AxrgoucH the Chinese Lave as a nation been seldom distinguished for the active courage which has led other troops to victory in the face of overwhelming odds, it is undeniable that on many occasions they have displayed a quiet courage, all the more noteworthy that it proceeded from cool settled deliberation rather than from sudden excitement of action. The Peking Gazette of the Sih August last orders the highest possible posthumous honours to be bestowed on the memory of T'ok'o-t'o-po, formerly Tartar commandant of the garrison in the Yang-i-shar, near Kashgar, whose deliberate suicide with that of his entire family are recorded on the testimony of a former servant in the Gazette of the 20th August, It is, however, worthy of note that we ure not altogether dependent on the Gazelte for our knowledge of this transaction, which seems to have excited much interest in Eastern Turkestan, and is recorded by Shaw in his account of his visit to Kashgar in 1869, whoo its remembrance was still fresh in the capital of the Atalik Ghazee. The two accounts of the transaction are marvellously alike, differing only in detail, Shaw makes the Amban to have sum. moned his officers and family to a conference regarding the surrender of the fort, and when the ory of the storming forces of "Allah-akbar!" was heard, as the Kokhandese took the walls, the Amban quietly upset the ashes of his pipe on a train of gun. powder communicating with a magazine placed below the hall of audience. As corrected by the Chinese, there were only the members of the Ambau's own family present—the Amban, his wife, son, daughter and two grandsons, curiously counted in the memorial as seven—besides women and domestic servants, raising the number to over twenty. The Chinese garrison in Hash. gar itself had held out against the Kirghiz for a year and four months. Famine commenced to make terrible inroads in the garrison. Firat they ate their horses, then the dogs and cats, then their leather boots and straps, the leather of their saddles and the thongs of their cows. At Inst the garrison was so much reduced that the survivors took to cannibalism, and it was not till they were arable to make any further resistance that at last the walls were stormed and the garrison destroyed toa man. The troops in the fort at Yang-i-shar still held out, and meanwhile a change took place in the position of affairs. The Kirghiz, who had captured Kashgar, and who bad inflicted tortures not only now the Chinese bat upon the Tarkistanees within the city, were in their tarn ousted by the Kokhandese, who restored order in the place.
Yakoob Beg was at the time acting as lieutenant to Booghoorz Khan, and the Kashgarees willingly joined the forces of their deliverers. Yang-i-shar was then attacked, with the result recorded above, and most of the Chinese garrison lost their lives either in the explosion on the subsequent sack. Scarcely less heroic was the stand made at the Yang-i-shar at Yarkand, where the Chinese garrison, though offered terms, refused to surrender, and rather than fall into the lauds of the enemy likewise set fire to the magazine, the Amban and most of his troops perishing in the explosion. There is no doubt that in these instances the conduct of the Chinese proceeded from a sense of duty, and that it was with no hope of reward or from fear of the consequences did they surrender, that they held out to the end. Nor are we left without other instances of a similar devotion, which we cannot but admire, although acknowledging its utter unfraitfulness. The case of the com. mandant at Chusan, in the first Eoglish war, has been more then once quoted, He was called on to surrender and shown the uselessness of attempting to hold the forts against the enemy. His reply was that his orders were to hold, and though he knew the impossibility of doing so successfully he hnd determined to be true to his trust. In the attack the English officer' in command did his best to save the old man. Ho would not yield, and died gallantly attempting to hold his own against overwhelming odds, More like the devotion of the officer in Kashgar was the conduct of the Tartar troops at Chiukinng and Chapoo, when those places were captured-by the British troops, curiously reversing the old adage that—
Ho who fights and runs away May live to fight another day.
'The Tartar troops on the capture of those cities set themselves to kill their families and then committed suicide. While the devotion of the troops, who' had fought well as long as fighting could avail them against Leavy odds, was admirable, it is difficult to discover the reason of the self-sacrifice, It could scarcely have been fear of the consequences of falling into hostile hands, as the example of other places showed that except those who fell in battle, troops who were defeated or captured by the British had nothing to fear. It must, therefore, have been instigated by the fear of disgrace, Undeniably, such a high motive is to be admired, however unwise may be its effects, and subsequent events showed how little the country could afford to spare those Tartar garrisons. It is, however, curious that when subse. quently put to the test in the contest with the Taipig rebels, the Tartar gar-risens in few places made any effective stand. They were as ready to pour out their life blood then as in the previous war, and few of the Tartar garrisons in Central China escaped
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.