The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-28 00:00:00

I The Overland Mail brings news of interest from
Australia and fmm Chins. We have come into
possession of official documents which enable' us to
give our readers some precise information respect-
ing our own very small part of the Chinese empire.
What is really happening among the rest of the
isaal_millions of that unwieldy country is, in so far
as accurate and reliable details are concerned, a
mystery which no one can penetrate. This, how-
ever, we do know, that a revolution is in progress,
and that the revolution is at present a civil war,
and a ruthless one--the parties concerned, how-
ever differing in race, being as much natives of
China as men of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman
descent
_are natives of Britain. To judge by pre-
cedents in the same country, the revolution, if it
succeed, will do so by a slow and tedious process.
It has ever been so in China. Thus, when in the
conquered the
ears to clo3utliiitcreyn,tiutrytotolkietil\lelmoghatulleTasatrttahrisrty y
com-
plete the conquest. Yet these Moghu/s were the
very men who conquered most of the countries of
western Asia, and even some of those of eastern
Europe, including Russia, part of which they re-
tained for a century and a half iu subjection, con-
tributing very materially to barbarise it, and by
admixture of blood to continue the barbarism. The
process of expelling these conquerors from China
was equally tedioi,is,, Again, ;who the Manchu
Tartars conquered it in the beginning of the 17th
century, the tedious process' extended over fifty
years. The present civil war, if it should terminate
in final and complete revolution of the Celestial
Empire will, most probably, not extend to so
tedious a length as its predecessors, for this plain,
simple, and sufficient reason, that 'whereas a know-
ledge of artillery and fire-arms was in former con-
tests alike unknown to both parties, the effectual
use of them is at present confined to one side, and
that the side of the insurgents. The same posses-
.ion, should the revolution succeed, we may fur-
ther add, will most probably secure China in future
from the invasion of the pastoral nations.
If the China revolution should be accomplished,
iti‘of course places adynasty of theaboriginal inhabi-
tants on the throne, and then the important question
believe
in
the it
suggests itself, what change is this likely to pro-
duce in the policy of the empire We can scarcely
producemwiallnners,the any immediate
mmeodriattheegLvaeat
change
institution of a people, who for five-and-twenty
centuries have undergone little material alteration.
The two Tartar dynasties together occupied China
for 300 years, but their manners, languages, insti-
tutions, or religion; have made no serious impres-
sion on the mass of the Chinese population. As to
the Protestant Christianity which some over-
sanguine parties had imagined was quickly to en-
lighten the darkness of China, as our readers, are
aware, we cannot believe in its probability, know-
ing the Chinese to be sensual and obil urate lolaters ;
and remembering that thousands had for whole
centuries lived under Christian rule and mixed
with Christians, impenetrable to any religion more
rational than that of Fo or Confucius.---Daity
etes.