ments. This had the desired effect. The Commissioners at once
undertook, not only to issue a pacific proclamation couched in becoming
terms, but also to memorialise the Emperor for the recall of the Governor-
General, and the withdrawal of all powers from the Committee of Braves. It
may be added, that the immediate success which attended the proclamation
afforded striking confirmation of what Lord Elgin had always said, that the
best way of suppressing provincial disturbances was by bringing pressure to
bear on the Imperial power.

[Sidenote: Subterfuges,]
[Sidenote: defeated by firmness.]

_Shanghae.--Sunday, October 10th._--We have not done much yet, which
is the cause of my having written less than usual during the last few
days. I have reason to suspect that the Commissioners came here with
some hope that they might make difficulties about 'some of the
concessions obtained in the Treaty, with a kind of notion perhaps that
they might continue to bully us at Canton. If I had departed, I think
it probable enough that everything would have been thrown into
confusion, and the grand result of proving that my Treaty was waste
paper might have been attained. I have thought it necessary to take
steps to stop this sort of thing at once, so I have sent some very
peremptory letters to the Commissioners about Canton, refusing to have
anything to say to them till I am satisfied on this point, &c. I have
also, through a secret channel, had the hint conveyed to them, that if
they do not give me full satisfaction at once I am capable of going
off to Tientsin again,--a move which would no doubt cost their heads
to both Kweiliang and Hwashana. I have already extorted from them a
proclamation announcing the Treaty, and I have now demanded that they
shall remove the Governor-General of the Canton provinces from office,
and suppress the War Committee of the gentry.

_October 16th._--Yes, the report of the conclusion of a Treaty which
was conveyed so rapidly overland to St. Petersburg was true, and yet I
am not on my way home!... Do not think that I am indifferent to this
delay. It is however, for the moment, inevitable. Everything would
have been lost if I had left China. The violence and ill-will which
exist in Hong-Kong are something ludicrous.... As it is, matters are
going on very fairly with the Imperial Commissioners, and I expe