CHINA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 165, 4 March 1854, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHINA.

The city of Amoy has been reconquered by the Emperoi's troops. Their first attack was unsuccessful. •' The admiral had landed 1000 men, who marched steadily towards the citadel for two miles, when the rebels made a msh and drove them -back to their boats, with a loss of about twenty or thirty killed, and from twenty-five to fifty prisoners. Next day the rebels began trying the prisoners with great formality." They were exceedingly civil to the Europeans, placing chairs for all who liked to attend. All the Tai° tars taken weie immediately beheaded, the insurgents making no secret of their intention of utterly exterminating the whole race. [At the taking of Nankin it is said only 100 escaped out of 20,000, including women "and children ; they diil not strike a single blow in self-defence —they threw themselves on their faces, and imploring mercy in the most abject terms, submitted to be butchered like so immy sheep] But the Chinese soldiers, being generally pressed men, were usually acquitted.

A second attempt was made by the Imperialists on the I lth of November, and with complete success. The rebels, having exhausted their provisions, were preparing to leave the city, and to seek shelter in the junks belonging to "their pany anchored in the harbour ; but as they were marching out the imperialist army fell'upon and defeated them, following up their victory with fearful slaughter. The rebel Admiral, on the evacuation.of the town by the troops, sailed from the harbour to avoid being taken by the imperialist vessels, who were approaching, leaving a vast concourse of poor wretches on the shore, who were butchered by hundreds by t!:e conquering mandarins, the carnage continuing till arrested by the exertions of the crews of H. M. vessels Hermes and Bittern, whose aid was summoned by the British consul to stay the executions in the immediate vicinity of the European residents. On the 22nd the city is represented <is quiet, so far as the foreign community were concerned ; but the beheading of the rebels was still going on. Shangai had been also attacked by the imperialist forces, where they had destroyed about 1,500 houses, but could not gain possession of the city. The Glenlyon and"Snipe, two vessels belonging to the rebels, had been captured by the imperialists. An attempt had been made by the latter to interfere with some property belonging to the European residents, but the intruders were beaten off with the Joss of six or seven of their men. (From the Guardian.) Dr. Charles Taylor, the American missionary, had returned to Shanghai from visiting the insurgent General Loo at Chin-kiang-foo, who forwarded him on to Nankin on his expressing a wish to go there. The tents of the Imperial troops were distinctly seen from the wall of the city. The editor of the North China Herald furnishes us with a small abstract of Dr. Taylor's journey, running as follows :— " He left Shanghai on the 2d June, the day the Lady Mart/ Wood left for Hong Kong, in a small native boat—and having succeeded in passing the Imperial fleet blockading Chin-keang-foo, anchored on Saturday nighty Junp 4, near the south bank of the Yang-tse, "ap-posite Silver Island, about two miles below the city, his boatmen absolutely refusing to go any further. Therefore, at daybreak the next morning, he landed alone, taking his carpet-bag filled with Christian books,'walked along the path on the river bank to the high precipitous bluff rising abruptly from the river, and running inland in a southerly direction for about a quarter of a mile to the north-east gate of the city. When he came near enough to discern persons on the stockades, which run along the ridge of this hill to the gate, he made a signal to them, which was observed, and he was beckoned to approach. " Our friend found this l.ill, and, indeed, the whole city, fortified with great strength, and no little military skill, by means of ditches, palisades, embankments, abbattis, coy.ps de loupes, (i. c., pitfalls concealed by coverings of straw), chevauxdefrise,fyc. When he had succeeded, after much difficulty, in passing these various obstructions, one of the insurgents came down the hill, took his parpet-bag, and led the way up to the garrison. On coming within the stockade, he found himself surrounded by great numbers of fierce-looking,'long-haired men,' who addressed him as brother. He was asked many (questions, but being desirous to get an interview with Loo, commandant of the] forces, he resolutely refused to answer any till conducted into the presence of that officer. After many ineffectual efforts to induce him to communicate with officers of inferior rank, he was furnished with an escort of several soldiers, who conducted him to the head quarters of the commandant, within the city walls. When this personage made his appearance, so destitnte was he of the pompous display so common to Chinese officials, our friend began to think another attempt was being made to thwart him in his design of obtaining access to their chief, and at first refused to apply to his interrogatories; nor was it until his attendants had Invested him with a yellow and red silk uniform that the doubts of his visitor were removed, who then informed him fully of himself, whence he came, and the object of his visit—at the same time, opening his carpet-bag, presented' him with the books, which gave evident satisfaction, and elicited the remark, which was oft repeated, that the doctrines were the same as their own ;

they, indeed, claiming a common brotherhood wills foreigners. Loo hospitably entertained our friend at his own quarters during t] ie v j s j t and on leaving provided him with a horse, and an escort of several hundred soldiers with tl )e j r officers, to accompany him beyond the city wul] s and the stockades on the river bank. The following is a letter addressed by Gene^ ral Loo to foreigners, and given to Dr. Taylor: " Loo, the iifth arranger of the forces, attached to the palace of the celestial dynasty of Tai-ping, who have received the command of Heaven to rule the empire, communicates the following information to all his English brethren :—On the first day of the fifth moon (June the sth) a brother belonging to your honourable nation, named Charles Taylor, brought.hither a number of books, which have been received in order. Seeing that the abovenamed individual is a fellow-worshipper of God (Shaug-te), he is, therefore, acknowledged as a brother; the books likewise which he Ims brought agree substantially with our own, so. that it appears we follow one and the same road. Formerly, however, when a ship belonging to your honourable nation came hither (the Hermes), she was followed by a fleet of impish vessels belonging to the false Tartars: now also, when a boat from your honourable nation comes among us, the impish vessels of the Tartars agiin follow in its wake. Considering that your honourable nation is celebrated for its truth and fidelity, we, your younger brothers, do not harbour any suspicions. At present both Heaven and men favour our design, and this is just the time for setting up the Chinese and abolishing the Tartar rule. We suppose that you, gentlemen, are well acquainted with the signs of the times, so that we need not enlarge on that subject; but while we, on our parts, do not prohibit commercial intercourse, we merely observe that since the two parties are now engaged in warfare, the going to and fro is accompanied with inconvenience; and, judging from the present aspect of affairs, we should deem it better to wait a few months until we have thoroughly destroyed the Tartars, when, perhaps, the subjects of your honourable nation could* go and come without being in-, volved. in the tricks of these false Tailwes. Would it not in your estimation also be preferable ? We take advantage of the opportunity to send you this communication for your intelligent inspection, and hope that every blessing may attend you. We also send a number of our own books, which please to circulate among1 you." The Central Government at Pekin is represented to be in great distress from want of funds. According to the North China Mail, it appears, from the Gazettes, to be driving the Government to perfectly suicidal measures:— " The properties of the former minister, Sae-shang-ah, and of the Imperial Commissioner, Seu-kwang-tsin, have been confiscated —their sons, mandarins in Pekin, being previously degraded and thrown into prison, to prevent their abstracting any portion. As both of these officers had been brought prisoners to Pekin, and the former had been already tried and condemned to death for inefficiency, these proceedings had in them nothing unusual. But the same fate has befallen the property and family of Luh-keen-ying, who fell at his post in Nankin. The death of an officer at his post by the hand of the enemy has hitherto been held to obliterate all faults. The rule has been to confer posthumous honours on the deceased and rewards on his family. Now unsuccessful devotion has been visited in the same manner as early and flagrant derilecuon of duty. Beside* the above transaction, heavy loans have been exacted from some wealthy families—those of Mulchang-ah, Keying, and other former ministers—amounting to a partial confiscation of their property. This step creates disaffection among an influential class, and is at the same time driving the specie in private hands out of the capital. The above detailed proofs of the scarcity of provisions and the want of money in the Government treasuries at Pekin we conceive to be of great importance, as showing— first, that the Imperial armies near Nankin, Yangchow, and Chin-kiang must depend for subsistence on the provincial treasuries, known to be now nearly or quite exhausted ; secondly, that the Central Government, far from having the means of sending down reinforcements of Tartars from beyond the Great Wall, may have to struggle for existence with a local insurrepr tion in Pekin itself. As to Tartar chieftains

!jioviiii>- (losvn with their people at their own fost, as we have seen it somewhere slated cer|un of them had offered to do, we can perfectly loinpreheud why the Emperor had, and was jlso stated, declined the offer. It could only pave emanated from some of the hereditary [longol Princes, of whom no one knowsbeiter |ian the Manichoo Court they have never for[otten their descent from Genghis Khan and |is associates, the former rulers, not of China herely, hut of all Asia and the east of Europe, they'have always been objects of apprehension md jealousy to the reigning dynasty. It is by io means improbable that they and their folpwers, bred in the saddle and accustomed to he hardy life of nomadic herdsmen in sterile egions, would, if now brought in, be able to lold all that portion of China north of the fellow River for years against a dynasty established in the south ; but it is equally probable hat they would hold it for themselves, not for he Mantchoo Sovereign. As to the low, canalintersected country south of the Yellow River, these horsemen, to whom a boat must be sornefwhat of a curiosity, would there have small fchance of coping with the Kwang-tung leaders Jand their army, men familiar with internal navigation from childhood, and now inured to the hardships and dangers of war."