The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-28 00:00:00

The Rebellion in China.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
SHANGHAI, Aug. 4.
The Taeping rebellion has at length been brought
o a close, and the question as to whether our policy

should be one of intervention or non-intervention

effectually set at rest, at least fora time. Nankin

'ell into the hands of the Imperialists, after several

days' fighting, on the 19th inst., together with the
principal rebel leaders. The Tien-wang, the rebel

Emperor, avoided the pain of witnessing this final

disaster by taking gold-leaf two days previously.

When the besiegers commenced their attack the

Chung•wang escaped, with the Tien.wang's young

son and several others, but was taken, having given
up his pony to the young Prince; the Kan-wang,
who has frequently been mentioned by visitors to
Nankin as the Shield King, is also a prisoner.
Whether it be that recant information by spies of
the miserable state of the garrison induced the Im-

perialist leaders to shake off the apathy in the hope
of an easy conquest, or whether Gordon's instruc-
tions during his recent visit showed them that their
task was easier than they anticipated, they shortly

after his visit began to show signs of unwonted
vigour. A breach of 120 feet in width was made
in the outer wall, by the explosion df a mine near the

east gate, containing above 60,0001 b of powder, and
by the 191 h, the whole city was in their hands.
The news reached Pekin ou the 2ith, having been
forwarded by couriers, at the rate of more than 100

miles a day. Few details have yet been received
of the closing scenes of the siege, so I am only able
to give you a brief outline of the occurrences. Nan-

kin, as is well known, was &fended by three walls—
an outer wall, a second surrounding the Tartar city,

and a third which had been constructed round the

Tien-wang's Palace. The Tartar city was not gar-
risoned by the rebels, so the assailants had only two
lines of defence to attack, Au assault was made
on the outer wall at dawn on the 18th, and

before noon it had been carried at every part, and
the garrison had fallen back within the inner line

.f fortifications. The steamer Confucius, which is

under charter to the Shantung guild of merchants
at Shanghai, chanced to be lying off Nankin at the
time, and rendered aficient service by engaging

Iwo strong batteries that the rebels had erected
(acing the river, and which had hitherto defied the
distant efforts of the Irnperiulist gunboats. Tue

Confucius, which is commanded by an American,
had been sent up by the Chinese authorities to con-
vey treasure to the Imperialist troops, and Captain

I.liwse deemed he would be rendering them agree-
able service by availing himself of the opportunity

ffered to lend them the aid of other metal which he
carried as well. Hcr 18 pounders soon made the
batteries untenable for the tebols, who abandoned

them after b.alf an hour's sharp engagement during
which the Confucius lost two men killed and had a

third wounded, and the Imperialist gunboats came
up and took possession. The troops, on their
part, lcst very little time in following up their
first success; the second line of dtf,nce was eto
tacked and carried before daylight on the fol-

lowing morning, and by the evening of the
19th all Nankin was in their hands. The
fortifications which had been erected round the
Tien-wang's palace arc said to have been defended
with desperation ; but the garrison was too weak
to resist the large forces that the Imperialists were
able to bring against them,and the lattersoon effected
n entrance by battering down one of the gates.
The first sight which met the victors on entering
the palace was the corpse of the Tien-wang, lying
evidently in the position in which he had died, and
the bodies of a number of his wives hanging from
the trees iu the garden. The Kan-wang was here
arrested, and with the Chung-wang, whose capture
I have already alluded to, now lies a prisoner in the
house of the Imperialist commander, awaiting sen-
tence from Pekin. Chung-wang estimates the

strength of the rebel garrison at from 18,000 to
20,000, and does not attempt to disguise the straits
to which they were reduced. He is said to be intent
on writing his life. There can be little doubt that he
will be condemned to death ; indeed, it would be
unwise on the part of the Government to set so fa-
mous a leader at liberty, as his name would attract
thousands of the disaffected from every part of the
empire if he chose again to raise the standard of
rebellion. Of the garrison, part escaped, and
part were made prisoners, It does not seem that
any excesses were committed by the Imperialist
soldiery, as has been the case on other occasions.
The city is miserably dilapidated, and the
streets were full of the bodies of persons who
had evidently died of starvation. No loot
of value was found, except the Tien-wang's seal,
which was ofsolid gold, and weighing 301 b. Neither
Tsan-kwo-fan, the Viceroy of the two Kiangs, nor
the Futai, was present at the capture. The fortu-
nate commander is Tsan-kwo-tsun, brother of the
Viceroy, who is not unlikely to got the Futaiship
of this province as a reward. The present Futai
will probably be speedily promoted to a -Viceroyalty,
and as he has established a reputation for talent in
crushing rebellion, a part of the empire which is
infested by other bands of brigands will no doubt
be selected as his new scene of action. There are
plenty such—Fokhein, Kianusi, Tze-chnen, Henan,
Shense, Kansuh, are all more or less disturbed by
hordes of Nien-feis—as these bands of robbers are
termed—so numerous and formidable that they
almost deserve the name of rebels. Disturbance and
brigandage aro the normal conditions of China, and
at the present moment Kiang su and Che-keang,
lately the scene of so severe a struggle, are pros
bably the most tranquil provinces in the empire.
But-, whatever other disturbances may exist, the
Tapping rebellion may now be fully said to be sub-
dued, since the Emperor is dead, and all its noted
°ilea in the hands of the Imperialists.
Nankin will now bo opened to foreign trade. It
was not named in our treaty, but the sixth erticlo
of the French treaty stipulated that French sub-
jects should be allowed to establish themselves
there directly it was recovered from the rebels;
and under the " most favoured nation"clanse in the
treaties with England and America, subjects of
those countries will enjoy thesamfespr a rivliolnegget.imTehbe
privilege, however, will certainly
ih:
is a heap a barren one, and even intheheend isnot
worth much. The city of ruinlsikely tob
ruins,with
exception of the small corner occupied by the
rebels; even the Palace of the Tien-wan g has been
burnt, and years will elapse before it can approache
nearly to its former size. The country immediately
surrounding it is a desert,and what trade there is in
produce with the neighbouring districts flows to