TAI-PING TREACHERY AT TAITSAN.

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but when, according to agreement, a portion of the Imperialists had entered the South Gate, a gun was fired, the gate was closed, and 1500 of them were treacherously attacked and seized, along with all their camp equipments. Of these not less than 300 were decapitated, their heads being sent to Soochow and Quinsan as a general encouragement to the followers of the Great Peace, and the remainder were of course compelled to join the Tai-pings.

In consequence of this act of stupid treachery, Gordon and his force, to the number of 2800, were diverted against Taitsan. He halted about 1500 yards from the West Gate, where the Rebels had two strong stone forts, and captured two stockades, enclosing small stone forts. On the 2d May the 1st Regiment was moved at an early hour towards the North Gate, in order to prevent a retreat from that point, and to cover the left flank of the main body of the attacking force, which was established in the western suburb. The troops were so placed as to be under cover, and the guns, protected by portable wooden mantlets, were gradually pushed forward until they were within a hundred yards of the walls of the city, which, by 2 P.M., were rather dilapidated, as every gun and mortar available was in action. Two hours after this, a wide breach having been made in the walls, the boats were ordered up, and a storming party advanced to the assault. The resistance made, however, was now very serious-the place being garrisoned by 10,000 men, 2000 of whom were picked braves, and its guns being served by several English, French, and American adventurers in Tai-ping employ. The Rebels swarmed to the breach, manned the walls, and poured down a tremendous fire on the attacking column as well as on the bridge beyond. Major Bannon, how

ever, who led the storming party, succeeded in mounting the breach, and a hand-to-hand conflict took place, in which the assailants were for the moment worsted and compelled to retire, the Tai-pings being bravely headed by the Foreigners in their service. Again the guns played upon the breach for about twenty minutes, and then the assault was renewed. At last the 5th Regiment, under Major Brennan, advanced, and Captain Tchirikoff's company managed to plant the colours of that regiment on the top of the wall. On this the storming party crowded in while the Tai-pings fled in every direction, trampling each other to death in their eagerness to escape. Either during or immediately after the attack there were killed two Americans, two Frenchmen, who begged hard for mercy, and three sepoys, formerly of the 5th Bombay Native Infantry, all of whom were fighting with the Tai-pings. This may be called Imperialist cruelty, but every military man knows that whenever a place is taken by assault under the flag of any nation, many of the defenders are put to death though they throw down their arms and cry for quarter. The loss on the part of the Ever-Victorious Army was also heavy, Major Bannon of the 4th Regiment, with twenty rank and file, being killed, while there were wounded Lieut. Wood, R.A., Commandant of the Field Artillery, Major Murant, Captains Chapman, Chidwick, Ludlam, Robinson, and Williams, with 142 privates, out of a force of 2800 men. It is doubtful whether this assault would have been successful had it not been for some 8-inch howitzers which were played over the heads of the stormers, and mowed down the Tai-pings on the breach, from a distance of only 200 yards. The steamer Hyson also did some service by moving in the neighbourhood, throwing heavy shells into the city; and

CAPTURE OF TAITSAN.

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General Brown afforded "moral support" by moving up a small British force of about 500* to the village of Waikong, about six miles off. From the statements of Private Hargreaves, an English deserter from H.M. 31st Regiment, who was taken prisoner in Taitsan, it appeared that, though the Europeans in the place had fought well, they had done so unwillingly, and had told Tsah, the Tai-ping chief, that it was useless for him to resist. The officers of the disciplined force who specially distinguished themselves in this engagement were Major Brennan, with Captains Howard and Tchirikoff of the 5th Regiment, and Captains Williams and Brooks of the 2d.

There were some circumstances connected with this capture of Taitsan which gave rise to a curious discussion, that did not confine itself to China, but was taken up also in this country, and was even allowed to occupy the attention of her Majesty's Foreign Secretary. It was a common thing among certain persons in China at this period to invent stories of Imperialist cruelty. For instance, most hideous accounts were published in the Times of India' of almost unmentionable atrocities, said to have been committed on Tai-ping women and children by the Imperialist authorities at Shanghai, and yet, on examination, the whole dismal story turned out to have been a pure invention. One might have thought that such a case, and similar ones only too abundant at this time, would have been a warning to respectable persons not to give a ready, and much less an eager, heed to anonymous stories of the kind; but such does not seem to have been the immediate result. After the capture of

This force consisted of 60 Royal Artillery, 80 Lascars, 2 howitzers, two 5-inch mortars, 80 of the 31st Regiment, 150 Belooches, and 150 5th Bombay Native Infantry.

Taitsan, an anonymous writer in the Shanghai 'Daily Shipping and Commercial News' came forward under the specious nom de plume of "Justice and Mercy," and insisted that, after the capture, seven Rebel prisoners had their eyes pierced out by Imperialist soldiers, and were then roasted alive, their clothes being previously saturated with oil, and that more than one Englishman witnessed the deed, powerless to save. Behind the screen of the 'North China Herald,' of 13th June 1863, another anonymous person, under the signature of "An Eyewitness," asserted that "Justice and Mercy" had exaggerated the affair; but that he himself could say, from personal observation, that the prisoners referred to were "tortured with the most refined cruelty," that "arrows appeared to have been forcibly driven into various parts of their bodies, heads, region of heart, abdomen, &c., from whence issued copious streams of blood; that strips of flesh had been cut, or rather hacked, from various parts of their bodies;" and that "for hours these wretched beings writhed in agony" before they were led out to an inhuman death. Having had a private interview with this witness, Dr Smith, the Bishop of Victoria, thought fit to write to Earl Russell on the subject, and to express his opinion that there was no reasonable doubt as to the truth of the witness's allegations.

In an official letter to the Secretary of War,* General Brown, as commander of her Majesty's forces in China, very naturally expressed his surprise that the Bishop had not communicated with him upon this subject, and had not inquired whether he, the General, could supply any reliable information regarding it. From reports made by Lieutenant Cane, R.A., and other English officers who were witnesses of the affair, and who did not speak of it *Blue-Book, China, No. 3 (1864), p. 117.

ALLEGED IMPERIALIST CRUELTIES.

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from behind a screen, General Brown had, almost at the time, been put in possession of the facts of the case, and had taken all the action which it demanded. Colonel Gordon and his force had nothing to do with the seven prisoners who were taken by Imperialist soldiers after they had escaped from Taitsan, and were condemned near Waikong, where a British force was, to the punishment of the "Ling-che," or slow and ignominious death. As the Tai-pings of Taitsan had been guilty of an act of bloody treachery, they had no claim to be treated as ordinary prisoners of war; and it was, moreover, alleged by the Mandarins that these particular prisoners were special offenders. As it was, according to the testimony of several British officers, the sentence upon them was carried out only in a very modified form. They were tied up and exposed to view for about five hours, each with a piece of skin cut from one arm and hanging down, and with an arrow or two pushed through the skin in various places. They did not seem to suffer pain, and were afterwards beheaded in the ordinary way. Even this, of course, was objectionable; and General Brown, careful of the honour of a British officer, at once told the Futai, Lí, that if any similar cases were reported to him he should withdraw his troops, and cease to act along with the Imperialists. This was quite right; but it should be noticed also, that we are apt to attach an exaggerated importance to the cruelty of Chinese punishments from our own superior sensitiveness to pain. What might be exquisite torture to the nervous vascular European is something much less to the obtuse-nerved Turanian; and it may be safely affirmed that the Chinese penal code,* as actually carried out, is, considering the nature of the people, not a whit

* The 'Edinburgh Review,' in an article on Sir George Staunton's translation of that code, said, "We scarcely know a European code that is at