Next in importance to the destruction of the Legations, .and,
as rumoured, of all Europeans in Pekin, is the evidence in._Admiral .Seymour's report of his march that the new 'Chinese soldiery will fight. He, or a correspondent with him, reports that when the train arrived at Langfang on June 14th "the enemy advanced within twenty yards of the locomotive in face of a tremendous rifle and Maxim fire." They were beaten back, but on June 18th five thousand soldiers attacked the station again, and were only repulsed after "two hours' fighting" and a loss of fifty-eight killed and wounded. After this engagement it was resolved to retreat along the river, and from June 18th to June 2nd "every inch of the ground was stubbornly disputed by the Chinese," who were soldiers belonging to General Tung's western army. The British Marines and the Germans carried the arsenal five miles from 'fientsin, but the Chinese made- a" deiperate attempt to recover it, fighting with determination for two hours and
losing five hundred men. It is clear from the whole account that the kind of paralysis which seized the Chinese troops in the face of the Japanese has given way to hatred of the foreigner and some new source of confidence, probably better arms.
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