The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-21 00:00:00

01 ienina e‘-'3:l4tlt,

LONDON, THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 21, 1850

Revolutionary ideas have extended even as far as
the Celestial Empire. From the latest dispatches, it
would appear that the revolt, long fermenting in the
land of the parasol and the pagoda, has swelled at last
into a really formidable insurrection. Rumours of all
kinds were, of course, afloat as to what had already
occurred, and likewise as to the supplementary disasters
that might be expected. In one direction the imperial
army was falling back, in consequence of having en-
countered a severe and unexpected discomfiture. In
another the local magistrates were flying before the
rebels on the road to Pekin. Here one consider-
able town was being sacked by the conquerors,
there another was groaning under the horrors of
bombardment. Opinion was divided as to whether
the forces of the Brother of the Sun would be suffi
ciently powerful, or rather sufficiently capable of
immediate concentration to repulse the violators of
the public peace and the assailants of his imperial au-
thority—or whether the Chinese EMPEROR would
be driven by the emergency to call in British
assistance. Certain it was, under any circum-
stances, that the situation of affairs was most
urgent, and that an instant decision one way
or the other was absolutely requisite. As an es i-
dance of the necessity existing for some immediate
settlement of these difficulties, it is only needful to
observe that the army of the revolutionists, number-
ing no less than 50,000 men in the aggregate, had pro-
ceeded to within a distance of only one hundred and
twenty miles from Canton. Hitherto, moreover, it would
appear that this redoubtable body had triumphed over
all obstacles, had compelled the militia to fly before
them in panic, had routed even the Imperial soldiers,
and had reduced the surrounding country to a com-
plete state of subjection. The reality of these events
had forced itself upon the judgments of the most incre-
dulous among the English merchants by reason of the
black mail levied upon all commodities passing within
reach of the insurgents. From this particular alone
it will be perceptible that the rebel army is less ac-
tuated by high political motives than by a lust of
power and spoliation.
Scarcely a reasonable conjecture can be formed of
the origin of these singular disturbances. No motive
whatever had as yet been avowed by its leaders ; and
the whole seemed to have been fomented less by
demagogic agitation than by the natural cupidity
of men inimical to all ordinary restraints
and enamoured of the lavish spoil and law-
less life of banditti. Out of these sentiments,
rather than out of any noble ambition for political
improvement, the whole scheme appears to have
sprung, armed to the teeth, and ready to crush all
military opposition. Upon the course pursued by the
EMPEROR the fate of his dynasty is most assuredly
more or less dependent. Either he will put an end
to the movement by a vigorous act of generalship, or
he will find himself compelled reluctantly to demand
the aid of British intervention. Under the former
contingency he will be enabled, no doubt, to repress
for a while the marauding spirit which, during the
last few years, has convulsed the greater portiort of
his dominions—but without any prospect of thoroughly
eradicating the vices of incipient rebellion. Under
the latter contingency his rule may discover an im-
mediate and appreciable security—but while accept-
ing the beneficial influence of British support, he will
be inevitably dooming his power to a gradual and
ultimate absorption. -Directly the Anglo Saxon race
obtains the irou s-rw, the spot on which to move the
lever of its enormous influence, then commences that
system of indirect appropriation which in the end
eats into the very heart of a kingdom, however remote
or gigantic. The fact has in a great measure been
illustrated by the British Government in almost every
quarter of the globe, but nowhere so remarkably as
in the empire immediately contiguous to that presided
over by the Chinese EMPEROR. The progress of
our power as conquerors over the various provinces of
Hiudostan has been altogether of too remarkable a
character to have escaped the observation of the
Chinese Government. From having witnessed the
consequences of our invasion of those provinces, first
in the aspect of protectors, and lastly in that of lords
paramount, the Ministerial admirers of the Celestial
Potentate will be anything but desirous of placing
him, by a similar course of proceeding, within the
grasp of a power so dangerous in the multiplicity of
its appropriations. Nevertheless, although the Im-
perial Councils at Pekin may be reluctant to call
into its assistance a friendly authority more
perilous, because more insidious and potential than
the openly hostile one which it is at present solicitous
to vanquish—it must be evident that it is not in any
way any wholly insur-
moundrrteabbaleoebdstafrcolems. solnddoeinedg, bythere may be found a
precedent so striking of its kind as to induce the
Chinese ruler and the statesmen of his despotism to
waive all their terrors of Anglo-Saxon subjugation,
and at once annihilate the hopes of their assailants by
availing themselves of our friendship. This precedent
is none other than the memorable circumstance of
their requiring and receiving the aid of our military
and naval armaments against the pirates in-
festing the oriental seas. Having consented once
to acquire security at our hands, they may again per..
chance commit themselves to the like protection—
though this time we cannot but regard the chant;, of
any such requisition as in the highest degree impro-
bable. For one thing it must be remembered that
the danger is not external but internal, not along
the maritime frontiers of China but in the interior of
those dominions. Consequently the Celestial EM-
PEROR would be anything but solicitous to admit our

forces within the sacred barriers of that __
territory.
which has never yet been allowably and openly trod-
den by the feet of races deemed by its inhabitants to
consist only of barbarians. The sanctity of the