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4 Jan 58 Peter Shanghai Father ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Shanghai
Dec* 4. 1858
My dear Father
I have just received several letters from you & as I have told my Mother, feel called upon to enter into my defence.
I am quite convinced that had ever you been in my place, the result would have been the same. It is the greatest mistake in the world to talk of getting appointments, because all Indian appointments are given away at home – not in India.
Commissariat appointments are given to those recently discharged from the Crimea Comm't, but at any rate are not obtainable in India & it is the Natives not English who are employed in the inferior grades. Nothing is given away in India. Then as to Railways, Telegraph & engineering – those are just the very thing those mutinies have put a stop to; otherwise that is what I mentioned & what I also aimed at. The whole time I was in Calcutta I was under Mr McKinley (of Arbuthnot’s)* wing, but he could not, with all his influence – I suppose the greatest in Calcutta – get any thing for me.
He was very kind & really tried, but failed. I have already given many causes for the fruit-less-ness of my attempts in the commercial line, but you are labouring under an impression which to all who have seen the fallacy of it – seems ridiculous.
You think Mr Lindsay a great man. So he is at home, where people have heard of him. But great as he may be in London, his fame has not spread to the Indies – far less to China.
Nobody has heard of such a person. ‘Lindsay – what Lindsay is that’ is the question they all ask. Greens, Dunbars, Somes, have all had time to have their name trumpeted abroad, but Mr Lindsay has only just made himself. Indeed, those who have heard of him – his Agents – have an uncommonly small notion of him & think that instead of having made himself, he has made a mess of himself & his speculations. It is astonishing to see how little sensation his awful name creates.
I do not know what to do. They say the ship will not go home. If so, am I to waste more time. I suppose I must for I cannot draw on you for passage money to bring me home. Besides, being utter waste of time which at my age is so precious, it is perfect misery to me for miserable as is a sea life, it is still worse with nothing to do. But it seems inevitable.
I have tried to turn my time to some account. I have written a history of my voyage* which I think will be found amusing & interesting as well as giving an idea of India & I send you enclosed some sketches of Indian life which now would be rather a hit I fancy for Household Words* or Chambers.* I leave them entirely in your hands. There will be a postage on them to pay & there will be my time & my talents to be considered. I think something might be managed. I should really like to see them in one of the two & I will keep up the supply from China.
If you can manage this for me, which I doubt not you can, it would perhaps repay me for much. Perhaps Mr (Murray) Cook or Mr Foster might give advice or be of assistance. At any rate, there they are. I leave them in your hand & if they should appear in print then perhaps my voyage will not be so unproductive as we have fancied. They will last 7 weeks at one sketch per week.
I do not write to Mary. I have written several times to communicate my travels but she has not considered me interested in hers.
Kiss little Helen for me
Your affect. Son
Peter G. Laurie
* Dec – Although dated Dec 4. 1858, this letter was clearly written on the same day as that to his mother – 4th January 1858
* Arbuthnot’s – Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co, formed in 1819 by Mr. F. M. Gillanders and Mr. G. C. Arbuthnot
* written a history of my voyage – Rambles in India, China, &c, published for private circulation, 1859. He also published:
A Reminiscence of Canton, June 1859 (1866)
The Model Settlement of Shanghai etc. (1866)
Hong Kong to London, or Our New Road Home from China (1872)
Our ‘Collett’ Ancestors (1898)
'Robinson Crusoe' Collett (1900)
My Recollections of the Crimea (1900)
Thorndon Hall, Past and Present (1900)
Sir Peter Laurie – a Family Memoir (1901)
Mary Tyrell, Countess of Arran, the last of the Tyrells of Heron (1901)
* Household Words – A weekly journal edited from 1850 to 1859 by Charles Dickens to communicate his ideas on social reform, but which also contained short stories and humorous piece
* Chambers – Started as ‘Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal’ in 1832, but retitled ‘Chambers's Journal of Literature, Science and Arts’ in 1854, by William and Robert Chambers, now better known for their dictionary