who knew that their term of office must be short, and who had to regain their purchase money and the anticipated fortune before their post was sold again to some fresh competitor? The officials waxed rich in illgotten wealth; a few individuals accumulated enormous fortunes, and the government of the country sank lower and lower in the estimation of the millions of people who were supposed to regard their sovereign with unspeakable awe as the embodiment of Celestial wisdom and power, and their form of political existence as the most perfect administration ever devised by man.

The Government lost also in efficiency. A corrupt and effeminate body of officers and administrators can serve but as poor defenders for an embarrassed prince and an assailed Government against even enemies who are in themselves insignificant, and not free from the vices of a corrupt society and a decaying age; and it was on such that Hienfung had in the first place alone to lean. Even his own Manchus, the warlike Tartars who, despite the smallness of their numbers, had conquered the whole of China, and given its Empire such grandeur and military fame as it had not known for more than one thousand yearsfor the Mongol Empire was a thing distinct from that of China-had lost their primitive virtue and warlike efficiency in the southern land which they had made their home. To them the opulent cities of the Chinese had proved as fatal as Capua to the ariny of the Carthaginian; and when the peril came suddenly upon them they showed themselves unworthy of the Empire won by their ancestors.

So far as they individually were

concerned, they lost it. Other Tartars, worthier of their earlier fame, had to come from the cold and vigorous regions of the north to help the embarrassed Hienfung and his successor out of their difficulties, and to re-assert the claims of Manchu supremacy. For the first time since the revolt of Wou Sankwei the Manchus are brought face to face with a danger threatening their right of conquest. It is evidently not a danger to be overcome by fine words or lavish promises. Yet on the eve of the Taeping revolt that is all that Hienfung or his advisers can suggest or produce in order to avert a crisis and to crush the incipient rebellion in its birth.

CHAPTER X.

THE BEGINNING OF THE TAEPING REBELLION.

The Condition of China.-The Efficiency of the Executive.—The Rising in Kwangsi.-Signs in the Heavens.-Secret Societies and Sturdy Beggars.-The Triads.-The Recall of the Mings. -Extermination of the Manchus.-The War in Kwangsi.— Local Leaders.-Growing Confidence of Insurgents.-Defeat of Troops.-Proclamation against the Manchus.-Spread of Rebellion.-Tien Wang.-His Qualifications.-Who was he? -A disappointed Place-seeker.-A supposed Champion of Christianity. What the Missionaries hoped from him.—His Path to Fame.-A Religious Fanatic-or a self-seeking Intriguer?-Proceeds to Kwangsi.-Imperial Commissioners.— Long Inaction. -Military Inexpertness.-The Exhaustion of Kwangsi. Tien Wang's Resolve.-The March northwards.An Imperialist's View.-Tien Wang's Lieutenants.-Their Titles. Attack on Kweiling.-A Repulse.-Capture of small Towns.-Death of the Southern King.-Siege of Changsha. -Tseng Kwofan.-His Example.-The First to raise Volunteers. Taepings repulsed.-The Tungting Lake.-Wou Sankwei's War material.-Capture of Hankow.-The Taepings in the Valley of the Yangtse.-Kiukiang.-Siege and Capture of Nankin. Pusillanimity of the Manchus.-Their Massacre. -"Not a root to sprout from."-The Taepings command the Navigation of the Yangtse.-The Imperialist Armies.-Rapid Marching of Rebels.-The Taeping Forces.-Fortification of Nankin. Its new Title.-March north.-Pekin to be taken. -Check at Kaifong.-Siege of Hwaiking.-Taepings repulsed. Their subsequent Movements. Arrive within

Twenty Miles of Tientsin.-Defeated.—Sankolinsin, the Mongol. Their Lost Opportunity.-Confusion at Pekin.— Further Engagements.-Despatch of a Second Army.-Protracted Struggle.-Ultimate Dispersion or Flight of Rebels.— Other Military Expeditions.-Siege of Kanchang.—Their Depredations. Punishment of Officials.-European Views of the Question. The Spurious Christianity of the Rebels.English Officials and Merchants.-The Position of the English Government.-Its Neutrality.-Sir George Bonham.His Visit to Nankin.-Taotai Wou.-A Chinese Fleet.-The "Hermes" visits Nankin.-Negotiations with Taepings.-Jealousies at Nankin.-Tien Wang's Life.-The Eastern King. -His Trances.-His Ambition.-Plot to get rid of him.Resumption of Hostilities.-Li, or the Chung Wang.-His Campaign. Relieves Chinkiang.-Returns to Nankin.—Battles. Suicide of Imperial Commander.-Chang Kwoliang's Vengeance.-Murder of the Eastern King-of the Northern King.-Discord.-Other Disturbances.-Preparations of Em-peror.-Affair at Amoy.-Bloodthirsty Punishments.-Intervention of English Officers.-Shanghai.-Mr. Alcock's Preparations.-The Triads.-Return of Imperial Forces.-Long Siege. The French drawn in.-Admiral Laguerre.-Bombardment.-Assault.-Repulse of Attack.-French Losses.Ultimate Capture of Town.-Reprisals.-The Fate of the Leaders.-Canton.-Capture of Fatshan.-The Cantonese Braves. An efficient Body of Troops.-Final Assertion of Authority.-Summary of Events.-The Success and the Failure of the Taepings.

DURING fifty years the provinces of China had now witnessed many disturbances, and the officers of the Government found that they had not the force to carry out their behests, and that to these the people would pay no heed without compulsion. Yet, up to the present, these disorders had scarcely partaken of the character of rebellion, and might even have been considered the natural accompaniments of an administration so easily satisfied both as to the behaviour of the people

themselves and also as to the prompt execution of its own orders as that of Pekin has generally been. We have now reached a time when, after the tranquillity of nearly two centuries, sedition was to wear a bolder front, and when it was becoming impossible for the Government of the Emperor Hienfung to pretend that the disorder in the province of Kwangsi* was anything short of open rebellion to drive him and the Manchu dynasty from the throne.

As far back as the year 1830 there had been symptoms of disturbed popular feeling in Kwangsi. The difficulty of operating in a region which possessed few roads, and which was only rendered at all accessible by the West River or Sikiang, had led the Chinese authorities, much engaged as they were about the foreign question, to postpone those vigorous measures which if taken at the outset might have speedily restored peace and stamped out the first promptings of revolt. But it was considered a purely local question, and, although the people of Canton were disposed to see signs of danger and an omen of coming change in the most insignificant natural phenomena, † their rulers thought it safe to ignore the popular temperament, and

*The province of Kwangsi lies west of Kwantung, and forms with it the southern border towards Tonquin. Further west still is Yunnan. Kwantung and Kwangsi constitute the vice-royalty of the Two Kwang, with its seat of government at Canton.

+ There had been signs in the heavens-falling stars and eclipses; and some of the Cantonese people had gone so far as to declare that they had seen "black lines in the sky." A more practical and trustworthy symptom of what was going to happen had been furnished by the extension of the secret societies and the increase in the number of sturdy beggars, who infested the roads in all directions and gained their living by violence.