Yes, this is a class of men "that can with difficulty be controlled." So long as such a spirit is sustained within them, they are in the way to work out their own salvation, in their own manner, for this world and the next. How far Yang has been deceiver or deceived in his pretended revelations is doubtful. But the idea of the possession of the human soul by a good or evil spirit is one very familiar to the Chinese mind. The idea, moreover, of a revelation from the Deity to individual men, for the benefit of other men, is one of the most prominent in those Old Testament Scriptures from which the followers of Tae-ping have derived so many of their opinions and maxims. It is not to be doubted that the Eastern King would have it believed that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, has spoken through him; but that he intends anything beyond this remains to be proved. The difficulties of the Chinese language are so great as to leave this point obscure in the judgment of those Europeans who possess the best knowledge both of the language and the people. The Government at Nankin, it is said, have not less than four hundred men employed in printing Gutzlaff's edition of the Bible; and the copies are distributed free of cost as fast as they are produced. This fact is itself a marvel, and pregnant with marvels still greater. There is enough in the circumstances now mentioned to warrant us in suspending our judgment concerning rumors unfavorable to the character of these people, until we are sure that they have come to be something more definite than rumor. Much that has been reported in regard to them, and greatly to their injury, has proved to be false, or only partially true. The Imperialists, their opponents, are the most notorious liars in existence, and there is no form or measure of calumny that may not proceed from that quarter. Added to which, the emissaries of Rome are deeply chagrined on finding that the religious element in the revolution has proved to be so emphatically Protestant, and in the matter of lying the Jesuit and the Mantchoo may be classed together.

V. But what is likely to be the influence of this movement on the future of China, and

what may be said to be the policy most expedient for us in relation to that country?

In dealing with this question it behooves us to bear in mind that, great and despotic as the power of the Emperor of China is supposed to have been, the principles of local government, and in some respects of selfgovernment, have found singular root and development among the people of China. The viceroys and principal authorities in the several provinces have received their appointments from the Emperor, and have been displaced purely at his pleasure; but there are many local organizations which those authorities have been required to use, not to ignore, still less to suppress. These organizations, existing from centuries past, consist of guilds, trade clubs, mutual benefit societies, and local and municipal arrangements, which give existence to local authorities more or less elective, and to a local militia intended to ensure the order and tranquillity of the district, and to be under its direction. The language of one of the Imperial proclamations touching this militia, sounds almost like that of some Anglo-Saxon king, addressed to the tithings and hundreds of his domain :-" In respect to the organization of the militia, this is a measure of the people for their own defence and the preservation of their families. Each village may form its own band, or several villages may unite to form one band.

The expense may be defrayed by the gentry and head men, taking it into their own management." Some fear is evinced lest the union of such forces should become dangerous :-"As to those who thus engage in self-defence rendering mutual aid, the moving about from place to place, which this would involve, would deteriorate the character of the men, and so promote a fresh disorder. Such, we are told, is the power and completeness of some of these organizations, that they have sometimes resisted the imposts levied by the imperial officers; and so great has been their moral power, that the executive has not unfrequently deemed it expedient to yield to their remonstrances. Through the instrumentality of this machinery the people have been wont to levy rates, and have been known to use the force raised and sustained by themselves for the expulsion of the recognized local authorities.

All candidates for office in China, as in Prussia, and some other continental States, have to pass a certain literary examination. This examination takes place in the sixtyfour volumes called San-tsae-hoo, which are

in effect both the statute and common law of the empire. The effect of the stereotyped routine thus imposed is described as follows by Captain Fishbourne :

"The Tartar, or Federal Government-for it was little more,-had very little power, except within narrow limits, as they were generally obliged to govern in accordance with these documents. That they had to do so was often a cause of great weakness, and always served to make their weakness manifest; for they seldom could originate or carry out anything that was really for the benefit of the people; there being always censors jealous of change to resist inno"Never was a greater mistake than to suppose that the Tartar Government was strong. Absolute in its professed principles, and in some cases really so placed over a country of enormous resources, its own proper resources were exceedingly limited, and its power for good and its independent influences so small, that it scarcely de

vation.

served the title of a government.

"The effect of this state of things has been fatal to the welfare of the people, and the remnant of power of the government-which, seeking to relieve itself from its difficulties and to increase its power by corruption, or by conniving at unjust exactions, so completely demoralized its employés, that all are corrupt together; the little power they had is lessened, all its servants are mercenaries, and their term of office will terminate with their means of corruption, which cannot be long, as the people are everywhere refusing payment of taxes.

"The people are indifferent, to a great extent, as to who are their nominal rulers; but this is because of their having these local governments,

that affect them much more than their federal

rulers possibly can; and they being indifferent, it seems quite impossible that the Tartars can again re-establish themselves in power."-pp. 374-376.

The question as to the possibility of restoring tranquillity to so vast an empire when once disturbed, is in part answered by the fact that order in China depends not so much on the central as on the local governments. From this cause, a change of dynasty may come, and leave the great framework of society untouched. It has been thus in the history of all the great Asiatic empires. Conquests which, viewed from a distance, have seemed to break down and demolish everything, have in fact issued in leaving everything much as it was, only placing the central authority in new hands. The people, on being allowed to hold on their course of life much as before, have remained passive under this change of masters.

That the Nankin insurgents will retain possession of that large portion of China which now owns their authority is hardly to

be doubted. If the Imperialists retain any hold on the great seaboard of China from Nankin to Canton, it can only be by means of hired pirates, or by aid, directly or indirectly, from America or Europe. Surely we may say that a power which can exist only as propped up by a mercenary banditti is a power that should be left to come to an end. But what if it should prove that this is a power which America, France, and England are prepared to uphold? If Jonathan should take this course, it would be another instance showing his readiness to become the ally of the despot for the pelf to be gained by it. If France so does, it will be to please her priesthood. Our representative there, Sir John Bowring, has already given signs of his leaning in this direction, by requiring English merchants to pay duties to the Imperialists, even where the Imperialists had lost all power of giving protection to the property from which the payments were to be made. For this whim he has been rebuked by the authorities at home, and his order has been rescinded. But Sir John is a doctrinaire Whig, and we are prepared for anything from the conceit and religious indifferentism too characteristic of the school to which he belongs. Buddhism, Romanism, or almost any other ism, is, we suspect, about as good in his view as an earnest evangelical protestantism. In his own liberal sympathies, or religious sympathies, we have little confidence-it is the state of things at home, and the probable reckoning there, that must keep him right.

It behooves America and the two Western Powers to look before they leap in this matter. They may aid the Imperialists in the sea-ports; but that is all they can do. They may sweep the long line of coast, but they cannot touch the interior, unless they resolve to go in and settle there, and convert it into a second India. The Imperialists are known to have but one feeling towards foreigners-the feeling of hate. The Nankin Insurgents are prepared to hail them all as brethren; and if any other condition of things should arise between them and this country, we trust that Sir John Bowring will be required to give a full and faithful account as to the cause of the change. From our latest information, it appears that Sir John has been collecting an unusual naval force at Canton, as if for the purpose of intimidating the Insurgents, and aiding the Imperialists in that quarter, after the manner of the French at Shanghae. According to the last accounts, Canton was still in possession of

the Imperialists; but a large body of Insurgents are safely encamped near it, approaching its gates, and extending their hostilities to its very harbor. Shanghae, after being for more than twelve months in the hands of a band of Insurrectionists of the Triad class, has been vacated by them. This has resulted in part from their want of provisions, still more from the imprudent quarrel with them, and attack upon them, on the part of the French. The night before leaving the place, the Insurgents set fire to it in several parts at the same time; at daybreak they left it leisurely, and in order, and only when they were known to have departed did the Imperialist chief and his pirate retainers venture to pass within the walls.

More than half of China is, to all appearance, irrevocably lost to the Tartar dynasty. The portion of it over which the new power at Nankin extends, if left to itself, and wisely dealt with, will come more and more under European influences, and cannot fail in consequence to grow stronger, while it is all but inevitable that the Tartar power will become weaker. Our best policy, and that of France and America, must be to keep as free as possible from any entanglement with the affairs of the belligerents, as such, until matters shall have assumed some settled shape. Above all, it behooves us to avoid the appearance of siding with the Imperialists, or of entering, for the present, into negotiation of any kind with them. Their exchequer is miserably empty, nor is it easy to see how it should be replenished, unless, after Sir John Bowring's fashion, we strain a point to help them in that particular. The corruption which characterizes their employés, from the highest to the lowest, and their habitual extortion and cruelty, have left them without real adherents in any class of the community. Scarcely a man is to be found who would be willing to sacrifice anything, or to brave anything, in their cause. As we have seen, hired pirates are the only force on which they can rely. While

even the Triads of Amoy and Shanghae, and latterly those of Canton, have acquired some character for moderation and integrity, if compared with their opponents. The force at Nankin evidently consists of men who are brave, and the secret of whose courage has been found in the fact, that they can trust each other in a manner which is new in Chinese history. If there be any certain lesson to be gathered from the past, it is not difficult to see on which side the scale must turn between such antagonists, if it should only happen to them to be left free from external meddling. The Chinese, moreover, are great fatalists, and the successes of the Insurgents have impressed them with the sentiment, that the time for Providence to bring its retribution on the Tartar dynasty has come.

For some time past the China trade has been almost confined to exports; but it will be our own fault if this be continued much longer. It would be easy to induce the new powers to give us the full sweep of their noble rivers. The people are every where shrewd enough to see that the advantages of such intercourse to themselves would be great, even greater than to us. Easy, too, would it be to secure stipulations in favor of freedom in religion, as well as in trade, and to neglect this latter precaution, after seeing what religious influence has achieved in that country, would be a sin of omission of unparalleled enormity. There is no fear that France would secure such a stipulation, and America too; but we are not sure that the "administrative" representative of this country would have any thought about the matter, unless the chance of a breeze at home as the consequence of neglecting it should loom in the distance. The great seacoast of China, and the greater part of her inland territory will be open to European influence if the Imperialists fail, and the Imperialists must fail, if England will only resolve that they shall be left to their own re

sources.