hirty days' idleness to
be enforced throughout the United Kingdom. Within a few days the Chartists
could boast that for fifty miles round Manchester every loom was still. The
attempt to extend the strike to London was followed by the arrest of
O'Connor and nearly a hundred of his associates. They were tried and
convicted, but owing to a flaw in the indictment sentence could not be
carried out. The agitation was made to appear more serious by two attempts
to assassinate the Queen in May and July, but the young Queen was not
deterred thereby from making her first visit to Scotland.

[Sidenote: Chinese opium war]

[Sidenote: Fall of Chapoo]

[Sidenote: Shanghai occupied]

[Sidenote: Assault of Chinkiangfoo]

[Sidenote: China brought to terms]

[Sidenote: Treaty ports designated]

[Sidenote: Opium forced upon China]

In August, the Duke of Wellington was reinstated as commander-in-chief of
the British army. Among the military reforms undertaken was the general
introduction of the percussion-cap musket in the infantry, and the use of
the carbine in the artillery. The war in China was brought to a close. The
long period of inaction following the occupation of Ningpo had been broken
in March by Chinese attempts to recapture Ningpo, Chinhai and Chusan. In
all three places the British beat off their assailants. At Ningpo the
Chinese succeeded in breaking through the south and west gates, and reached
the centre of the city only to be mowed down there by the British
artillery. At Tszeki a strong Chinese camp was captured by the British. The
Chinese losses on this occasion were over a thousand killed, including many
of the Imperial Guards. The British casualties did not exceed forty. A
naval expedition next attacked Chapoo, China's port of trade with Japan.
The main body of the Chinese was routed, but 300 of their soldiers shut
themselves up in a walled inclosure, and held their ground until
three-fourths of their number were slain. As heretofore, the British
casualties were small. The important city of Shanghai was captured without
appreciable resistance. The most serious affair of the war was the attack
on Chinkiangfoo on the southern bank of the Yangtse-Kiang at one of the
entrances of the great canal. A part of the Manchu garrison held out there
until shot down to the last man. The inner Tartar city was only taken after
the Manchus had first killed the women and children and then themselves.
The immediate losses of the