Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1900-11-15
Chinese REFORMERS'
rebellion DISCUSSED
Viewed With Element
Of Distrust by
Europeans
CAN sung VAT sun
CONTROL HIS FOLLOWERS
Parallel With TAPPING Rebellion
Varying Reports as to Object Of
Movement Foreign Pro-
lection Demanded.

creasingly serious. To simple rumor
Ct discomfort there have been added
news of sporadic attempts at riot here
and there, with accounts of pirate at.
tacks in various places. and now II
seems as II the whole province Of Cam
ton is ripe for revolt and taking the in
itiatory steps to make 1t successful.
AS usual accounts differ.
Reports take the tints of the media
through which the movements are
viewed From certain quarters we
learn that the prime movers in the
rising are hand in glove with kang
Yuwei and the Reform Party, that
their motto Is Friendship with the
Foreigner, and Death to the Manchu;"
others give a very different COM
plexion to the movement. They de-
scribe it as a simple outbreak of armed
combined rowdyism; they point to at
lacks on Mission Chapels. and other
foreign property as proofs Of the true
nature of the spirit by which the re-
bells are moved; but they say nothing
Of the apparent dread with which the
mandarins, already with no control ont
side the city walls, appear to view the
situation.
1t il in fact complex and tangled
matter. one which adds enormously 10
the difficulties of the Powers, and yet
may In the end prove blessing in dis
guise. The chief danger to the foreign
resident In China for the past few
weeks has been the danger that an in
effectual peace might be hastily patch
cd up. The Canton rising, II it does
nothing else, will probably delay the
departure of the foreign forces, and al
low time for full consideration of the
whole position.
There Is no little resemblance be-
tween the present situation and that of
forty years ago. A foreign army oc'
cupied Picking then. There was a for
midable rebellion in progress In the
South-the TAPPING. Then, however, II
had already been raging for ten full
years. Started in 1850 by Hung Seut-
suen, n Hakka schoolmaster, II gradu-
ally rolled on its way to the north, taxi
ing three years to reach Marking. Many
looked upon the Heavenly Kink" as
a real reformer, but fully knowledge
seems to confirm the opinion with
which our late friend the Rev. VIM,
Muirhead, who had friendly interviews
with the TAPPING leaders, mainly
agreed, that Hung was nothing but an
able, astute, keen-sighted imposter.
What mischief he wrought in China
no words can tell. Cortes burnt his
boats SO that his men might have no
means Of retreat; the Taipings did
worse: wherever they went they made
the land a desert, SO that there could
be no turning back. Gathering in all
the local scoundrelism, the rebels roll
ed along. Robbers from the mountains,
pirates from the coast, smugglers and
rufhans from everywhere, swelled their
ranks, which snowball-like incres>od
at every step, cold-blooded cruelty car
rying death to everything within reach.
So II moved along, taking, as we have
said, three years to reach Marking.
Then for seven years more there was
desultory fighting between rebels and
lmperialsts, but in 1860 the TAPPING
met his fate. He ran against the arm
ed force of foreigners, English and
French, stationed at Shanhai, which
the Heavenly King wanted to round
off his domnions. For the protection
of the settlement Sir Charles Stavely,
then in command here, determined to
insist on the neutrality of the thirty
mile radius, and after various ups and
downs. Gordon was appointed to tie
command OF the Ever Victorious
Army" with the result which every
schoolboy knows. The principal rebel
chiefs met their death at Soochow
through the treachery of our old friend
Ii Hungchang, and little by little the
rebellion came to an end, having de-
stroyed probably more lives than all
the European Wars from William the
Conqueror to the present day put to-
gether.
Was this movement the prototype Of
that now beginning? To say that this
is momentous question is to minimise
its Importance, an Importance which 1t
is almost impossible to exaggerate.
There were and are many people who
believed that the foreign powers. Eng
land mainly, made fatal mistake IN
opposing the TAPPING. Here again
a judicial estimate of the evidence pro
and con is most difficult to make. In
no country but China could II have
happened that while, we fought her
government in the north we fought her
enemies in the south. History may re-
peat itself. II is not always safe, as
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