THE CRUSADES IN CHINA.
THE Chinese rebellion appears to be gaining magnitude in cha- racter as well as geographical extension. The most connected account of it that we have yet seen is derived from the proclama- tions of the. insurgents; and although' these are to be regarded with the suspicion due to ex-parte statements, they are at all events an authentic exposition of the professions of the insur- gents. The extent of territory which the insurgents have covered is also placed beyond much doubt, by the reports of the Imperial- ists themselves; and these reports concur with those of the insur- gents as to the peculiar organization of the rebel staff. There is a chief or emperor, with subordinate kings. Hung-sew-tseuen, who appears at present to be the chief, and the oldest of the party, is said to be one year over forty ; tall in stature, with a red face and sandy beard ; a native of the Canton province. Under him are four chiefs, who take the title respectively of Eastern; Western, Southern, or Northern King. With regard to the supreme man there is a double mystery ; the first concerning his origin, name, and social position. The Imperialists aver that his proper name is not known, and cannot be discovered; while he himself affects to have kept for a long time in concealment, as other great Chinese reformers have done, whose names and exploits he cites. The concealment of his name, in a country so attentive to names as China, his avowal of long concealment, and his claim to have been descended from the Ming dynasty, which is to replace an emperor on the throne after the Tartar dynasty shall have come to an end, are circumstances that naturally suggest a suspicion that the rebel- lion shares much of the ordinary humbug of great impostures. The other mystery concerning Hung-sew-taeuen consists in a report that some person greater than himself is kept in the background ; and that this other person is " the coming man," the son of Ming, who is to replace the barbarous Tartar on the Chinese throne and reinstate " the black-haired race" in its proper position. Whoever he may be, Hung-sew-tseuen has collected to himself a considerable force ; persons of greater means appear to be helping him ; his army covers a large extent of territory ; and the Tartar dynasty totters on the throne. The rebellion seems to have re- ceived a new accession since it first started. In a proclamation announcing the second victory of the revolutionary army, and ex- plaining some of the pretensions of its leader, the Tartars are assailed as a tyrannical dynasty ; they are accused of corrupting magistrates, of admitting people to official rank not through lite- rary examinations but through pecuniary considerations, of ne- glecting the ancient apparel of the Chinese, and of departing from the standards of Confucius and Mentins. The same proclamation warns the Tartars " to collect their scattered bones" and run away; and it offers a reward of 10,000 pieces of money for any mandarins of the opposite side taken alive, or 3000 for their heads ; threaten- ing to pillage cities that resist. More recent proclamations are still fiercer. One, emanating from Hung, Captain-General of the army, denounces ".the vicious and besotted monarch at the head of affairs," and again threatens that all officers of prefectures who resist shall be beheaded. Another announces that "at present we are seizing the priests of Buddha and Taou throughout the country and putting them to death." Here the rebellion begins to assume its new character. This last proclamation appears to accompany a third from Yang, the Eastern King, and Seaou, the Western King, announcing a mission "to slaughter the imps and save the people," on the authority of the Old Testament, and of " the Great God our Heavenly Father, who in six days created the heaven and the earth, men and things." Examples of special interference from Providence are cited, in the great deluge, in the rescue of Israel from Egypt, in the coming of the Messiah, in certain events that happened in China in 1837, and now in the appearance of Hung- sew-tseuen' who professes to have a direct mission from "the Saviour of the world" " to slaughter a great number of impish fiends," and who is certain of success, " for how can impish fiends expect to resist the majesty of Heaven ?" Thus a Christian cha- racter has been imparted to the rebellion. •
From this new incident missionary activities must necessarily be suspected ; Hung-sew-tseuen must have a partner, and mis- sionaries probably are speculating on the commercial advimtages
of the association. Missionary dabbling in political agitations have been familiar to the world in all quarters, from Rome to Dublin, from Jamaica to New Zealand; and we have had occasion to show how far English missionaries can be led in the hope of worldly aggrandizement. Nevertheless, this Chinese proceeding, with its incidents of beheading, of capturing and killing, would be rather strong for English missionaries : New Zealand could not parallel the movement, nor riots at Montego Bay justify us in sup- posing that Exeter Hall is " art and part" in this Chinese rebel- lion. But English missionaries are not the only dealers in reli- gious influence, nor the most enterprising. Our brethren of America have been particularly active in China; and they boast, with great reason, that they have established their relations on a footing likely to succeed much better with the Celestials thin ours. Instead of going with armed ships to establish a recognized position on Chinese territory, they have gone with merchant- ships, and have established a friendly relation, reciprocated on a grand scale in the Californian emigration. The Americans exceed the English in the zeal with which the individual citizen sets him- self to carry out a national policy ; and the habit of dealing with outlying territories on the Texas principle of gradual encroachment with an eye to ultimate conquest has become almost a mania with the trading hero. It is probable that the bowie-knife and revolver will be found in conjunction with the Bible which inspires the Chinese rebellion ; a Bible, be it observed, interpreted according to the capacity of those who have hitherto worshiped Shang-le on Buddhist principles. It ought not to surprise anybody, if, when the new dynasty shall be firmly established on .the throne, and the supreme government of the Central Flowery Nation shall be thrown open to an embassy from England, some great minister of state, advancing with button and pigtail, were to address the re- presentative of her Britannic Majesty with a true Western twang. The acting Minister of State in the Sandwich Islands would only be the prototype of the Chinese Minister for Everything, Yang-kee.
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