These victories were in reality the death-blow to the rebel cause, for the brutal cruelty then displayed to the people at large was of such a character as to alienate completely the sympathy of thousands who might otherwise have been glad to see the end of the Manchus.

Among other acts of desolation, the large and beautiful city of Soochow was burnt and looted, an outrage for which the T`ai-p`ings were held responsible, and regarding which there is a pathetic tale told by an eye-witness of the ruins; in this instance, however, if indeed in no others, the acts of vandalism in question were committed by Imperialist soldiers.
It is with the T`ai-p`ing rebellion that we associate _likin_, a tax which has for years past been the bugbear of the foreign merchant in China.

The term means "thousandth-part money," that is, the thousandth part of a _tael_ or Chinese ounce of silver, say one _cash_; and it was originally applied to a tax of one _cash_ per tael on all sales, said to have been voluntarily imposed on themselves by the people, as a temporary measure, with a view to make up the deficiency in the land-tax caused by the rebellion.

It was to be set apart for military purposes only--hence its common name, "war-tax"; but it soon drifted into the general body of taxation, and became a serious impost on foreign trade.
We first hear of it in 1852, as collected by the Governor of Shantung; to hear the last of it has long been the dream of those who wish to see the expansion of trade with China.
Tseng Kuo-fan was now (1860) appointed Imperial War Commissioner as well as Viceroy of the Two Kiang (= provinces of Kiangsi and Kiangsu + Anhui).

He had already been made a _bataru_, a kind of order instituted by the first Manchu Emperor Shun Chih, as a reward for military prowess; and had also received the Yellow Riding Jacket from the Emperor Hsien Feng, who drew off the jacket he was himself wearing at the time, and placed it on the shoulders of the loyal and successful general.