The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-13 00:00:00

THE TAEPINGS,

The following remarkable letter is from an officer hold-
ing mijitary command in the Taeping troops in garrison
at Soochow, and is addressed to the editor of the China
Herald:—.

"It is long, now, since I have had an opportunity of
writing to you. I held high command among the be-
siegers of Chiangza, and was too busy to be able to spare
any time for writing letters, but now that I am once more
quietly within the walls of Soochow I will tell you what we
have been doing of late. You know, of course, how we re.
tired from Fooshan, and left the traitors of Chiangzu to
emerge once more from their walls without the fear of im-
mediate death. It is not much use to explain, now, that the
retreat has been accomplished, but I cannot help saying
it ought never to have taken place. We had 40,000 men
there, and if my counsel had prevailed that we should all
attack the Imps at once, the victory of Foochan would have
been to the credit of the Tien-wang instead of the Tartar.
But our people are too much afraid of the big guns of the
foreigners ; they will not be induced to make a rush, knew-
ing that a 32 pound shot will hurry dozens into eternity
before they can come to close quarters with their adver-
saries. They will not think how absurd it is for 40,000 men
to retreat before the face of 2,000. But this is the will of
Heaven, and cannot be helped. We lost our two 32-pounders
also before Chiangzu, whether we had taken them in de-
ference to the wish of Tien-fu, which I mentioned in a pre-
vious letter. He told us that out of their own mouths we
should convince the Imps of their impotency ; but the
mouths would not speak; and in the efforts of the body
to emit the convincing messsage, it burst, and prevented
itself from speaking for evermore. It is almost too late
to speak to you of Shao-shing, but it would not now have
been in possession of the Imps if the convoy of powder
from Hang-chow had reached its defenders. Without
powder, how could they oppose the onslaught of the Imps?
Knowing that they could not, they left, to save the valua-
ble lives of the Tien-wang's children ; but the Imps did
not gain possession of the city without loss. Several small
mines were constructed with the little powder left, and
many were the Imps whom these blew to destruction. We
laid powder under some of our clothes, too, on the floors of
the rooms with matches, which should burn slowly till the
Imps came in. In their hurry for loot they dragged the
clothes towards them, and the match into the powder, and
the powder exploded and they got terribly burned. One of
the mandarins of Captain Dew's ship was burned in this
way so badly that, they say, his face will always show
marks of the occurrence. It is but just that your mandarins
should be hurt when they come out to fight against us.
What cause of complaint have they against us ? We send
you down merchandise, and we treat well your countrymen
who come among us. Why then, should you fight against
us? But I have asked you the same question before, and
you can give no other answer, save that your Government
will it, so it is useless repeating it. But why does not
your Government see the folly of continuing this policy—a
policy which it costs your honourable nation almost as
much to pursue as you gain, year by year, by protecting
the revenues of Shanghai? You at present secure a
revenue of £10,000,000 a year to the Tartar Government;
and at the same time secure payment to yourself of the
money which that Government promised to pay you for the
expense of your war with it. But you have to keep a large
force at Shanghai, at a great cost, to prevent us from taking
it, and must set this against the amount of payments you
receive. Truly, though the wisdom of the nations of the
West is in some things great, in some they are exceedingly
foolish. If we were in your place, we should make the
Tartar Government pay the expenses of keeping troops at
Shanghai out of the revenue you secure them by so doing,
and of which without you they would not receive one cash.
But if you would only let it come to Shanghai and the other
treaty ports, you would be saved the expense and trouble
of keeping any troops at all, besides which we would gladly
accept the responsibility of paying you the remainder of
the indemnity money which the Tartar Government owes.
We like foreigners, and wish to be friendly with all, but
especially with your honourable nation. During the time
we occupied Ningpo, for example, we kept on good terms
with all foreigners, interfering with no one ; but at last,
when we wished to check the numbers who daily came into
the city, we gave passes to Englishmen, although they were
very generally refused to the French and other desiring
visitors. Could we give a stronger proof of our friendship to
your honourable nation ? Again, we came down to the
neighbourhood of Shanghai, how did we behave to the few
foreigners who went out to see us or our mandarins ? Did
we not receive them with every courtesy, and assure them
that, if we were allowed to enter the city, not a cash of their
property should be touched ? One gentleman read your
paper to the interpreter of Kenwang. Had you then
allowed us to enter shanghai how much misery and death
would have been saved. The hundreds who fell at Tsirtgloo
and Kading, Na-jao and Wong-ka•dza, at Quan-fling and
Kias-chao, and later still at Pao-kiong and Tai-tsan would
all have been saved. Instead of remaining for nearly two
years a barren plain, cultivation would have flourished
around Shanghai as was its wont. Deprived of a basis
from whence to send out their troops, and a source from
whence to pay them, the Tartar Imps would have been un-
able to molest us in any part of the province of Keang-su,
which would all have settled down quietly under our rule.
Instead of being disturbed by the presence of hostile troops,
trade would have flown on its wonted channel, the stream
augmented by removal, which we would have accomplished,
of the many obstacles placed in its way by the slaves of the
Tartar, who, whit() professing to be friendly, do all in their
power to oppose you. Even now, after all the injury you
have inflicted on us, we would extend to you the right hand
of fellowship, and accord you every privilege you could de-
sire, if you would withdraw your opposition to our taking
possession of the city of Shanghai, and leave us to fight
our own Data° with the Imperialists.''