Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1852-11-27
CHE polpnesian.
A Glimpse into China.

There IS something extremely ludicrousil
the annexed passage from DR.. Gutzlaff,s re
cent work upon the Chinese empire. 1t re
lates to the period Of the war with England ::
Disaster had followed disaster up to tn,
end of 1S4l still the warlke spirit was no
yet extinct. Some great men, who had de-
rived their information respecting European
affairs from Chinese colonists who visited the
islands, Of the Indian Archipelago, brought
forward plan for defending China on a
large scale. and carrying the war into Grea,
Britain. To effect this, it was necessary to
create feet thrice as numerous and strong
as that of the English, and to station these
immense vessels near Singapore and Anjeer,
to intercept all the ships on their way to
China, and thus annihiate the British fleet
piece-meal, before it reached its destination.
To obtain materials for ship-building, the
forests of China were to be felled but in
order to provide models of ships for the grand
design, English men-ofwar had first to be
taken. There was another suggestion equal
ly sagacious, which was nothing more nor
less than to march an army fthree hundred
thousand men right through the deserts of
Siberia and Russia to London, and thus put
stop to all further operations These
projects were sent to Taou-kwang, who ad-
mired the ideas, but feared that their practi-
cal execution was fraught with insurmounta-
bic difficulties. As no river in his empire
had been secure against foreign invasion,
and all edicts against barbarians proved in
effective, Taou-kwang began to tremble for
his capital; which could be approached very
closely with small iron steamers, leaving
only few hours route by land-carriage
Hou-chunn, the general at Peking, who
stood in as high estimation amongst his
countrymen as Ney did amongst the French,
then suggested to build steamer that would
carry six thousand men, half divers and half
gunners, and that could be worked at the
rate of mile in few minutes. With this
extraordinary vessel he was ready TO face
the whole British feet; the moment he
came in sight of it, the divers were to jump
into the water and bore large holes in the
bottoms of the men-of-war, whilst the gum
ners were to keep up an incessant fire.
Striking as this plan appeared, Taou-kwang
doubted its practicability; for he had pre-
viously given orders to build some line-of- |
battle-ships, and the officer entrusted with |
The behest, instead of executing the order,
had committed suicide. Imitation steam
ships had likewise been attempted; and
though externally they resembled the for
eign vessels in every respect, there was no
steam-engine to put the paddle wheels in |
motion, and the paddles had to be turned |
ike a tread-mill. Many of the works thrown
up to keep off the barbarians had been erect
ed by public contributions, the subscribers
to be raised to high rank for their
money. Large bodies of militia were also
raised by some spirited individuals The
people, however, losing all confidence in
their government, and becoming even dis
rustful of the aid Of their gods, to whom
hey had first applied with such assiduity
soon became weary of lavishing money in
'enseless war; millions upon millions had,
therefore,, to be taken from the national