RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
149

ber of thirty-nine British, French, and Sikh prisoners who had been taken by the Chinese on 18 September 1860. They had literally been carted from here to there, denied water for long periods, imprisoned, interrogated with violence, and loaded with chains. Some had been tied so tightly with ropes that the circulation was impeded, and eighteen at least died slowly of the resulting gangrene.

Contained in the Daily News correspondent's narrative as quoted by The Illustrated London News was a thumbnail sketch of one of the prisoners who died, Private Phipps, of the King's Dragoon Guards. "He was a strong and cheerful man, and could speak enough Hindustani to make himself intelligible to them... [that is, to the Sikh soldiers]. To the last he appears never to have lost heart, and even when dying encouraged his companions, telling them to keep up their courage, for that help would soon come. All honour to this noble soldier! Though but a private in the ranks, he had the soul of a hero. Well may England be proud of such sons.

913

The same issue of The Illustrated London News also gives an account of an event which has subsequently been held synonymous with wanton destruction—the burning of the Emperor's Summer Palace in Peking. At the time, however, a different view of this was offered: "It having been ascertained that [the prisoners'] ill-treatment began in the Emperor's Summer Palace, it was determined to burn it to the ground, to mark in some tangible way the detestation entertained of the Chinese treachery and cruelty".14

15

The Illustrated London News was to maintain the Chinese theme over a period of months. Its next issue (12 January 1861) carried a portrait of Henry Loch,1 Secretary to the Earl of Elgin, who had been the bearer of the official despatches which had arrived from China on 27 December 1860,16 and which had occasioned the high degree of coverage in the subsequent issues of The Illustrated London News, which has just been described. (Loch was the gentleman with whom, as it seems, Fraserburgh North Eastern Scotland historian, John Cranna, confused Frederick Stewart (“Founder of Hong Kong Government Education"), when he inaccurately asserted that Stewart, at one time a secretary of Lord Elgin's, when that administrator held office in the Far East".)17
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
161

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the service. He was selected to fill the office of private Secretary to Lord Elgin while in china, the office which was held by Mr Oliphant during his Lordship's previous mission.”

The Illustrated London News, 5 January 1861, p. 12, c. 2.

John Cranna, Fraserburgh; past and Present, Aberdeen, the Rosemount Press, 1914, p. 138.

The Illustrated London News, 19 January 1861, p. 64, c. 1.

"Tartar Outpost Near Pekin. - from a sketch by our Special Artist", half-page The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861. p. 32.

**

'The China New Year' : The Dragon Feast at Canton - from a sketch by our Special Artist", half-page, The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861, p. 45.

'The China New Year': Woman Preparing Cakes -from a sketch by our Special Artist", half-page, The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861, p. 45.

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54

A full page group of six sketches (based on photographs) of “Domestic Life in China", The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861, p. 44.

A full page group of six sketches (based on photographs) of “Domestic Life in China”, The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861. p. 44.

The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861, p. 43, c. 3.

The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861, p. 45, c. 3.

"Domestic Life in china”, The Illustrated London News, 12 January 1861, p. 43, c. 3.

"The Peace with China.- Reading the Treaty at Pekin - From a sketch by our Special Artist", The Illustrated London News, 19 January 1861, front page.
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