_August 22nd._ ---- tells me that yesterday, at dinner, the fact that Government had removed some commissioners who, not content with hanging all the rebels they could lay their hands on, had been insulting them by destroying their caste, telling them that after death they should be cast to the dogs, to be devoured, &c., was mentioned. A rev gentleman could not understand the conduct of Government; could not see that there was any impropriety in torturing men's souls; seemed to think that a good deal might be said in favour of bodily torture as well! These are your teachers, O Israel! Imagine what the pupils become under such leading! [Sidenote: Fears for Lucknow.] _August 26th._--The great subject of anxiety here now is Lucknow, where a small party of soldiers, with some two hundred women and an equal number of children, are beleaguered by a rebel force of 15,000. The attempts hitherto made to relieve them have failed; and General Havelock, who commands, says he can do nothing unless he gets the 5th and 90th Regiments, the two I sent from Singapore on my own responsibility. The men of the 'Pearl' and 'Shannon' and the marines are guarding Calcutta, or on their way up to Allahabad, so that it is impossible to say what would have become of Bengal if these reinforcements had not come. _August 30th._--The mail from England has arrived. No letters, of course, for me. I gather from the newspapers and Canning's letters that some troops, though only to a small extent, I fear, are to be sent to Hong-kong, to replace those which have been diverted to India. From Palmerston's speeches I gather that he adheres to the policy of my first visiting the North, and making amicable overtures; and, secondly, taking Canton, if these overtures fail. I believe I have adopted the only mode of carrying out that policy. It is rather perplexing, however, and sometimes a little amusing, to be working at such a distance from head-quarters, as one never knows what is thought of one's proceedings until it is so much too late to turn to account the criticisms passed upon them. [Sidenote: Return to China.] There remained now nothing to keep him longer at Calcutta; a body of troops was on its way to Hongkong, to take the place of those that had been diverted to India, and the end of September was the time at which he had arranged to meet Baron Gros in the China seas. On the 3rd of September, therefore, he turned his face once more eastward, to resume the proper duties of his mission. [Sidenote: Fever.]