COLONEL SYKESsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether any accounts have been received at the Foreign Office in confirmation of statements in the Friend of China of the 9th December, 1867, and North China Herald, that Mr. Burlenghame, United States' Minister at the Imperial Court of Pekin, had accepted the office of Ambassador from the Chinese Government to the Governments in Europe; that he left Pekin on the 24th November for 800 Tientsin, but was stopped on the road by rebels, and was only relieved from his position by the United States' Steamship of war Ashwelot and a party of bluejackets from Her Majesty's gunboat Dove; and, whether he will lay upon the table the Memorials from the commercial communities in China respecting the revision of the Treaty of Tientsin, addressed to the British Minister at Pekin or to the foreign Office?
§ MR. E. C. EGERTONreplied, that intelligence had been received of Mr. Burlenghame's appointment as Chinese Ambassador to the European Governments. As to his detention and release, he would read an extract from a letter forwarded to the Foreign Office, containing a full statement of the facts. The writer said—
Mr. Burlenghame's letter to Mr. Wade (enclosed by the latter to Mr. Hammond) is dated Shanghai, December 10, and in it he states—'You have doubtless heard we were stopped at Hosiwu by a roving band of robbers. Our carts were brought to a halt by the cry that they (the robbers) were in front. The drivers could not advance, but made a stampede for Hosiwu, where we remained for forty-eight hours, menaced by 300 robbers. I sent messengers to Pekin and Tientsin. Succour came almost simultaneously from both places. Captain Dunlop, of Her Majesty's gunboat Dove, mounted his 'bluejackets' and rode forty-five miles in twelve hours in the night, and was the first to arrive. Sir Rutherford Alcock's escort, under Murray, with Conolly and Baber as volunteers, came next, and thus it was that we were rescued. I wish everywhere to make known the most energetic and gallant conduct of Captain Dunlop.'He had no objection to produce the Memorials.