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Majesty's Foreign Secretary to Peking. But the composition of the expeditionary force helped to determine the nature of its operations. An exceedingly small army and a comparatively strong naval squadron, consisting of five warships with several light-draught gunboats specially built for inland-water service, indicated the blockading of coast-towns and the attack of riverine cities as the most feasible programme. Therefore Canton was first blockaded—to the great astonishment of Commissioner Lin, who had scoffed at the idea of such a presumptuous coup; then the island of Chusan, lying farther north along the coast, was seized for a base; and then Amoy and Ningpo were blockaded. But nowhere could a local official be found willing to undertake the responsibility of transmitting Lord Palmerston's despatch to Peking. It became necessary, therefore, that the British should act as their own messengers. With that object they proceeded to the mouth of the Peiho River menacing an advance to the capital itself. Met there by a Chinese commissioner,—Kishen, Viceroy of Chili,—they were induced to transfer the scene of negotiations to Canton, where direct information as to all the points in dispute could be obtained in loco. This is regarded by some annalists as a turning-point in the campaign. They accuse Captain Elliot of a fatal blunder in not pushing on to Peking, where the possibility of his advent was supposed to have already thrown