of satisfactory arrangements within the city.  I must add that this evacuation plan was not intended by me to be a mere threat.  I have it clearly matured in my mind as a thing feasible, and which would be under certain circumstances an advisable plan to adopt.  In taking Canton we had, as I understand it, two objects in view:  the one to prove that we could take it; the other to have in our hands something to give up when we come to terms with the Emperor,—­’a material guarantee.’  I believe that the capture of the city, followed by the capture of Yeh, has settled the former point.  Indeed, from all that I hear, I infer that the capture of Yeh has had more effect on the Chinese mind than the capture of the city.  I believe, therefore, that we might abandon the city without losing much if anything on this head.  No doubt we should lose on the second head; we should not have Canton to give up when a treaty was concluded, if we had given it up already.  Even then however we might, by retaining the island of Honan, the forts, &c., do a good deal towards providing a substitute; so that you see my threat was made bona fide.  I certainly should have preferred the loss to which I have referred, to the continuance of a state of things in which the Allied troops were plundering the inhabitants.

January 24th.—­Baron Gros and I were conversing together yesterday on affairs in this quarter, and among other things he told me that we were both much reproached for our laxity, and that I was more blamed on that account than he.  I said to him:  ’I can praise you on many accounts, my dear Baron, but I cannot compliment you on being a greater brute than I am.’

Whatever was the feeling of the British residents, and whatever excuses may be made for it, the consistent humanity shown both in the taking and in the occupation of the city did not fail to strike Mr. Reed, the Plenipotentiary of the United States, who wrote to Lord Elgin:  ’I cannot omit this opportunity of most sincerely congratulating you on the success at Canton, the great success of a bloodless victory, the merit of which, I am sure, is mainly due to your Lordship’s gentle and discreet counsels.  My countrymen will, I am sure, appreciate it.’  ‘This,’ observes Lord Elgin, from the representative of the United States, is gratifying both personally and politically.’

January 28th.—­I am glad to say that this mail conveys, on the whole, a satisfactory report of the progress of affairs, though this letter puts you in possession of all the ebbs and flows which have taken place during the fortnight.  I send a leaf of geranium, which I culled in the garden of the Tartar general.

[Sidenote:  Canton prisons.]