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every attack until the main body of the Imperialists joined him. The capture of Sunkiang brought home to the Chinese mind the valuable aid which a foreign contingent might render against the rebels. It also made Ward's force popular for the moment with the more adventurous portion of the European community; and while most joined for the sake of the high pay and plunder to be obtained, some entered it with the hope of seeing service and gaining military experience. Ward had been an officer in the American merchant service. He served as mate under Gough, another American, who commanded the fleet fitted out by Taotai Wou for operations on the Yangtse, and was thus brought into contact with the rich Chinese merchants of Shanghai. The capture of Sunkiang so far encouraged the officials at Shanghai that they requested Ward to proceed forthwith to attack Tsingpu, and in return for its capture they promised him a great reward.

Ward was nothing loth to undertake another enterprise that might prove of as profitable a character as the attack on Sunkiang had been. He returned to Shanghai to complete his arrangements, and soon had assembled in his camp at Sunkiang a force of twenty-five Europeans under a Swiss captain, 280 Manilla-men under Vincente, two Englishmen as officers, an English doctor, and lastly Burgevine in control of the stores. The force was very weak in artillery, which consisted of only two 6-pounders; and although a large Imperial army and flotilla were attached to the expedition, it was generally understood that the brunt of the fighting would fall upon Ward's force. The position of the Taepings at Tsingpu was one of considerable strength, as the walls were in a good state of repair, and the small field-pieces could make little or no impression upon them. There remained only the chance of carrying the place by assault; but even against this the Taepings had taken every precaution in their power, and their efforts had also been directed by an European, an Englishman named Savage. Savage had been a pilot on the coast; but, whether the war destroyed his profession or appealed to his secret instincts, he certainly quitted it with several of his comrades, and joined the Taepings, who seemed

to those who only looked at the surface to be at last on the point of realizing the earlier objects of their enterprise.

Ward delivered his attack on Tsingpu during the night of the 2nd August, 1860; but although he reached the wall, he was driven back with very severe loss. All the Europeans except six were either killed or wounded, and Ward himself was wounded in the jaw. This first repulse, disastrous as it was, did not lead Ward to abandon the whole enterprise in despair, for he had set his heart on obtaining the large reward offered for its capture by Takee and his associates. He hastened off to Shanghai to enlist fresh volunteers, and to purchase heavier guns, on the want of which he threw the whole blame of his defeat. He succeeded in obtaining 150 recruits, chiefly Greeks and Italians, and also two 18-pounders. With this reinforcement he again proceeded, after an interval of three weeks, to attack Tsingpu. This time he hoped to carry it, not by an assault, but by a bombardment, and during seven days his guns fired continuously on the wall. It is not possible to say how much longer this cannonade might have continued, when Chung Wang, hearing that the garrison was pressed by the Imperialists, hastened from Soochow, and, taking Ward by surprise, drove him away in utter confusion. In addition to considerable loss in men, the American lost the guns and most of the military stores which he had just purchased. Chung Wang followed up his victory by capturing the positions of the Imperial commander Li Aidong, and by an attempt to recover Sunkiang. But he failed in the latter task, and his English colleague Savage was so seriously wounded that he died some weeks later from the effects at Nankin.

Baffled in his attempt at Sunkiang, Chung Wang, notwithstanding the previous warning that the allied powers would defend the city, resolved to attack Shanghai. The possession of Shanghai was, in a military sense, essential to him, as it was there that all the hostile measures made for the recovery of the places he had taken were being carried out. Hoping, therefore, to find the allies, whose armies he knew had proceeded to the north, unable to carry out their intentions, he and his colleague, the Kan Wang, marched on

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Shanghai, burning and plundering all the villages on the road. During these operations several Christian seminaries were burnt down, although Kan Wang had been elected a member of a missionary society, and one French priest at least was murdered. The Imperial army occupied a fortified camp or stockade outside the western gate. This Chung Wang attacked and captured, the Imperialists retiring without offering much resistance. He had then to encounter a different foe. The walls of Shanghai were manned by the English and French troops forming the garrison, and when the Taepings attempted to enter the city with the fleeing Imperialists, they were received with a warm and destructive fire, which compelled them to retire. The attack was several times renewed at different points during the next four or five days; but each onset was repulsed with increasing loss to the assailants. The chief destruction caused was by the accidental conflagration which broke out in the southern and richest suburb of the town, and which only burnt itself out after several days. Chung Wang was obliged to retreat, but before doing so he sent in a message to say that he had come at the invitation of the French, that they were traitors, and that he could have taken the city but for the foreigners, as "there was no city which his men could not storm." Even the noblest of the Taepings had occasionally to descend to idle boasting.

Notwithstanding his repulse at Shanghai, Chung Wang marched past Sunkiang, which he could not take, and engaged the forces of Chang Yuliang, who, with Hangchow as his base, was still employed in some desultory operations against the places which the Taepings had seized south of that town. In these Chung Wang's promptitude again turned the scale against his old adversary, and after several disastrous skirmishes Chang Yuliang was compelled to retire upon Hangchow and wait until the departure of Chung Wang for a resumption of active operations. Chung Wang was soon recalled in all haste to Soochow, where the people were suffering intense misery. He relieved them as well as he could out of the spoil of the country he had overrun, and in their gratitude they erected to his honour an ornamental

arch, which was destroyed on the recovery of that city. But there remained much work of a different character for the Faithful King to perform. His energy and promptitude carried all before them where he was present in person, but everywhere else the prospects of the Taepings and their heavenly dynasty were darkened. Ganking was in imminent danger of capture. The Imperialists were advancing to attack Nankin for the sixth time. Tseng Kwofan was at last entrusted with the sole command, and was burning to distinguish by some striking deed his elevation to the Viceroyalty of the two Kiang. Tien Wang, panic-stricken at the dangers near his person, sent in all haste for Chung Wang, the one man who sustained his tottering throne.

Chung Wang entrusted the command of the forces in Kiangsu to a chief who was granted the title of Hoo Wang, or Protecting King, while he went himself with much reluctance to Nankin. There he held several councils of war with Tien Wang and the other leaders; but he found them all given up to a life of indulgence, and indifferent to the events around them. Tien Wang's only panacea for the dangers springing up on all sides was to say that, as "the truly appointed Lord," he had only to command peace, in order for all difficulties and troubles to cease; and as for the other Wangs, they were intent upon amassing money. Chung Wang told them with much force that they would be wise to purchase rice, as in the probable event of a long siege they would find that far the more useful article. Even when in this respect they carried his recommendations into practice, the head Wangs, Tien Wang and his brother, Kan Wang, placed high taxes on the importation of rice, and amassed great wealth at the expense of their own followers. The necessary consequence followed, that the importation of rice was discontinued, and when the Imperialists resumed the investment of the city, Nankin was not as well provisioned as it would have been had Chung Wang's advice been promptly and properly carried out.

While the leading Wangs were engaged at Nankin in tardy preparations for the day of trouble, Chung Wang made a dash into the province of Kiangsi for the purpose of

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diverting Tseng Kwofan's attention. Although he succeeded in ravaging much of the region watered by the Kan river, and in obtaining the advantage in several skirmishes, this raid produced no decisive result, and in the one pitched battle the victory rested with the Tartar general Paochiaou. More serious operations were ordered for the relief of Ganking, then on the point of surrender, and for the recapture of Hankow. For these purposes four armies were placed in the field two with instructions to operate on the northern side of the Yangtse, and two on the southern. All these armies were expected to concentrate at or near Hankow in the month of March, 1861. Their movements were not in accordance with the preconcerted plan. Chung Wang, in personal command of the principal force, was repulsed by Paochiaou, and compelled to withdraw into the province of Chekiang, where his brother had been already defeated with the loss of 10,000 men by Tso Tsung Tang. At this moment the whole course of this desultory struggle was altered by the conclusion of the foreign war. The English authorities being hardly less interested than the Chinese in the speedy establishment of peace, and the chances of any durable Taeping success being obviously hopeless, it followed that for the sake of humanity, not less than trade, the sooner an end was put to the struggle the better it would be for all parties.

At first the policy of the English towards the Taepings was based on some uncertainty except with regard to one point, viz. that Shanghai was to be considered outside the sphere of their operations. The open attack of Chung Wang had been resisted and repulsed by force; but from every point of view it was desirable that it should not be repeated. One clause of the Treaty of Tientsin provided for the opening of the Yangtse, and the Admiral, Sir James Hope, proceeded in person to carry out this stipulation. At Nankin he entered into direct communication with Tien Wang, and obtained from him a pledge not to allow any attack on Shanghai during the next twelve months. He also agreed that none of the Taeping forces should advance within a radius of thirty miles of that city. Sir James Hope's