and inducing them to betray each other. In this manner, a civil war
can be brought to a speedy conclusion; and then the cruelty of the
victorious government knows no bounds. 'The treatment of political
prisoners,' says our author, 'is really so shocking as to be
incredible, if one had not been an eye-witness of these inhuman
deeds.'

The volume affords us some amusing particulars connected with the
collision with England. When the British fleet was expected in the
Chinese waters, the imperial orders were, to 'listen to no proposals,
but fire on the ships, and annihilate them at once.' To the great
emperor, it would have appeared quite ridiculous to condescend to
negotiation with so inferior a power as Britain: he had given his
orders; these must be obeyed; and his minister had himself written a
letter to Queen Victoria, that she might not plead ignorance of the
high behests of his Celestial majesty. It was not till the fleet
appeared at the mouth of the Pei-Ho, and the capital was in danger,
that Taou-Kwang deigned to seek an accommodation by means of his
smooth-tongued minister Keshen, who negotiated an armistice, promising
that all wrongs would be redressed by a commission appointed to meet
the British representatives at Canton. But as soon as the fleet turned
southward, the danger was considered visionary; and again the cry
arose to punish the insolence of the Western barbarians, as the
English were politely designated. The empress-dowager, who was never
before known to meddle with state affairs, told her son that 'the
English and Chinese could not co-exist under the canopy of heaven;
that the Celestial Empire must assert its superiority over these
barbarian robbers; and that unless he waged war to their utter
extermination, his ancestors would never acknowledge him in Hades.'
Keshen was now denounced as a traitor to his country for having come