of Winchester:-"You see God is not weary in doing you good: I confess, Sir, his favour to you is as visible, when He comes by His power upon the hearts of your enemies, making them quit places of strength to you, as when He gives courage to your soldiers to attempt hard things." After describing the destruction at Preston of Hamilton and the Scottish "malignants" he says:-" Only give me leave to add one word, showing the disparity of forces on both sides; that so you may see and all the world acknowledge, the great hand of God in this business." And, in addressing afterwards the Presbyterian rulers of Scotland on the same event, he states "God did, by a most mighty and strong hand, and that in a wonderful manner destroy their designs." The following passages I put together from his letters when shut up at Dunbar, and after the victory which relieved him from the great danger he was there in. Thus when shut up :-"We are here upon an engagement very difficult. The enemy hath blocked up our way; and our lying here daily consumeth our men who fall sick beyond imagination. Wherefore, whatever becomes of us, it will be well for you to get what forces you can together. The only wise God knows what is best. Our spirits are comfortable, praised be the Lord,—though our present condition be as it is." And after the victory :-" The enemy lying in the posture before mentioned, having those advantages; we lay very near him, having some weakness of the flesh, but yet consolation and support from the Lord himself to our poor weak faith, wherein I believe not a few among us stand: That because of their numbers, because of their advantages, because of our weakness, because of our strait, we were in the Mount, and in the Mount the Lord would be seen; and that He would find out a way of deliverance and salvation for us . . . The best of the enemies' horse being broken through in less than an hour's dispute, their whole army being put into confusion, it became a total rout; our men having the chase and execution of them near eight miles.

...

.. Thus you have the prospect of one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people this war. It would do you good to see and hear our poor foot to go up and down making their boast of God." In his first speech, made after the war was over, and in which he reviews the course of the whole struggle, we find these passages:-"Those very great appearances of God, in crossing and thwarting the purposes of men, that He might raise up a poor and contemptible company of men, neither versed in military affairs nor having much natural propensity to them, into wonderful success. So many insurrections, invasions, secret designs, open and public attempts, all quashed in so short a time, and this by the very signal appearance of God himself. . . It were worth the time to speak of the carriage of some in places of trust, in most eminent places of trust, which was such as, had God not miraculously appeared, would have frustrated us of the hopes of all our undertakings . . ... What God wrought in Ireland and Scotland you likewise know; until He had finished these troubles, by His marvellous salvation wrought at Worcester."

At Nanking, we learnt from one of those who had joined the Tae pings in Hoo nan, that when they were fighting, in the neighbourhood of Changsha, with an Imperialist force in the field, some three thousand of the old Godworshippers knelt down in a body and prayed, then rose and charged the enemy; and that that charge decided the battle.*

At the commencement of this Chapter, I had to show how the conversion of Hung sew tseuen, and the educated Godworshippers hinged on their rediscovery, in the foreign Sacred Books, of tenets and views, long entertained, and highly esteemed in China. I may now state, that they have from the first been encouraged in their hazardous political enterprise by the prophetic use, made in certain Scripture texts, of the terms "Teen kwo, Heavenly Kingdom or Kingdom of Heaven," and "Tae ping, Universal peace." Teen, Heavenly (or as Occidentals often render it, Celestial) when used of worldly affairs, is exclusively associated in the mind of the Chinese people, with the Sovereign who rules over them, and with the Kwo, State or Kingdom, of which he is the Head: he is Teen tsze, the Heavenly Son; his Court is Teen chaou, the Heavenly Court; and his empire is territorially co-extensive with Teen hea, all under Heaven,

But I must warn the reader not to carry the analogy between the Tae pings and Puritans, still less between them and the Mohammedans further than the belief in the guidance, and in the special help of God. In other religious points, and still more in political position, the differences are so great that analogies only mislead. Mahommed preached and fought in a desert country, inhabited by illiterate nomadic tribes, who had no common government. Hung sew tseuen preaches and fights in a fruitful, long-settled and cultivated country; and has to contend with well-educated people, directed by a systematic and highly centralized government. Further, the chief foes of Hung sew tseuen are foreign conquerors, whom he is trying to expel,—a circumstance with which there is nothing to correspond in the struggles of Mahommed and the Puritans. The Puritans did not fight to make proselytes, but for political liberty as a means to complete liberty of conscience; in which respect Hung sew tseuen differs from them and resembles Mahommed. Like Mahommed, too, he finds slavery and polygamy and does not abolish either; but unlike Mahommed, he has adopted the Christian Scriptures and Christian principles of morality, a step which cannot fail to end in time both slavery and polygamy.

i.e. the world. When, therefore, the Godworshippers found, in the third chapter of Matthew, the words, "Teen kwo e lae, urh tang hwuy tsuy e, the Heavenly Kingdom will shortly come,-repent ye of your crimes;" it would have been difficult for them, as Chinese, to conceive the Heavenly Kingdom, if something that was to exist in the world, as not existing in China; and hence they were easily led by their wishes to apply it to their state; the establishment of which without Divine aid, might well seem to them a desperate undertaking. So also with "Tae ping, Universal Peace;" a term always in great esteem in China, because expressing the completest and widest realization of the national principles of government by moral agency. It is used in the translation of the Testament to render the "peace on earth" which the heavenly host sang on the birth of Jesus; and the Godworshippers have regarded it as there referring to the universal peace which is to exist under their "true Sovereign." Hence all their officers call themselves, in their titles, servants of "Tae ping Teen Kwo, the Heavenly Kingdom of Universal Peace." A double designation is, however, unusual and awkward; hence they say only Tae ping teaou le, the regulations of Universal Peace; Tae ping chaou shoo, the Book of Declarations of Universal Peace, &c. &c.

At present the Tae pings have the bulk of the learned class against them; but continued success would have, with the latter, its usual effect on man. If the Tae pings continue to progress, the learned will go over to them and profess Tae-pingism, in constantly increasing numbers; and then that struggle will commence between the Confucian or rational, and the Buddhistic or fanatical elements of the Tae ping Christianity, which I have pointed to as most likely to end in the triumph of the former; and in the definitive establishment of a sect, which will make the Bible alone the standard of belief and will discredit all new revelations. But, in the mean time, the Manchoo dynasty has on its side all the troops composed of its own nation, together with as many Mongol auxiliaries as it may deem safe to bring in, both backed by the intelligence and wealth of the bulk of the educated and well-to-do Chinese; which intelligence and wealth is employed in raising and supporting Imperialist armies, composed of their poorer countrymen. All this may enable the present dynasty to put down the Tae pings, and every other rebel body. Hence, though I have thought it might be satisfactory to the reader to enumerate the chief elements of success on each side, I must after all repeat, as to the ultimate result, what I had occasion to say in the Times some months ago, viz., that the best informed of us cannot possibly form a reliable conclusion, but that the struggle, end as it may, will certainly be hard; and that I do not believe, that either of the contending parties themselves even, can feel assured of ultimate success, whatever their language and their hopes may be.

CHAPTER XX.

THE BEST POLICY OF WESTERN STATES TOWARDS CHINA.

IN the foregoing portion of this Volume, it has been shown by reasoning starting from the nature of the Chinese government system; and by conclusions drawn from the long experience of Chinese history, that periodical dynastic rebellions are absolutely necessary to the continued well being of the nation that only they are the storms that can clear the political atmosphere when it has become sultry and oppressive. It has also been shown, by extracts from the most widely known and most venerated Chinese works, that the nation itself is perfectly well aware of the political function of its rebellions; and that it respects successful rebellions, as executions of the Will of Heaven, operating for its preservation in peace, order, security, and prosperity. Whether that political system, which renders such crises from time to time indispensable, is the best that could be devised, or is one of average goodness or is a very bad one, cannot be made the question. The system is there. It exists, and exists deeply rooted in the mental nature of a large and homogeneous people. When we have by moral agencies changed that mental nature, then we may begin to speak of forcibly interfering with that system for the benefit of that people. We may then begin to argue the question; for even then, it would be by no means certain that we had attained any right to interfere, i. e. that we should, by forcible interference, do the Chinese any good, the only thing that can ever give us the right to interfere by force. Such disinterested interference