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of personal behaviour. One such was Brigadier Colin Campbell of the 98th Regiment, afterwards Field-Marshal Lord Clyde. He had been present at the capture of Chin-Kiang-Foo in 1842, but as he explained in a letter sent to a female enquirer had not taken any loot - the Indian word for plunder - "so that I have nothing of that kind, to which so many in the expedition helped themselves so bountifully at Chin-Kiang-Foo and near Nanking.”27
27 Admitting to an equally strong desire, he said he had foreseen what he called "the certainty of having to punish others for it if the War had continued," and this had dissuaded him from helping himself to private property. However, he added, he would have had no such scruples were he been able to loot an imperial palace.
28
Campbell had military and civil charge of Chusan during the final years of its occupation after the Peace, and the Chinese Commissioners who came to take it back from the British in 1846 lauded his administration of the island. Their words, in Gutzlaff's translation, are worthy of repetition here, as showing the calibre of the man and his lofty spirit:
Whilst observing and maintaining the treaty, you behaved with the utmost kindness and the greatest liberality towards our own people, and restrained by laws and regulations the military of your honourable country. The sepoys, to the number of several hundreds, who were quartered in the city and mixed with the Chinese, lived with them on the best understanding, and no instance of insult or aggression ever received. The European soldiers stayed with you, the Honourable Brigadier, outside the walls; and you, the Honourable Brigadier, kept them under such strict control, that they never ill-treated or annoyed the inhabitants.29
Campbell's biographer writes: "His principle was to leave the inhabitants as much as possible to themselves. He never interfered with their concerns or customs, unless called upon to arbitrate in matters which the headmen of the district were unable to settle." Campbell was equally zealous in keeping away the Chinese mandarins from the mainland who sometimes sought to exercise their authority there and were arrested when they crossed over.
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of personal behaviour. One such was Brigadier Colin Campbell of the 98th Regiment, afterwards Field-Marshal Lord Clyde. He had been present at the capture of Chin-Kiang-Foo in 1842, but as he explained in a letter sent to a female enquirer had not taken any loot - the Indian word for plunder - "so that I have nothing of that kind, to which so many in the expedition helped themselves so bountifully at Chin-Ki- ang-Foo and near Nanking.”27
27 Admitting to an equally strong desire, he said he had foreseen what he called "the certainty of having to pun- ish others for it if the War had continued," and this had dissuaded him from helping himself to private property. However, he added, he would have had no such scruples were he been able to loot an imperial palace.
28
Campbell had military and civil charge of Chusan during the final years of its occupation after the Peace, and the Chinese Commission- ers who came to take it back from the British in 1846 lauded his ad- ministration of the island. Their words, in Gutzlaff's translation, are worthy of repetition here, as showing the calibre of the man and his lofty spirit:
Whilst observing and maintaining the treaty, you behaved with the utmost kindness and the greatest liberality towards our own people, and restrained by laws and regulations the military of your honourable country. The sepoys, to the number of several hundreds, who were quartered in the city and mixed with the Chinese, lived with them on the best understanding, and no instance of insult or aggression ever received. The European soldiers stayed with you, the Honourable Brigadier, outside the walls; and you, the Honourable Brigadier, kept them under such strict control, that they never ill-treated or annoyed the in-habitants.29
Campbell's biographer writes; "His principle was to leave the in- habitants as much as possible to themselves. He never interfered with their concerns or customs, unless called upon to arbitrate in matters which the headmen of the district were unable to settle." Campbell was equally zealous in keeping away the Chinese mandarins from the main- land who sometimes sought to exercise their authority there and were arrested when they crossed over.
30
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