The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-04 00:00:00

mouth of the Peiho upwards of 1,000 cavalry, as I
splendidly mounted and equipped as even poor
Captain NoLAN could have wished to see all the
horsemen of the British army—and France, in con-
trast to these 1,000 English cavalry, has sent out
to the same rendezvous—how many horsemen does
the reader suppose ? Why, just four Spahis, and
four Chasseurs d'Afrique ! Again, they (the
French) have out there in those seas " thirty-nine"
ships of war, while we have there absolutely not
less than a noble aggregate of " two hundred.'
The disproportion is almost equally remarkable
between the French and English artillery—they
having " three " batteries of eight-pounders, we
having " six" batteries, twelve-pounders and nine-
pounders, the former Armstrongs! And while
Imperial France has been sending 5,000 men
yonder, to a distance of 15,000 or 16,000 miles, to
the conquest of the Chinese, she is assembling at
Rome a force of 25,000 ! What is the meaning of
all this—what does it all imp-Ty—what is its one
manifest signification ? Why, it is clearly and ob-
viously an indication that the Chinese war is to
France more a show or pretence than a reality
it is an intimation that her heart is only half
in it it is, above all, a glaring token
of the fact that France, for reasons, re-
serves the bulk of her army of 600,000 men
near at hand, close at home, in readiness for what
may occur in Europe. If she expatriates any con-
siderable proportion of her army, say to the num-
ber of 25,000 men, or thereabouts, it is to send
them to the Tiber—not the Peiho ; it is to give
them 'vantage ground in the very heart of the Ro-
man peninsula ; it is to encamp them upon the
summits of the Seven Hills as the warders of the
Eternal City, as the bodyguard of Pius IX., as the
immediate arbiters of the destinies of 25,000,000
Italians!

At length we have some account which is per•
fectly authentic, as far as it goes, of the progress of
the Chinese rebels, of their religious notions, and
of their sentiments in regard to Christian foreigners.

They have been visited by a party of five, chiefly
missionaries, of whom Mr. EDKINS seems to have
been the principal—to him, at least, we are indebted
for the account of the visit which we printed yes-
terday. He is, we believe, in the service of the
Independence Missionary Society; and his disposi-
tion to find in the views of the Tai-pings as much
of Christianity as he could, if it may have slightly,
and it can be but very slightly, coloured his repre-

sentations in one respect, yet tended to engender
the mutual confidence which enabled him to ascer-
tain more than he would otherwise have done.
But very few of our readers, we suppose, know
or remember much of the geography of the vast and
singular empire, which is large and populous enough
to maintain a war with us in the north; another
vast civil war in its central parts ; to carry
on commerce with us at Shanghae an
southwards, and all as if it were a quite
natural, or at least a kind of normal thing,
and, we must frankly confess, that we who are
supposed to know everything, if taken beyond
Canton or Shanghae, or Pekin, or anywhere far
from the coast, are obliged to resort to our maps,
which do not seem to have been always prepared
with a special regard to the district we would sur-
vey by their help. Mr. EDKINS' short journey,
however, did not take him far from the coast ; the
Shanghae river, and the grand canal, being his
chief highways. It was, indeed, the fact of the
rebels becoming near neighbours to Shanghae, and
endangering the passage of the new silks from the
two centres of the trade in that part, Kiahing and
Nantsin, which led to the exploratory journey.
The missionaries wished to ascertain the quality of
the reputed Christianity of the Tai-pings, and the
merchants to see what hope there was for trade.
And on both points the expedition appears to have
fairly succeeded.
It is but recently that the Rebels have been suc-
cessful. They have this year defeated the Imperial
army which lay at Tanyang, a place between Nan-
kin, their head-quarters, and Shanghae, one of the
Imperial generals being killed, the other having killed
himself, and the numerous remains of the Imperial
army having joined the Rebels. As a consequence
several large cities fell quickly into their hands,
and placed it in their power to intercept altogether
the supplies of silk from the country beyond these
cities. At Soochow, the most important of these
cities, the " Faithful King," CHUNG-WANG, had
taken up his quarters, which he had at least enough
of our " common Christianity" to take care should
be of the best the place afforded. In their inter-
view with him, the Missionaries naturally—and it
was good policy also—introduced their religion
first—

"The conversation commenced by his asking in good
Mandarin dialect, with a Kwangsi accent, whence we came
and for what object ? Answer. Faithful King ; may you
live a thousand years. We come from Shanghae and be-
long to the great English nation. We have heard that
your religion is Christian; like our own. We worship like
you, the Heavenly Father. We have therefore coma to
make inquiry respecting this.'
" ' It appears, then, that your honourable country also pro-
fesses, like us, to believe in Jesus, the Saviour of the World.
We are of the same religion and are brethren. At present
Hien Fung's empire is approaching its end; we have one-
half of the mountains and rivers' for the celestial dynasty.
Having now only recently taken Soochow, we have not
erected a church, otherwise you might enter it with us and
join in worship. •
After such a pleasant commencement, and some
other religious conversation, a question from
CHUNG-WANG enabled Mr. EDKINS to introduce
the important postscript on commerce, and the
peculiar position of the Foreign Christians, whom
the Tai-ping Christians could now deprive of an
important part of their trade--
Have you any other matter on which you wish to
speak ? '
' Our nation carries on trade with China ; our country-
men are now desirous to obtain the new silk just ready for
the market, from Kiahing, Nantsin, and other places. The
forces of the new Celestial Dynasty are now there. It would
be highly satisfactory if, in these circumstances, commerce
should not be interrupted. If by some arrangement it could
continue, both natives and foreigners would find it bene-
ficial.'
" ' The Celestial Dynasty also desires that there be no
obstruction to trade. If it continue, the Celestial King
will levy customs upon goods which pass.'
The deputation were dismissed with " Thanks,"
" Thanks," and the information that " Brother"
LIEU had been ordered to provide them with beds
and a supper; hot of course. And, if CH UN G• WA NG'S
tariff be but a little more moderate than that of
our distinguished Ally's, Shanghae may congratu-
late itself still on doing a good silk trade, and in
having found in the intelligent missionary a suc-
cessful rival for Mr. COBDEN.

We are naturally curious to know of what cha-
racter the Christianity can be which evidently
awakened something like " brotherhood" of feeling
towards us European Christians. It is certainly
something new, after all, to find Chinese, not
merely polite about religion, but evidently dis-
posed to think that we have really more light than
they. After the complaisant introduction, the
account of which we have quoted above, the con-
versation went on :

"' The most of mankind worship images of wood and clay.
Tho disciples of Jesus know that it is right only to worship
God.'

66 It is this wicked idolatry that we found prevailing here
and in other cities. God has sent his Son Jesus to save the
world from these their sins, and the younger brother of
Jesus is our chief.'
" 'We desire nothing so much as that idolatry may be
uprooted from among men. We know the Kan-wang. He
resided with us for seyeral months at Shanlage, After-