CHINA. THE GREAT REBELLION. [From the Melbourne Argus.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 845, 7 September 1853, Page 4

CHINA. THE GREAT REBELLION. [From the Melbourne Argus.]

We have received the Overland Friend of 'China of the 7th June, from which we extract the following further summary respecting the great rebellion. We continue our report of actual occurrences since the last overland despatch. Amoy had then just fallen into possession of the insurrectionist body, known as the Short Knife Society, • — a body, so far as we are safely advised, having no particular connection with the men at Nanking. As more fully detailed below, on Sunday, the 29th May, the Imperialists tried to regain possession, but vrere quickly lepulsed, with some loss. The safety of Canton is naturally a subject of considerable anxiety. We have no information, however, from which we are led to infer that it is at present in more conspicuous jeopardy than it has been for some time. Canton was the last place to succumb to the Tartar dynasty, and the probabilities are—tlmf- it w ;n v.o jt,,,* .. o.^c iv falling to the Tartar's successor. The local Mandarins are 'known to possess less political virtue than their contemporaries in other parts of the Empire ; and so far as it lies in their power, there is reason to believe that they will be fully vigilant in aiding to crush attempts to destroy that system under which they have thriven better than, no doubt, they will stand a • chance of under a new order. The son of the Taontae, at Shangbae, is now down here organising a fleet of armed fishingboats, to proceed to the Yang- tse-Kiang. Recently he called at the Government House at Macao, and requested permission to view the guns in 'the forts, and their mode of working, which was readily granted. He then stated to an officer that he had secured the services of sixty vessels, with thirty fighting-men each, to whom he was going to pay ten dollars per month per man. On reaching Shanghae, this fleet will, we suppose (co-operating with the vessels already in the liver), endeavour to recover Ching Keang-foo and possession of the Grand Canal. Our contemporary then gives a long narrative of the proceedings of the Shanghae merchants in reference to pro'eciion from the insurgents. They had applied to Sir George Bonham, the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, U.S. Consul, and M. de Montigny, the French Vice-Consul. Sir George Bonham promised to replace the Hermes by as efficient a vessel of war. The U.S. Consul said he would present the Committee's application to the naval, officer in command of the Japan expedition, who might possibly spare the U.S. S. Plymouth, and M. de Montigny would endeavour to retain Le Cassini steam-sloop, " until just apprehensions had been dissipated." Our contemporary likewise gives a copy of Sir George Bonham's despatch to the rebel chief, in which he assures him of neutrality on the part^f the British. Our contemporary then proceeds as follows :—: — " From the Christian portion of the insurgent mass, we may not now expect other than strict propriety of conduct. On Captain Fishbourne's arrival at Nanking he found one of the chiefs exercising the functions of Criminal Chief Justice. This Judge (the N. C. Herald tells us) " had just given judgment in a case declared by the females concerned to be one of rape, and for | which two men were condemned to decapitation." Acting on similar propriety of principle, though without their Christian profession, the Amoy insurgents are equally as regardful of personal rights and interests. To be found in an act of rapine is immediately to meet a bloody punishment. The Lady Mary Wood, which arrived from Sbanghae yesterday forenoon, has not brought intelligence of much novel interest., A correspondent writing as on the Ist instant, says, " We are quite flat here just now — no intelligence from Nanking. Private attempts to get up have failed." Nor does the last received N. C. Herald of the 28th ult.) contain, in the way of news, much of particular import. The following particulars of the conduct of the Tartar troops at Nanking, will be read with astonishmtnt by those who, like ourselves, have always

expected something very diflerent from them :—: — " On the Bth March they (the rebels) appeared before Nanking, and on the 19th of that month sprang a mine under the wall near the northern angle, which effected a breach of about 20 or 30 yards in extent. They immediately stormed by this, meeting with only a slight resistance from some Sban-tung and Kwei-chow (Chinese)troops, who attempted to defend it, and, proceeding to the southern quarter, entered the inner city there situated ; which, in the time of the Mings, was, and now is again, called the Imperial City, but which under the Ta-tsing dynasty has been occupied by the hereditary garrison of Tartar Bannermen and their families. The following was the strength of this force, as given iv the Imperial Army Regulations :—: — Vanguard 144 Horse (archers) 1959 Horse-rausqueteers 750 Cannoneers .......... 61 Foremen 572 Artificers 120 Eleves (or paid expectants of one of the above higher j grades) 1500 Total 5106 This was the paid force, but owing to the gradual increase of the families originally settled there, it is well known that the number of able bodied men could not have been less than 7 or 8 thousand ; and the total number of all ages, and both sexes, from twenty to thirty thousand. Twenty thousand is the number given by most of the insurgents ; but it is thought to be a rather low estimate. These Manchoos had to fight for all that is dear to man, for the Imperial family, which had always treated them well, for the honor of their nation, for their own lives, and for the lives of their wives and children. This they well knew, the" Heavenly Prince" having openly declared the first duty of his mission to be their extermination. It might have been expected, therefore, that they would have made a desperate fight in self defence. Yet they did not strike a blow. It would seem as if the irresistible progress and inveterate enmity of the insurgents bad bereft them of all sense and strength, and of all manhood, for they merely threw themselves on the ground before the leaders, and piteously implored for mercy with cries of *' Spare my life, Prince ! spare my life, Prince !" They may have been paralysed by the thought that their impending fate was the retribution of heaven, for the indiscriminate slaughter of whole populations by their ancestors when they conquered the country, as at Canton for instance, where the Chinese still speak revengefully of the extermination of the inhabitants on the forces of the present dynasty first taking that city. Some such explanation the insurgents gave, when it was represented to many who were questioned on this very point, how absurd it was to maintain that a large body of full grown men, with arms in their hands, had submitted to be slain like so many bleating sheep. The reply was always : "r I hey knew Heaven was going to punish them." Only about a hundred escaped out of a population of more than twenty thousand ; the rest, men, women, and children, were all put to the sword. We killed them^all," said the insurgents with emphasis, — the recollection bringing back into their races me aarK shade of unsparing sternness they must have borne when the appalling execution was going on. "We Mlled them all, to the infant in arms ; we left not a root to sprout from." The bodies were thrown into the Yang-tsse. ' On the 31st March, early in the morning, the insurgent fleet of river craft sent down from Nanking approached Chin-keang. Only the Macao Lotchas, despatched up the iiver by the Shangbae Intendent, attempted resistance ; the rest of the Imperial fleet flying in dismay at the sight of the enormous number of vessels moving against them. The Lorchas were also soon forced to retreat, and were pursued as far as Silver Island. From this the insurgents returned to Chinkeang which they occupied unresisted, the garrison, among them 400 northern Manchoos, having fled without firing a shot. The families of the resident Tartars, warned by the fate of their compatriots at Nanking, all evacuated the place to the number of 20,000 ; only a few hundred were caught and slain in the surrounding villages. On the following day, the Ist of April, the insurgents occupied Kwa-chow, and the large city of Yang'cbow on the northern bank of the Yang-tsze,- in like manner without resistance. A long battery of three miles of guns, that lined the river bank, fell into their hands. Not one had been discharged against them. We also glean from the Herald the following important information regarding the state of affairs at the northern capital : — This exhausted state of the Imperialist military chests is fully confirmed by the edicts and memorials of the Peking Gazettes, and by private letters from Peking. A memorial of one of the Boards states that upwards of twenty millions of taels of silver have been expended in these military operations ; and we know that, before they commenced, the state funds had not recovered from the drain caused by the English indemnity. The central Government has now been compelled to pay in notes which, as they represent nothing but the emptiness of the Imperial Treasury, have no value in the market. In consequence of their issue, about 100 of the private banking establishments, whose notes (for sums as low as 100 cash) form the circulating medium in "Peking, closed in a single day ; causing immediate embarrassment among the lower classes whose position had already become straitened from the high price of grain. Our readers are aware that the population of Peking (comprising a paid stationary garrison of about 100,000 Manchoos and their families) are mainly dependeut on the supplies sent annually from the fertile low lands on both sides of the Yang-tsze, as far as the Yellow River on the north, and the Bay of Hang-chow on the south. These supplies used to be despatched by the Grand Canal in the months of Marcb, April, and May, being in each case the contributions from the crops of the preceding year. During the last two or three years, a portion has been sent by sea ; and list year a thousand junks cleared seaward from the poit of Shangbae. This year none has been sent by canal, and the whole supply, furnished by the ibove mentioned region, was that contained in some 200 vessels which left this port about a month ago, forming probably not one-fifteenth of what will be re-

quired. The price of grain had tripled in Peking about a month back ; and, as the last and only resource, a high officer has recommended in a memorial that rice be brought up in Formosa by the local authorities ; which, he argues, coming up with the southern monsoon, may arrive in time to stave off the apprehended distress. But it is extremely doubtful that the authorities of Fookeen and Formosa have the money, the energy, or the will to effect such a transaction. We have noticed above the extreme pressure for money at Peking. It appears from the Gazettes, to be driving the Government to perfectly suicidal measures. The properties of the former Minister, Sae-shang-ab, and of the Imperial Commissioner, Seu-kwang-tsin, have been confiscated, — their sons, madarins in Peking, being previously degraded and thrown into prison, to prevent their abstracting any portion. As both of these officers had been brought prisoners to Peking, and the former had been already tried and condemned to death for inefficiency in the field, 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 Nanking. 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 honors on the deceased and rewards on his family. Now unsuccessful devotion has been visited in the same manner as early and flagrant dereliction of duty. Besides the above transaction, heavy loans have been exacted from some wealthy families, those of Muh-chang-ah, Ke-ying, 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 want of money in the Government Treasuries at Peking, we conceive to be of great importance, as showing, first, that the Imperial armies near Nanking, Yang-chow, and Chin-keang 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 insurrection in Peking itself. As to Tartar Chieftans moving down with their people at their own cost, as we have seen it somewhere stated certain of them bad offered to do, we can perfectly comprehend why the Emperor had, as was also stated, declined the offer. It could only have emanated from some of the hereditary Mongol Priuces, of whom no one knows better than the Mancboo Court that they have never forgotten their descent from Genghis-Khan and his associates, the former rulers, not of China merely, but of all Asia and the east of Europe. They have always been objects of apprehension and jealousy to the reigning dynasty. It is by no means improbable that they and their followers, bred m the saddle anil accustomed to the hardy life of nomadic herdsmen in sterile regions, would, if now brought in, be able to hold all that portion of China north of the Yellow River for years againsl a dynasty established in the south ; but it is equally probable that they would hold it for themselves, not for the Mancboo Sovereign. As to the low, canal-inter-sected country, south of the Yellow River, these horsemen, to whom a boat most be somewhat of a curiosity, would there have small chance of coping with the Kwang-tung leaders and their army, men familiar with internal navigation from childhood, and now inured to the hardships and dangers of war. The North China Herald also states that nothing was said at Nanking of the restoration of the Ming Dynasty. It may cot have been so said ; but we look for such a circumstance cevertheless. The Mazeppa and Island Queen bring advices from Amoy to the Ist June. At that date all was quiet, and there were prospects of a resumption of business in some of the articles of local consumption, We mentioned in our last report that the Imperialists were expected to make an attempt to recover possession, and on Sunday last the Admiral appeared with from nineteen to thirty junks (the minimum and maximum numbers in letters now before us) and in all some fifteen hundred fightiug-men, About a thousand braves were immediately landed in good order at the Cornwallis Rock, who matched steadily on towards the citadel, a distaoce of nearly two miles, (reports as to number vary : we have seen only the half of this stated as the total.) Arrived on Signal Hill they began dodging about the tomb-stones, and the rebels, .seeing that they were wavering, immediately made a rush, and sent them flying as hard they could scamper down to the water, killing some twenty or thirty in the melee, and taking from twenty-five to fifty prisoners. A gentleman who was looking on says :—": — " I saw them run, and so I started off for the battlefield. They (the rebels) had cut off the heads of those killed, and had tied them by their tails to poles with red flags on them. They were very civil, and showed me all their prisoners. On Monday they tried them. Three small mandarins were the first brought iuto Court before the rebel chief. Their thumbs being put in torture, they were made to kneel and confess why they had fought and acted as they had. The head man of the three said he was an officer in command of a body of fifty men, and the Admiral had told him if he did not fight be should, together with all his family, be beheaded, and so as he must lose his life either one w«y or the other, he thought compliance with the Admiral's commands was much the best of the two arrangements — for he would stand a chance of his life in that way, and might save the lives of bis family. The chances are that he will save bis head. Today (the 31st May) they ha#e beheaded twelve, and are still trying the rest. They (the rebels) are very civil, placing chairs for all the Europeans who like to attend. Indeed they are under excellent apparent self-control. Plunder is certain death to the offender. They are now rather short of funds, but are arranging a plan of government, and propose a scale of taxation much more moderate than the former tariff. Muskets and guns are being fired all night long — otherwise the place is quiet. The Admiral, it is said, was deceived into the belief that the rebels were at sixes and sevens among themselves, Bnd placed great reliance on the report of one who, failing in getting the office he wanted, seceded from the main body. The Admiral was led to imagine the

citadel would fall an easy prize, and, instead of waiting until to day, (the 31st), when he would have been joined by a body of some 8000 strong (as it is said) rashly ordered the coup de main which so ended. The admiral, we learn, rery prudently stayed by his vessel, and when he saw what success those he landed met with, quickly made his way out to sea again. The military comraander-in-chief is known to have been killed (shot whilst being carried to the field in his sedan chair.) Speculation is naturally rife as to what is to be expected in future. Eight thousand Tartar troops are, it is reported, not far from Amoy ; but the rebel forces in the locality are not much short of this in total number, and with the city in possession, and the popular sympathy, the prospects are that things will now remain quiet for some time. We here subjoin a few further particulars as to the ideas and conduct of the insurgents, which were accidentally omitted in our first account. While they have manifestly derived tbeir religious beliefs from the writing, if not, in some cases, from the direct teachings, of foreign Protestant missionaries, they appeared to be extremely ignorant of foreign nations. Canton was known to them as ihe seat of a great foreign commerce ; but Shanghae (which has indeed sprung into importance during the few years they have been fighting in the west) was found to be quite unknown to several of their leading men. it is gratifying to learn that, under these circumstances, the existence of a common religious belief disposed them to regard tbeir "foreign brethren" with a frank friendliness which past experience renders it difficult to comprehend in a Chinese, but which we earnestly trust every effort will be made to cultivate, and establish in their minds. It would, to speak of nothing else, do more for our commercial interests, should the insurgents succeed, than hundreds of ships and regiments. We understand that during a long ride of ten or twelve miles into the city of NankiDg and back, along what may at present be called one of the streets of a large camp, Mr, Meadows did not hear one of those abusive and derogatory epithets applied to himself or companions which have always been so liberally bestowed on passing foreigners by the heathen Chinese. There was also the fullest evidence that the obscene expressions, with which the latter garnish all their conversations, are prohibited and almost banished from the langurge of the Christians. We have not time or space to say more at present. We have thought it advisable to dwell, in the first instance, mainly on the most striking and momentous feature of this moment — its religious and puritanical element — a feature now placed beyond all doubt, but which the previous conceptions of many foreigners will cause them to regard with the greatest astonishment, if not incredulity, in aay body of Chinese, We hope hereafter to be enabled to give some account of the origin, military organisation, actual position and probable future movements of the insurgents. They now hold Nanking, termed by them "Teen king, Heavenly capital," Chiu-keang and Yang chow, and are for the present busily engaged in strengthening and increasing the fortifications of these cities.