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15 Nov 60 Peter Hong Kong Mother 10. Hyde Park Terrace ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hong Kong. 15 Nov. 1860

My dear Mother

I have not heard from you now for seven mails but I suppose I must not omit writing. I have heard from Mr Cattley’s son in the North who is to winter near Pekin & has sent me down several Commissions amongst the rest, a pair of skates – rather a probable idea for these parts.

Affairs in the North, like affairs in Italy, progress rapidly & they have now made a new Treaty which although at first sight may appear as rotten as the first, still I think it stands a better chance as Lord Elgin has taken up a different position in the matter.

At first he refused to treat with them until the prisoners were given up. On their failing to do this he marched on Pekin & gave the Summer Palace, (as it is called but which is really an enormous suburb consisting of upwards of 200 palaces), up to loot. They then, as you have already heard, delivered up a portion of them but the others were unaccounted for.

Lord Elgin then intimated that if the remainder, dead or alive, were not given up & if they did not at once come to terms he would proceed with the work of devastation. He however guaranteed that if his terms were agreed to, the Imperial City itself would be spared.

Little did he think at that time what had been the barbarous fate of the prisoners. Three, it was found out, had been tortured to death & one, (Capt Brabazon of the artillery) deliberately beheaded. Is it not truly awful.

Meantime however Lord Elgin had promised that Pekin should be spared, and he was of course obliged, however awkwardly so, to adhere to his promise.

A certain time was allowed them for giving up the dead bodies, for paying the sum of £100,000 as an indemnity to the prisoners & their survivors & for signing a Convention which was to be published throughout the Empire. While they still deliberated the troops were all called out & the whole suburb called the Summer Palace was levelled with the ground. This brought them to terms.

The bodies were delivered up, all but Capt Brabazon’s; the indemnity for the prisoners was paid & a day fixed for the Convention. On the day in question Lord Elgin proceeded to the Hall of Ceremonies attended by an enormous equipage & an escort of 2,000 men; amongst the rest, the King’s Dragoon Guards. Prince Henry, the Emperor’s brother was there, seated in grand state to receive him. When Lord Elgin saw this he stopped on the threshold & exclaimed through an interpreter ‘I come here as a conqueror. It is your own doing’ & Prince Henry was requested forthwith to remove himself to a lower seat while Lord Elgin moved into the chair just occupied by the prince.

The poor prince, alive by this time to the fact that Lord Elgin would stand no more of their nonsense, moved sulkily to the lower seat, agreed to every proposition dictated to him (which Heaven knows were mild enough) & looked thunder throughout the meeting. At the close of the proceeding Lord Elgin told him that he might now proclaim this in a special edict from the Emperor throughout the whole length of the Empire, East, West, North & South.

When this was done, Pekin would be restored to them & Lord Elgin would commence to carry out his portion of the Compact. Tientsin would meantime be held a guarantee & there it is expected the troops will winter. So that the new treaty (or rather convention) which looks a very sorry affair at first, looks a great deal better when you know all this.

When Mr Parkes was caught he was taken before a great fat Mandarin whom he had known in Canton. The Mandarin has his hands lashed behind him. He was floored from behind & the Mandarin took him by the hair of the head, rubbed his head in the hard ground & thence commenced kicking it.

To show what cowards they were, they afterwards brought him a letter to sign saying that he was well treated. ‘Treat me well’ he said ‘& I will then sign it’ & the cowardly savages actually thereafter treated him tolerably & transmitted the necessary document to Sir Hope Grant to show how well he was cared for.

Meantime Capt Brabazon was beheaded by a Tartar General who was wounded in action & three others, amongst the rest the Times correspondent, were thrown into a dungeon with all the felons, with their hands so tightly lashed behind them that the ropes ate into the flesh & their hands mortified. They poured water on the bandages at intervals so as to tighten them & cause the more excruciating pain.

In a few days the maggots from the mortified flesh were eating into their back & they died in this fearful state. But Mr Parkes letter about his own treatment had meantime dissipated our fears & had Lord Elgin promised that Peking should be spared, Fane, the Commandant of Fane’s Horse*, an old Indian, writing from the North, speaks of the Chinese as the most barbarous, cold blooded savages with whom he has had to do. This from an old Indian with the Sepoy mutiny still fresh in his memory is strong evidence indeed.

But I am encroaching upon my employers’ time so with love to all & my usual kiss to little Helen

Your affect. Son

Peter G. Laurie

It is very strange I have heard nothing of or from John

P.G.L.

* Fane’s Horse – 19th Lancers, raised at Cawnpore in 1860