Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. III, No. XVII, October 1851Various
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. III, No. XVII, October 1851
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
The London _Spectator_ thinks it highly probable that the malcontents
are masters of all the provinces south of the Yellow River, and have
seized upon the great entrepot of Canton. This, it adds, would be a
revolution; for Pekin, which derives its supplies of provisions by the
great canal from those southern provinces, would be starved into
submission; and the principal seat of foreign commerce would fall into
the hands of a party more bigotedly hostile to intercourse with
foreigners than even the Celestial Government. Nor is such a revolution
either impossible or improbable. Our knowledge of Chinese history is dim
and obscure; yet enough appears to show that the Mantchoo authority has
never been so firmly established to the south as to the north of the
Yellow River--that the purely Chinese element of society has always
preponderated in the southern provinces. In _Siam_, too, changes of
policy appear to be impending. The king who refused to treat with Sir
James Brooke is dead; and a contested succession has been temporarily
avoided by the simultaneous nomination of a king and a vice-king. The
new king has always been remarkable for his disposition to cultivate the
acquaintance and friendship of foreigners, and he is said to understand
and even to write English. The institutions of the Chinese and
Hindu-Chinese nations are thus shaken and sapped at the very time when
the traders of Europe and America are making more vigorous and
continuous efforts than at any former period to obtain a footing in
them.
Twenty-three British seamen belonging to the ship Larpent, were wrecked
over a year ago upon the coast of the Chinese island of Formosa. They
were immediately set upon by the savage inhabitants, and all but three
butchered in cold blood. These three were taken into servitude, and
after about eight months' captivity made their escape in a boat to an
American brig which happened to be passing.
Editor's Table.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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