It was not till the 4th of October that the arrival was announced of the Imperial Commissioners, including among their number his old friends Kweiliang and Hwashana.  While they were on the road, circumstances had come to Lord Elgin’s knowledge which gave him reason to fear that they might be disposed to call in question some of the privileges conceded under the Treaty, and that they might found on the still unsettled state of affairs in the South a hope of succeeding in this attempt.  He thought it better to dispel all such illusions at once, by taking a high and peremptory tone upon the latter subject.  Accordingly, when his formal complaint against Hwang, the Governor-General of the Two Kiang, for keeping up hostilities in spite of the Treaty, was met by a promise to stop this for the future by proclamation, he refused to accept this promise, and demanded the removal of Hwang and the suppression of a Committee which had been formed for the enrolment of volunteers; intimating at the same time, through a private channel, that unless he obtained full satisfaction on the Canton question, it was by no means improbable that he might return to Tientsin, and from that point, or at Pekin itself, require the Emperor to keep his engagements.  This had the desired effect.  The Commissioners at once undertook, not only to issue a pacific proclamation couched in becoming terms, but also to memorialise the Emperor for the recall of the Governor-General, and the withdrawal of all powers from the Committee of Braves.  It may be added, that the immediate success which attended the proclamation afforded striking confirmation of what Lord Elgin had always said, that the best way of suppressing provincial disturbances was by bringing pressure to bear on the Imperial power.

[Sidenote:  Subterfuges,] [Sidenote:  defeated by firmness.]

Shanghae.—­Sunday, October 10th.—­We have not done much yet, which is the cause of my having written less than usual during the last few days.  I have reason to suspect that the Commissioners came here with some hope that they might make difficulties about ’some of the concessions obtained in the Treaty, with a kind of notion perhaps that they might continue to bully us at Canton.  If I had departed, I think it probable enough that everything would have been thrown into confusion, and the grand result of proving that my Treaty was waste paper might have been attained.  I have thought it necessary to take steps to stop this sort of thing at once, so I have sent some very peremptory letters to the Commissioners about Canton, refusing to have anything to say to them till I am satisfied on this point, &c.  I have also, through a secret channel, had the hint conveyed to them, that if they do not give me full satisfaction at once I am capable of going off to Tientsin again,—­a move which would no doubt cost their heads to both Kweiliang and Hwashana.  I have already extorted from them a proclamation announcing the Treaty, and I have