CAPTAIN LOCH'S CLOSING EVENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN IN CHINA.

NOTWITHSTANDING the lateness of its appearance, Captain Lochs Closing Events of the Comperign in. China is one of the best books that the war has produced, if not the best of all ; for although Lord JocriLyst bad the advantage of the first start, Captain Loci( excels

the noble author in literary ability. Without any ill-timed attempts at display, he shows himself a man of acquirements in natural and geographical science, which induce matters of inquiry and observa- tion in the strange countries he passes by or into, where, to the merely military or nautical man, all looks barren save protrusive objects that thrust themselves upon the sight. Apparently a sportsman, with some taste for art, the Captain is a familiar observer of nature in all her aspects, and describes her appearances succinctly and with effect. Service in various countries has acquainted him with men of all characters and classes, and made him a practical cosmopolitan, without altogether obliterating national or professional prejudices,— which, sooth to say, are occasionally rather strong in our R.N. Captain. But he has all the bonhommie of the sailor, with his straightforward, off-hand manner; and his style is fresh, forcible, and crisp, buoyant in itself and impressing distinctly the images he wishes to convey. He has also the useful property of knowing when to stop in description.

These qualities have enabled Captain Loan to collect his mate- rials and to use them ; but his position has given him an advantage over most other writers upon the recent war. On his return from active service in the Mediterranean, be requested permission to join the Chinese expedition as a volunteer; which was granted. Having arrived at the Yellow river, in June 1842, he was invited by the Admiral to take up his residence in the flag-ship as a guest ; Sir HUGH Gouou, the General, employed him as an extra aide-de- camp when on shore ; Sir HENRY POTTINGER gave him oppor- tunities of seeing the diplomatists ; and, having apparently no routine duties to attend to, he had power to move about pretty much as he liked when active work was not going on. These cir- cumstances enabled our author to see more than an officer attached to some particular post. The warlike and diplomatic topics of the book are confined to the ascent of the Yellow river ; the capture of Chin-kiang-foo, with all its horrors ; the preparations for assaulting Nanking ; and the business and ceremonial interviews between the British and Chinese negotiators. The Chinese sketches, however, embrace more ground than this ; including a description of Hong-kong and Macao, (which, often as the latter has been done, possesses interest from the new views taken,) together with the voyage from Hong-kong to the fleet. The sketch of Singapore, and of the passage through the Indian Archipelago, though brief, is vigorous and racy : a cha- racter, indeed, which is applicable to every thing the gallant Captain bandies, except some of his walks on shore in the neigh- bourhood of' Nanking, that lead to nothing. In courage, good sense, good-nature, worldly knowledge, in- dustry, mechanical skill, and the art of living, in the French sense of scavoir vivre, the Chinese, in Captain Locn's opinion, are emi- nent. But in all moral qualities he represents them, whether correctly or not, as down to zero. This opinion he expressed very early in his expedition; for he writes at Macao as follows.

CAPTAIN LOCH ON THE CHINESE NATION.

The lower orders were better dressed and cleaner than I expected to find them, and withal civil enough. I was disappointed in the shops : they were small, and built of wood ; the lower rooms open to and on a level with the streets ; the upper are low dens, badly constructed, and very dirty. We saw them painting representations of some of the late actions, and tracing charts of adman and the river Yang-tze-kiang from some of our recent surveys, which will enable the Fan-kweis to sail with safety " in their inner waters." What will not the Chinese do for money ? They are curious beings : with an outward placidity of temper, and the good-humour of amiable people, they possess the hardness of heart and unforgiving nature of the Moor. From all that I hear, as a nation they are without virtue, deep feeling, or dig- nity of character. Sir Thomas Herbert told me, that after battering down forts and houses, and killing hundreds at Amoy, the boats of the Chinese were alongside his ship with supplies, before the guns were secured, to obtain what they prize before any good sentiment or moral obligation—profit and gain.

CHINESE COURAGE.

The Chinese opened the ball, and with more spirit and skill than they had hitherto evinced. A brisk fire was maintained on both sides for two hours and a half. At one battery, after the embrasures were in ruins and almost every gun dismounted, a Chinese stood upon the ramparts waving a flag in the midst of the Blonde's magnificent fire.

Many instances of personal bravery hare lately been observed, particularly among the mandarins. At Chapoo, one fine old officer gallantly led his men twice to the very points of our bayonets, manfully rallying them after each repulse, until he fell shot through the loins. When be was carried to the rear, an interpreter, seeing tears streaming down his cheeks, told him not to fear that mercy and every kindness would be shown him. Mercy !" Le said ; " I want no mercy. I came here to fight for my Emperor, and neither to give nor to accept mercy : but if you wish to gain my gratitude, and can be generous, write to my revered Sovereign, and say I fell in the front, fighting to the last."

There is some glimpse both of good sentiment and moral obliga- tion in this—eh, Captain ? And the traits of the Tartar General, brought to light after his self-immolation, evince a mixture of Roman stoicism, middle-age chivalry, and modern devotion to duty, not often united in one person. It is true, he was a Tartar by blood; but he was of Chinese training.

"Two days after the action, while viewing the ruins of the Tartar General's Louse—his funeral pile—where, like a Roman of old, he sat himself down in his spacious hall when all was lost, and desired his faithful attendants to obey his last command—to complete their last service by firing the building—Mr. Morrison discovered a man hid among the bushes in the garden : he proved to be the civil secretary of the late General, and had letters and papers about him of consequence. He was carried off as aprize, with the budget to be examined and translated on board the Queen. He spoke of his lost master with great feeling, and described him as one of the best and noblest of men.

" Some of the despatches were from him to the Emperor, others from the Sovereign. The former gave a faithful account of our movements from Woo- ten to the day of our anchoring off Cbin-kiang-foo. He expressed his un- alterable fidelity and determination to fight to the last ; but at the same time conjured his master, with the prophetic toreright of a doomed man, to end this wars at least until their warlike resources were more systematically arranged and the troops recruited and concentrated. He alluded to our science and energy, but did not allow that the Barbarians' Queen possessed more devoted or braver subjects than his august master. He mentioned all his own arrange- ments, and readiness to await the attack, and, if joined by some expected rein- forcements, his expectations of success. He concluded by saying, that his walls were high, and in good repair; and that the city, which some years before beat back an organized banditti amounting to 300,000 men, might be able to repulse s few barbarians.'

The Emperor's letters are full of reproaches for battles lost, accusations of cowardice against men who bad died bravely while he was writing these bitter letters, and threats in the event of future failure."

After the capture of the city, our author's independent position and spirit of enterprise induced hint to make more explorations than the generality at least of those who have published their experiences. It would appear from his indications, that the inha- bitants of Chin-kiang-foo were not freed from the usual horrors of an assaulted town ; most of them perpetrated by gangs of Chinese banditti, many arising from their suicidal custom, but some, our author seems to intimate, committed by our soldiery—and perhaps a pretty fair quantum. " However," says he, "it is my belief, that less villany was perpetrated than could have been reasonably expected, taking into consideration the anarchy that always fur a time prevails in a captured city" : a cautious sentence, that would cover much. Here is one of the

SEQUENCES OP GLORY.

I went with two soldiers of the Eighteenth down a street to the right, to a large house, which I concluded belonged to a Tartar of consequence : we burst the door, and entered. Never shall 1 forget the sight of misery that there mot our view.

After we had forced our way over piles of furniture placed to barricade the door, we entered an open court strewed with rich stuffs, and covered wills clotted blood ; and upon the stepsleading to the " hall of ancestors " there were two bodies of youthful Tartars, cold and stiff, much alike, apparently brothers. Having gained the threshold of their abode, they had died where they had fallen, from the loss of blood. Stepping over these bodies, we entered the balk and met, face to face, three women seated, a mother and two daughters ; and at their feet lay two bodies of elderly men, with their throats cut from ear to ear, their senseless heads resting upon the feet of their relations. To the right were two young girls, beautiful and delicate, crouching over and endeavouring to conceal a living soldier.

In the heat of action, when the blood is up and the struggle is for life be- tween man and man, the anguish of the wounded and the sight of misery and pain is unheeded ; humanity ispartially obscured by danger; but when excite- ment subsides with victory, and the individual circumstances are recalled to mind which led to the result, a heart would be hardly human that could feel unaffected by the retrospection. But the hardest heart of the oldest man who ever lived a life of rapine and slaughter could not have gazed on this scene of wo unmoved.

I stopped, horror-struck at what I saw. I most have betrayed my feelings by my countenance, as I stood spell-bound to the spot. Tue expression of cold unutterable despair depicted on the mother's face changed to the violent workings of scorn and bate, which at last burst forth in a paroxysm of invec- tive, afterwards in floods of tears, which apparently, if any thing could, relieved her. She came close to me, and seized me by the arm, and with clenched teeth and deadly frown pointed to the bodies, to her daughters, to her yet splendid house, and to herself; then stepped back a pace, and with firmly, closed .hands, and in a hoarse and husky voice, I could see by her gestures spoke of her misery, of her bate, and, I doubt not, of revenge. It was a scene that one could not bear long : consolation was useless, expostulation from me vain. I attempted by signs to explain ; offered her my services; but was spurned. 1 endeavoured to make her comprehend that, however great her present misery, it might be, in her unprotected state, a hundredfold increased; that if she would place herself under my guidance I would pass her through the city-gates in safety into the open country, where, doubtless, she would meet many of the fugitives. But the poor woman would not listen to me : the whole family were by this time in loud lamentation ; so all that remained for me to do was to prevent the soldiers bayoneting the man, who since our entrance had attempted to escape.

I left them, to return to the Commander-in-chief.

There are many more things about the war, and many of a civil, social, and diplomatic character : but our space is exhausted, and we must stop.