Show I 1 religion Ee ligion of the chinese rebels the london times contains a lengthy report I 1 of sir george benhamm benhams Ben hams visit to nankin I 1 I 1 from which we make the fol following lowin 0 e extracts I 1 they let us ua know immediately that they professed christianity pro protestant christianity anit y and I 1 believe sincerely and many of them intelligently so nor can there be a doubt of their protestantism for their expression I 1 is characteristic they always said as also the imperialists in speaking of them that they were worshippers wor shippers of jesu in contradistinction to that of worshippers worshipper wor shippers shipper 8 of tienchu tien chu I 1 I 1 they circulate tracts not copied from missionary tracts but drawn from the scriptures by themselves and written in a far superior style of chinese than that current or perhaps possible to foreigners they are iconoclasts and destroy every vestige of idol worship iten they adopt the ten commandments translated by themselves to which they have appended annotations thus they state under the seventh commandment that smoking opium is is always associated with the sins mentioned there and must be discontinued they behead for smoking opium and bamboa for smoking tobacco they said they had the whole of our scriptures but we only saw genesis agave I 1 gave them two new testaments in chinese Chine sei and a naval and military bible this was of coursed course in E english ish on the occasion of my giving 0 the new ew testament the first time there was no one present who could interpret but the chief opened it and after reading two or three passages showed by his manner that he understood what it was and valued it and on the interpreter returning tomy to my cabin I 1 told him ho he was to present it to his prince he rose and made several bows and otherwise expressed his thanks for the present they are very severe for any infraction of morals separate pirate se the sexes to prevent im proprieties of kind hold an en court confronting litigants not so in in the old chinese bouas courts where they nearly always have recourse to torture they style the army the holy army and the name nankin they have changed into that of the holy city they style each other brethren and they invariably called us f foreign or deiv brethren I 1 rode ode with an interpreter about 12 miles and must have passed people carrying ripe rice furniture ac and the interpreter ahsu assured r iad nie me that he only heard one expression that could offend the nicest ear I 1 whereas one can hardly move as many paces elsewhere without hearing many indeed I 1 am told the very children use the grossest expressions pres in their ordinary play while some of the imperialists are saying it is the will of heaven that tae ping wang should succeed others are saying wait a littler little and you will see that it will all blow over the insurgents continue to strike heavy and decisive blows A chinese that we took up with us describing the insurgents said they are men of their word if the they say they will give iv e you 20 licks of a boo bamboo make you on mind mindi easy they will not stop short at 4 19 now it is most moat unusual for a chinaman to do what he says or mean what he says yo chev are anit frank in their manner quite ni te aike unlike what we are accustomed to i in le the chinese and but for some misunderstanding sta uffing about a claim of supremacy which they were said 1 I think improperly to have set up we should have understood them better I 1 they are fanatical but not to the extent at first supposed and I 1 dare say sav less so than we think and with little difficulty I 1 think might be made less so I 1 they believe they have a mission from heaven to kill all the Mant choos and they certainly put this thi in execution as far as they can and without attempting to justify this practice I 1 believe that nothing short of riving driving them out of the country can make civilization progressive saive in china they state that their king king 0 was taken up into heaven and there in invested egied with power to re reign ag n but this is mixed up with that which h must mast be figurative and therefore may mean no more than is ip said of all chinese emperors that they are empowered by heaven to rule they say that their king has received revelations from time to time from god but it is to be observed that these are all respecting temporal things and do not refer to the rule rale of life they refer to thins things 1 of temporary im import port they have no priests nor ordained teachers holding that all believers are qualified for such purposes yat they have people with ecclesiastical titles they say sa they t e are merely waiting a mandate from heaven eaven t this i s is the statement of a subordinate to proceed to pekin deemi seeming I 1 to make quite light of the fact that thema there is is a Mant choo army on t the e route what a set of imbeciles imbe ciles the imperialists are may be gathered from the fact that the general commanding the armies at nankin was in command in buangsi Qua ngsi and was disgraced for not having put down the rebellion in its earlier stages but by the successive degradations of his superiors has again risen to the chief d aud and tho emperor has lately invested him with vice regal power over seven provinces and how little de dependence en there is upon his achieving achi eying anything may be gathered from the fact that he hg has a been professedly beating the rebels and destroying ying them all the way up from buangsi Qua ngsi and yet yei with wilh such sack immunity did the insurgents travel with this conquering army at their heels that they brought their wives and families up with them and have them now with few exceptions at nankin it has been argued that the in insurgents insurgent surgen ta must be very weak since they have n not ot held any of the towns they captured as they passed along without much reason I 1 think for or they know full well that if they took the capital the country would fall into their hands since the numbers that understand who or care who have the reigns of government are few and these would turn round to hold or ge get L place for they have no affection for mante Mant choo oo 00 rule determined to win the empire they were regardless of leaving a retreat open in this they ra cortes in destroying his ships they them gained both moral and physical force and strange enough on any other supposition than that the imperialists are horrid pol broons though these insurgents show no disposition to return to their own province the imperialist chinese army has planted it self in their rear instead of forming form ing i or endeavoring todo so a junction with the Mant choo army to protect the approach on I 1 the capital or to raise the siege of the I 1 i grand ca canal nab the investment of which is starving the capital out |