Slowly, but surely of late, the Chinese nation has been recovering from the crushed and subdued condition to which the sanguinary invasion and iron despotism of the Manchoos had reduced it. Gradually, as returning vitality and patriotism increased, opposition to the oppressor multiplied and became more formidable and portentous. As the Chinese have gained strength, so their masters have lost it; the power and resources of the latter have long become overgrown and exhausted, and nothing but the broken-spirited and abject state of slavery they had reduced the nation to could have prevented their expulsion long since. At length, during the reign of the last emperor, the national feeling could no longer be controlled, and in the year 1850 the great Ti-ping rebellion burst forth—so marvellous in every phase of its commencement, organization, and progress, that ere now, but for the unjustifiable meddling of England, it would have resulted, not only in the subversion of the Manchoo dynasty, but, in all human probability, the establishment of Christianity throughout the limits of the immense Chinese empire. Sir John F. Davis has observed:—"Distinctions sufficiently broad are still maintained to prevent the amalgamation of the original people with their masters;" these, combined with the intense hatred caused by the horrible cruelties inflicted upon the people during the troublous times of famine and disturbance preceding the Ti-ping rebellion, undoubtedly tended to promote the success of the latter, and alienate the best disposed from the Manchoos. During the years 1838-41, many parts of the empire became plunged in misery and want;—so severe was the famine, that many thousands perished, while multitudes were driven to insurrection. The government, in order to quell the natural results of the distress, resorted to the most barbarous measures; it has even been stated by the Roman Catholic missionaries who were on the spot,—"that after suffering severe torture, many of the people were burnt alive!" The war with Great Britain, in 1841, added to the miseries of the Chinese, for the Manchoo government, the weaker they became, were the more savage and ruthless in suppressing every indication of disaffection.
Mr. Tarrantt, editor of the Friend of China, and a resident in China for a quarter of a century, in 1861 wrote thus:—
"THE WICKED AND CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OF CHINA.
"So little is known of the machinery of Chinese government that ignorance of it is the best, if not the only excuse for the countenance given by Western nations to the Manchoo dynasty. Conservative as we are in political principle, largely imbued with a feeling of veneration for what is ancient, if at the same time honour deserving, and desiring above all things peace on earth and goodwill amongst mankind, the repugnance which we entertain towards the Pekin government, and sympathy with those in arms against it,[14] has been solely produced by long observation of the thorough worthlessness of the rulers, and the impossibility for them to become better. We old-fashioned moralists of the West, in our ideas of the uses of a government, give some consideration to the feelings of the mass; and no officer may fatten himself with impunity on the public purse, unless he give some show of service for the public weal. Here in China, on the contrary, extortion by officials is an institution; it is the condition on which they take office; and it is only when the bleeder is a bungler that the government, aroused by the victims' cries and riotings, step in to check the depletion. Are our readers aware of the smallness of the established salaries of provincial officers—of the two Kwang, to wit? Can they believe that the Viceroy, ruling over a country twice the size of England, is allowed as his legal salary the paltry sum of £60—say $25 a month—not even the pay of four of his chair-bearers and an ostler? How does he live, then? will be the question. The answer is, by extortion, by selling justice. Fees of office would be the most polite term, perhaps, to apply to the thing, the average sum total of these per annum being £8,333.
"The system adopted throughout the empire is this:—You, the son of Dick, Tom, or Harry, get your qualification as a scholar, bring it to me at Pekin, fee the chancellerie, and then you shall have a post. Directly you have that, squeeze away right and left, and when you have enough to buy a higher post, you know where to come for it. As we said some years ago, when writing on the subject, 'it flourishes on its own rottenness,' the chances which high and low alike possess of fattening on the public vitals being the greatest support the Manchoo dynasty possess. Next to the Viceroy, or governor-general, is the governor, whose salary is £50, increased with fees averaging £4,333 a year. Each of these officials possess power of life and death without reference to the government.... The creature who—mayhap before he got into office, neglected by all his relations—luxuriated on a miserable dole of rice and greens, and would no more think of paying a couple of mace[15] to chair-coolies to carry him, than he would think of flying, from the day he receives his diploma cannot walk a hundred paces on common earth if he were paid to do it. He rises with the sun from the couch of his speedily increased harem, either to receive the morning call of some other 'useless,' or to be borne in his chair, followed by pipe-bearer and card-deliverer, to make a round of calls on brother officials of similar uselessness. How is the work of the Mandarinate performed? we hear some say. Performed? By underlings who hold the entrée by the back stairs, and sell justice or service to each suitor according as he can pay for it.... And these are the things who govern the empire."
During the month of July, 1863, issues of the same newspaper—then established at Shanghae—contained the following statements; and statements that no person with the slightest knowledge of the position and history of China can deny:—
"Our local readers must be as able as ourselves to form an opinion on passing events; and hardly one of us, we think, but must be satisfied that we are on the eve of a crisis in the affairs of the great nation on whose borders we dwell. Let us take a hasty glance at the position. A little over two hundred years ago, the Manchoos, under an ancestor of the present incumbent of the throne, overran the country. The cruelties which these savages perpetrated were of the most horrid description—in Kwang-tung alone over seven hundred thousand people—man, woman, and child—being massacred within a month.
"The Chinese, prior to this inroad, were a rich people, the houses of the better classes being buildings of convenient formation and durability. There is not much apparent wealth among the Chinese now, any sign of it being a temptation to government officers to extort from the holders. From the day these Tartars came into the country, China has been steadily deteriorating, and now the people may best be likened to herds of grovelling swine, living merely for the day, stultified in intellect by the most degrading superstition. Under the Manchoos, in fact, China exhibits to the world the saddest of all spectacles—the spectacle of a people unable to raise themselves in the social scale, to attain the full stature of man. To keep themselves on the throne, the Manchoos determined on three courses:—
"First. To make every Chinese shave the front of his head, and wear a tail. Those who would not do this were deemed rebels, and decapitated.