can be foreseen.  I think it better that the olive-branch should advance with the sword.  I am afraid that this change in the programme—­a hostile instead of a peaceful march on Pekin—­will keep me longer here, because I cannot send for Frederick till peace is made; and I cannot, I suppose, leave Pekin till he arrives there.

Sunday, September 9th.—­Kweiliang and Co. wanted very much to call on me yesterday, but I would not receive them.  The junior Commissioner, who was at Canton with Parkes, and knows him well, told him that, in fact, the people here had been urging them to make an effort to prevent war, saying:  ’If we were sure that the foreigners would have the best of it, we should not care; but if they are worsted they will fall back on us, and wreak their vengeance upon us.’  This does not seem a very formidable state of mind as far as we are concerned.  We have behaved well to the people, except at Peytang and Sinho, and the consequence is that we can move through the country with comparative ease.  If the people tried to cut off our baggage, and refused us supplies, we should find it very difficult to get on. ... Noon.—­I have just returned from a service on board the ‘Granada,’ where the clergyman administered the sacrament to a small congregation.  At four we march to the wars; but as I go to bear the olive, it is not so bad a Sunday’s work.  You may very likely hear through Siberia of the result of our march before you receive this letter announcing that it is to take place.  I shall not, therefore, speculate upon it.

Yang-tsun, about twenty miles above Tientsin.—­September 10th.—­Two P.M.—­This morning we started at about five, and reached this encampment soon after seven.  A very nice ride, cool, and through a succession of crops of millet; a stiff, reedy stem, some twelve or fourteen feet high, with a tuft on the top, is the physiognomy of the millet stalk.  It would puzzle the Tartar cavalry to charge us through this crop.  As it is, we have seen no enemy; and Mr. Parkes has induced the inhabitants to sell us a good many sheep and oxen.  Our tents were not pitched till near noon; so I sat during most of the forenoon under the shade of a hedge.  There has been thunder since, and a considerable fall of rain.  I hope it will not make the roads impassable; but if it fills the river a little it will do us good, for we may then use it for the transport of our supplies, and it is now too low.  We do not know much what is ahead of us, but we hear of Tartar troops farther on; and at Tung-chow it is said that a large army is collected under Sang-ko-lin-sin himself (their great general).  I am now enjoying the life of a camp; writing to you seated on my portmanteau, with my desk on my only chair.  It is perhaps better than my hothouse at Tientsin.

[Sidenote:  New Plenipotentiaries.]