Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-05-14
THE REBELLION IN CHINA.


$4,000 men. KwyIsa, Imperial commander-inehef,
proclamation calling the people for help The Friend
of China says, if Britain, America France offer the
Emperor assistance keep his throne they might bind
him to open China to commerce
TheLondon Times Of the 26th has the following article
on the progress Of this rebellion:
This great rebellion of the Chinese commenced some
years ago in the southern provinces OF Quangsee and
Quangong, and it probably from their proximity 10
these that the Hong Kong residents enabled
appreciate the Importance of the insurrection With
what views in what circumstances the disturbance ORR
gnated satisfactorily ascertain, but there APP
pears doubt that the first insurgents natives OF
the provinces above mentioned and that they have
continued since to form the strength and nucleus OF
the rebel army The districts in question have always
maintained peculiar character for the courage ferocity
and characterization Of their inhabitants, nor have we
ourselves been without experience of these qualities
under the walls of Canton. For time the neghbor
hood Of this city represented as the principal scene
Of the civil war, and inclined indeed to believe
that the most eecual opposition offered to the rebel
forces at this spot Gradually, however, they appear
have gained the ascendancy the Imperial troops
and have advanced TO the northeast in the direction OF
Nankin.
The pr sent or, should perhaps say, the late
regnng house of China is Of foreign extraction and in
debted for its title to comparatively modern conquest
1t during the period of civil wars, in the
year 1914 that the Manchoo Tartars succeeded in sub
DUNG the country and in establishing dynasty Of their
Chinese throne. This position they nave ever
since maintained although the proportion of the invading
to the native population was, and still is even less
than that Of British natives in our empire of India
The best regular troops and of the chief officers are
Tarars but the large majority of Mandarns Chinese,
and the ordinary provincial governments usually
trusted to Chinese administration. Whether the insur
rection took its rise in any deliberate scheme for the
subverson of the Mantchoo power is more than we can
learn We disposed to think the whole, that the
political character of the rebellion rather acquired in
the progress Of events than conceived the outset but
of late it has been clear that the views Of the insurgents
comprised the detronement OF the regning Emperor in
favor of prince Of their selection Their camp soon
included King, and it understood that the Royal
would be exchanged for the Imperial style as the
rebellion had been consummaed by the capture OF the
capital We are not aware that any dynastc or heredl-
ary claims the person OF the Pretender
His is Tenteh but from the information reaching
inclined to surmise that the identity Of this
parsonage has been preserved and that three
Kings have been up in the of the rebellion.
All safely iners that the insurgents contemplate
the enforcement of Prince whom they carry with
| them in the place of the legitimate Sovereign.
However the rebel army thus constituted ADVANCED by
slow degrees and with ncessant fighting from the south
provinces, steadily gaining ground, and augmentng
their forces not only by the volunteers naturally at
tracted to successful cause but by compulsory leyes
from the districts through which they passed In No.
vember last they had got to Woochang the capital town
of the central province standing the great river fangt
the Tagus China from which important position
they could descend upon Nankn, distant by the river
some FIVE hundred miles At this time their army
computed exceed so 900 men, and, though these
bers not great for population like that of China, or
revolution of several years growth it thought that
the Emperor could array against them any thing like
equal force. Our reports indeed Informed US at the
time that the utmost conservation prevailing at all
the towns between Woo-chang and the capital viii
the reader Notwithstanding the lack Of intermediate de-
tails find any difficulty in comprehending the tele-
graphic despatch in impression of yesterday, TO the
effect that Nankin had fallen into the hands of the
bells on the 10Th of February"
The remark appended to this announcement, that no.
thing but European intervention could maintain the
Emperor his THRONE is curously characteristic of our
reputation in the East. Some years back II is possible
enough that the dethpned sovereign might have found
Give Cochrane and the result according to histo-
rical rule might have been the establishment of Anglo
Saxon power in China 1t is hard however to say with
what pretcxt or even motive such Intervention could
be exercised The substitution at Pekin Of dy
nasty which nobody comprehends for another which
body understood could not be likely to exert any material
influence on European transactions.
As far discern, the rebellion appears, if not
to have originated at any rate 10 have proceeded the
assumption that the whole country was misgoyerned,
oyertaxed and generally oppressed The declarations Of
Tien-teh and his supporters have uniformly promised
arer system of imposts and better administration Of
justice the consequences Of their success and il
that deep dissatisfaction generally felt at the existing
state Of affairs With domestic revolution thus created
it could certainly not be the interest Of any foreign Power
to interfere, for, excepting the opium question 1t is
altogether improbable that any change of dynasty at
Nankin could affect the commercial relations between
British and Chinese The reasons for disquietude
part would be found, II not mistaken, rather in
the noncompleon than the completion Of the revolution
described 1t is Of very little consequence who the
Emperor Of China may be- but of very great Importance
that there should be Emperor other administer
ing effective Government; and not without
picions that the consummaton announced may be by
conclusive as il appears 1t Is true that the
rebellion has already enjoyed most respectable duration
but in affairs of this kind the Chinese standard differs
widely from that established in Europe and Of the
revolutions in that country have consumed far longer
period of time than has hitherto been devoted TO the
petition of Tien-teh We have TO think that the
districts left behind by the insurgents in their advance
have not been permanently secured to the Of the
revolution that all is not gained which appears to be
The Tarars moreover brave by nature and martial
by profession, and far public opinion exists in Chi
believe that the feeling Of the northeastern pro-
yinces is If not actually favorable to the regnng house.
at least opposed that Of the southwestern provinces
from which the insurrecon proceeded that jealousy
alone would induce them to side with their Sovereign
We apprehend in short from these and other discernbe
elements Of antagonism what Mr. Gladstone, apparently
with anticipation Of the TRUTH called state Of
chronic rebellion and 1t must be recolected that the
extension Of the disturbance Of the chief
tea districts may produce consequences which es
capped while the contest confined the southern
central parts of the Empire The provinces which
depend for Of the necessares Of daily f and
indirectly for nconsiderabe portion Of revenue,
are already dsorganzed and impoverished to be
suffering greatly their commercial pursuits, and is
hard to put limit to the inconvenience light endure
from any serious check upon the production and export
Of tea We wait however for circumstantal intel
gence and as the Of action brought nearer
the coast may expect more authentic and regular
ports Of this singular revolution.
MAXIM is city Of half million Of inhabitants and
-