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with which England commenced and conducted it. At no time were the British Generals able to put more than nine thousand men into the fighting line, and on the eve of the crowning effort of the campaign, Sir Hugh Gough found himself under the walls of Nanking with only forty-five hundred effectives. Contrasting the insignificance of such an army with the immense resources, vast extent, and enormous population of the Empire against which it was launched, the annalist is puzzled to determine whether the enterprise showed unparalleled temerity or singular perspicacity. Rash or wise, however, it was amply justified by the event. The Chinese often displayed conspicuous bravery; often preferred death at their posts to retreat or surrender when the former would have been easy and the latter was invited. But equipment of the most ineffective kind, antiquated tactics, and almost total lack of discipline reduced their resistance to the level of childish impotence. In truth the war seemed to have been expressly designed by the powers that control national destinies as an object lesson to show China the hollowness of her grandiose pretensions and the immense superiority of the destructive forces that Western civilisation could command.

The instructions given to the officer in command of the British expedition left him a tolerably free hand provided that he achieved the task of conveying a communication from Her