Chap. VII. 



INTENTIONS OF THE REBELS. 



125 



ordinary people. Will it be credited that a city 

 containing upwards of 200,000 inhabitants — 

 walled and fortified, and, to a certain extent, 

 prepared for an attack — allowed itself to be taken 

 by a baiid of marauders scarcely numbering 500 

 men, badly armed, undisciplined, and bent on 

 plunder ? And yet such is the fact, for, however 

 strict the rebels appeared to be in their endea- 

 vours to preserve private property, they were 

 robbing the Government and " squeezimg'' some 

 of the more wealthy among the inhabitants. It 

 seemed to be generally acknowledged that they 

 had, as yet, no connexion with the Kwang-si 

 rebels, although they expected to have shortly. 

 It was, no doubt, the intention of many of them 

 to " feather their own nests " pretty well in the 

 first place, and then hand over the conquered 

 city to any one who chose to take it off their 

 hands. In the mean time the poor people suf- 

 fered, — trade, both foreign and native, was para- 

 lyzed, — and one trembled for the fearful calamities 

 which now hung over this unhapj)y country. 



For this state of things in Shanghae the foreign 

 residents have been greatly to blame, inasmuch as 

 they not only did not endeavour to prevent them, 

 but actually encouraged the attack. I do not 

 mean that they ought to have taken to arms and 

 fought on the side of the Imperialists, but the 

 moral force in their hands was very great ; and 

 had it been generally known that foreigners were 

 opposed to any attack upon Shanghae, it is more 



