Szn,—Permit me to say in reply to Mr. T. Adkins's
letter (Spectator, January 30th) on this subject, which I have read with much interest, that I did not mean to imply that Gordon had any authority over the Chinese Fleet at the period named, any more than that Osborn had any authority over the "ever-victorious army." Both were British officers holding the. Queen's commission, and lent to the Chinese Government for service in their respective professions, and so far were, as I wrote, "associated." It was certainly no wonder if, as Mr. Adkins tells us, our Minister in China at the time treated as a joke Mr. Lay's wild proposal that "Captain Osborn, the commander of the squadron, should receive no orders except directly from the Emperor; that these orders should only he conveyed through Mr. Lay; and that Mr. Lay should only convey such of them as he thought proper" !—in other words, that the Fleet was to be at the absolute disposal of Mr. Lay. "The Comthodore " was a Captain Forbes, and is long ago dead. Though a sailor by profession, he served in China under Gordon in the Army, not under Osborn in the Fleet. He may not have been sent home with " despatches " in the technical sense of the word ; his mission was to explain to the proper authorities, and to defend, if there was need, in the Press,. the reasons which caused Gordon and Osborn to resign their respective positions in the Chinese service at such a crisis. Gordon's desire was, I conceive, to do for China what in these later years we have done for Egypt, and by muck the
same methods.—I am, Sir, &c. E. D.
Previous page
