compel reform. But as Mr. Yun himself confesses, " The popular meetings had gone beyond the control of the Independence Club, and in the face of strong advice to the contrary, they were resumed on the 6th of December, and their language became careless and impudent. On the i6th of December the Privy Council recommended the recall of Pak Yong-hyo from Japan. The popular meeting had the imprudence to indorse this action. The more conservative portion of the people revolted against the very mention of the name. Suspicion was excited that the popular agitations had been started in the interests of Pak Yong-hyo, and they instantly lost the sympathy of the people." The enemies of the liberal party had probably used this argument to its fullest extent, and when it was seen that the Independence movement had at last been deprived of its strongest support, the popular voice, its enemies came down upon it with cruel force. In spite of voluble promises to the contrary, large numbers of the reform party were arrested and thrown into prison ; not, to be sure, on the charge of being members of this party, but on trumped-up charges of various kinds, especially that of being accessory to the plan of bringing back Pak Yong-hyo. And thus came to an end a political party whose aims were of the highest character, whose methods were entirely peaceable, but whose principles were so far in advance of the times that from the very first there was no human probability of success.
The year 1899 opened with political matters in a more quiet state than for some years past, owing to the violent repression of the Independence Club and the liberal movement. The judgment of the future will be that at this point Japan made a serious mistake of omission. The aims and purposes of the Independence party were directly in line with Japanese interests here, and if that powerful government had actively interested itself in the success of the movement, and had taken it for granted that the plan was to be definitely carried out, the succeeding years would have made very different history than they did. But during all this time Japan seems to have retired into comparative quietude,
