_Shanghae.--November 2nd._--You will, I am sure, see how necessary it has been for me to protract my stay to this time. The systematic endeavour to make it appear that my work was a failure could be counteracted only by my own presence. The papers, &c., from England are complimentary enough about the Treaty, but some of the accounts which have gone home are somewhat exaggerated, and perhaps there will be a reaction.... More particularly, I find a hope expressed that we have plundered the wretched Chinese to a greater extent than is the case.... Meanwhile, I have achieved one object, which will be, I think, the crowning act of my mission. I have arranged with the Imperial Commissioners that I am to proceed up the river Yangtze. The Treaty only provides that it shall be open when the Rebels have left it. I daresay this will give rise to comments. If so, I shall have anticipated them, by going up the river myself. I shall take with me my own squadron (what I had in Japan). The weather is beautiful; quite cool enough for comfort. We shall visit a region which has never been seen, except by a stray missionary. I shall lose by this move some three weeks, but I do not think they will be really lost, because it will give so very complete a demonstration of the acceptance of the Treaty by the Chinese authorities, that even Hong-Kong will be silenced. _November 6th._--I hoped to have started to-day, but am obliged to put off till Monday, as the tariff is not yet ready for signature. I grieve over every day lost, which protracts our separation. I see that in the very flattering article of the _Times_ of September 7th, which you quote, it is implied that when I signed the Treaty, I had done my work, and that the responsibility of seeing that it was carried out rests with others. If this be true--and you will no doubt think so--I might have returned at once, at least after Japan. But is it true? Could I, in fairness to my country, or, in what I trust you believe comes second in the rank of motives with me, to my own reputation, leave the work which I had undertaken unfinished?... Besides, I own that I have a conscientious feeling on the subject. I am sure that in our relations with these Chinese we have acted scandalously, and I would not have been a party to the measures of violence which have taken place, if I had not believed that I could work out of them some good for them. Could I leave this, the really noblest part of my task, to be worked out by others? Anyone could have obtained the Treaty of Tientsin. What was really meritorious was, that it should have been obtained at so small a cost of human suffering. But this is also what discredits it in the eyes of _many_, of _almost all_ here. If we had carried on war for some years; if we had carried misery and desolation