274 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the subject in the British Parliament, 

 before war was declared, no consider- 

 ations of morality or humanity were 

 recognized, and Wells WilHams informs 

 us that Lord Melbourne but echoed the 

 common sentiment when he said, " We 

 possess immense territories peculiarly 

 fitted for raising opium, and, though 

 he would wish that the Government 

 were not so directly concerned in the 

 traffic, he was not prepared to pledge 

 himself to reUnquish it." And when 

 the war was over "members of Par- 

 liament expressed their gratification at 

 being at last out of a bad business; 

 while now the light of the gospel and 

 the blessings of Christian civilization 

 might be introduced among the be- 

 nighted millions of China." 



The war was over for the English, 

 and they had gained their disgraceful 

 object; but the end had not come for 

 the Chinese. The spell of their pacific 

 history and the prestige of the impe- 

 rial Government were broken together. 

 In a previous quotation Governor Davis 

 speaks of the peaceful current of Chi- 

 nese history till the disturbance of the 

 "late rebellion." He refers here to 

 the great Taiping rebellion, which 

 threatened the subversion of the es- 

 tablished Government, and which Gov- 

 ernor Davis says " can be clearly traced 

 to changes produced by our war'''' — the 

 opium war. 



The Taiping rebellion broke out in 

 southern China in 1850. There had 

 been repeated failure of crops in the 

 district where it originated, followed 

 by sufi'ering and disaftection, A man 

 of humble origin, named Hung Siu- 

 tsuen, seized the occasion to incite an 

 outbreak. He had failed in the civil- 

 service examinations, and had no pros- 

 pect of ofiice under the Government. 

 He had read some of the tracts issued by 

 the missionaries, got a notion of Chris- 

 tian supernaturalism, gave out that he 

 was a recipient of divine messages, as- 

 sumed the title of " Heavenly Prince," 

 and conceived the idea of founding a new 



religion and at the same time of expel- 

 ling the existing dynasty. His schemes 

 were favored by the foreigners, who 

 professed to beheve that the cause of 

 Christianity would be promoted by 

 their success. The insurrection was 

 pushed with great vigor and effect. 

 Battles were won, towns captured, dis- 

 tricts ravaged, and multitudes of people 

 butchered, while the Government was 

 able to check the disastrous movement 

 but partially. For centuries "the em- 

 pire had been peace"; the Christians 

 had suddenly brought war and insti- 

 tuted the reign of brute force, and with 

 this the nation, by its habits and cir- 

 cumstances, was but poorly prepared to 

 cope. The rebellion, accordingly, smol- 

 dered along for sixteen years before it 

 was finally suppressed. The foreign 

 officials, seeing at length that there was 

 little chance of succeeding with Chris- 

 tianity as they had with opium, and 

 that the rebellion meant simply anar- 

 chy, the destruction of law and order, 

 with danger to trade, threw their influ- 

 ence at last in favor of the existing 

 Government, and helped to end the in- 

 surrection. 



Surely the morality of these pagan 

 positivists, said to be without any real 

 religion, does not suff'er in comparison 

 with that of a nation which boasts of a 

 "great religion" at the foundation of 

 its moral system. 



ROOD'S Cim03IATICS—A MISLEADING 

 CRITICISM. 



We early expressed a high opinion 

 of Professor Rood's work on Chromat- 

 ics, both as an admirable popular expo- 

 sition of the science of colors and also 

 as to its bearing on their artistic man- 

 agement. This estimate has been ratified 

 by discriminating criticism both in lead- 

 ing American journals and the best 

 English periodicals — all of which have 

 been emphatic in their commendation 

 of its judicious and instructive treat- 

 ment of the artistic relations of the 



