428 Lady Hamilton. duty to mete out reward or punish- 66 Of her virtues, unhappily, prudence After the death of was not one. Nelson, and the disgraceful disregard of her claims by the Government, her affairs became greatly embarrassed. Those who owed wealth and honour to Nelson, and who had sunned themselves in her prosperIn her ity, shrunk away from her. distress she wrote a most touching letter to one who had courted her smiles in other days, the Duke of Queensberry, imploring him to buy the little estate at Merton, which had been left to her by Nelson, and thus to relieve her from her most pressing embarrassments. The cold-hearted old profligate turned a deaf ear to the request. In 1813, Emma Hamilton was a prisoner for debt in the King's Bench. Deserted by the great, the noble, and the wealthy, abandoned by the heir of his title and the recipient of his hard-earned rewards, she, whom Nelson had left as a legacy to his country, might have died in a jail. From this fate she was saved by one whose name is not to be found in the brilliant circle who surrounded her but a few short years before. Alderman Joshua Jonathan and, soon after her arrival, wrote the "HOTEL DESSIN, CALAIS, 66 July 4, 1813. "I then begged Mr Smith to withdraw The Smith (let all honour be paid to his rality and open heart has been the dupe of villains. To you, sir, I trust, for my dearest Horatia, to exert yourself for her, and that will be an easy passport for me."+ *Nelson Despatches, vol. vii. p. 390. This letter, it will be observed, is dated the 4th of July 1813. In eighteen months more the strange eventful life of Emma Hamilton was over. She died in a house, now No. 111 Rue Française, a street running parallel with the southern rampart of the town. Calumny has been busy even with her deathbed. It was said that imaginary phantoms haunted her; that Caracciolo was ever before her eyes; that she uttered agonising screams of repentance; that she could not endure to be in the dark; that she had fallen into intemperate habits, and become a papist!+ There is not one word of truth in any of these assertions. Dr Pettigrew, speaking from information communicated to him by Mrs Hunter of Brighton, says : * "This excellent lady tells me, that at the time Lady Hamilton was at Calais, she was also there superintending the education of her son at the academy of Mr Mills. She resided in the 'Grande Place, and became acquainted with Mons. de Rheims, the English interpreter, who persuaded Mrs Hunter to take up her residence with him in his château, which was visited by many English. When Lady Hamilton fled to Calais, Mons. de Rheims gave her one of his small houses to live in. It was very badly furnished. Mrs Hunter was in the habit of ordering meat daily at a butcher's for a favourite little dog, and on one of these occasions was met by Mons. de Rheims, who followed her, exclaiming, 'Ah, Madame! ah, Madame! I know you to be good to the English; there is a lady here that would be glad of the worst bit of meat you provide for your dog.' When questioned as to who the lady was, and promising that she should not want for anything, he declined telling, saying that she was too proud to see any one; besides, he had promised her secresy. Mrs Hunter begged him to provide her with everything she required, wine, &c., as if coming from himself, and she would pay for it. This he did for some time, until she became very ill, when he pressed her to see the lady who had been so kind to her; and upon hearing that her benefactress was not a person of title, she consented, saw her, thanked her, and blessed her. A few days after she ceased to live. This lady describes her to me as exceedingly beautiful even in death. She was anxious to have her interred according to English custom, for which, however, she was only laughed at, and poor Emma was put into a deal this good lady states she was permitbox without any inscription. All that ted to do, was to make a kind of pall out of her black silk petticoat, stitched on a white curtain." § Not a Protestant clergyman was to be found in Calais, and the solemn service for the dead was read over her grave by an Irish half-pay officer. Emma Hamilton sleeps in what was once the pleasure-garden of a woman almost equally famous for her personal charms and her strange adventures the beautiful Elizabeth Chudleigh, better known as Duchess of Kingstown. It was consecrated and used afterwards converted into a timberas a cemetery until 1816. It was yard, and no trace remains of the grave of her whom Nelson, with his dying voice, bequeathed to the gratitude of his country! In the office of the Juge de Paix is an inventory of the effects of which she died possessed. They are estimated as of the value of two hundred and twenty-eight francsabout nine pounds sterling. Besides this there were some duplicates for articles of plate and trinkets, which had been pawned at the Mont de Piété. The Rev. Earl Nelson came over to demand this property! but he declined to pay any expenses that had been incurred.|| These were discharged by Alderman Smith and Mr Cadogan, by the latter of whom Horatia was taken to Nelson's sister, Mrs Matcham. In the Records of the Municipality of Calais is the following entry : "A. D. 1815. Janvier 15.-Dame Emma Lyons, agée de 51 ans, née à Lancashire en Angleterre; domiciliée à Calais, fille de Henry Lyons, et de Marie Kidd; Veuve de William Hamilton, est decédé le 15 Janvier, 1815, à une heure après midi au domicile du Sieur Damy, Rue Française." T OUR POSITION WITH CHINA. IT is difficult to realise our present position with respect to the Chinese Empire. Like everything else connected with that land of grotesque contrarieties, it is a strange fact, whilst we are trading with its citizens, paying export dues to its customhouses, obligingly suppressing native piracy, and our Minister corresponding with its mandarins, with all the charming ceremony and forms that have, in the old day, been laid down by Confucius and Chutze, and are the present delight of our consular dignities-that at the same time we, and "nos chers alliés" on the other side of the Channel, are directing, with "slow and measured footsteps," a huge military and naval expedition against the Emperor and Court. As far back as the middle of September 1859-six long months since -the sad news of a foul dishonour to our flag reached Great Britain. The blood of four hundred slain and wounded, the honour of a defeated squadron and an insulted Ambassador, called for retribution, and a reassertion of our military prestige, yet nothing has been done to wipe off the sorrow inflicted upon us. It is true, vessels are now tossing off the Cape of Good Hope, laden with munitions of war, and filled with troops-it is true that the Himalaya, artillerymen and Armstrong's guns, have been sent to Alexandria, and that troops from India are slowly finding their way to Canton and Hong-Kong. But, for all this, no decided policy has been adopted. We are waiting to see whether the Emperor of China will not give us a loophole whereby to escape the risk and trouble of redressing our wrongs, and reasserting our dignity. Lord John is expecting Mr Bruce's despatches, and hopes to find reason suddenly displayed in the cunning brain of a Pekinese councillor; whilst, no doubt, Mr Bruce is quite as anxiously waiting for Lord John's policy upon the question to develop itself, and is evidently not going to commit himself to press hostile measures upon a Cabinet which cares little for the points of national honour involved in the question, provided they do not find in the Peiho affair of '59 as great a stumbling-block as the lorcha affair of '56. Lord John is waiting for information; Mr Bruce for instructions. Admiral Hope is getting his squadron ready for action; and the whole available resources of China are being directed to the defence of the capital and of the adjacent province. Vast quantities of arms and powder have been imported into China, and one correspondent tells us "that every Chinaman who can buy a rifle is doing so"-a figure of speech which, though doubtless exaggerated, means much. It was not for nearly six weeks after the news of the repulse of Admiral Hope's squadron reached England, that naval reinforcements were despatched to him; and they, of course, had a five months' sea-passage before them. It was not until Christmas that the French expedition left the ports of France. It has only been by the last mail that we have distinctly heard of the departure of the Anglo-Indian forces to China. What can have occasioned this delay? Great Britain, ever ready to cover the seas with her fleets, surely did not require all this time to support a defeated squadron ? We may hope that, had our Admiral been repulsed or defeated by a Russian force, instead of Chinese forts, on the 24th June 1859, we should not have had to look in vain, as we did in the last Indian mails, for the intelligence of the arrival of a single naval support. Oh, no! It is evidently a feigned appearance of want of energy and readiness; and woe betide France or Russia if they estimate our preparation by the late display. Unreasonable people might say that, with the steam-navies of England afloat in the East, and in the Mediterranean, as well as idle in our home ports, together with the use of electric telegraphs, which have for ten months connected Aden with Down- of which Charles Dickens tells us in ing Street, a better display of energy and combination might have been effected;-one which would have shown Europe, where every nation is closely watching us, and marking how we are likely to come out of the great fight hereafter to be fought for the supremacy of the seas and the commerce of the world-that England's navy can be concentrated with greater rapidity than ever, and protect with overpowering force any point at which her interests or her honour may be threatened. The unreasonable ones might say it was a good opportunity lost of showing what could be done, and that at little cost. But let us tell these unreasonable people, that, apart from some deep strategical reasons, which, if divulged, would probably be unappreciated, or be incomprehensible to ordinary mortals, there is a wind which blows in the East called a monsoon!-it is a terrible wind, one of exceeding force -one to which all seamanship, strategy, and naval combination must give way. Born ashore, as we landsmen are, it is evidently impossible for us to comprehend this great wind. This monsoon has prevented energy and decision being displayed; this monsoon it is which causes us now to send our poor soldiers in sailing-ships to China at the hottest instead of the coolest season of the year. It is indeed a wondrous wind; we have evidently nothing like it in Europe, and God defend us from it. his inimitable sketch of Major Helves. In a military point of view, the delay has been injurious to public interests. We should therefore desire to know whence that delay has arisen, except for the causes we have playfully alluded to. We can perfectly understand that troops could not be spared from India until the campaign in the Terrai was brought to a conclusion. But what prevented half-a-dozen regiments being sent, vid Alexandria and Suez, from the Mediterranean? and why could not the steam-fleet of the Indian navy have carried them to China? It is still puzzling to appreciate the motives which have influenced the Foreign Secretary, who, after all, is the prime mover, and might be supposed to care less about monsoons than those who only associate monsoons with long cruises in sailing-ships. On inquiring about it at the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company's office, the officials smiled mysteriously, excused themselves from talking too much of the north-east monsoon, as they had a very handsome Government subsidy for carrying the mails, and too much communicativeness upon their part might be objected to; but this they allowed, that two small P. and O. steamers, of no great power, and remarkably aged, did do battle with this monsoon twice amonth during the whole Chinese winter, and seldom if ever failed to make head against it. We must acknow- It is natural to suppose that he ledge that we were only the more (Lord John Russell) believes the puzzled; and that a monsoon is, in Treaty of Tientsin to have been one our opinion, a terrible bogie, rank-ely to redound to the interests, ing with the mysterious "Tom-tom" rcial if not political. of Great Britain, and that he desires to see it ratified. He knew, six months ago, that his subordinate, Mr Bruce, in attempting to obtain that ratification, had been violently and insolently received, and that the Chinese Government did then, and have since, repudiated every one of the conces sions in the Treaty which rendered it of the slightest value to us. He has subsequently approved of the proceedings of Mr Bruce, and in common with his Queen, and the heads and representatives of this great country, lauded the noble self-sacrifice and heroic devotion of the small band of seamen who essayed, in June 1859, to punish the perfidious Court of Pekin. Yet up to to-day, March 10, 1860, he, Lord Johr. Russell, is not prepared to state what course the Government intend to take with respect to China; and he has not as yet boldly announced his intention of punishing the Government of China for their broken treaty-engagements or their treachery, and even leaves it an open question whether the shame inflicted upon the navy of England is, or is not, to be wiped off. But for the oracle of the Tuileries, the British public would still be entirely in the dark as to the intentions of our Foreign Secretary. Napoleon the Third has, however, spoken, and we know Lord Palmerston's Ministry too well not to feel sure that where the Frenchman leads they will follow. Lord John, in February, assures the House of Commons he was waiting for one more despatch from Mr Bruce, and has subsequently informed us that that one despatch did not contain the information he wanted. Within the last few days Lord John has faintly sketched out his milk-and-water policy. It amounts to this: that if the Emperor of China will apologise for the slaughter of four hundred Englishmen, he will be content with a simple ratification; no indemnity for the past, no guarantees for the future, are to be asked. On the other hand, we are informed that war with China is a Chancellor of the Exchequer's war, one involving great risks to the revenue of Britain, and one in which we must be careful, in punishing the enemy, not to be Lord injuring ourselves. Let all this be granted. But what has been gained, we ask, by our dilatory proceedings, excepting that the Court of Pekin has entirely misunderstood our delay, and that time has been given it to be better able to resist us in enforcing our treaty - rights? Elgin, we are told, is now going to be sent to China. We know that his Lordship offered his services as far back as last October-why was he not then sent ? His appearance there, accompanied by such a force as should have been in China by Christmas Day, would have had a great moral effect upon the Court of Pekin. His name is associated in the minds of the Chinamen with defeat of their forts and_armies, and the submission of their Emperor his sudden return there with a formal declaration of war would have alarmed, and probably paralysed, the war-party in the councils of the Emperor. No: instead of this straightforward line, the only one consistent with our dignity when dealing with Easterns, we have allowed a mercantile class-interest to paralyse the strong arm of England, and to multiply the difficulties which lie in the path of the future diplomatist and executive. Lord John Russell, and we may say the statesmen of England, have only had to choose between Imperial and class interests-it is strange that they should have found it necessary to be so long in deciding which part to take. Any one who will wade through the files of the English journals published in China subsequent to the publication of the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin, will be struck with the fact that the first hostility our Ambassador experienced, in return for having opened up the Empire of China to the merchants, missionaries, and travellers of the world, emanated from our communities resident at the five ports. They were quite as obstructive to Lord Elgin in 1857-58 as the_merchants of 1842-43 were to Sir Henry Pottinger. Their policy was not the policy of England. Their profits were enormous, they could hardly be increased, and it was easy to surmise that they might be lessened by any |