"Shanghae, October 9, 1865. The Taepings are reported to be again appearing in large bodies."
[3] With regard to Dr. Rennie's rodomontade about "the cause of humanity," as the Ti-pings are not yet exterminated, it is simply unmeaning; and all that can be said in its favour is, that it is correctly copied from the Blue Book (see p. 738, Chap. XXIV.).
At the 89th page of "Peking and the Pekingese," Dr. Rennie endorses the following misrepresentations:—
"The Taepings who, Mr. Parkes states, endeavour to copy the most objectionable traits in the Imperialist character (?), in addition to which a sort of 'High life below stairs' farce is enacted, embracing the most absurd assumptions of dignity, with general licentiousness, blasphemy, and obscenity...."
Then Dr. Rennie's ire becomes aroused at the thought of such wickedness, and the consciousness of moral rectitude filling him with a strange cacoethes scribendi, he abuses the Ti-ping Wang very cruelly, by declaring:—
"This lunatic monarch (for such he would really seem to be) is waited on only by women, no males being allowed to approach him; bigamy (?), with general immorality, is said to be the prevailing institution of the Court of Nankin."
Now the above statement is no less incorrect than absurd. The Tien-wang regularly held council with his ministers and chiefs. The insertion of the word "bigamy" suggests motives on the part of the writer, who, we may suppose, means polygamy. He not only forgets to blame his Imperialist friends for conforming to the same custom of China, but he must be ignorant of the fact that "bigamy" means the crime of marrying more than one woman only in countries where the civil law makes such connection illegal. Not satisfied with thus abusing those he had never seen, Dr. Rennie proceeds to misquote from Blue Books. He says, at the same page:—
"The following rhapsody has lately appeared, in the form of a proclamation, from the Teen-wang."
He then quotes a decree, issued on the 7th of March, 1861, to establish certain regulations in the civil department of the Ti-ping Government,—a translation of the same being given at page 44 (Inclosure 6, in Number 11) of the Blue Book on China, presented to the British Parliament, "in pursuance of their address, dated April 8, 1862."
The clause which either Dr. Rennie or his authority has altered, in the original and official translation, is as follows:—