"2. That the exclusive policy heretofore maintained by the Imperial Government shall be superseded by a liberal policy, so that China may become one in the great Congress of Nations, instead of standing aloof in childish pomposity.
"3. That a free access be given to the arts and manufactures of other nations.
"4. That kindly relations be cultivated with all foreign people, and the resources of the country be developed by a liberal exchange of its products for those of other lands.
"5. That the improvements in various mechanical arts, the inventions of foreign nations, be introduced into the country.
"We have neither time nor space to complete the list, but it may be said, generally, that in the political creed of the insurgent leaders there appears, from beginning to end, a complete revolution of the Chinese ideas in every important particular, and there is not an item of it that should not meet with the warm sympathy of every man who cares for the welfare of any country besides his own, or even any man whose only interest in foreign nations is limited to what may be got out of them...."
It has lately been the common practice to represent the Ti-pings as "monsters of cruelty," "ruthless devastators," &c. The following extracts, from a communication by a "correspondent of the North China Herald," republished in the Nonconformist of Nov. 14th, 1860, give some authentic particulars respecting the Shanghae massacre of Ti-pings. Upon the approach of the Ti-pings to the walls of the city, the writer states:—
"When it was discovered that they were real rebels, orders were given to fire on them. They waved the hand, begged our officers not to fire, and stood there motionless, wishing to open communication and explain their object. No notice was taken of this, but a heavy fire of rifles and grape was kept up on them for about two hours, when they retired with a loss estimated at two hundred. Here, as at the South-gate, they seem to have essayed to open communication, and to have been replied to in the same way. After they had been driven back, the French soldiers rushed frantically among the peaceful inhabitants of the place, murdering men, women, and children, without the least discrimination. One man was stabbed right through as he was enjoying his opium-pipe. A woman, who had just given birth to a child, was bayoneted without the faintest provocation. Women were ravished and houses plundered by these ruthless marauders without restraint. Everything was taken away from the poor people, who were trying to escape, and thrown into a heap, so as to do away with the possibility of ever being reclaimed. Unless the article or articles were immediately yielded, the bayonet was brought in to decide the question."
The truth of these statements can be supported by the evidence of my personal friends, some of whom were wounded when trying to rescue helpless women from unheard-of barbarity.