The degradation of the central power in China has at
last begun to produce its natural results. A revolt has broken out in Kwangeee, controlled, it is said, by the managers of the Triad, the great secret society of China, long since organised for the expulsion of the Manchus from the throne. They provoked the great Taeping Rebellion which in 1851-65 nearly conquered Southern and Central China, and was only put down by the army formed by General Gordon. The present insurgents also call themselves Taepings, and have, it is believed, purchased the adhesion of the " Black Flags," the banditti of South-Western China, who on one occasion defeated a French army, and so drove M. Jules Ferry out of power. Aided by these men the present rebels, whose leader is that remarkable person Sun Yat Sea, the Chinese doctor recently kidnapped in London and detained in the Embassy, have conquered the cities of Kwangsee as far as Wuchan, and are now besieging that important city, the tenth which they have attacked, hitherto with success. Should it fall they will move onwards to Canton, where the Mandarins are in great alarm knowing well that the invaders have thousands of ad- herents within the city itself. The exact object of the revolt is unknown, but it is believed to be anti-Tartar and anti- foreigner, and to be marked, as the first Taeping movement was, by great slaughter and cruelty. It is too early to prophecy about results, but the movement may attain large proportions, and perhaps ultimately compel European inter- ference.
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