The conquest of China advances. According to the mail re-
ceived this week (Shanghai, September 20), General Brown, com- manding the British land forces, Captain Sherard Osborne, com- manding the Anglo-Chinese fleet, and Mr. Lay, Inspeetor of Chinese Customs, are all on their way to Pekin. General Brown wants the command of all Anglo-Chinese ; Captain Osborne wants to be made independent of all but Prince Kung; and Mr. Lay wants all accounts settled and new means provided him for the future. In other words, the three Englishmen want the complete control of the only effective army, the only effective navy, and the only effective revenue arrangement in China. They will get it, all the more easily as General Brown commands her Majesty's forces, and the fiction of officers being lent to the Crown is, therefore, at an end. Indeed, it is distinctly affirmed that General Brown has offered to lend the Imperialists a regiment of Beloocheee, to enable them to concentrate the Anglo-Chinese for the attack on Soochow, which, on October 9th, was, as we are informed by telegraph, "imminent." Prince Kung cannot re- fuse such allies, and it only remains to demand all the Prefectures and the Regency for " Anglo-Chinese " to make the process com- plete. In the teeth of these facts we shall still be told next session that Parliament has nothing to do with the matter, and Mr. Layard will assure inquisitive members that there is not the faintest idea of interfering in the internal affairs of China.
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