Whatever Could Be Retained By Tact And Finesse Were To Form Part Of The Natural Rights Of China; But The Privileges Only To Be Asserted In Face Of Armstrong Guns And Rifles Were To Be Abandoned With As Good A Grace As The Injured Feeling Of A Nation Can Ever Display.

CHAPTER XX

THE TAEPING REBELLION

We left the Taepings supreme at Nankin, but maintaining themselves there with some difficulty against two imperial armies raised by the loyal efforts of the inhabitants of the central provinces. This was at the beginning of 1857; and there is no doubt that if the government had avoided a conflict with the Europeans, and concentrated its efforts and power on the contest with the Taeping rebels, they would have speedily annihilated the tottering fabric of Tien Wang's authority. But the respite of four years secured by the attention of the central government being monopolized by the foreign question enabled the Taepings to consolidate their position, augment their fighting forces, and present a more formidable front to the imperial authorities. When Prince Kung learned from Lord Elgin the full extent of the success of the Taepings on the Yangtse, of which the officials at Pekin seemed to possess a very imperfect and inaccurate knowledge, the Manchu authorities realized that it was a vital question for them to reassert their authority without further delay, but on beginning to put their new resolve into practice they soon experienced that the position of the Taepings in 1861 differed materially from what it was in 1857.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 505 of 704
Words from 137394 to 137650 of 191255