Nor were British arms less fortunate elsewhere than in India. The operations at Canton, which had been suspended by the Mutiny, were successfully ended at the beginning of the year, a small French contingent acting as our allies against the Chinese. Commissioner Yeh was captured along with the city of Canton, in which Admiral Sir Michael Seymour established a provisional government. But the Imperial authorities affecting to consider the dispute a purely local one between the British Consul and the Imperial Commissioner, refused to come to terms. Lord Elgin accordingly crossed the bar of the Peiho river with a strong naval force, proclaiming his intention of attacking Pekin itself. The Imperial Government, therefore, made haste to conclude the Treaty of Tien-tsin on the 26th of June, which formed a new basis for British commercial intercourse with Eastern Asia.[4] The interest of the Queen in this achievement was heightened by the fact that the treaty was brought to her at Balmoral (20th of August), by Mr. Frederick Bruce, Lord Elgin’s younger brother and secretary, also brother to Colonel Bruce, governor to the Prince of Wales, and a confidential friend of the Royal Family. A Commercial Treaty with Japan followed, which completed the triumph of Lord Elgin’s energetic and adroit diplomacy. [Illustration: THE FORTRESS OF GWALIOR.] Home and Foreign Affairs, however, brought more trouble and annoyance to the Queen than the operations of war in the East. In fact, at this period of her career, her Majesty found it more necessary than ever it had been to devote her best energies to the public service. In a conversation with Mr. Greville during the autumnal recess of 1857, Lord Clarendon said that “the manner in which the Queen in her own name, but with the assistance of the Prince, exercised her functions, was exceedingly good, and well became her position, and was eminently useful. She held each minister to the discharge of his duty and his responsibility to her, and constantly desired to be furnished with accurate and detailed information about all important matters, keeping a record of all the reports that were made to her, and constantly recurring to them; _e.g._, she would desire to know what the state of the navy was, and what ships were in readiness for active service, and generally the state of each, ordering returns to be submitted to her from all the arsenals and dockyards, and again weeks and months afterwards referring to these returns, and desiring to have everything relating to them explained and accounted for, and so throughout every department. In this practice Clarendon told me he had encouraged her strenuously. This is what none of her predecessors ever did, and it is in fact the act of Prince Albert, who is to all intents and purposes King, only acting entirely in her name. All his views and notions are those of a Constitutional Sovereign, and he fulfils the duties of one,