32,8 Voyage of the Novara. 



rebels, the interests of British subjects or of universal com- 

 merce seemed to be endangered, communications were held 

 with the '' Heavenly King" or his ministers, or to protest 

 against the injury and limitation of trade witli the earnest- 

 ness and depth of impression which Armstrong guns are apt 

 to impart to diplomatic dispatches. Thus the insurgents 

 were prohibited from approaching within 10 Li of the city of 

 Ilang-kow, by this measure protecting not alone their own 

 property, but the entire city from pillage and destruction. 

 During the last war the interests of the insurgents were kept 

 entirely in the background, and during the stay of the 

 Novara at Shanghai, which had likewise been repeatedly 

 threatened by the insurgents, we could gain but little en- 

 lightenment as to the nature and direction of the move- 

 ment. 



However, since the Treaty of Pekin has thrown open the 

 navigation of the most important rivers, and thus facilitated 

 communication with the interior, there has been a better 

 opportunity than hitherto for intercourse with the Tai-ping, 

 as also for obtaining a clearer insight into its present condi- 

 tion, as well as the object and inevitable consequences of 

 their tenets. People are beginning to consider it more 

 calmly, and even the missionaries seem gradually abandon- 

 ing the expectations they had formed, of finding in it a 

 means of helping the cause of Christianity, albeit a former 

 missionary. Rev. J. C. Roberts, who in 1847 had spent 



