pose would not be injured by the insurgents; the more particularly as they had always studiously avoided any thing that affected trade; and it is owing to this care that our export trade has been so little interrupted.

Indeed, it is evident that the policy of Tae-ping, and his followers, is to protect the people, but make war, even "to the knife," against the Tartar authorities.

A further reason for doubting the correctness of those statements, as to the wholesale destruction of the Mantchoos in Nankin, is, that it was stated in the Pekin Gazette, that the Emperor had commanded pensions to be given to the wives of those Tartar soldiers that had lost their lives in Nankin; consequently, some must have escaped to ask for and obtain the pensions alluded to.

The insurgent army, as it appeared to us, was for the most part composed of young men. Many of these were mere boys, and yet they were doing the duty of men; they used to cross the river, a dozen at a time, to destroy junks floating down the stream, land, and drive hundreds of the peasantry before them, as if they were so many sheep.

They adopt the ten commandments, translated by themselves, perhaps from less perfect Chinese, -to

which they appended annotations; thus they state, under the seventh commandment, that smoking opium is always associated with adultery, and must be discontinued. They behead for smoking or selling opium, and bamboo for smoking tobacco. They are Iconoclasts, and destroy every vestige of idol-worship. They circulate tracts, drawn from the Scriptures by themselves. They are generally called "worshippers of Yesu.” Roman Catholics are called worshippers of Tien-chu ; one or two told us that they were worshippers of Tienchu, by which I understood them to say that they were different from others of the movement, and they appeared not to wish it to be generally known that they said so; it might be that they meant to say merely that they had been such, until they had joined the movement.

They have no priests-they stated that they needed none, as all were priests or teachers in their respective stations; yet they have people amongst them with ecclesiastical titles. They may not have understood the question; as I have no doubt there is a difficulty in putting such questions into Chinese, and when put, it requires time and circumlocution before they are understood. Some few spoke a very little English, learnt at Hong Kong and Canton; some said they had been at school at the former place. They said they

had men amongst them who could translate the English edition of the Scriptures into Chinese. One said, on going down amongst our men, that he was a Protestant; several said they were of the same religion as us; others, that they were of the ten commandments' religion, the same as the schools at Hong Kong; and one said he was of the same religion as King Victoria. They are very severe for any infraction of morals, and separate the sexes to prevent improprieties of any kind. It appears, that up to their arrival at Nankin, the wives fought side by side with their husbands; but that, on arriving at Nankin, they agreed to separate till they should have won the Empire, to effect which, they gave themselves twelve months. Hence it was that Dr. Taylor did not see any females at Chiangkiang-foo. The women were placed in a separate part of Nankin, and placed under instruction; this part was styled the women's quarter, and it was death to enter it, except such persons as were appointed for the purpose of instructing them.

They hold an open court, confronting litigants :not so in the old Chinese courts, where they nearly always have recourse to tortures. They style the army the holy army, and have changed the name of Nankin to Tien-king, or Holy city. Nankin, I fancy, means North city. They style each other brethren, and us

foreign brethren. They have removed the queues, as a badge of slavery imposed by the Tartars.

They quite look upon themselves as favourites of Heaven, and are proportionally sanguine of success; yet they did not neglect any precaution to ensure it, but were fortifying when we were there, with remarkable diligence and judgment. I saw them carrying some very good twenty-four pounders into exceedingly well-chosen positions, to cover where they had entered; and the breach in the walls which they themselves had established, they had had repaired.

They are men of their word; a Chinaman, describing this characteristic difference from other Chinamen, said, "If they say they will give you twenty blows of a bamboo, make up your mind they will not stop short at nineteen, come what may of it."

They are most frank in their manner, quite unlike what we are accustomed to in Chinese.

They hold the Imperialists cheap, and I think it more than probable that they know that the Imperialist's soldiers do not care to do more than make a shew of fighting. In fact, there is almost an understanding amongst them, and this will become more so, as their success increases.

I rode with an interpreter about twelve miles, and must have passed many thousand people carrying rice,

furniture, clothes, guns, &c.; and the interpreter assured me that he only heard one expression that could offend the nicest ear, whereas one can hardly move as many paces elsewhere, without hearing many; indeed, I am told the very children use the grossest expressions, in their ordinary play.

It was obvious to the commonest observer that they were practically a different race. They had Gutzlaff's edition of the Scriptures, at least, they told us so; we know they had twenty-eight chapters of Genesis, for they had reprinted thus much, and gave us several copies; and some of them were practical Christians, and nearly all seemed to be under the influence of religious impressions, though limited in their amount. They believed in a special Providence, and believed that this truth had had a practical demonstration in their own case. That though they had had trials and had incurred dangers, these were to punish and to purify. They had also successes, such as they could have had only by God's special interference.

They referred, with deep and heartfelt gratitude, to the difficulties they had encountered, and the deliverances which had been effected for them, when they were but a few, and attributed all their success to God.

"They," said one speaking of the Imperialists," spread all kinds of lies about us," alluding to the alleged