2-979-622 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in China - Chinese Rebels, 1857. Second Opium War. '...you cannot but ask what should prevent such a nation [of 300,000,000 of inhabitants] from exercising great influence over the affairs of the human race. What it wants is a man of genius, a man truly great, capable of assimilating the power and vitality of this nation...Should an Emperor arise among them possessed of a great intellect, a will of iron, a reformer determined to come at once to a rupture with the ancient traditions, and initiate his people into the progressive civilisation of the West, we believe that the work of regeneration would proceed with rapid strides, and that perhaps those Chinese who now appear such a very ridiculous people might be thought of somewhat more seriously, and might even occasion mortal uneasiness to those who covet so eagerly the spoils of the ancient nations of Asia'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.