Page:Tseng Kuo Fan and the Taiping Rebellion.djvu/270

Rh T. T. Meadows, secretary of the British expedition in H. M. S. Hermes, April, 1853, was much impressed with the Taipings, but his superior, Sir George Bonham, who studied translations of their books, was more reserved. He announced to the Taiping government a policy of strict neutrality. In reporting to the British government he expressed the suspicion that the religious tenets of the rebels were mainly a "political engine of power by the chiefs to sway the minds of those whom they are anxious to attach to their cause." His Chinese secretary. Dr. W. H. Medhurst, in his report to Sir George, almost discovers what appears to have been the true origin of the rebellion. Speaking of the curious medley of religious nonsense and political sagacity he says:

The only way to account for the difference, is the supposition that two minds, or different sets of men, have been at work, the one animated by a sincere and humble desire to serve God and to seek His favour through the merits of the only Saviour, and the other desirous of imposing on the credulity of the unthinking many, with the view of elevating themselves to power.

If the insurrection should succeed, he thought that toleration would he secured for Christianity and commercial intercourse possibly encouraged — but with the strict suppression of opium. If there was a chance that the Taipings should prove liberal, he felt certain that the imperial side in the event of victory would be even more exclusive and insolent than before, remembering against them the fact that the Taiping religion was indebted greatly to the West for its ideas. Nevertheless he advocated a policy of neutrality.

The French minister, who visited Nanking late in 1853, failed to meet the higher officials of the new government