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17 Nov 61 Peter Shanghai Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Shanghai. 17 Nov 1861

My dear Mother

I was unable to write you even a few lines by last mail so am beginning early for this.

I am sure your regrets at not hearing from me occasionally will be more than overbalanced by the assurance that it is not in any way caused by remissness or negligence, but that it is merely the result of my exertions in another line & a proof that my services are every day becoming more valuable & that I am working hard for experience & advancement.

It is hard uphill work, with a trying climate to contend with & with so many instances of shattered health after reaching the goal. However I have made a great change for the better in coming up here & I will take precious good care never to favour Hong Kong again.

We live in constant peril of the rebels* here. Last year they came about 100,000 strong, not with a view of disturbing us but of taking the Chinese city. I do not know whether it was sufficiently interesting to you for you to remember it, but on that occasion, having a number of troops here, we put them into the city & garrisoned it for the Chinese & when the rebels came on we gave them a frightful lesson. Now of course all the troops have gone & the rebels who are close in the neighbourhood are exasperated against us & we can no longer hope to be looked upon as neutrals as formerly. Indeed they have sent in a communication to the Consul stating that if we attempt in any way to oppose them or fire a gun, they will ‘surge upon us like an overwhelming wave & grind us into undistinguishing dust’. This is a pleasant prospect, is it not?

For two nights the artillery were out with their guns & pickets over the country. We have twenty artillery men which form large odds against 100,000 rebels. However a volunteer corps is now getting up but which is not yet sufficiently solid to induce me to join it.

Some stupid misunderstanding having arisen from the objection of certain understrappers* to have their superiors made officers simply because they were superiors in position out of the Corps. The objection was of course perfectly reasonable but it was one which, if attempted to be carried out must have remedied itself, whereas the folly of bringing it forward at the commencement only created ill feeling & made the movement unpopular among that class who were aimed at & who form of course the most important part of the community.

If the thing goes on all right I shall eventually, as in duty, join but for the present I fail in any way to be convinced by friends who say that it is ‘great fun’ – an argument which I generally explode at once, by observing that I find it much greater fun to go out for my usual evening’s ride instead of being put through ‘right about face’ & ‘extensive motions’ like a parcel of school boys.

The latter is not in any way a slur upon the Volunteer System as we learn many useful things at school, but it is merely a fitting reply for people who wish to convince you that you ought to be a volunteer because it is great fun.

The races have just taken place here. Two days of them & they passed off very well. Every body bets here & you know the old saying about being in Rome. I am happy to say I am always very lucky & every year manage to keep on the right side. I pocket about $350 dollars this time, or say £75. I do not bet on speculation as many sporting people do, but all my bets are matters of calculation which accounts for my success & I never stand to lose.

I have had about 7 portraits taken to send you but not one that I would send. The people here take such a time & my eyes are too weak to stand the glare so that they never come out properly in the photograph. However before this mail goes I must see if I can’t get one to enclose.

What has become of John. I have only had one letter from him since he has been home which is too bad. I never hear from any body else, my Father & yourself being my only correspondents now. Even Edmund has dropped writing.

It is very lonely uphill work & I feel it very much but it is no use swerving from the path which I have commenced upon. If I only had some capital to start with, I might be making lots of money now & it is very hard seeing all chances slipping through my hands as I do & sitting down quietly with my hands in my pockets with a paltry nominal stipend.

It is not in Tea & Silk that the money is to be made, but it is here on the spot. If I had £10,000 this year to commence upon, it should have been £30,000 before the year was over. But China cannot be opened up every year & one cannot tell how long it may last. It is just the first rise that is so difficult. The attainment of something to start with & if my Father could only give me that something as I have before ventured to suggest, I might now be on the road to fortune.

It is not quite out of the question to suppose that I can remain in this house after next year when I can do so much better for myself & when I see the house going to nothing, exhausting itself as it is fast, now the Jardines have gone. I only want to know my position & the sooner I can form some new connexion & start on my own account now, the better. I have experience & perfect confidence & my present berth gives me ample opportunity of developing both.

I am working on, guided by a laudable ambition but which cannot brook being kept under much longer & you know what ambition & limited means often leads people to. I mean rash speculation, although I sincerely hope that in my case it may not even be the speculation without the adjective.

Excuse my selfish anxiety, but I trust you may live to see the day & my Father too, when it will not appear to you so selfish. I can assure you I am working on here guided by but one motive and that is to make myself sufficiently independent to be able to return home to become a useful member of society, to be useful to my family & may be to be useful to my Country. It is hard uphill work, but I must by dint of perseverance to be able to surmount all the difficulties.

My Father will, I trust, consider this letter as equally addressed to himself & with love & remembrances to every one & my usual kiss to little Helen.

I remain, my dear Mother

Your affect. Son

Peter G. Laurie

* Rebels – Quite apart from the tensions arising from European activities, China also suffered a series of internal rebellions. The most serious was the Taiping rebellion from 1850-64, in which 20,000,000 may have died. Perhaps 2,000,000 died in the rebellion by the Nien Feng (twisted turban) secret society in Shandong and central China, 1853-68. Almost as serious was the Moslem Rebellion of 1864-78 in the north-west. Later the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and finally the Double Tenth Revolution of 10th October 1911, which finally overthrew the dynasty

* understrappers – Juniors