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for a very successful attempt at rebellion. A student of the name of Von Langsdorft proposed that the town should be held on behalf of the "Apostles of Liberty," and the regular troops kept in check until Hecker and his merry men threw their weight into the scale. This proposition was unanimously agreed to, and a "rider" was appended in the shape, that no one be allowed to quit the town, but all be tarred with the same brush. I now thought it time to beat my retreat gracefully, but on wending my way to the gate that led to the railway station, I found it already held by a party of the scythe men, who would not allow me to pass. My attempts at the other gates were equally unsuccessful, and I found the rather unpleasant conviction forced upon me that I must stay in Freyburg and be witness to a real contest, my only experience in that line having been hitherto confined to theatrical combats of two-up to a -dozen.

The night was passed in various preparations for the anticipated fight, for two regiments of infantry and a field-battery lay within twenty miles of the town. The plates were pulled up for some distance on the railway, the omnibuses and various carriages confiscated and formed into barricades in certainly a very practical manner by filling them with paving-stones, but the great achievement consisted in carrying two fourpounders to the top of the Schwaben Thor. The citizens of Freyburg had amused themselves in happier times by playing at soldiers, as is the case in every German town, and their scarlet-fever broke out in the form of an artillery corps. The grand duke had very kindly made them a present of four little field-pieces, which they had been accustomed to limber and unlimber, load and fire, at every possible opportunity. These guns, when not in active service, were kept in the town-hall, together with the fire-engines, and thence the rebels carried them off in triumph, after intimidating the porter by holding a pistol at his head. I may as well state that it was unloaded, and the official was perfectly well aware of it; but then it is just as well to go through the proper form, and I believe the worthy janitor received afterwards the Zähringer order of the twenty-ninth class for his heroic conduct. After this affecting scene, two of the cannon were planted in the centre of a barricade at the Schweizer Thor, and the other two dragged by sheer strength to the top of the Schwaben Thor, where they were loaded with old iron, nails, and stones, in readiness for the morrow.

I retired for the night to the Zähringer Hof, where I found quarters at the very top of the house, whence I could enjoy a view over a broad expanse of country. The town remained in a state of great confusion during the whole of the night, as the insurgents ransacked every house from top to bottom for arms, and even stripped part of the lead from the roof of the cathedral to melt into bullets. I obtained an hour or two of broken sleep, and, as soon as day dawned, I posted myself at the window, to see if anything fresh had turned up. The first thing I noticed was a body of about 600 men, as it seemed to me at a rough calculation, collected in a narrow valley, about three miles from the town, but strange to say, in a remarkable state of inaction. I soon found, however, on looking to the other side, what it was that held them in check. Two regiments of Hessians, and a field-battery of six guns, were drawn up

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close to the railway station, and evidently meant mischief. I had not much time, though, to watch them, for the door of my bedroom was suddenly burst open, and a party of armed men rushed in, who, with many fierce oaths, insisted on my coming down and helping to remove the barricade at the Schwaben Thor, so that their friends might come in. With much repining at my folly at running my head into such unnecessary danger, I went down stairs, and betook myself under a guard to the gate, where I found several more involuntary revolutionists assembled. The policy of the insurgents was, however, far from being despicable: the barricade was the most exposed place in the whole town, being only four feet high, and covered by the enemy's guns; only those, therefore, were to be employed in its temporary removal by whose fall the ranks of the fighting men would suffer no loss. At it we went, then, and very rapidly cleared away the paving-stones, carts, &c., of which the barricade was formed, being much hastened in our movements by the dropping fire of one of the Hessian regiments, who seemed to make us their especial target. Fortunately though, they, in all probability, aimed at us, and this accident saved our lives, for regulation muskets are notorious for not carrying straight. Be this as it may, the barricade was very speedily removed, and all the neighbouring houses lined with tirailleurs to repulse the soldiers if they attempted a storm. It was all of no avail; the insurgents in the valley either would not, or dared not, face the enemy's fire, and they could not be induced to make a bold rush, and enter the town. In fact, we were again driven to rebuild the barricade; and I may as well mention here, that, although we carried it away three consecutive times, the heroes without had too much regard for their skins, and gradually retired farther and farther up the valley.

This, of course, inspired the soldiers with fresh courage, and they soon commenced a tremendous cannonade upon the barricade at the Schwaben Thor. Myself and a few others mounted the cathedral tower, whence we had an uninterrupted view of the whole engagement. The soldiers soon gave up the use of their artillery through fear of injuring the cathedral, and prepared for a storm. They were twice repulsed with considerable loss by the insurgents, who were materially aided by the two little cannon on the top of the gate, which were served with very great precision.

At length the barricade was captured, and the soldiers rushed in; the fellows on the gate, with a courage worthy of a better cause, would not desert their guns, but were cut down to a man. This, I must candidly state, I was not an eye-witness of; for being tolerably well acquainted with the amiable disposition of soldiers after an engagement, and their proneness to shoot people first and inquire into their guilt afterwards, I had gradually found my way to the top of the castle hill, whence I hurried off, with several other co-revolutionists, into the recesses of the Black Forest.

I was not at all deceived in my anticipations as to the conduct of the soldiery, for I afterwards learned that they had killed everybody they found in the street, without any compunction. They merely requested them to hold out their hands, and the least trace of dirt upon them was a proof of complicity in the rebellion. The victim was then planted against a doorway, and either impaled on a bayonet or else shot. An old Eng

lish gentleman, so the story ran, who was very far from feeling charitably disposed to the insurgents, opened his shutters to cheer the soldiers, but, in doing so, had two of his fingers shot off.

After we had succeeded in placing some six good miles of ground between ourselves and the soldiers, we held a consultation as to our future progress. We were six in number, and if it be true that " poverty makes us acquainted with strange bedfellows," I am sure it may be said with equal justice of revolution. The party consisted of two students, two

handwerksbursche-a tailor and a shoemaker-the editor of a Mannheim newspaper, and myself. Our united property amounted to seventeen florins, and the only persons laden with luggage were the journeymen, whose knapsacks were arranged on little trucks for the purpose of easy locomotion. We lit our pipes, had a pull at the "Schnaps budel," and talked about our future prospects. The world was certainly before us, but not where to choose: behind us were the Badenese troops-before us Switzerland, where we well knew it would be no use for us to go in the present state of our finances. After a long deliberation, it was agreed that we should separate and shift for ourselves; so, after fairly dividing our money, the students went off for the Rhine, in order to take refuge at Strasburg; the journeymen determined on going to Switzerland; and the editor and myself decided on trusting to our good fortune to return home safely. We had not much to fear as long as we kept out of the way of the soldiers; our passports were en règle, and our only apprehension was that we might starve on the road. As it was, we remained nearly six weeks in the Black Forest, where we were most hospitably treated by the peasants, and lived on the fat of the land, for my comrade was a famous singer, and that was enough to secure him a hearty welcome among the unsophisticated sons of the mountains. At length we were reluctantly compelled to quit this happy spot, for detachments of soldiers were sent into the Black Forest to rout out the refugees, and we trudged off to the Lake of Constance, stopping at Schaffhausen by the way to do the falls" as long as our finances would permit us, which was no great length of time, for we indulged rather too extensively in wine, after having been subjected during nearly six weeks to the annoyance of drinking potato-brandy-the most horrible decoction that can be conceived. How we eventually got to Stuttgardt has ever been a mystery to me, for we positively walked upwards of one hundred miles without a penny. We did get there, however, and our troubles were at an end; we procured money and clothes, and set off leisurely on our homeward route to Heidelburg. By the time I got back to Baden-Baden, though, I had had quite enough of revolutions for some time at least, and I consequently soon packed up my portmanteau and returned to England, where I had no fear of being forced to build barricades, or become a firing mark for soldiers.

THE CHINESE REVOLUTION.

THE revolution in China-unquestionably the most important event of the times we live in-the greatest revolution, it has been justly remarked, the world has yet seen, comprising in mere magnitude a popula tion equal to that of all Europe and all America put together-has had its origin in the same causes that brought about the war with Great Britain the stubborn ignorance and the insufferable pride of the Tartar dynasty. On ascending his throne, Ta-u-kuang, or Tau-wang, entrusted the conduct of public affairs to statesmen who were, in the eyes of all, the mere guardians of superannuated Chinese traditions. Every nation that has institutions of any duration has its conservative party. During times of little excitement, the government may be safely left in the hands of such representatives of the old national faith; but when the time for modifying ancient guarantees comes, as it inevitably will, their tenacity in upholding a state of things no longer compatible with the new circumstances and new opinions that have come into existence, becomes a source of extreme danger. This political truth has at length made itself as manifest in the history of the Celestial Empire as it has in our own history and that of neighbouring countries. The servants of Ta-u-kuang, in mere wanton contempt of barbarous nations, involved their country in a disastrous war. They did not understand that the moment was come when they must step down from the diplomatic heights to which their ignorant presumption had raised them, and in which European forbearance had so long upheld them.

Hian-fung, the son and successor of Ta-u-kuang, derived no benefit from the lesson so justly inflicted on his imperial father. Mu-chang-ha and Ki-in, ministers who, during the latter years of Ta-u-kuang, had been unusually zealous in the cause of a liberal and progressive state of things, were rudely dismissed, and successors were appointed, distinguished by their inveterate hatred to Europeans. This change was accompanied by other violent reactionary measures, which only increased the mischief. Notwithstanding the obstinacy and perversity of the successive emperors, the war of China with Great Britain had the effect of opening the eyes of a large portion of the population to the advantages of European civilisation; and this movement received a further impulse from the progress of secret societies, more especially the "Chinese Union," by the founding of military and naval stations, by throwing open the commerce previously monopolised by the East India Company to the vessels of all nations, by the increase of consular and mercantile agencies, by the labours of missionaries, and by the emigrations of the Chinese themselves to other countries, more especially the East Indies, the Indian Archipelago, and California; also by the aid given by Great Britain to its new ally in extinguishing piracy from its seas and rivers. By all these circumstances combined, the way for China (Shin-wah, like the French Chinois) entering into the community of nations was inevitably prepared, and woe to the dynasty that cannot move with the people!

No sooner were the hopes of the Chinese patriots crushed by the dis

missal of Mu-chang-ha and of Ki-in, than a rumour spread far and wide that prophecies of old had predicted the re-establishment of the Ming dynasty in the forty-eighth year of the cycle, corresponding to our 1851. To this general prophecy one of a more definite character was added: it was, that he who should raise the standard of Ming, preserved by an apocryphal patriarch, who lived at the time of the last of the dynasty, should ascend the throne. This movement soon assumed a formidable character; people discussed the downfal of the Tartar dynasty at their secret societies the higher, the middle, and the lower classes alike, came under the dominion of the new opinions that were so industriously spread abroad, and the public mind was everywhere prepared for revolution. But that not before a small body of insurgents, averaging probably a few hundreds, and over-estimated by Messrs. Callery and Yvan at 100,000 men, had collected together in the province of Kuang-si, a province immediately north-west of Canton.

*

The two Kuangs, Kuang-si and Kuang-tung, of which latter Canton is the chief city, constitute the two great south-westerly provinces of China. The first is a hilly, rocky, woody, and in parts desert and mountainous country. The inhabitants are poor, hardy, and adventurous; they have plenty of time on hand, being only for a short period of the year engaged in collecting the products of the cinnamon and aniseedbearing plants-and of such components was the nucleus of the revolution made up. The same district is highly metalliferous, and a quantity of lead nuggets miraculously discovered, when the insurgents were engaged in erecting a monument to commemorate the upraising of the revolu tionary standard, served at the onset to procure the necessaries of life for the patriot army.

It was not till August, 1850, that the official Gazette of Pekin condescended to notice the Chinese insurrection. According to the official paper, it had its origin in a body of pirates who had escaped the shot of the English on the coasts of Fu-kian. The insurrectionists, strengthened in the mean time by the adhesion of the Mia-u-tsi-a race of hardy, warlike mountaineers, who have never been completely subjected by the Tartars, and whose very name is a source of terror to all pacific Celestials-opened a campaign, destined to be of such long duration and of such vital importance to the future of China, by an attack upon Ho, or Hu, one of the most commercial cities of the province. The two Kuangs, it is necessary to observe, form one vice-royalty, and one Siu, an officer in no way adapted to meet the exigencies of the case, held at that time the vice

L'Insurrection en Chine depuis son origine jusqu'a la prise de Nankin, Par MM. Callery et Yvan.

†There are certain terminable syllables constantly repeated in the Chinese, a knowledge of the meaning of which facilitates the memory of the word. Thus fu, or foo, is a town of the first magnitude, or of a canton averaging a population of 1,000,000. Chu, or choo, a town of second magnitude, averaging 500,000 souls. Hin, a township of third magnitude. Tung is east; si, west; nan, south; pe, or pa, north. Others, as wang, kin, &c., are titles, as Pakin, or Pekin, north king; Nan-kin, south king; Wang-si, king of the west; Wang-tung (Canton), east king. Tung-fu, east city; Nan-chu, south town; Si-nin, west town, &c. Wang is variously written Kuang, Quang, Kouang, as Kuang-si, or Wang-si, the west king, and Kuang, or Wang-tung, east king, whence Canton. Curious enough, Europeans call the town Canton, the province Kouang, or Quang-tung. The proper name for Canton is Kuang-chu, "king town of second class."

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