ABSTRACT
The war, which was brought to an end by the treaty of Nanking, left the imperial government astonished and crippled, but not paralyzed or dejected. The condition of the Empire at the close of the war was most discouraging to its rulers, who had not dreamed of receiving so crushing a defeat. The protracted convulsion, known abroad as the Tai-ping Rebellion, owed much of its duration as well to the exposure of the government’s internal rottenness as to its weakness against foreign nations; but many other causes were at work. In giving an account of the rise and overthrow of the Tai-ping Rebellion, it will be necessary to limit the narrative to the most important religious, political, and military events connected with it up to its suppression in 1867. Foreigners generally looked down upon the undertaking, and many of the allied naval and military officers regarded it with doubt and dislike.
