The passing of Korea/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X
THE INDEPENDENCE CLUB
Later in the day the King put forth an edict calling upon the soldiers to rally to his support, and urging that the members of the Cabinet should be seized and turned over to the proper authorities for trial.
As soon as it became known in the palace that the King had fled, the three leading members of the Cabinet saw that their lives were forfeited. O Yun-jung managed to escape to the country, but was set upon and killed by the people; Cho Heui-yun escaped; Yu Kil-jun was spirited away to Japan by the Japanese; but Kim Hong-jip and Chong Pyung-ha were seized by the Korean soldiers, and immediately rushed by the crowd and killed. Their bodies were hauled to Chong-no, where they were stamped upon, kicked, bitten and stoned by a half-crazed rabble for hours. A Japanese who happened to be passing was set upon by the crowd and killed, and several foreigners drawn to the spot by curiosity were threatened.
To say that the Japanese were nonplussed by this coup on the part of the King would be to put it very mildly. All their efforts to consolidate their power in Korea, and to secure there some fruit of the victory in the war just finished, had been worse than thrown away. The King had cast himself into the arms of Russia, and the whole Korean people were worked up to a white heat against Japan, comparable only with the feelings elicited by the invasion of 1592. It was a very great pity, for Japan was in a position to do for Korea infinitely more than Russia would do. The interests of Korea and Japan were identical, or at least complementary, and the mistake which Japan made in the latter half of 1895 was one whose effects will require decades to efface.
But the Japanese authorities, though thrown into consternation by this radical movement of his Majesty, did not give up hope of mending matters. The Japanese minister saw the King at the Russian legation, and urged upon him every possible argument for returning to the palace. His Majesty, however, being now wholly relieved from anxiety as to his personal safety, enjoyed the respite too thoroughly to cut it short, and so politely refused to change his place of residence. A large number of Japanese in Seoul became convinced that Japan had hopelessly compromised herself, and left the country, but the Japanese government itself by no act or word granted that her paramount influence in the peninsula was impaired, and with admirable sang froid took up the new line of work imposed upon her by the King's peculiar action, meanwhile putting down one more score against Russia, to be reckoned with later.
Now that it was possible, the King hastened to order a new investigation of the circumstances attending the death of the Queen. It was feared that this would result in a very sweeping arrest of Koreans, and the punishment of many people on mere suspicion, but these fears were ill-founded. The trials were carried through under the eye of Mr. Greathouse, the adviser to the law department and a man of great legal ability. Thirteen men were arrested and tried in open court without torture and with every privilege of a fair trial. One man, Yi Whi-wha, was condemned to death, four banished for life, and five for lesser periods. This dispassionate trial was not the least of the signs which pointed toward a new and enlightened era in Korean political history.
It will be remembered that ever since the previous year Dr. Philip Jaisohn had been acting as Adviser to the Privy Council. This Council enjoyed considerable power at first, but gradually fell to a secondary place; but now that new conditions had sprung up, the element combating the Russian influence took advantage of the presence of Dr. Jaisohn and other Koreans who had been educated abroad. The Russians seemed to look with complacency upon this movement, and in the spring of this year seem to have made no effort to prevent the appointment of J. McLeavy Brown, LL.D., as Adviser to the Finance Department, with large powers; which seemed to bear out the belief that the Russian minister was sincere in his statement that Russia wished the King to be quite untrammelled in the administration of his government. It is this generous policy of Mr. Waeber that is believed to have caused his transfer later to another post, to be replaced by A. de Speyer, who adopted a very different policy. However this may have, been, things began to take on a very hopeful aspect in Seoul. Needed reforms were carried through; torture was abolished in the Seoul courts; a concession was given to an American company to construct a railway between Seoul and Chemulpo ; Min Yongwhan was appointed special envoy to the coronation of the Czar ; work was begun on the American mining concession granted the year before, various schools were founded, and the outlook on the whole was very bright indeed. It looked as if a solution had been found for the difficulties that afflicted the state, and that an era of comparatively enlightened government was opening.
For some time there had existed a more or less secret organisation among the Koreans, the single article of whose political creed was independence both from China and Japan, or, in other words, " Korea for Koreans." Now that the King had been relieved of Chinese suzerainty by the Japanese and of Japanese restraint by himself, this little society, under the leadership of Dr.
Philip Jaisohn, blossomed out into what was called The Independence Club. The name but partially described the society, for, 
TWO OF THE FOREIGN LEGATIONS IN KOREA
The top picture is the Russian and the lower the British Legation
This club society was composed of young men, many of whom were doubtless aroused for the time being to something like patriotic fervour, but who had had no practical experience of the rocky road of Korean politics or of the obstacles which would be encountered. The cordiality of the King's recognition blinded them to the fact that the real object of their organisation, namely, the definition of the royal prerogative, was one that must eventually arouse first the suspicion and then the open hostility of his Majesty, and would become the slogan of all that army of self-seekers who saw no chance for self-aggrandisement except in the immemorial spoils system. These young men were armed with nothing but a laudable enthusiasm. They could command neither the aid of the Korean army nor the advocacy of the older statesmen, all of whom were either directly hostile to the movement or had learned caution through connection with previous abortive attempts to stem the tide of official corruption. The purpose of this club, so far as it knew its own mind, was a laudable one in theory, but the amount of persistency, courage, tact and self-restraint necessary to carry the plan to a successful issue was so immensely greater than they could possibly guess that, considering the youth and inexperience of the personnel of the society, the attempt was doomed to failure. They never clearly formulated a constructive plan by which to build upon the ruins of that system which they were bent upon destroying.
On the 7th of April the first foreign newspaper was founded by Dr. Philip Jaisohn. It was called " The Independent," and was partly in the native character. From the first it exerted a powerful influence among the Koreans, and was one of the main factors which led to the formation of the Independence Club.
Both Japan and Russia were desirous of coming to an understanding as to Korea, and on the I4th of May there was published the Waeber-Komura Agreement, which was modified and ratified later under the name of the Lobanoff-Yamagata Agreement. According to the terms of this convention, both powers guaranteed to respect the independence of Korea, and not to send soldiers into the country except by common consent.
The summer of 1896 saw great material improvements in Seoul. The work of clearing out and widening the streets was vigorously pushed, and, although much of the work was done superficially, some permanent improvement was effected, and the " squatters " along the main streets were cleaned out, it is hoped for all time. In July the concession for building a railway between Seoul and Wiju was given to a French syndicate. From subsequent events it appears that there was no fixed determination on the part of the French to push this great engineering work to a finish, but merely to preempt the ground and prevent others from doing it. Russian influence doubtless accomplished this, and from that time there began to spring up the idea that Korea would be divided into two spheres of influence, the Japanese predominant in the south and the Russians in the north.
In spite of the favourable signs that appeared during the early months of 1896, and the hopes which were entertained that an era of genuine reform had been entered upon, the coming of summer began to reveal the hollowness of such hopes. The King himself was strongly conservative, and never looked with favour upon administrative changes, which tended to weaken his personal hold upon the finances of the country, and he chafed under the new order of things. In this he was encouraged by many of the leading officials, who saw in the establishment of liberal institutions the end of their opportunities for personal power and aggrandisement. The old order of things appealed to them too strongly, and it became evident that the government was rapidly lapsing into its former condition of arbitrary and partisan control. Open and violent opposition to such harmless innovations as the wearing of foreign uniforms by the students of foreign language schools indicated too plainly the tendency of the time, and the Russian authorities did nothing to influence his Majesty in the right direction. Judging from subsequent events, it was not Russia's policy to see an enlightened administration in Seoul. The political plans of that power could be better advanced by a return to the status quo ante. The act of the government in substituting an independence arch in place of the former gate, outside the west gate, which commemorated Chinese suzerainty, was looked upon, and rightly, by the more thoughtful as being merely a superficial demonstration which was based upon no deeper desire than that of being free from all control or restraint except such as personal inclination should dictate. The current was setting toward a concentration of power rather than toward a healthful distribution of it, and thus those who had hailed the vision of a new and rejuvenated state were compelled to confess that it was but a mirage.
Pressure was brought to bear upon the court to remove from the Russian legation, and it was high time that such a move be made. As a matter of urgent necessity, it was considered a not too great sacrifice of dignity to go to the legation, but to make it a permanent residence was out of the question. The King was determined, however, not to go back to the palace from which he had fled. It held too many gruesome memories. It was decided to build the Myung-ye Palace in the midst of the foreign quarter with legations on three sides of it. The present King intended it as a permanent residence, and building operations were begun on a large scale, but it was not until February of the following year that his Majesty finally removed from the Russian legation to his new palace. All during the latter half of 1896 the gulf between the independence party and the conservatives kept widening. The latter grew more and more confident and the former more and more determined. Dr. Jaisohn, in his capacity of Adviser to the Council of State, was blunt and outspoken in his advice to his Majesty, and it was apparent that the latter listened with growing impatience to suggestions which, however excellent in themselves, found no response in his own inclinations. The Minister of Education voiced the growing sentiment of the retrogressive faction in a book called " The Warp and Woof of Confucianism," in which such extreme statements were made that several of the foreign representatives felt obliged to interfere and call him to account. A chief of police was appointed who was violently anti-reform. The assassin of Kim Ok-kyun was given an important position under the government.. A man who had attempted the life of Pak Yong-hyo was made Minister of Law, and on all sides were heard contemptuous comments upon the " reform nonsense " of the liberal faction. And yet in spite of this the momentum of the reform movement, though somewhat retarded, had by no means been completely stopped. The summer and autumn of this year, 1896, saw the promulgation of a large number of edicts of a salutary nature, relating to the more systematic collection of the national revenues, the reorganisation of gubernatorial and prefectural systems, the definition of the powers and privileges of provincial officials, the further regulation of the postal system, the definition of the powers of the superintendents of trade in the open ports, the abolition of illegal taxation, and the establishment of courts of law in the various provinces and in the open ports. As many of these reforms survived the collapse of the liberal party, they must be set down as definite results which justify the existence of that party and make its overthrow a matter of keen regret to those who have at heart the best interests of the country.
All this time Russian interests had been cared for sedulously. The King remained in close touch with the legation, and Colonel Potiata and three other Russian officers were put in charge of the palace guard, while Kim Hong-nyuk, the erstwhile watercarrier, continued to absorb the good things in the gift of his Majesty. And yet the Russians with all their power did not attempt to obstruct the plans of the subjects of other powers in Korea. Mr. Stripling, a British subject, was made Adviser to the Police Department ; a mining concession was granted to a German syndicate; an American was put in charge of a normal school ; Dr. Brown continued to direct the work of the Finance Department, and the work on the Seoul Chemulpo Railway was pushed vigorously by an American syndicate. The Russians held in their hands the power to put a stop to much of this, but they appeared to be satisfied with holding the power without exercising it.
The first half of 1897 was characterised by three special features in Korea. The first was a continuance of so-called reforms, all of which were of a utilitarian character. A goldmine concession was given to a German syndicate, a Chinese Language School and other schools were founded and the difficult work of cleaning out the Peking Pass was completed. It was announced that Chinnampo and Mokpo would be opened to trade in the autumn. The second feature was the steady growth of the conservative element which was eventually to resume complete control of the government. As early as May of this year the editor of the Korean Repository said, with truth : " The collapse is as complete as it is pathetic. After the King came to the Russian legation the rush of the reform movement could not be stayed at once nor even deflected. But soon there came the inevitable reaction. Reforms came to be spoken of less and less frequently. There was a decided movement backwards toward the old, well-beaten paths. But it was impossible to re-establish the old order of things entirely. We come then to the period of the revision of laws. Shortly after the King removed to the new palace an edict was put forth ordering the appointment of a Commission for the revision of the laws. This was received with satisfaction by the friends of progress. This Commission contained the names of many prominent men, such as Kim Pyung-si, Pak Chong-yang and Yi Wan-yong, as well as the names of Dr. Brown, General Greathouse, Mr. Legendre and Dr. Jaisohn." But by the I2th of April the whole thing was dropped, and the strong hopes of the friends of Korea were again dashed to the ground. The third feature of this period is the growing importance of Russian influence in Seoul. The training of the Korean army had already been taken out of Japanese hands and given to Russians, and in August thirteen more Russian military instructors were imported. It was plain that Russia meant to carry out an active policy in Korea. Russian admirals, including Admiral Alexeieff, made frequent visits to Seoul, and at last Russia made public avowal of her purposes when she removed Mr. Waeber, who had served her so long and faithfully here, and sent Mr. A. de Speyer to take his place. There was an immediate and ominous change in the tone which Russia assumed. From the very first, De Speyer showed plainly that he was sent here to impart a new vigour to Russo-Korean relations; that things had been going too slow. It is probable that complaints had been made because in spite of Russia's predominating influence at the Korean court concessions were being given to Americans, Germans and others outside. De Speyer soon showed the colour of his instructions and began a course of browbeating, the futility of which must have surprised him. It was on the 7th of September that he arrived, and within a month he had begun operations so actively that he attracted the attention of the world. In the first place he demanded a coaling station at Fusan on Deer Island, which commands the entrance to the harbour. This was a blow aimed directly at Japan and sure to be resented. It came to nothing. Then Mr. Kir Alexeieff arrived from Russia, an agent of the Finance Department in St. Petersburg. In the face of the fact that Dr. Brown was Chief Commissioner of Custom and Adviser to the Finance Department, Mr. Alexeieff was appointed by the Foreign Office as Director of the Finance Department. But the policy of bluff which De Speyer had inaugurated was not a success; he carried it so far that he aroused the strong opposition of other powers, notably England, and before the end of the year, after only three months of incumbency, De Speyer was called away from Seoul. As we shall see, the whole of his work was overthrown in the following spring.
But we must retrace our steps a little and record some other interesting events that happened during the closing months of 1897. It was on the 17th of October that the King went to the Imperial Altar and there was crowned Emperor of Taihan. This had been some time in contemplation, and as Korea was free from foreign suzerainty she hastened, while it was time, to declare herself an empire. This step was recognised by the treaty powers within a short period, and so Korea took her place on an equality with China and Japan.
On the 21st of November the funeral ceremony of the late Queen was held. It was a most imposing pageant. The funeral procession passed at night out of the city to the tomb, where elaborate preparations had been made, and a large number of foreigners assembled to witness the obsequies.
The situation in Korea as the year 1898 opened was something as follows. The Conservatives had things well in hand, and the Independence Club was passing on to its final effort and its final defeat. The work of such men as Dr. Jaisohn was still tolerated; but the King and the most influential officials chafed under the wholesome advice that they received, and it was evident that the first pretext would be eagerly seized for terminating a situation that was getting very awkward for both sides. The reaction was illustrated in an attack on the "Independent," by which the Korean postal department refused to carry it in the mails. The Russians had taken the bull by the horns, and were finding that they had undertaken more than they could carry through without danger of serious complications. The Russian government saw this, and recalled De Speyer in time to preserve much of their influence in Seoul. The Emperor, being now in his own palace, but with easy access to the Russian legation, seems to have lent his voice to the checking of the reform propaganda, and in this he was heartily seconded by his leading officials. The most promising aspect of the situation was the determined attitude of the British government relative to the enforced retirement of Dr. Brown. When it became evident that a scarcely concealed plan was on foot to oust British and other foreigners in Korea, Great Britain by a single word and by a concentration of war-vessels at Chemulpo changed the whole programme of the Russians ; but, as it appeared later, the Russian plans were only changed, not abandoned. So the year opened with things political in a very unsettled state. Everything was in transition. The Independents and the Russians had some idea of what they wanted, but seemed to be at sea as to the means for accomplishing it. The Conservatives alone sat still and held on, sure that in the long run they would triumph even if they could not stop the march of material progress in the cleaning of the streets and the building of railways.
February of 1898 saw the taking off of the most commanding figure in Korean public life during the nineteenth century, in the person of Prince Taiwun, the father of the Emperor, formerly regent. For almost forty years he had been more or less intimately connected with the stirring events which have marked the present reign. The things which specially marked his career are (i) the Roman Catholic persecution of 1866, (2) the determined opposition to the opening of the country to foreign intercourse, (3) the building of the Kyongbok Palace, (4) the debasing of Korean currency, (5) the feud with the Queen's party, (6) the temporary exile in China, (7) the assassination of the Queen. Whatever may be said for or against the prince because of his policy, he remains in the minds of the people a strong, independent character, and they cannot fail to admire the man even though they have to condemn his policy. His adherents stood by him with splendid loyalty even in the hours of his disgrace, because he was in some sense really great.
This time was characterised by curious inconsistencies. At the same time that an edict was promulgated stating that no more concessions would be granted to foreigners, the Seoul Electric Company was organised to construct a tramway and a lighting plant in Seoul. Material improvements continued parallel with, but in the opposite direction from, the policy of the government. An agreement was even entered into with an American firm for the construction of a system of water-works for Seoul at a cost of some seven million yen.
The failing hopes of the Independence Club drove it to its final place, that of protest. Memorials began to pour in, protesting against this and that. In February it complained of foreign control in Korea, directing the attack apparently upon the Russian pretensions; but if so, it was unnecessary, for by the ist of March the Russians decided that their position was untenable, or that a temporary withdrawal of pressure from Seoul would facilitate operations in other directions, and so, under cover of a complaint as to the vacillating policy of the Korean government, they proposed to remove Mr. Alexeieff from his uncomfortable position vis-a-vis Dr. Brown and also take away all the military instructors. Perhaps they were under the impression that this startling proposal would frighten the government into making protestations that would increase Russian influence here; but if so, they were disappointed, for the government promptly accepted their proposition and dispensed with the services of these men. No doubt the government had come to look with some anxiety upon the growing influence of Russia here, and with the same oscillatory motion as of yore made a strong move in the opposite direction when the opportunity came. The Korean government has been nearly as astute as Turkey in playing off her "friends" against each other.
Just one month later, the 12th of April, N. Matunine relieved Mr. de Speyer, the Russo-Korean bank closed its doors, the Russian military and other officers took their departure, and a very strained situation was relieved for the time being.
The summer of this year furnished Seoul with some excitement in the shape of a discovered conspiracy to force the King to abdicate, place the Crown Prince on the throne, and institute a new era in Korean history. The plot, if such it may be called, was badly planned and deservedly fell through. It was one of the foolish moves called out by the excitement engendered in the Independence movement. An Kyung-su, ex-president of the Independence Club, was the party mainly implicated, and he saved himself only by promptly decamping and putting himself into the hands of the Japanese.
August saw the fall of Kim Hong-nyuk, the former Russian interpreter, who ruffled it so proudly at court on account of his connection with the Russian legation. For a year he had a good time of it and amassed great wealth; but when the Russians withdrew their influence in March of this year, Kim lost all his backing, and thenceforward his doom was as sure as fate itself. The genuine noblemen whose honours he had filched were on his track, and in August he was accused, deposed and banished. This did not satisfy his enemies, however; but an opportunity came when, on the 10th of September, an effort was made to poison the Emperor and the Crown Prince. The attempt came near succeeding, and in the investigation which followed one of the scullions deposed that he had been instructed by a friend of Kim Hong-nyuk to put something into the coffee. How Kim, away in banishment, could have had anything to do with it would be hard to tell. He may have conceived the plan, but the verdict of a calm and dispassionate mind must be that he probably knew nothing about it at all. However, in such a case someone must suffer. The criminal must be found; and it is more than probable that those who hated Kim Hong-nyuk thought he would make an excellent scapegoat. He was tried, condemned and executed.
The month of September witnessed better things than these, however. The Japanese obtained their concession for the SeoulFusan Railway, - an event of great importance every way, and one that will mean much to Korea.
In September the Independence Club determined that it would be well to put forward a programme of work in place of the merely destructive criticism which had for some time characterised its policy. An appeal was made to the general public to assemble, in order to suggest reforms. Whether this was wise or not is a question. A popular assembly in Korea is hardly capable of coming to wise conclusions or to participate in plans for constructive statesmanship. In addition to this an appeal to the people was inevitably construed by the Conservatives as a desperate measure which invited revolution. In a sense they were justified in so thinking, for the general populace of Korea never have risen in protest unless the evils under which they are suffering have driven them to the last court of appeal, mob law. The move was in the direction of democracy, and no one can judge that the people of Korea are ready for any such thing.
However this may be, a mass meeting was held at Chong-no, to which representatives of all classes were called. The following articles were formulated and presented to the Cabinet for imperial sanction :
- Neither officials nor people shall depend upon foreign aid, but shall do their best to strengthen and uphold the imperial power.
- All documents pertaining to foreign loans, the hiring of foreign soldiers, the granting of concessions, etc., in fact every document drawn up between the Korean government and a foreign party or firm, shall be signed and sealed by all the Ministers of State and the President of the Privy Council.
- Important offenders shall be punished only after they have been given a public trial and ample opportunity to defend themselves.
- To his Majesty shall belong the power to appoint Ministers, but in case a majority of the Cabinet disapproves of the Emperor's nominee he shall not be appointed.
- All sources of revenue and methods of raising taxes shall be placed under the control of the Finance Department, no other department, officer or corporation being allowed to interfere therewith; and the annual estimates and balances shall be made public.
- The existing laws and regulations shall be enforced without fear or favour.
It will be seen that several of these measures strike directly at powers which have been held for centuries by the King himself, and it cannot be supposed that his Majesty would listen willingly to the voice of the common people when they demanded such far-reaching innovations. The whole thing was utterly distasteful to him, but the united voice of the people is a serious matter. These demands were not such as would involve any immediate changes; they all looked to the future. So it was an easy matter simply to comply with the demands and wait for the public feeling to subside. On the last day of September his Majesty ordered the carrying out of these six propositions.
The trouble was that the Conservatives felt that they had not sufficient physical power to oppose a popular uprising. The temporary concession was made with no idea of real compliance, and was immediately followed by measures for securing a counter demonstration. The instrument selected for this purpose was the old-time Peddlers' Guild. This was a defunct institution, but the name survived, and the Conservatives used it to bring together a large number of men who were ready for any sort of work that would mean pay. These were organised into a company whose duty it was to run counter to all popular demonstrations like those which had just been made. No sooner was this hireling band organised than his Majesty, in pursuance of the hint dropped some months before by the president of the Independence Club, ordered the disbanding of the club. From this time on the Independence Club was no longer recognised by the government, and was an illegal institution, by the very terms of the unfortunate admission of its president that the Emperor could at any time disband it by imperial decree. Mr. Yun Chi-ho had by this time come to see that the club was running to dangerous extremes, and was likely to cause serious harm; and he and others worked with all their power to curb the excitement and secure rational action on the part of the members of the club. But the time when such counsels could prevail had already passed. The club knew that the principles it advocated were correct, and it was angry at the stubborn opposition that it met. It was ready to go to any lengths to secure its ends. Passion took the place of judgment, and the overthrow of the opposition loomed larger in its view than the accomplishment of its rational ambitions.
Instead of dispersing in compliance with the imperial order, the assembled Independents went in a body to the police headquarters and asked to be arrested. This is a peculiarly Korean mode of procedure, the idea being that if put on trial they would be able to shame their adversaries; and incidentally it embarrassed the administration, for the prisons would not suffice to hold the multitude that clamoured for incarceration. The crowd was altogether too large and too determined for the peddlers to attack, and another concession had to be made. The Independents, for it can no longer be called the Independent Club, offered to disperse on condition that they be guaranteed freedom of speech. The demand was immediately complied with; anything to disperse that angry crowd which under proper leadership might at any moment do more than make verbal demands. So on the next day an imperial decree granted the right of free speech. This concession, likewise, was followed by a hurried muster of all the peddlers and their more complete organisation. Backed by official aid and imperial sanction, they were prepared to come to blows with the people who should assemble for the purpose of making further demands upon the Emperor.
The Conservatives now deemed themselves strong enough to try conclusions with the outlawed club, and before daylight of the 5th of November seventeen of the leading men of the Independence Club were arrested and lodged in jail. Mr. Yun, the president, narrowly escaped arrest. It was afterwards ascertained that the plan of the captors was to kill the president of the club before he could receive aid from the enraged people.
When morning came and the arrest became known, the city hummed like a bee-hive. A surging crowd was massed in front of the Supreme Court, demanding loudly the release of the prisoners who had been accused, so the anonymous placards announced, of conspiring to establish a Republic ! Again the popular feeling was too strong for the courage of the peddler thugs, and they remained in the background. The agitation continued all that day and the next and the next, until the authorities were either frightened into submission or, deeming that they had shown the Independents a glimpse of what they might expect, released the arrested men. But the Independents, so far from being cowed, hailed this as a vindication of their policy, and attempted to follow up the defeat of the Conservatives by demanding the arrest and punishment of the people who had played the trick upon the club. As these men were very prominent officials and had the ear of the Emperor, it was not possible to obtain the redress demanded. So the month of November wore away in a ferment of excitement. Popular meetings were frequent, but the crowd had not the determination to come to conclusions with the government. The Conservatives saw this, and with utmost nicety gauged the resisting power of the malcontents. The offensive tactics of the latter were confined merely to free speech, and the Conservatives determined to see what they would do when on the defensive. Accordingly on the morning of the 2ist of November a band of ruffians, the so-called peddlers, attacked the people who had gathered, as usual, to discuss the stirring questions of the times. Weapons were used, and a number of people were injured. The Independents had never contemplated the use of force, and this brutal assault aroused the ire of the whole people, most of whom had not as yet taken sides. Serious handto-hand fights occurred in various parts of the city, and the peddlers, conscious that even their most murderous attacks would be condoned in high places, attempted to whip the people into something like quietude.
On the 26th of November, in the midst of this chaotic state of things, the Emperor granted a great general audience outside the great gate of the palace. The Independence Club was there in force, and foreign representatives and a large number of other foreign residents. It was a little Runnymede, but with a different ending. Yun Chi-ho was naturally the spokesman of the Independence party. He made a manly and temperate statement of the position of his constituents. He denounced the armed attacks of the peddlers upon people who intended no violence but only desired the fulfilment of solemnly made pledges. He called to account those who imputed to the Independence Club traitorous designs. He urged that the legal existence of the club should be again established by imperial decree, and that the six measures so definitely and distinctly promised by his Majesty should be carried out. There was no possible argument to oppose to these requests, and the Emperor promised to shape the policy of the government in line with these suggestions. Again it was mere promise, made to tide over an actual and present difficulty. The Independence party should have recognised this. The Emperor was surrounded by men inimical to the reform programme ; they had the police and the army back of them as well as the peddlers. The Independence party had not a single prominent representative in any really responsible and influential government office. They simply had right and the precarious voice of Korean popular feeling behind them. What was necessary was a campaign of education. The programme advocated was one that could be carried out only under a government whose personnel was at least approximately up to the standard of that programme. This could be claimed of only two or three members of the Independence Club. Having secured this public promise of his Majesty, the club should have waited patiently to see what would happen, and if the promises were not kept they should have waited and worked for a time when public sentiment among the leading men would 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, perhaps because she saw the approach of her inevitable struggle with Russia, and was not willing to hasten matters by coming into premature conflict with the northern power in Korea, pending the completion of her preparations for the supreme struggle.
Through all this period Russian influence was quietly at work securing its hold upon the Korean court and upon such members of the government as it could win over. The general populace was always suspicious of her, however, and always preferred the rougher hand of Japan to the soft but heavy hand of Russia. The progress of the Russian plans was illustrated when, in January of 1899, a Mission of the Greek Church was established in Seoul.
Before going forward into the new century we should note some of the more important material advances that Korea had made. Railway concessions for some six hundred miles of track had been granted, half to Japanese and half to a French syndicate ; several new and important ports had been opened, bringing the total number up to ten, inclusive of Seoul and Pyeng-yang; mining concessions had been given to Americans, English, Germans, French and Japanese, two of which had proved at least reasonably successful; timber and whaling concessions had been given to Russians on the east side of the peninsula, and important fishing rights had been given to the Japanese; an attempt at a general system of education had been made throughout the country, and the work of publishing text-books was being pushed ; students were sent abroad to acquire a finished education, and legations at all the most important political centres were established; an attempt at a better currency had been made, though it was vitiated by official corruption and the operations of counterfeiters; trade had steadily increased, and the imports and exports of Korea passed beyond the negligible stage; an excellent postal system had been inaugurated under foreign supervision, and Korea had entered the Postal Union.
Thus it will be seen that, in spite of all domestic political complications and discouragements, the country was making definite advance along some lines. The leaven had begun to work, and no conservatism on the part of the public leaders could stop the ferment.
The necrology of the closing year of the century contains the names of Mr. Legendre and Mr. Greathouse, the latter of whom, as Legal Adviser to the government, did excellent work in his department, and was recognised by his employers as an able and efficient man in his official capacity.