in May he returned to Soochow, and Li Hung Chang, wishing
to do him honour, asked him to an official breakfast at his yamen. At
the same time Li Hung Chang said to Macartney: "I have asked Gordon to
breakfast. I know you and he have had some difference. How would you
meet him if you came too?"

To this question Macartney replied: "I would meet Gordon exactly as
Gordon met me. It is true that Gordon did me an injustice, but I am
quite ready to blot it out from my memory if Gordon will admit it.
Gordon acted under a strong feeling of excitement when he was not
master of himself, and I have no more thought of holding him strictly
responsible for what he wrote at such a moment than I would a madman."

Li Hung Chang said: "Very well, then. I ask you to come to breakfast
to meet him." On Macartney's return to his house he found a letter
from Gordon waiting for him. In this letter Gordon admitted that he
had done him a wrong, and was prepared to sign any paper to that
effect that Macartney might prepare.

Macartney thereupon replied to Gordon, pointing out that the mere
publication of a letter of retractation was not an adequate reparation
for an injurious statement which had been given a wide circulation,
and to a certain extent placed beyond recall by appearing in an
official publication, but that if he might publish Gordon's own
letter offering to do this in the _North China Herald_, he would be
satisfied, and the matter, as far as he was concerned, might be
considered at an end. To this course Gordon at once acquiesced,
subject to the omission of one paragraph affecting a third person, and
in no respect relating to Sir Halliday or his conduct. This letter,
which the Editor of that paper stated he "published at Colonel
Gordon's request," on 23rd July 1864, read as follows:--

"SHANGHAI, _July 5, 1864_.

"MY DEAR MACARTNEY,--It is with much regret that I perceive in
the last Blue Book issued on China affairs a Report from me to
General Brown on the occurrences at Soochow, which report
contains an injurious remark on your conduct.

"I am extremely sorry that I ever penned that remark, as I
believe you went out of your way on this occasion wholly on the
same public grounds which led eventually to my taking the field
myself, and I can only excuse my having done so by recollecting
the angry feelings with which I was actuated at that time.