ger than a man's hand, which was destined to obscure the sun of Tai-ping success. In a memorial sent at this time to the Throne by Ho, that unfortunate GovernorGeneral, who was soon after recalled to Peking and executed for his non-success, speaks of his army as having been annihilated in consequence of the état de délabrement into which it was thrown by the successes of the Faithful King, and especially by the taking of Soochow. Never," he wrote, "in all antiquity has there been a state of confusion so remarkable," and, "trembling beyond measure," he begs the Emperor to make peace with the Allies and employ all his troops against the Rebels. When, at the risk of his head, and, as it proved, at the cost of his head, one of the highest of Chinese officials could write in this way, the circumstances of the Imperialist cause in Kiangnan must have been apparently desperate indeed.

Besides the proclamation of the Allies in regard to Shanghai, another very important, but, at the time, apparently insignificant, event was the appearance on the stage of "General" Frederick Ward. Before the former had agreed to defend Shanghai, Ta Kee, and several other wealthy merchants of that place, not relishing the idea of its falling into the hands of the Tai-pings, had arranged with Woo, the Tautai, to afford funds for the

therein have large transactions with the foreigners who went to their place to carry on their business. Were it to become the scene of an attack and of civil war, commerce would receive a severe blow, and the interests of those, whether foreign or native, who wish to pursue their peaceful avocations in quiet would suffer great loss.

"The undersigned will therefore call upon the Commanders of Her Majesty's naval and military authorities (sic!) to take proper measures to prevent the inhabitants of Shanghai from being exposed to massacre and pillage, and to lend their assistance to put down any insurrectionary movements among the ill-disposed, and to protect the city against any attack. "Shanghai, May 26, 1860."

enlistment of Foreigners to fight against the Rebels. He had, therefore, engaged two Americans called Ward and Burgevine to enlist a number of Europeans and Manilamen, and had promised these leaders a large sum if they would retake Sungkiang, a city eighteen miles distant from Shanghai on the river Whampoa.

Of Burgevine I shall speak afterwards. Ward was born about 1828, at Salem in Massachusetts, and was a man of courage and ability. Probably from poverty he was unable, when a youth, to gratify his desire of studying at West Point; but his mind seems always to have been occupied with military matters as affording his proper and destined sphere in life. Like not a few of his countrymen, he combined the life of an adventurer with that of a sailor, and had seen a good deal of the world before he came to China. In Central America he】 had been engaged in filibustering under that celebrated chief of filibusters, General William Walker; at Tuhuantepic he had been unsuccessfully engaged in trying to found a colony from the United States; and at one time in Mexico he had been on the point of taking military service under President Alvarez. Ward seems to have turned up in Shanghai some time in 1859; and his first operation, the attack upon Sungkiang, with about 100 Foreigners, mostly seafaring men, under his command, took place in July 1860, and resulted in a repulse with some loss. He persevered, however, in his design; and, having augmented his force by a company of Manilamen, lay concealed during the day, and contrived to seize a gate of the city just at sunset, repulsing all the Rebel attacks till next morning, when the native Imperialist troops coming up, were enabled to drive out the Taipings. Ward then received the ransom of the city, and Ta Kee and the other patriotic merchants were promoted

1860

in rank. The success of this affair, together with the high pay of 100 dollars per mensem, attracted more men to the banner of the Salem adventurer, who, being offered a further reward if he would take Singpoo, attempted to do so with 280 followers of his own, and two six-pounder guns; but in conjunction with 10,000 Chinese troops under General Lí Adong, and about 200 small Chinese gunboats. The Tai-pings, however, by this time had begun to see the benefit of employing Europeans, and at Singpoo, among others, they had an Englishman of the name of Savage who had formerly been a pilot. The consequence was that when Ward attacked the city on the night of the 2d August_and succeeded in getting on the wall, his force was driven back with very great loss, and he himself was severely wounded in the jaw. Being an irrepressible sort of element, however, he went to Shanghai, and, despite his wound, immediately returned to Singpoo with two eighteen-pounder guns, and 100 fresh men, mostly Greeks and Italians. But this did not avail much; for the Faithful King came down to the rescue of the city, surprised and outflanked Ward, took his guns, boats, and a good many muskets, and drove him back to Sungkiang. This latter place the Tai-ping chief soon attempted to take by storm, but there he was repulsed, and in the attempt Savage received a wound, from the effects of which he soon after died at Nanking.

On the 16th of August the Faithful King advanced upon Shanghai, leaving Sungkiang invested in his rear, and accompanied by the Shield King, whose knowledge of Foreigners was expected to be useful. Chung Wang immediately sent in a proclamation to the consuls, explaining the accidental slaughter of a French priest on the previous day, and telling them that he was about to

TAI-PING ATTACK ON SHANGHAI.

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attack Shanghai, but that Foreigners would not be molested if they remained in their houses. No answer was sent to this communication; but the Tai-pings must have been aware of the proclamations which had been issued by the French and English authorities, and they had been warned shortly before by the Rev. Mr Edkins, and other missionaries, that the Allies would defend the city against them.

On the 18th August the Faithful advanced, burning everything before him, on a very wide front. He passed through the Jesuit establishment at Sikawai, where several Roman Catholic converts and another French priest were killed; then he attacked the Imperialists, who were intrenched about a mile from the west gate of Shanghai, occupied their camps, and drove them into the city. The Tai-pings then made an attempt to enter the gates along with these fugitives; but the walls were manned by French and British troops, who drove them back with great loss. A skirmishing fire was kept up on the walls; and the Rebels, along with whom were several Europeans, one of whom was killed, also tried to advance under cover of the Imperial flags which they had captured in the stockades. Next day the Faithful King resumed his attack, in expectation of a rising among the Cantonese and Chinchew men, who were very numerous in Shanghai, and who were only deterred from revolt by the force of the Allies. In one of the suburbs they did indeed break out, and commenced plundering and massacring the more respectable Chinese; and before that could be put a stop to, the greater part of this wealthy suburb was destroyed by fire, causing great distress among the people. On the next day, the Chung Wang again renewed his attack, and directed his efforts specially against the British settlement; but

E

he was easily repulsed, and, giving up the futile attempt, fell back with his troops on Sikawai. In his own account of this affair he says that he was induced to go to Shanghai "by some Barbarians residing there;" and, in a communication which he sent in to the Foreign authorities on the 21st August, he expressly accuses the French of having deceived him. This is rather curious, and is not quite explained away by the Hon. Mr Bruce when he remarks, in his despatch of the 4th September 1860, that the French were of all Foreigners the least likely to have made any advances to the Taipings. It is well known that the Roman Catholic priesthood in China-a very powerful body, with a system of underground communication all over the empire-were bitterly hostile to the Rebellion, and it is not at all unlikely that some of their agents may have been employed in luring the Chung Wang on to his injury by false representations of the ease and safety with which Shanghai might be occupied. Another curious point is, that in his sketch the Faithful King asserts he had prepared for a march into Shanghai, and arrangements had been made there for his reception; but a storm of wind and rain arose, which rendered the ground so slippery that neither man nor horse could obtain firm footing, and so the Foreign Devils who came out to meet him had to return without him. This is not like pure invention, and there was such a storm a day or two before the attack of the 18th August; Mr Bruce also acknowledges that the Rebel attack "took us by surprise;" so that it is far from impossible that the wealthy city of Shanghai had a narrower escape from Tai-ping occupation than it was, or is even yet, aware of.

Having inflicted an immense amount of injury upon the peasantry, the Rebels retreated on the 22d of August,