GENERAL PEELsaid, he trusted that in the absence of the Foreign Secretary the noble Viscount at the head of the Government would answer the question, of which he had given notice—namely, What steps the Government have taken to ascertain whether the report of the murder of Captain Brabazon, of the Royal Artillery, by the Chinese, is true; and whether the information received is derived from the personal knowledge of the informants, or rested entirely on Chinese 1172 rumours? He had given notice of his question before he had read the Report of the Committee appointed to consider the mode of conducting the business of the House; otherwise he should have selected some other opportunity than the Motion for the adjournment of the House until Monday. Nor should he have volunteered to ask a question upon a subject which must naturally be painful to the feelings of the relatives of Captain Brabazon; but the fact was he had been requested to bring the matter before the House and the Government by Major Brabazon and his family. Major Brabazon, not satisfied with the evidence of his son's death, was on the point of going out to China for the purpose of offering a large reward for any information on the subject, when he was prevented from doing so by an interview which he had with the noble Lord the Foreign Secretary, who undertook on the part of the Government to do everything that was necessary. Far from finding fault with the Foreign Secretary, Major Brabazon had commissioned him (General Peel) to express his gratitude to the noble Lord for the kindness he had shown him; but he complained, with some justice, that anything was left to be done in the matter. He complained that before the Earl of Elgin quitted Pekin he did not take every means in his power of ascertaining the accuracy or inaccuracy of the report of the death of Captain Brabazon. The Earl of Elgin, writing to the noble Lord on the 26th of October, stated that Captain Brabazon, together with a French gentleman, was beheaded, after the action on the 19th of September, by the directions of a Chinese General, who was wounded on that occasion. He added that he was inclined to credit the report, although he had no positive evidence of the facts, and that Captain Brabazon was an officer of much promise, who had held the office of Deputy Assistant to the Quartermaster General. Major Brabazon complained that every step was not taken to prove the truth of that report—that even the most obvious and common methods were not employed. It was reported that after the execution the body of Captain Brabazon was thrown into a canal. Major Brabazon complained that the canal was never dragged, although by such a simple expedient some remnant of clothing or something proving the accuracy of the report might have been discovered. He also stated the extraordinary fact that 1173 our troops entered the town where the execution was supposed to have taken place on the evening of the same day, that they remained there for ten days, held an open market, and were in constant communication with the Chinese, and yet that not a single whisper reached them of such an execution having taken place. It had, likewise, come to his knowledge that on the 1st of October, the day after the troops left, a British subject was executed by the Chinese, and that either the fact was not known to the English authorities, or they had not thought it worth their while to take notice of it. The man was a private of the 31st Regiment. Upon application to the War Office Major Brabazon was told that they knew nothing of the subject; that the only information they had received was that a man had died on the 1st of October; and it was only on referring to the depot of his regiment that Major Brabazon discovered the man was beheaded by the Chinese. Major Brabazon supposed, very naturally, that the execution of this private soldier might have given rise to the report of the death of his son. There were many other circumstances which led him to the same conclusion. Perhaps he was too sanguine in his confident belief that his son was still alive. We all knew how people were apt to cling to the last hope; but he so far agreed with Major Brabazon that, having read with the greatest attention all the evidence which had been produced on the subject, he thought there was no absolute proof of Captain Brabazon's death. He did not wish, of course, to raise any discussion as to the probability or improbability of Captain Brabazon being still alive; but the Earl of Elgin had not left the matter in a satisfactory state. As long as there was, he would not say a probability, but a possibility of Captain Brabazon being alive, it was the bounden duty of the British authorities in China to take every step in their power that no doubt should be left as to the accuracy of the report of his death. Captain Brabazon was a very distinguished officer, and his loss would be a misfortune to the public service as well as to his friends; but it would have been equally the duty of the authorities if he had been the humblest drummer-boy in the army to make every inquiry for the purpose of relieving his friends from a state of suspense, the horrors of which could hardly be exceeded by a knowledge of the reality however dreadful.
§ Afterwards—
§ MR. GREGORYsaid, he was extremely sorry that he had been absent when his right hon. and gallant Friend (General Peel) had called attention to the fate of Captain Brabazon. It was a matter of great satisfaction to him that that subject had been taken up by one who was himself not only professionally connected with the army, but who had been a Cabinet Minister and a Secretary of State for War. He understood that the right hon. and gallant Gentleman had alluded to the story that Captain Brabazon, having been dismissed by the Tartar general, Sang-ko-lin-sin, and having met the Chinese general who was supposed to have been mortally wounded in a recent engagement, was by him condemned to decapitation, and was so decapitated and his body thrown into the canal at Pa-li-chiau. Now, the evidence which had been received of that story was of such a nature that no insurance-office in the kingdom would pay a life policy upon such unsatisfactory information. The story went that Captain Brabazon was beheaded, and that on the same day the British army marched to Pa-li-chiau, where he was said to have been executed, and remained encamped there for ten days. It was a singular circumstance, therefore, that while such an event as the decapitation of an English officer must, if it really occurred, have attracted the notice of the natives, yet, although our troops were in constant communication with the Chinese people, not a word ever reached their ears during the whole of their ten days' encampment that one of their comrades had been killed or thrown into the canal. Moreover, if it had transpired that he was thrown into the canal, the question naturally arose, how came it that the canal was not dragged for his body, or some part of his clothing that might have led to his identification? The answer made to that was, that the bodies of several hundred Chinese who had been killed in the late action were thrown into the same canal, so that it would have been impossible to tell whether Captain Brabazon was there or not. Now, he had been given to understand on the authority of a military officer of high rank that while our army lay encamped for those ten days he passed close by the canal daily, and never saw the least sign of a human being in it. The right hon. and gallant Gentleman had referred to the case of two other Europeans who were decapitated at He se-woo, and whose bodies were 1175 subsequently discovered—a circumstance which might have given rise to the tale of Captain Brabazon and the Abbé de Luc's execution. That tale was, however, utterly unreliable, as might be seen from the papers in the blue book. The Chinese story was contradicted by Chinese authority. He would put the matter as plainly as possible before the House. The Chinese themselves had stated that twelve days after the reported death of Captain Brabazon that officer was still alive. It would be found from Mr. Parkes' despatch that Hangki spoke to him of prisoners detained in the camp of Sang-ko-lin-sin on the 3rd of October, whereas the story of the decapitation was fixed on the 21st of September. From the evidence of the sowar Jowalla Sing it was clear that Captain Brabazon and the Abbé de Luc were separated from the other prisoners, and kept in Sang-ko-lin-sin's camp. The despatch of the Prince Kong, the Emperor's brother, addressed to the Earl of Elgin, also stated that the Chinese had interpreters with them who were quite capable of discussing the points of difference between the two Powers, and among them he mentioned Consul Parkes and a French officer named "I," who was taken to be the Abbé de Luc. Prince Kung's despatch was dated the 3rd of October, while Captain Brabazon's decapitation was reported to have occurred on the 21st of September. To identify the person named "I" with the Abbé de Luc it should be observed that it was notorious there were no Frenchmen with the Chinese army who understood Chinese, and who were taken prisoners, except the Abbé de Luc, who was kept separate from the other prisoners, and placed in conjunction with Captain Brabazon. Whatever happened to Abbé de Luc happened to Captain Brabazon. They cannot be dissociated. No tale could be more absurd than that Sang-ko-lin-sin dismissed Captain Brabazon on the 18th or 21st of September, for the, date was variously stated. It could not for a moment hold water. We knew with what tenacity the authorities at Pekin had clung to their prisoners. Discussion after discussion took place between the British and the Chinese as to their surrender, and nothing but the threat to totally destroy the capital enabled us to extricate them from their clutches. Now, we had it alleged that Sang-ko-lin-sin was in possession of an English officer of artillery of high position, and had a foreigner who spoke Chinese along with him; and vet it 1176 was stated that, eighteen days before the other prisoners were delivered up by the Chinese with the greatest reluctance, Sang-ko-lin-sin dismissed that officer without any stipulation whatever. That story was almost incredible; and certainly not a stone ought to be left unturned before we abandoned our search for this unfortunate gentleman. For the sake of his suffering relatives the Government were hound to make every investigation in their power in order to obtain some trace of him. In his despatches Consul Parkes particularly alluded to the great anxiety of the Chinese authorities to inquire into the nature of our guns and bow far they carried, together with other circumstances connected with our army; and he remarked it as a very notable thing, that since General Sang-ko-lin-sin had held his command extraordinary attention had been paid by the Chinese to their artillery, which had undergone a marvellous improvement between the affair at Canton and the attack on the Taku Forts. It was, therefore, just possible that this young officer, being known to belong to our artillery, might have been separated from the other European prisoners, and put in conjunction with the Abbé de Luc, who was the only other person who spoke Chinese, for the purpose of assisting the Chinese to improve their own artillery. That was nothing but a mere conjecture; yet they ought not to rest satisfied until they had followed up every possible clue to the discovery of Captain Brabazon—an officer of the greatest promise, whom he had known from his boyhood. He could not sit down without paying a deserved compliment to the noble Lord at the head of the Foreign Department for having shown himself, since the commencement of the unhappy business, most anxious and willing to render any information in his power in order to relieve the sorrows and to dispel the incertitude of a bereaved family.