The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-19 00:00:00

CHINA.

The Bombay Gazette, August 22, says : .•
" The extraordinary successes gained this year by
the rebels over the Imperialists in China have revived
the latterly decaying interest in one of the most
singular movements of modern times. Twenty years
ago, at the time of the first Chinese war, no one
dreamed that the revolutionary spirit, which has
since 1789 changed the whole surface of Europe,
would ever communicate itself to a people appa-
rently so immovable in their hatred of novelty as
the Chinese, or create throughout the length and
breadth of the vast and thickly-Celestial populated
Empire an agitation which has already broken up
the most firmly established system of government
—social, political, and religious—which the world
has known. Naturally, therefore, the first news
that a formidable insurrection was raging in the
heart of China provoked the eager curiosity of the
Western nations, which was not lessened by the
mysterious reports that the rebel leaders were
Christians, and that they professed their object to
be the destruction of idolatry and idolators. The
sanguine hopes which were built on these shadowy
foundations soon gave way to a feeling of disgust,
when fuller but still not strictly accurate informa-
tion was received that, although the rebels had
adopted some of the doctrines of the Chris-
trian religion, they had so changed and
disfigured these with idolatrous and blas-
phemous superstitions as to have degraded their
faith almost to a level with that of the heathen;
and that, moreover, the frightfully cruel and rapa-
cious acts of these new crusaders should make any
Christian people ashamed to own them as brethren.
But, when the eclat of their first appearance was
dispelled by reverses, the rebels sank into insignifi-
cance, and for the last two or three years European

nations have been perfectly indifferent to :their fate
believing, indeed, from such acceunt3 as were pub-
lished by the few travellers w:to from time to time
caught hasty glimpses of the interior of China, that
the insurrection, having wasted the country as far
northwards as Nankin, had been at last checked,
and was slowly dying out. •
Suddenly, however, we now find the rebel army
in full force, as confident and enthusiastic as ever and
with chiefs who know how to lead it to victory.
Already they have taken the important and wealthy
city of Soochow, which gives them command of the
Imperial Canal from Shanghai to Pekin, and the
Imperial authorities of the former city, frightened
out of their wits by the knowledge that the rebels
will next attempt to capture Shanghai, have tried
to encourage the people to resistance by proclama-
tions in which the T'ai p'ings are said to be ' roam-
ing about in all directions, burning, robbing, and
violating ; nothing is too atrocious for them, and
Heaven and man are alike exasperated. The
Taoutae of Shanghai has further the audacity to
declare that the French and English troops will
assist the soldiers of the Emperor to destroy the
thies.' Certainly no long time can elapse before it
will be necessary for France and England, if not to
interfere, at least to give their support to either
the Imperialists or the rebels. The present Go -
vernment of China, assailed so vigorously by
domestic foes, and engaged at the same time in a
foreign war, which cannot fail to prove disastrous
to the Emperor, will in all probability be over-
thrown."

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, TUESDAY EVENING.
THE POPE'S IRISH BRIGADE.

The Morning News publishes a letter from its
correspondent at Spoleto, dated September the 7th,
on which day the Irish Brigade was said to be " in
sight of the enemy." Being about to take the field,
the writer thinks he can do no better than furnish
the home readers with the names of the staff of
the brigade, as they then stood according to the
War-office lists. Here they are :
" Major Myles W. O'Reilly ; chaplains, Rev. F.
M'Loughlin, 0.5. F., D.D., Rev. J. M‘Devitt ; Sur-
geon Nicholas G. Whyte, M.D. • Assistant-Surgeon
P. O'Flynn, M.D. ; Captains O'Mahony, Blakeney,
Russell, Guttenberg (attached), O'Carrell, Coppin-
' ger, Kirwan, Boshan (attached) ; Lieutenants Carey,
Kiley, Howley ; •Sotto- Tenenti (Full), Luther M.
Kirwan, Butler, O'Connell, Doyle; i'otto-7enenti
(Provisional), Crean, Stafford, Delahoyde, W. Kir-
wan, Greene, Cronin, Ternan, M'Swiney, Lynch,
O'Keeffe, Keogh, Barey, D'Arcy, Walsh, and
Hcany."