Excerpt from The Last Year in China
The following Letters are published in the belief that any authentic account however slight, of late events in China, will, at the present moment, be interesting to the public. A few months may produce more elaborate works on the same subject. In the meantime, a few sketches, which possess the advantage of having been written at the times and places to which they refer, may not prove unacceptable.
In these pages will be found no detailed account of our military operations The despatches were then too recently written; and the Author has no confidence in histories composed so close upon the events they pretend to narrate, that proper testimonies and authorities cannot have been consulted. This opinion has been strengthened by the recent instance of an officer, who has described events which occurred since his departure from the scene of action, just as a grave historian would state facts established on the best authority.
The writer relates that the General displayed his humanity by stopping the slaughter at the repulse of the Chinese before Ningpo. The circumstance in itself was not improbable, for the General was always exceedingly humane. But, unfortunately, being absent at Chusan, he heard of the attack and repulse at the same time, and had no opportunity to display humanity on the occasion. However, I will leave to others the task of exposing the errors prevalent on the subject of the attack on Ningpo, because I was not there myself. I have only noted the error to which I could myself bear witness.
I the less regret having written so little about our active operations, because I know the public take little interest in our engagements with the Chinese.
It has been the misfortune of the troops in China, that ever since the success of Sir Hugh Gough before Canton, and the subsequent arrival of the Admiral and Plenipotentiary, our operations in China have been a succession of victories Had we had an army unaccountably destroyed in winter quarters, or had our ladies fallen into the hands of the Chinese, our proceedings would have at once awakened greater interest, and been viewed in a more favourable light.
But in China we did not permit our ladies to approach the scene of operations. Quietly settled in India, or, at the nearest, in Hongkong and Macao, they ran little chance of interesting the British public, or of ornamenting a Tartar seraglio. Deprived of female society, we were truly "outer barbarians," and lost all interest in fair eyes.
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