January 31st.—­I visited yesterday two of the Canton prisons, and witnessed there some sights of horror beyond what I could have pictured to myself.  Many of the inmates were so reduced by disease and starvation, that their limbs were not as thick as my wrist.  One man who was in this condition was in the receptacle for untried prisoners, and said he had been there seven years.  In one of the courts which we entered, there was a cell closed in by a double row of upright posts, which is the common style of gate at Canton, and I was attracted to it by the groans of its inmates.  I desired it to be opened, and such a spectacle as it presented!  The prisoners were covered with sores, produced by severe beatings; one was already dead, and the rats,—­but I cannot go further in description.  The others could hardly crawl, they were so emaciated, and my conviction is that they were shut in there to die.  The prison authorities stated that they had escaped at the time of the bombardment for which they had been punished as we saw.  If the statement was true, they must have been systematically starved since their recapture.  Our pretext for visiting the prisons was to discover whether any Europeans, or persons who had been in the service of, or had had relations with Europeans, were confined in them.  We took out some who professed to belong to the latter classes.  I went a step further, by taking out a poor boy of fifteen, whom we found in chains, but so weak that when we took them off he was unable to stand.  I told Mr. Parkes to take him to Pehkwei from me, as a sample of the manner in which his prisons are managed.

February 2nd.—­Pehkwei was very indignant at our visit to his prisons, and hinted that he would make away with himself, in a letter which he wrote to me on the subject.  However, he was obliged to admit that some of the things we found were very bad, and quite against the Chinese law.  On reviewing the whole I must admit, that, except in the case of the one cell that I have described, it was rather neglect, want of food, medical care, cleanliness, &c., than positive cruelty, of which one found evidence in the prisons.

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[Sidenote:  Move northwards.]

Canton the impregnable had been taken, and was in the military occupation of the allied forces; Yeh, the Terror of Barbarians, was a captive beyond the seas; so completely was all resistance crushed, that it was found possible to raise the blockade of the Canton River, and to let trade return to its usual channels.  Still nothing was achieved so long as the Emperor remained aloof, and could represent the affair as a local disturbance not affecting the imperial power.  To any permanent settlement it was essential that he should be a party; the next step, therefore, was to move northwards to Shanghae, and there open direct negotiations with the Court of Pekin; and, for the success of these negotiations, it was obviously of great importance that the envoys of England and France should have the co-operation of the representatives of Russia and the United States.