for his son the Kyongbok Palace, which had lain in ashes since the days of the Japanese invasion in 1592. This enormous task was at last completed, but at terrible cost. It ruined the finances of the country, debased the national currency, and set in motion a train of economic blunders which had lamentable results. Assuredly he was not a great man, however strong he may have been.
In January of 1866 a Russian gunboat dropped anchor in the harbour of Wonsan, and a message was sent to court asking for freedom of trade with Korea. It is said that the Roman Catholics made use of the consequent uneasiness at court to suggest that the only way to thwart Russia was by making an alliance with England and France. The regent is said to have given this plan close and favourable attention. In the light of subsequent events, it is difficult to determine whether the regent's interest in this plan was real, or whether it was only a ruse whereby to make the final coup all the more effective. All things considered, the latter theory is the more probable. The French themselves believed that the regent was pushed on to the great persecution of 1866 by the violently anti-Christian faction that had raised him to power, and that it was simply another case of " If thou do it not, thou art not Caesar's friend." It is said that he reminded them of the burning of the summer palace at Peking and the occupation of the imperial Chinese capital; but they answered that they had killed Frenchmen before, and with impunity, and they could do it again. But whatever pressure was brought to bear upon him, he finally signed the death-warrant of the foreign priests, and on February 23 Bishop Berneux was arrested and lodged in prison. Brought up for trial, he said that he had come to save the souls of the Koreans, and that he had been in the country ten years. He refused to leave the country except by force. His death-warrant read as follows : ' The accused, who gives his name as Chang, refuses to obey the King; he will not apostatise ; he will not give the information required ; he refuses to return to his own country. Therefore after the
