did state was from a sense of duty, and most harrow ; ag to my own feelings. ' That public money was in the Superintendent's hands on 30th June last does not rest on my assertion. The fact is proved by his own cheques. In M«?sh the amount was £1086, as proved by two cheques. On 20th September, it was £836 13s. 4d., as proved by his cheque of that date. But he denies he got this money from me as Provincial Treasurer. In no other capacity was I able to have made him advances to the above amount. He says that I am a solicitor in private practice, having money of clients in my hands. Now, I was not in private practice before I resigned the office of Provincial Solicitor in April last, nor have I been since. It is true I announced then that I had resumed practice as a solicitor; but I soon experienced that, were I to do so, I must retire from office altogether, as the two were incompatible, and I withdrew my advertisement. Neither then, nor before, nor subsequently, have I had monies of private individuals in my hands ; and, had I been in even the most extensive practice, it would not have been possible from such a source to have accommodated Mr. Macandrew with £1000 ; nor could I have lent him that amount out of the monies held by me for the public Boards, for which I was liable daily and hourly to be drawn upon without warning. If I had done so and been drawn upon, I must of necessity have taken funds out of the Provincial account to meet demands upon me as Treasurer for those Boards. And after all, were not the monies of those Boards as much public monies as were those which I held as Provincial Treasurer.

The contradiction the Superintendent attempts to fasten on me, admits of explanation. The statement I made to the Auditors was that if the apparent deficiencies were real, they must have arisen in part from the practice of paying wages, both here and at Invercargill, before warrants were obtained, and consequently before the sums were entered in the Cash Book. Under this practice I felt'tmeasy, and got it altered. I did not tell the Auditors at first that £1086 was in the Superintendent's bands for an obvious reason, but I told two of them afterwards, — Messrs. Morris and Reynolds, — to whom I showed the Superintendent's two cheques ; and I made the Superintendent aware that 1 had done so, as one of his notes to me testifies, and he did not then put the gloss upon the loans that he now attempts to do.

I cannot describe my feelings on reading the artful account which he ha 9 given of our transactions, especially in the third paragraph of his address to you. I shall not characterize it. I shall simply state the facts. Its sole foundation is, that on two occasions he was the medium of procuring me a temporary accommodation to the extent of about £300 : and on the second of these occasions the transaction for whicb-i- J t«nniW<\-4lvQ_in£ii3.c-y wns not gone into, so that, as I did not need it, I allowed him to keep the money, and he retired the bill when it fell due. He is a clever man; and it is possible that the art and address with which he has vamped his story may gain it credit ; but I will take the liberty of asking those who may be inclined to believe it, to withhold their belief until he exhibits from his books, to which I appeal, a statement of any other transactions than the two I have mentioned. There is a small ingredient of truth in another part of his statement. He did suggest to me the sale of stock, so as to provide funds to meet his deficiency in the event of his not being able to raise money ; and it is also true that I was obliged to effect a loan to guard myself in that case against being reported a defaulter. But he negotiated no sale of stock for me, and I sold none ; nor did he negotiate the loan. I effected it unknown to him, purposely that he might not rely upon it ; and he knew nothing of it until after the accounts were closed, by which time I had succeeded in obtaining from him payment of all but a balance of about £277, but not till the very day, and within an hour or two, of the auditors meeting to make their final report. So much for his statement that he negotiated a loan for me, and the sale of stock, the results of which, he says, were that my accounts were put straight ; and that his notes to me were written during these negotiations. But, further, the colour which he tries to give to his notes to me could easily be shown to be true or false, by his producing my letters to which they are answers. Why has he not produced them ? Just because they would tear away the mask he is endeavouring to put on. Unfortunately I kept no copy of any of them, hat the official one given to the Committee, and another read to the Provincial Council, so little did I dream of a matter — the burden of daily remonstrance and en treaty — being denied and misrepresented. I have no more notes from him than those mentioned to the Provincial Council, except one, of the existence of which I have informed him, and which I will produce if he desires it. Allow me to state one or two facts relative to the official letter above alluded to, which will be found in the appendix to the Committee's report. The Auditors' first report was given in by them to the Superintendent on 4th September. He told me nothing of it, though he had daily conversations with me even on the matters in question, — and it was only by enquiry at Mr. Morris that I learnt that a report had been lodged about ten or twelve days before that. Then Mr. Dick wrote me, on 17th Sept., stating that "at the Executive, on Saturday, the Auditors' report was asked for, but Mr. Macandrew said he had remitted it to you to report upon it. ! We are to meet again on Wednesday, and Mr. Macandrew has promised that it will be before us then. Would you have the kindness to let us have it." As it was not the fact that it had been remitted to, or seen by, me, I communicated the contents of Mr. Dick's note to the Superintendent, who personally handed the report to me on the 19th 5 and on the day following, my official letter was trAsmitted, to be laid before the Executive, which I understand was not done ; neither did he reply to it, although it contained the statement that public money was in his hands, — as to which, however, from that feeling of kindness and delicacy to him I have all along shown, I entered into no particulars, but left it to himself to give his own explanation. In fact, I had recommended to him to make a clean breast of it, which I believe he would have done but for the matters of the Gala and the Clutha coal-field.

• As already stated, at 30th September, when the Books were closed, the Superintendent had in his hands .£836 13s. 4d. This deficiency I made up partly from my own funds and

partly from Road Board money ; and by 24th October, the date of the Auditors' final report, J he had by payments reduced the debt to £276 odds, of which £166 odds remains doe. As to the letter of Messrs. Gladstone & Co,, which he states he showed to me and I was satisfied with, I have only to repeat that I will be glad to be satisfied with it, if, when I have seen and perused it (which I have not yet), I can be so. It is right to say that Mr. Street tells me Mr. Macandrew did read to him a line or two of a letter which he said was from Messrs. Gladstone. But if the letter contain what is said, why -was it not laid before the Committee ? And as to the payment on account of the " Pirate," £400 was paid to Mr. Macandrew, in January last, by bank cheque, to be repaid on the " Pirate's " arrival; but only £333 odds, the amount of the subsidy money, was repaid, leaving a balance over. In these remarks, I trust I have shown a proper feeling and forbearance. I have not done justice to myself, and certainly have had no wish strongly to represent matters, or make them worse than they are, though Mr. Macandrew has distressed and injured me beyond redress. He cannot but in his heart feel that my forbearance has been extreme, and there are others who know it to be so. I feel acutely my own position, and the distress it has occasioned is aggravated by the ungenerous coarse he has adopted towards me. I have the honour to be, Fellow-colonists, Your most obedient servant, J. M'GLASHAN.

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