"We saw but few dead bodies about, and of those some were their own men who had been caught plundering and burning."
Endeavouring to vilify the social régime of the Christian patriots, Mr. Harvey trusts to his inventive genius again, and writes:—
"Your Excellency is doubtless aware that marriage is strictly forbidden amongst the Taepings, and forms, with opium-smoking, a capital offence."
Now, Mr. Harvey makes this false assertion in face of the "Proclamation by Tien-wang, establishing a scale according to which the number of wives are to be regulated in all ranks," as published in 1862, at page 45, Blue Book upon "The Rebellion in China," and which commences—
"Formerly I made a decree as to the canon of marriages...."
This unbiassed official winds up his sober and dispassionate effusion with a few equally temperate conclusions. For example—
"I now, therefore, take the liberty of declaring, once for all (and for ten years I have firmly adhered to, and been consistent in, this opinion), that the Taeping rebellion is the greatest delusion as a political or popular movement, and the Taeping doctrines the most gigantic and blasphemous imposition as a creed, or ethics, that the world ever witnessed.... There is nothing in past records so dark or so bad; such abominations committed under the name of religion; such mock-heroic buffoonery; such horrors accompanied by pantaloonery; and so much flimsy web worked in the midst of blood and high tragical events."
If the "ten years" of obstinate adhesion to an opinion formed before anything was known of the Ti-pings, is Mr. Harvey's idea of "sober sense" and "no bias" (and he declares it is), we can easily believe that the "dispassionate" ruminations of so long a period destroyed what little reason and religion he may at one time have possessed. His partizanship even lays him open to the charge with which he has so falsely accused the Ti-pings when stating that their doctrines were "the most gigantic and blasphemous imposition," &c.; inasmuch as the Ti-ping doctrines are taken from our Bible, are in all essential particulars precisely similar to our own, and alone constitute their "creed, or ethics."
Mr. Harvey terms himself "a sensible and reasoning Englishman," and proceeds to declare the revolution—