us, drawn up with great labour and industry by Dr. Medhurst, informs us that between 1798 and 1855 there were imported altogether 1,197,041 chests of opium from Bengal, which, after deducting all expenses of cultivation and shipment, represented a net gain to the East India Company of £67,851,853.[181]
Relying on the splendid profits secured to the East India Company, and its colleagues settled in China, by the opium traffic, no one troubled himself in the slightest with the many protests of the Chinese Government, any more than the anathemas launched at opium dealers and opium-smokers by English missionaries and philanthropists. The dealers, growing richer day by day, contented themselves with laconic replies to the more virulent of their antagonists, to the effect that they were but supplying a want originating in a national custom, and that it was as futile to attempt to prevent the Chinese from smoking as to restrain Europeans from the use of spirituous liquors. Both when abused are productive of much evil, and even then opium was productive of far less destructive ravages on the human organism, and was never followed by such appalling catastrophes as those resulting from alcohol. The dark side of the opium traffic has since been so fully exposed, that but little more remains to be said, and although even the most sanguine persons
have ceased to hope that the trade can ever be entirely suppressed, yet it is at least consolatory to know that, according to the best calculations, the number of opium smokers throughout China, in a population that is to say of 420,000,000, is not above 4,000,000 to 5,000,000, and that an ordinary smoker does not on an average consume more than one mace or about one drachm[182] of opium, worth about 90 cash, or 3 1⁄2d. The provisions of the new tariff, by which opium may be imported unrestrictedly on payment of a fixed duty of 30 taels (about £10) per chest when water-borne, and 20 taels (about £6 10s.) when imported by land, must materially effect the opium trade as hitherto carried on, and may very possibly alter the views at present entertained by the Chinese Government with reference to this important article of commerce, in proportion as its treasury begins to be replenished by such a high rate of duty.
Although for European readers the chief interest of China is to be found in its relations with foreign countries, we yet cannot take leave of it without a few remarks on the momentous political movement which has been on foot since 1849 in several provinces of China, and claims, in consequence of its peculiar religious nature, universal interest.
Hung-sin-Tsuen, the originator and head of this rebellion,
was born in 1813, in a village near Canton, and while yet in his early youth was, in consequence of his precocity, removed from tending his father's flocks to be a scholar in the village, where he pursued his studies with such zeal, that a year later he took several degrees as a teacher. On one of his visits to Canton, he made the acquaintance of a Protestant missionary, with whom he long corresponded, and from whom he received a variety of tracts translated into Chinese, and books, by way of presents. In the course of a serious illness with which he was assailed about this period, he had numerous visions, and is said in his delirium to have insisted on being hailed Emperor of China. Gradually Hung and his friend and zealous adherent Fung-Yun-San became, through erroneous or wilful misinterpretation of the works of various missionary societies, the founders of a new creed, a sort of free, semi-Christian sect, which, as it could not long subsist without coming into collision with the reigning Government, very speedily assumed a political character. It is an indubitable fact that at first the religious movement was supported by the Protestant missionaries, and the views of its founders forwarded by every means in their power, with the object of using it to prepare the soil for the promulgation of Christianity. When about entering his forty-first year, Hung formed an alliance with American missionaries stationed at Canton, studied their books, after which he returned to the province of Kuang-si, where he published writings descriptive of the alleged manifestations of the Deity, gave
himself forth as a poet,[183] and at the same time issued proclamations under the designation of the "Heavenly King." The severity with which the regular Government treated the insurgents, and all who consorted with them, only served to augment their ranks, to which the mysticism of their doctrine contributed in no small degree; for the credulous masses have in all lands the same love of the marvellous and unintelligible. Such a result only increased the courage, the energy, the arrogance of Hung. He no longer was content to announce himself as "the mouth through which God the Father, and Jesus the Elder Brother, declared their will;" he now proclaimed boldly the intention of himself and his followers to overthrow the unworthy Mantchoo dynasty, and raise to the throne a new native dynasty, that of the Tai-ping, or universal peace. Although stigmatized by the official Pekin Gazette as "local banditti," they were nevertheless strong enough in March, 1852, to storm even such a
populous city as Nankin, where they set up a provisional government, and have since fortified it as their head-quarters. At the time the Tai-ping rebellion first broke out, Yeh, the then Governor of Canton, thought he would readily be able to suppress it by the summary process of chopping off the heads of all who were supposed to be in correspondence with them, and thus had as many as 800 executed daily.[184] It was no longer quite safe for a native to show himself in the streets of Canton, unless provided with a paper of identification. For this purpose, four-cornered pieces of a sort of white cotton fabric were worn, on which was printed a sign in red. These cotton strips served as countersigns for those friendly to the reigning dynasty, and were worn concealed from view, but so as to admit of being at once shown in case of need. Dr. Pfitzmaier, who has examined this sign, is of opinion that it is simply a union of the three signs
which, so far as the two last are concerned, seem to have been compressed together and abbreviated, so that only the initiated could understand its significance. The learned sinologue is of opinion that this hieroglyphic, signifying "to offer hand and heart," or "to offer the original (own) heart," has nevertheless no meaning apart from the centre figure, which, however, is unusually distorted, so that