Minister, who was seated in a gilded chair, dressed in full robes, with attendants finely dressed standing by his side. He was a man of middle age, rather stout, and had an open and very pleasing countenance. He rose up on their entrance, and received them with great politeness, and pointing to where they should be seated—

"You have been long absent, Cut-sing," said he, addressing the emissary;" but I have heard of you from some new recruits, and also of your success in securing the adhesion of Loo Meng-kee and his daughter to our cause, whom I have no doubt I now see before me. Welcome to the capital of Taiping Tien Kwo," he added, turning to them, "and to my home, where everything is at your disposal."

The ex-mandarin thanked him in proper terms on behalf of himself and A-Lee, but excused himself from further conversation until they had recruited themselves. Accordingly, the attendants were ordered to take them to the inner apartments, while Cut-sing remained to give an account of his mission.

The Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace.-How it originated as the Society of God Worshippers.-They defeat the Imperial troops.Religious tenets based on Christianity, but of a blasphemous nature. -They overrun the country.-Meng-kee well received.-The Kan Wang, a man of extensive knowledge for a Chinaman.

M

Y tale has now entered upon a new act in the great drama of Chinese warfare, where the foreign foes of the legitimate sovereign became friends and allies in suppressing the most gigantic rebellion that history has ever recorded. It is not part of my task to discuss the origin or to describe the progress of that movement, but it is necessary for the comprehension of my narrative to allude briefly to its leading events-especially for the information of those who have no recollection of its commencement, and the extraordinary interest it created at the time throughout every Christian nation.

It is now twenty-five years since a religious sect arose in the south of China, near Canton, under the denomination of "God-worshippers," whose tenets were based upon the leading doctrines of Christianity. The leader of the sect was a poor unsuccessful scholar named Hoong Seu-tsuen, who had imbibed his views from reading religious tracts in the Chinese language, issued by Protestant missionaries.

He was a man of a fanatical disposition, and in his enthusiasm for the new doctrines that dawned upon his mind, he mingled political views of a revolutionary character to overthrow the reigning Manchoo Tartar dynasty, and restore in his person one purely Chinese. This politico-religious movement found acceptance among the many discontented people that always exist in China, where rebellion is the rule in one or other of its provinces.

At the outset, it comprised a small resolute band of men, who came into collision with a party of Imperial troops, whom they defeated. They marched northwards in their career, increasing in strength until they became a mighty host, numbering millions in their ranks, devastating the fairest provinces and capturing some of the greatest cities. For twelve years they traversed the country from south to north through twelve hundred miles of latitude, and from west to east over six hundred miles of longitude, creating an internecine strife over an area approximating to seven hundred and twenty thousand square miles, equal to six times the superficies of the entire United Kingdom. Like a vast flight of locusts devouring every green thing in their way, "leaving not a wrack behind," this revolutionary horde swept over the land, consuming the food of the industrious inhabitants, burning and sacking cities, towns, and villages, and strewing their path with victims until more than ten millions of human beings were either killed in fight or died from famine, disease, and massacre. Yet the leaders of the movement impiously promulgated their dogmas as sanctioned by the Almighty for the establishment of a "Peaceful Heavenly Kingdom," based upon Christianity.

When the first accounts of the movement reached Europe, most people thought they saw in it the hand of Divine

THE TAIPING RELIGION A GREAT IMPOSTURE. 229

Providence for the regeneration of the Chinese through the dissemination of the Gospel. But these hopes gradually faded away as the movement progressed in its hideous career, subversive of all the laws of God and man. As the monster horde increased in power and success, its leader from time to time abandoned the quasi-Christian views he had started with, until he assumed the attributes of divinity, and styled himself the "Heavenly King," who had ascended into heaven and held converse with the Deity. In one of his blasphemous proclamations he announces it thus: "The time that We ascended into Heaven various musical instruments attended Us; the thunder also came to Our presence, and was, as it were, of the form of a male fowl. Heavenly officers and troops supported Us into a carriage and through the northern region by this great road carried us up to Heaven. On each side of the heavenly portal were beautiful women without number to receive Us. We then conversed with the Heavenly Father, and the Elder Brother Christ. It was about the space of two days We remained there, and then came down. The Father's Sacred Will says:-Tien Wang is the chief to save the good people, the proof of which is shown by Our coming down upon the earth at the present time to become the Chief. Respect this!"

This tirade of nonsense had its delusive effects upon the lawless multitude. From this impious assertion that he held communication with the heavenly host it is evident that Hoong Seu-tsuen was conversant with the Koran, and had taken a leaf out of Mahomet's book to mingle with his garbled quotations from the Scriptures. Be that as it may, there is abundant reason in all his writings, sayings, and doings to pronounce him one of the most blasphemous impostors the world has ever seen.

At the time the mandarin and his daughter took up their abode in the stronghold of the Taipings, this man and his myrmidons held sway over a territory which in ordinary times contained a population of seventy millions of inhabitants. They had captured and held every city and town of any importance in the provinces of Che-kiang and Kiangsoo, with the exception of Shanghai. Besides Nanking, they held the important cities of Foochow and Hang-chow, from which they formed bases of military operations to surround the devoted city and foreign settlement. One by one the walled towns and large villages in the immediate vicinity fell into their hands. A force of more than two hundred thousand armed men had driven in the Imperialist troops at every point, and only a few hundred foreign soldiers, with several men-of-war, were left to defend Shanghai.

All this and more was communicated to Meng-kee by the Kan Wang while entertaining his guest and Cut-sing at dinner in his own private apartment. This was quite a museum in its way. The principal article of furniture was a large bed of Soochow manufacture, covered with jade and other ornaments, and hung with yellow curtains. Tables lined the sides of the chamber and supported a most extraordinary conglomeration of different articles. There was a telescope on a moving pedestal, a gun-box, three Colt's revolvers, a box of percussion-caps, one of matches, two solar lamps, a cake of soap, a book on military tactics, and the Holy Bible; any amount of Chinese books, comprising all those valuable works published by foreign missionaries; quires of yellow paper, five or six timepieces, an alarum, a broken barometer, gold pencils, and dirty rags. These on one side. On the other tables were piles of foreign