For the command of this expedition there was one man whom all parties alike regarded as marked out at once by character and ability, and by previous experience.  On the 17th of April, 1860, Lord Russell, who was then Foreign Secretary, wrote officially to Lord Elgin that ’Her Majesty, resolved to employ every means calculated to establish peace with the Emperor of China, had determined to call upon him again to give his valuable services to promote this important object, and had signified her intention of appointing him to proceed to China as her Ambassador Extraordinary to deal with these matters.’  His instructions were necessarily of the vaguest.  After touching upon some of the awkward contingencies that might arise, Lord Russell proceeded:  ’In these circumstances your ’Lordship and your enlightened colleague, Baron Gros, will be required to exercise those personal qualities of firmness and discretion which have induced Her Majesty and her Ally to place their confidence in you and the French Plenipotentiary.’  The only conditions named as indispensable were, (1) an apology for the attack on the Allied forces at the Peiho; (2) the ratification and execution of the Treaty of Tientsin; (3) the payment of an indemnity to the Allies for the expenses of naval and military preparations.

To be called away from the happy home which he so rarely enjoyed and enlightened, and to be sent out again to the ends of the world on such a service, was no light sacrifice even to his patriotic spirit; and the feeling of this was perhaps aggravated by the half-hope cherished during the first few weeks, that any day he might be met by tidings that the Chinese had made the required concessions, and that the affair was settled.  The following extracts from his Journal reflect something of this.

[Sidenote:  Gloomy prospects.]

Sunday, April 29th.—­Off Sardinia.—­So much for my chronicle; but I write it with a certain feeling of repugnance and self-reproach.  It was very well on the occasion of my first voyage, when I wished to share with you whatever charm the novelty of the scenes through which I was passing might supply to mitigate the pain of our separation.  But this time there is no such pretext for the record of our daily progress.  I am going through scenes which I have visited before, on an errand of which the issue is almost more than doubtful.  When I see my friend Gros I feel myself doubly guilty, in having consented to undertake this task, and thus compelled him to make the same sacrifice.  And Frederick—­what will he think of my coming out?  It is a dark sky all around.  There is only one bright side to the picture.  It is very unlikely that my absence can be of long duration.  If such ideas were to prevail in England as those which are embodied in an article on China, which is to appear in the forthcoming Blackwood, I might be detained long enough in that quarter; but these are not the views of the public or the statesmen of England.