At Canton, Which Was
Also Visited By The Triads In June, 1854, Matters Took A Different Course.
The Chinese Merchants And Shopkeepers Combined And Raised A Force For
Their Own Protection, And These Well-Paid Braves Effectually Kept The
Insurgents Out Of Canton.
They, however, seized the neighboring town of
Fatshan, where the manufacturing element was in strong force, and but for
the unexpected energy of the Cantonese they would undoubtedly have seized
the larger city too, as the government authorities were not less apathetic
here than at Shanghai.
The disturbed condition of things continued until
February, 1855, when the wholesale executions by which its suppression was
marked, and during which a hundred thousand persons are said to have
perished, ceased.
The events have now been passed in review which marked the beginning and
growth of the Taeping Rebellion, from the time of its being a local rising
in the province of Kwangsi to the hour of its leader being installed as a
ruling prince in the ancient city of Nankin. But from the growing Taeping
Rebellion, which we have now followed down to the year 1856, our attention
must be directed to the more serious and important foreign question which
had again reached a crisis, and which would not wait on the convenience of
the Celestial emperor and his advisers.
CHAPTER XIX
THE SECOND FOREIGN WAR
The events which caused the second foreign war began to come into evidence
immediately after the close of the first; and for the sake of clearness
and brevity they have been left for consideration to the same chapter,
although they happened while Taoukwang was emperor.
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