there is a ring
to prevent it going down altogether. They get such dreadful
attacks of mumps, their throats being distended by the fish,
which are alive, when the birds seem as if they were pouter
pigeons. They are hoisted into the boats and then are very
sea-sick. Would you consider the fish a dainty?"

And again he writes about the Taepings, who were not in his eyes "a
people nobly struggling to be free," but a horde of ruthless
marauders.

"We had a visit from the marauding Taepings the other day. They
came close down in small parties to the settlement and burnt
several houses, driving in thousands of inhabitants. We went
against them and drove them away, but did not kill many. They
beat us into fits in getting over the country, which is
intersected in every way with ditches, swamps, etc. You can
scarcely conceive the crowds of peasants who come into Shanghai
when the rebels are in the neighbourhood--upwards of 15,000, I
should think, and of every size and age--many strapping fellows
who could easily defend themselves come running in with old women
and children.

"The people on the confines are suffering very greatly, and are
in fact dying of starvation. It is most sad this state of
affairs, and our Government really ought to put the rebellion
down. Words could not depict the horrors these people suffer from
the rebels, or describe the utter desert they have made of this
rich province. It is all very well to talk of non-intervention,
and I am not particularly sensitive, nor are our soldiers
generally so, but certainly we are all impressed with the utter
misery and wretchedness of these poor people.... In the midst of
those terrible times the British and foreign merchants behaved
nobly and gave great relief, while the Chinese merchants did not
lag behind in acts of charity. The hardest heart would have been
touched at the utter misery of these poor harmless people, for
whatever may be said of their rulers, no one can deny but that
the Chinese peasantry are the most obedient, quiet, and
industrious people in the world."

The propositions referred to in the former of these two letters were
that the services of Major Gordon should be lent to the Chinese
Government for the suppression of the Taeping rebellion, that he
should assume the command of an Anglo-Chi