Vie bpertator, Attp 21.0, 1853 THE rebellion in China is
an affair of much greater magnitude, geographically and politically. Every new report prepares us to expect the speedy downfall of the Tartar dynasty, and the establishment Instead of an aboriginal Chinese dynasty. Estimating roughly, it may be said that the rebels have attained possession of something like half the empire; and they make steady advances, the Imperial party speaking as if their hopes depended upon the next battle to be fought. We know more of the Chinese than we do of the Tartar Government at Pekin, but we know more of the Tartar family as ruler than we do of the Chinese in that capacity, and it would not be very safe to calculate the course of policy which might be dictated by the new Government. It might be more favourable to English commerce, it might be diverted to other alliances; and in the mean time the mere existence of so extensive a civil war threatens to interrupt, at least in some degree, the ordinary commerce of the country.
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