"Sixteen boats freighted with bales of silks and cocoons, with some Europeans in charge of them, and belonging to European firms in Shanghae, were passing a Taeping custom-house at Loo-chee, some distance up the Shanghae or Wong-poo river. They were brought to, and a small duty of four dollars per bale of silk was demanded. The boats belonging to two of the firms paid the duty and proceeded on their voyage, but the person in charge of the boats belonging to Messrs. Adamson & Co., of Shanghae, refused to pay it, and he was then told he could not proceed until the duty was paid, and the boat and bales of silk were consequently taken possession of. This was construed into an act of 'atrocious piracy,' and the Flamer and Captain Dew went to Loo-chee to demand restitution. Explanations were given by the Taeping Governor of the district, but they were unavailing; the unqualified restoration of the silk was insisted on under a threat of bombardment; the boats and bales of silk were therefore surrendered to Captain Dew, but as some small arms were missing, Captain Dew took possession of the guns of the custom-house, and seized some customs' police, and took them away with him to be detained until the arms missing from the boat should have been returned. The letter written by the Governor of the district, named Wan, to the authorities of Shanghae, consequent upon this outrage, is dignified and forbearing, and it were well for us to act in the spirit it manifests. The above are only examples of our professed neutrality; many others, however, have occurred."
The following are extracts from the letter written upon the subject by the Ti-ping chief, Wan:—
"I find on inquiry, that the silk, &c., lost by your merchant, was seized in lieu of duties, in consequence of an attempt on his part to get by the custom-house and evade payment of duties, on which he was arrested, and your charge, therefore, that he was plundered, is utterly without foundation.
"The Truly Sacred Lord who has established the Divine Dynasty, has also established custom-houses wherever the country is quiet, and by his law all merchants who pass these must pay the regular duties, and your merchant in daring to force his way through and evade the payment of customs, and you in coming here and making a disturbance and squeezing the money back, have behaved in a manner at utter variance with propriety....
"A special communication."
Meanwhile, Mr. Bruce, the chief diplomatist, unable to justify this increasing aggression otherwise, fiercely assailed the Ti-ping theology and civil administration. In a despatch to Lord Russell, dated at "Pekin, June 23, 1861,"[47] he takes upon himself to state (supremely indifferent to, or rather ignoring, the valuable testimony of the Revs. Griffith, John, Edkins, Medhurst, Muirhead, Legge, &c.):—
"The evidence of all classes of observers seems unanimous, both as to the destructive nature of the insurrection, and as to the blasphemous and immoral character of the superstition on which it is based."
Does Mr. Bruce and those who agree with him, venture to term our Bible the so-called "blasphemous and immoral superstition?"—for on that, and that alone, is the Ti-ping faith established. The following extracts from the same dispatch, and two others, having been approved by Her Majesty's Government, contain a complete key to the course taken against the Ti-pings, and lay bare a policy deduced from false premises, and founded upon utter violation of principle. The three despatches under consideration consist of—1. Mr. Bruce to Lord Russell, June 23, 1861; 2. Mr. Bruce to Vice-Admiral Sir J. Hope, Pekin, June 16; 3. Vice-Admiral Sir J. Hope's reply to Mr. Bruce, dated, Impérieuse, Hong-kong, July 11.—Dispatch No. 1 states:—