The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-12 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1853.

Human-su-CriumN, or the Tae-Ping- Wang, or,
to speak rather more intelligibly, the " Prince of
Universal Peace," is carrying everything before
him with a magnificent hand, as the Chief of the
Great Chinese Revolution. At least, it is so posi-
tively
declared, in the latest intelligence received
from Shanghai, intelligence dated up to the 30th
of May inclusively, and recounting the particulars
of Sir GEORGE BONHAM'S mission to Nankin, in
regard to which we have now, during some time
past, been looking eagerly forward, in the hope
a obtaining more detailed and really reliable in-
formation. Authentic accounts of this mission
have at length reached this country, and from
them it would actually seem, that events have
already transpired in the Celestial Empire com-
pletely in accordance with many of our
rtlybe re-
expressed anticipations. The insur-
nts, it will be remembered, had, within
an interval of nearly two years' duration, en-
tirely mastered one-half (the southern half) of
the Chinese territory. Their dominion at the
close of those two years' resolute and uninterrupted
have agitation was found to extended from a line
running almost directlylost east and west downwards,
am
in one direction, to the Gulf of Ton-king,
and in another to the waters of the Fuli-kien
Channel. Nankin was already in theirpossession.
Thither have been sedulously collecting together
supplies of rice in enormous quantities,n employ-
ing daily in this one operation
less than
20,000 labourers—so that it isestimatedtthoants,
with 1,000 full junks, each containing 40,3
of the grain, an aggregate of 150,000 tons of
rice had even now, in that one city, as their
principal store-place or granary, been accumulated.
A dditional enforcements, it was known well enough,
were in rapid process of organisation. Batteries
were being erected, accoutrements were being
manufactured, guns were being' mounted—some
of them, too, capital 24-pounders ! All this was
tolerably well known from the drift of our pre-
vious scraps of information. It was sufficiently
notorious, moreover, that .the Imperialists had
hitherto been worsted in all directions by their
antagonists—that the earlier successes marking
the popular movement were still being steadily
followed up by new advantages—above all, that
the so-called " rebels" had emblazoned upon their
banners the symbols of their recently-announced
faith in Christianity. Nevertheless, with these
inost startling accounts we received almost simul-
taneously in England others of a perfectly dif-
ferent complexion, and in all respects, it must
be allowed,
quite as extraordinary. It was
rumoured in this manner that a change
in the fortunes of the war might at once be con-
fidently expected. it
Chinese the
Emperor havingwas intimated that
some really
hitherto reserved his
more efficient troops forr
about to
emergency, was momentous
assaeunge himself for the
disloyal temerity of his
measure of retribution, before sby a crushing
were to
advance of which there
be swept into ,
the irresistible
and tramnledl
the sea, and scattered to the winds,
in the dust, the gigantic army of the Revolutionists '
Expectation was on tiptoe for news of this • pre-
dicted reversal of the movement. Everybody

not familiar with the habitual falsehood of the

Imperial authorities of China, credulously awaited
the arrival of intelligence as to the complete
success of this boastfully prophesied reta-
liation. How have these " hums and
has" at the hinted instability of the good fortune
accorded during two years, consecutively to the
insurgents, been justified ? How have events
illustrated the significance of these elevated eye-
brows and ostentatious shrugs of the shoulder ?
How ? Why, according to this most authentic
and most reliable information in reference to Sir
GEORGE BoratAm's mission to Nankin; and dated
up to the 30th of May from Shanghai—triumph,
uninterrupted triumph has still marked every
step taken by the troops of the Revolutionists !
TAE-PING-WANG may now count his followers
by hundreds of thousands. Everywhere, as yet,
his advent has been welcomed as the assurance
of political, social, and religious liberation. He
has identified his cause with the acceptance of
the holy records of Judea, with the recognition of
the sublime and beautiful dogmas of Christianity.
Ho is the leader of a resolute band of Iconoclasts
—determined at all hazards to destroy those idols
which throughout Asia have for centuries been
cherished objects of adoration. He is enforcing
with the most rigorous severity the maintenance
of morality, and. even the prevention of impro-
prieties. He is suppressing the dangerous vice
of opium eating by the infliction of a somewhat
stringent penalty—capital punishment. He is
even bringing
down the bamboo upon the law-
less smokers of tobacco. Recognised as one in-
spired, revered as a personage directly in-
structed by the light of Divine revelations,
he is yet keeping within bounds the ardour
of his disciples, tempering their fanaticism,
and restraining their enthusiasm. While
the army is entitled the " Holy Army " and.
Nankin the " Holy City," TAE-PING-WA.NG con-
tents himself with the modest appellation of Choo,
or Lord, prohibiting the application to his own
person of the sacred adjectives Shang (high) and
Shing (holy), in consideration of their being
epithets peculiarly dedicated to the OMNIPOTENT.
Destruction appears, indeed, to be at length
' descending in earnest upon the fated race of the
Mantchoos. Immediately upon their destruction
(for the war waged against them by the insur-
gents is a war of absolute extermination), the
horrible superstitions of Buddhism will become
forthwith extinguished. Already the veneration of
the Trimarti is giving wayto the simple adoration of
the Trinity. Mahometanism, though energetic in its
advances, appears to be failing in its most strenu-
ous efforts to compete with the steady and almost to
appearance instinctive conversion of 350,000,000
of the human race to the one and only true Re-
ligion. The Cross once more is shining above the
Crescent, and before another decade has elapsed,
it now appears in every way probable that the vast
mass of the Chinese population may have em-
braced the benign and salutary truths of Chris-
tianity.

If the infamous deception to which we yester-
day directed the public attention had been as
prudently and cautiously carried out, and had it
been audaciously and craftily conceived, it is im-
possible to say what might have been the result
of the vexatious and protracted litigation that
must have ensued where a stake of such magnitude
was played, for neither party would have with-
drawn from the contest so long as the slightest
hope of ultimate success remained. The de-
fendant would, of course, have defended
his ample possessions to the last, with
abundant means of carrying on the expensive
proceedings. He would have contested every
stage, and ,gone from Court to Court
until the costly strife had come to a conclusion.
On the other hand, any favourable indication on
the part of the plaintiff would have procured him
numerous sympathisers, ready and willing to make
the necessary advances. The romantic nature of
his tale would have insured the greatest interest
on every side, and men, excited either by feelings
of compassion or cupidity, would have vied with
each other in the desire to assist the modern
ARTHUR ANNESLEY—the HARRY BERTRAM of real
life, and to insure for him the wide-spread do-
mains and honourable title belonging to the
head of the SMYTHS of Long Ashton. The
,
humane and charitable, the romantic in disposi-
tion, would have required no stimulus to induce
them to take up the case, while the covetous
would have seen in the princely inheritance that
would have devolved upon the claimant if his title
were established a mode by which they could have
obtained the most extravagant and usurious in-
terest for any loans they might choose to advance
pendente lite. Under almost any circumstances
the matter would have been contested to the last
extremity but for the lamentable exhibition made
by the impostor under the skilful cross-examina-
tion of Sir FREDERICK THESIGER, and the palpable
mendacity of some of his statements, none of
which could have been elicited but for the recent
amendment in the Law of Evidence, which allowed
parties to be examined in their own causes.
For instance, the assertion that the Marchioness
of BATH had, when he was only 13 years of
age, handed him over 1,500/. which his mother
had left, although his school bills were unpaid at
Winchester, and the audacious falsehood that
he, an unknown boy of 18 years of age, had been
at the Duchess of RICHMOND'S ball at Brussels, on
the eve of Waterloo ;- and that "he was at Paris
with the Allied Sovereigns the day after the ball;"
the description of his early life, when given—not
to a credulous. crowd of friends and admirers, all
steadfast believers in the authenticity of his claim
—but to an acute advocate, who drew forth in-
numerable inconEl itencies and gross contradictions—
led to the speedy termination and unequivocal ex-
posure of this vile attempt at imposition, supported
by the most atrocious forgery and perjury.
The tale itself was simple, and not very impro-
bable. There would be nothing very extraordi-
nary in the youthful heir to a title and large for.
tune privately marrying a very handsome young
lady of respectable family, and, on her early death
in child-birth, preserving his secret for the pur-
pose of contracting another alliance more pleasing
to his family. The novel of " Christopher Tad-
pole" is founded on a similar supposition ; and
what appeared by no means improbable when re-
lated by ALBERT SMITH Of Sir FREDERICK ARDEN,
might easily be credited when narrated by Sir
RICHARD HUGH SMYTH, Baronet, of the for-
mer Sir HUGH, his father and predeces-
sor. The idea of the mother flying from
Ireland to a provincial town in England,
and there dying, appeared sufficiently plausible to
any reader of the " Stories of Waterloo," who has
perused GEORGE HILTON'S tale. But why fix on
a relative of the BANDON family as the lady ?
Simply because the impostor had, if, as we believe,
he be indeed the person who was in 1839-40 de-
signatedth the
clapstei
olli
which
eland as " the lost heir" (and the
des.extraordinary marks on his wrist, his general
and many of the leading features of
h are very similar to those put for-
wardby the fictitious " THOMAS SMITH" in
'
his account
strongly lead to the supposi-
tion) ho had visited the neighbourhood of
Courtmacherry,
relating to the and lead access to documents
BANDONfamily, which enabled
him to learn the marriageo of the father of the
' first Earl of BANDON t
maiden name was "SuyTn." As.COOKING, whose
clever scoundrel—
for, notwithstanding his deplorable deficiencies in I
orthography, he was clever in some respects--t
might easily from such materials found
his tale,
that HUG" mat LL SMYTH, the heir presumptive to the
Long Ashton estate, visited Ireland, and married
the daughter of a foreign Count, and niece to
the then Lord BANDON, that he had returned
home, and been followed by his deserted wife,
who died in child-birth. The alleged deeds or
wills, by Sir HUGH SMYTH, are just such
as a bold scoundrel clever in the art of coun-
terfeiting handwriting, and one who had previously
concocted a similar fraud, would make out iu
d per-
alluded, de
order to strengthen his case. , The Irish impostor
to whom we have succee
of more
suading the sister of the man he personated in
of his
identity, and obtained the testimony
than thirty witnesses, who distinctly and ,
posi-
tively swore that he was the person he represented
i himself to be. And this was all accomplished by

sheer impudence, and unblushing hardihood of 1

assertion—the marks on the wrists were strongly
relied on, as having been occasioned by a burn
during infancy, which rendered the nurse by
whom the real " THOMAS SMITH" had been at-
tended an ardent and enthusiastic advocate in his
behalf. Nothing, in fact, but being a li title
too circumstantial in his story, and thus affording
the opportunity of speedy detection by the pro-
fessional gentlemen engaged on the other side, pre-
vented the success of his audacious attempt. He
then saw the advantages of his villany, by means
whereof he swindled many persons, and was
enabled to live for several years on his intended
imposition. Indeed, he had nearly succeeded in
obtaining a considerable advance from a wealthy
capitalist—one of the most cautious and intelli-
gent persons that could be found in any country.
He had, therefore, the materials prepared, had
enjoyed the sweets of deception, and we cannot
feel surprised that he should again have come
forward in a similar manner.

There is one extraordinary circumstance in the
case, which is peculiarly worthy of notice, that is,
the number of witnesses who, no doubt honestly
and conscientiously, but erroneously, gave evidence
as to the handwriting of friends and relatives now
no more. There was no imputation on their cha-
racters, and yet their easiness of belief might have
led to very serious mischief—in fact, to the depri-
vation of the birthright of the legitimate heir.
This circumstance strongly exhibits the caution
that should be used by persons coming forward as
witnesses to handwriting on insufficient data.
The whole of this singular imposture will, we
have no doubt, render the case of SMYTH Y.
SMYTH one of the most remarkable of modern
times—perhaps the foundation of a tale not infe-
rior in interest to " Guy Mannering" itself.

The hereditary legislators appear desirous of
regaining the position which they had abandoned
in almost the only case where it could beneficially
have been retained. In order to make com-
pensation for the apathy and indifference exhibited
on the Government of India Bill, they have
ruthlessly sacrificed four or five of the most valuable
measures of the Session, which had been care-
fully and elaborately framed—introduced at the
earliest moment, even before the separation for
the Christmas holidays, and subjected to the most
stringent investigation during their progress
through the representative branch of Parliament.
It is true that there was no gigantic job to be
carried, no useless and anomalous institution to
be bolstered up and maintained under cover of the
Courts of Common Law (Ireland) Bill, or in the
group of measures for the amelioration of the
landlord and tenant code in the sister kingdom.
In place of perpetuating the discontent of the
Oriental subjects of Queen VICTORIA, they were
calculated to remove the grievances of the pea-
santry of the western kingdom of Europe, and, by
the abolition of the exciting causes, to prevent the
recurrence of the agrarian outrages that have dis-
graced the sister kingdom as the scene of such
horrible atrocities, and the Imperial Parliament
displayed such culpable negligence as to the
system which led to such harrowing results. In
place of continuing an exceedingly defective ad-
ministration of the law, they would by future gene-
rations have been regarded as some of the most im-
portant legal reforms introduced at a season when
there was a general anxiety for the amelioration
of practice and procedure ; and intelligent men of
all classes—professional as well as non-professional
—vied with each other as to which could render
the most important services to the good cause.
But with all these circumstances so strongly in
their favour, there were some drawbacks. They
could not be regarded as party measures—there
was no powerful section of the Coalitionists pledged
to their adoption, and determined to press them
forward, "per fas acct nefas." Nay, more, they
had been introduced by the law officers of the
Crown, under the preceding Government, who
would, therefore, be entitled to the credit that
would follow their beneficial working. Therefore
it is not so very surprising that their Lordships
should have chosen to exhibit their obstructive
powers on these rather than on the India Bill—
that they should have abdicated their legislative
functions, where the result might be the irrita-
tion of Hindostan rather than the pacification
and tranquillity of Ireland.
In the first of these measures, the alteration to
which we last week directed the public attention,
was carried into effect. That portion which ex-
tended to Ireland the operation of the Common
Law Procedure Bill, which was ,sppied for Eng-
land last year, was passed through committee ;
while the other, and even more important division
of the Bill, which introduced new principles, was
dropped on the rather vague intimation that they
would be taken into consideration during the re-
cess, along with the measure framed in accordance
with the recommendations of the Common Law
Commissioners of England.

But even that fate was better than that which
attended the three bills which constituted what
may be termed the improved landlord and tenant
code for Ireland. A strong feeling was manifested

by several of their Lordships against the much-
required amelioration. There was even a disposi-
tion to reject those propositions which had been
the fruits of ten years' labour, and which had
been for nine months—since last November—
before the House of Commons. It was not until
the Premier had given another striking proof of
his pacific temperament, in consenting to the
withdrawal of all the Bills for the present session,
that the malcontents were induced to consent to
the compromise (that is the point on which the
excellent ABERDEEN shines) of reading the Bill a
second time, on the understanding that they were
to proceed no further for the time being. We
certainly cannot see any great advantage to be
derived from the mere fact of the Bills receiving
each its second reading. The toadies of " the
travelled Thane" will, however, perceive another
stroke of his brilliant genius in abandoning the
substance, and remaining thoroughly contented in
obtaining the shadow. Thus he acted with the
CZAR, and thus he now acts with the discontented
Peers. The result only proves what might hair°
been achieved with the India Bill, if a real oppo-
sition had been offered. Unfortunately, however,
it was suffered to pass with all its anomalies, and
we now can only regret the wasted opportunity,
and deep injury inflicted on the nation through
the gross negligence of their Lordships.

DEATH OF THE EARL OF WARWICK.—This venerable
and highly esteemed nobleman died at Warwick Castle
on Wednesday morning, after a protracted illness. The
of a
s tuhs
p e
oelanaulce:iteolonsot
deceased peer was in his 75th year, having been born
in April, 1779, and succeeded to the family honours in
1816. He married the widow of John George, fifth
Lord Monson, daughter of John, second Earl of Mex-
borough, and by her, who died some years ago, leaves
an only son, Lord Brooke, now Earl of Warwick, born
in 1818, and married to a daughter of the present Earl
of Wemyss. The late earl was a Knight of the Thistle,
Lord Lieutenant of the county, and Colonel of the
Warwick Militia. A vacancy in the representation of
the Southern Division of Warwickshire is occasioned by
the elevation of Lord Brooke to the Upper House, as
the inheritor of the ancient earldom of Warwick.
THE FEMALE ORPHAN ASYLllM.—Yesterday after-
noon a special general meeting of the governors and
subscribers to this valuable charity was held in the
board-room of the institution, Westminster-road, for the
purpose of altering certain rules, and upon other busi-
ness ; Mr. C. Evans presided. The report stated that
there are in the asylum at the present time 157 children,
and that the total number admitted since the commence-
ment of the institution in 1758 to April 4, 1853,
amounted to 2,572. Since the year 1796, 758 young
women had returned public thanks, and received five
guineas each for having faithfully served their appren-
ticeships. The total receipts for the past year (including
a balance in hand of 1,096 ; life subscriptions and dona-
tions, 1501. 3s. ; annual subscriptions, 7281. is. ; and
d►vidends, 1,0961. Os. 9d.) amounted to 6,4721. 2s. 10d.;
and after all the necessary expenses had been defrayed,
and the purchase of stock to the extent of 1,8501.
effected, there left in the hands of the treasurer the sum
of 432/. 3s. 4d. The rules having been altered to allow
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tire building.

HAMPTON COURT BARRACKS.—The old and new bar-
racks at Hampton Court, it has been arranged, shall be
in every respect rendered fit for the reception of troops.
The whole of the offices and troop stables will be re-
paved, and every possible improvement and renovation
will be effected.