my letter.  I fear a little more bullying will be necessary before we bring this stupid Government up to the mark.  Both yesterday and to-day I took a ride in the morning with Grant.  I rode a horse of his, a very nice one.  The sun becomes powerful very early, but it is a charming climate now.  The abundance of all things wonderful:  beef and mutton at about threepence a pound; peaches, grapes, and all sorts of vegetables in plenty; ice in profusion.  I daresay, however, that in six weeks’ time it may be very cold.

At one moment, on the 2nd of September, it really seemed as if the object of the mission was achieved; for the Imperial Commissioners—­one of whom was the same Kweiliang who had conducted the negotiations in 1858—­in a formal despatch gave a positive assurance that the Treaty of Tientsin should be faithfully observed, and that all the demands hitherto made should be conceded in full.  A draft of convention was accordingly prepared on this basis; but, when it came to the point, Kweiliang and his colleagues declared that they had no authority to sign it without referring to Pekin; and it became obvious that he either did not possess, or did not at that moment wish it to be supposed that he possessed, powers equal to those which he held in 1858, although his previous language had been calculated to convey the opposite impression.

[Sidenote:  Broken off.]

Here was clearly a deliberate design to create delay, with the view of dragging on negotiations into the winter.  It was indispensable, Lord Elgin thought, to check this policy by an act of vigour; and accordingly, with the concurrence of Baron Gros, he intimated to the Imperial Commissioners that, in consequence of the want of good faith exhibited by them in assuming the title of Plenipotentiaries when they could not exercise the authority which it implied, and of the delays which the alleged necessity of constant reference to Pekin would occasion, he had determined to proceed at once to Tung-chow, in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital, and to enter into no further negotiations with them until he should have reached that place.

September 8th.—­I am at war again!  My idiotical Chinamen have taken to playing tricks, which give me an excellent excuse for carrying the army on to Pekin.  It would be a long affair to tell you all the ins and outs, but I am sure from what has come to pass during the last few days, that we must get nearer Pekin before the Government there comes to its senses.  The blockheads have gone on negotiating with me just long enough to enable Grant to bring all his army up to this point.  Here we are, then, with our base established in the heart of the country, in a capital climate, with abundance around us, our army in excellent health, and these stupid people give me a snub, which obliges me to break with them.  No one knows whether our progress is to be a fight or an ovation, for in this country nothing