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their former nationality. By the sixth article Russia agrees to confer the following advantages to Japan in recognition of Japan’s readiness to cede the whole of Sakhalin to Russia: (1) Japanese ships entering the port of Korsakov shall be exempt from Customs tariff and harbour duties for ten years, and the Japanese Government shall have the right of appointing Consul in the said port. (2) Japanese vessels and merchants shall enjoy all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the vessels and merchants of the most favoured nation in regard to fishing and navigation in harbours of the Okhotsk Sea and along the coast of Kamtchatka. The seventh and the eighth articles refer to the Vice-Admiral’s full powers, which were first given by telegram, and to the exchange of ratifications, which was to take place within six months of the signing.

If the loss of Sakhalin were regrettable, we have at least this consolation, that the treaty of 1875 was drawn up in a spirit of perfect equality, and in terms quite honourable to Japan, whose position then differed much from the position she now occupies.

At the time the ratifications of the Enomoto-Gortchakoff treaty of 1875 were exchanged in Tokyo, in October of the same year, the Corean question was once more agitating the Japanese public. The Corean King had attained his majority in 1874, and assumed control of the Government; but having a weak will, and falling entirely under the influence of his far more strong-willed Queen, her relatives—the members of the Bin family—rose to power. The newly-formed Bin Cabinet was opposed to the policy of the late Regent and King’s father, Tai-in-kun, of anti-foreign seclusion and animosity to Japan. In 1875, however, Tai-in-kun regained power, and anti-foreign agitation soon gained full motion.

On the 20th of September, 1875, the Japanese man-of-war Unyokwan was stationed at the mouth of the river Han, and the officers and men were engaged in surveying the coast, when the fort of Eiso, at the entrance of the port of Ninsen, opened fire on them. The next day the Japanese man-of-war bombarded the fort, landed a body of marines, and, attacking the garrison of Eiso, seized thirty-eight cannon and killed or wounded as many Coreans.

When the news reached Tokyo, the cry for war with Corea was again very loud, and Soyejima advised Lord Iwakura from his retirement that a decisive step should now be taken. But just at this time the leading Councillors were divided