posed to be the interests of Japan. Min Yong-whan, the most powerful of the Queen's friends, was sent to America as minister; and everything was ready for the coup which had undoubtedly been determined upon. From the mass of conflicting evidence, charge and counter-charge, it is difficult to escape the following conclusion. There were two different policies held by political parties in Japan as to the best way to handle the Korean question: one was what we may call the radical policy which advocated strong measures and the instant and complete overthrow of all opposition to the will of Japan in the peninsula; the other or conservative policy looked to the attainment of the same object by gradual and pacific means. It seems that the failure of Count Inouye to accomplish anything definite in the line of a settlement of internal dissensions at Seoul resulted in the appointment of Viscount Miura as an exponent of the extreme radical policy. He was supposed to do prompt work, but what that work would be, perhaps neither he nor his constituency saw clearly before his arrival on the scene. It would be going much too far to say that the assassination of the Queen was once thought of, and yet it is more than likely that those most conversant with conditions in Seoul felt that by some means, or other her enormous influence must be permanently checked, and that affairs must be so managed that she should have nothing more to do in the handling of questions of state. How this was to be accomplished neither Miura nor any of his advisers knew until he came and looked over the field.
For this reason it is easy to see how the ex-regent would be the first man in Korea with whom the Japanese minister would wish to consult, and it is certain that the Taiwunkun would have but one word to say as to the solution of the difficulty. His experience of twenty years had convinced him that there was only one way to accomplish the object which the minister had in view; and while Viscount Miura naturally shrunk from adopting that course it would seem he too was at last convinced that it was the only feasible plan. That he actually advised it in the
