"Two of its clauses, noted below, not only made the further progress of the Taepings unprofitable, but absolutely made their simple existence most objectionable to all Europeans who hoped to open trade with those provinces lying adjacent to the upper waters of the Yang-tze. When Lord Elgin proceeded to Han-kow, he evidently looked upon them as a mere body of rebels, sooner or later to be suppressed by government, and that they in the interval interfered with the due carrying into execution the terms of his treaty. Consequently he was not inclined to show them much favour."
In this perfectly true conclusion is concealed the real motive of the conduct the British Government has pursued towards the Ti-pings. Not only in China, but over the whole world—from Denmark to America, from Abyssinia to Brazil, from New Zealand to Japan,—the policy of England has been derogatory to her dignity, and would be calculated to elicit merely feelings of contempt were it not so dangerous to her future welfare. It seems, however, that the majority of Englishmen are satisfied with a course of administration which advocates "peace at any price," except when war can be undertaken with impunity, and some aggression committed upon a weak neighbour, who is then compelled to pay all the expenses. I, for one, protest against such lowering of England's dignity and "just influence." I protest against the sacrifice of national honour to mercenary interest,—of principle to profit.
Commander Brine's opinion has been amply verified—he wrote it early in 1862; since which period England, regardless of all pledges of neutrality, has deliberately upheld the Manchoo dynasty, and made war upon the Ti-pings, not to support any high principle, but prompted by regard for the indemnity money to be wrested from the Imperialists, influenced by the profits of the opium trade, and anxious to support the Elgin treaty, which otherwise would have become inoperative.
It is no less singular than true, that the wars with the Manchoo government in reality weakened it but very little:—in the first place, the British troops were always met by the local forces, none being withdrawn from opposition to the internal danger, which was dreaded much more than any arising from the foreign expeditions;—in the second, the indemnity money being deducted from the increased duties levied upon the foreign trade, instead of impoverishing the Manchoo exchequer, was taken directly from the pockets of the foreign merchants; and although the exchequer was so much less in hand, it could hardly be looked upon as a loss, considering that only one-fifth of the gross customs revenue of the ports open to foreign trade was taken, and that the trade has enlarged amply enough to make the returns, minus the indemnity, more than equal to what they were before the war.
Subsequent to the visit of H.M.S. Hermes, and the French steamer Cassini, the next communication between the Ti-pings and Europeans took place a little more than a year later, when the American minister visited Nankin in the U.S. frigate Susquehanna. The few extracts I give from the accounts of the Rev. Dr. Bridgeman, and another writer, X.Y.Z., each members of the expedition, coincide exactly with all opinions ever given of the Ti-pings by credible people who have held personal intercourse with them; and it is a singular, if not a sinister circumstance, that these accounts are all totally different from the dispatches of Sir F. Bruce (British minister at Pekin), and consuls of similar tendencies, who have either never seen the Ti-pings, or at all events know nothing of their government, life, and manners.
The following are extracts from the Rev. Dr. Bridgeman:—
"1. Their government is a theocracy, the development apparently of what is believed by them to be a new dispensation. As in the case of the Israelites under Moses, they regard themselves as directed by one who has been raised up by the Almighty to be the executor of his will on earth.
"5. Their government is administered with remarkable energy.
"Far in the distance, hovering over the hill-tops—southward from Chin-kiang-foo, the guardian city of the Great Canal, and northward from Nankin, we saw encamped small bands of the Imperialists, while all the armed multitudes in, and immediately around these two cities, wrought up almost to frenzy, seemed eager to rush forth and take vengeance on them as their deadly foes,—'fat victims,' said they, 'fit only for slaughter.' They exulted as they exhibited to us the scars and the wounds they had received in bloody conflicts with the Manchoo troops, always called by them, 'monster imps.'
"6. Their order and discipline are no less remarkable than their energy. Under this new régime, both tobacco and opium are prohibited.