In 1849 the king died without male issue and his grandmother Kim nominated his nephew, the son of a banished brother. The young man entered upon the duties of his office at the age of nineteen and he is known by his posthumous title of Ch’ŭl-jong Tă-wang. This reign of fourteen years beheld some important reforms. The law was reaffirmed that the families of banished men might follow them into exile. Gambling was severely interdicted. The merchants’ monopolies were broken up. A hard fight was made against bribery and peculation in high places. Country gentlemen were forbidden to seize and beat any one belonging to the lower orders. This king was the son Prince Chun-gye by a slave woman named Kang. He was the great-grandson of the Crown Prince, Sado, whom his father nailed up in the box. His reign was an important one in two respects. First the very rapid spread of Roman Catholicism and second the settled policy which was adopted toward all outside influences. When the reign began there were about 11,000 Christians in Korea and when it closed in 1863 there were in the vicinity of 20,000, or almost double. Everyone knew that to combat it there would be need of a king of a different calibre from Ch’ŭl jong; and so during these years the work of propagating the new faith went on steadily and without any considerable drawbacks. The picture of the country as drawn by the French is indeed a sad one. They say the king had shown himself quite incapable and had become a mere debauche. The highest officials were fattening off the people and the latter were frequently consulting the books of prophecy which foretold the dissolution of the dynasty. And now foreigners began to enter the country in greater numbers. Maistre, Jansen, Berneux followed each other in quick succession in the early fifties. The latter became Bishop of Korea. About the end of 1860 came the news of the fall of Peking before the combined French and English forces, the flight of the Emperor and the burning and looting of the Summer Palace. The news was that thousands of foreigners had come to overthrow the empire. The utmost consternation prevailed in Seoul. An official memorialised the throne giving three causes for lively concern. (1) The Emperor, fleeing before his enemies, might wish to find asylum in Korea, or at least might take refuge in some Manchu fortress just beyond the border. Every possible approach ought to be strictly guarded so that the Emperor might not dare to force his way into Korean territory. (This shows the depth of Korea’s loyalty to China.) (2) The outlaw bands that infested the neutral strip between Korea and China might attempt an invasion of Korea and forts ought to be built to prevent such an enterprise.