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for satisfaction. After closely listening to the arguments of each present, the Emperor decided on the sending of a peaceful mission to Corea, and entrusted the management of the whole affair to Inouye. The Minister for Foreign Affairs immediately called together the Ministers of the Powers represented in Tokyo, and reading to them the telegram from Hanabusa, and acquainting them with the intention of the Imperial Government, asked them whether, in their opinion, they regarded Corea to be an independent State or not. They all answered that in their views Corea was an independent State. Satisfied with this answer, Inouye immediately set out for Nagasaki, and, giving minute instructions to Hanabusa, sent him out to Corea under the escort of three men-of-war and 800 men. Major-General Takashima and Rear-Admiral Nire were to start after him with 1,150 men.

But between the coup d’état of the 23rd of July and the second arrival of Hanabusa in special mission for demanding satisfaction, a new factor had made its appearance in Seoul. The Queen’s party, suddenly deprived of their power by the party of Tai-in-kun, had applied to China for aid through their partisans, Kin-in-shoku and Gio-in-chiu, who had found themselves in China at the time of the coup d’état, and Li-Hung-Chang immediately gave orders to General Go-cho-kei, Colonel En-sei-gai, and Admiral Tei-jo-sho to proceed to Corea with land and sea forces. The very name of China inspired awe and reverence in the heart of all the Coreans, and Tai-in-kun was not only powerless to resist interference of the suzerain Power, but was even inclined to seek its aid in facing the storm that was sure to arrive from the side of Japan.

Hanabusa arrived in Ninsen on the 12th of August, 1882, and, despite the earnest demands of the Coreans to enter Seoul without escort, or to postpone his entry till proper buildings for the quartering of soldiers could be provided, proceeded to Yokwazin, within an hour’s march of the capital, on the 16th. Here he was again asked to stop for three days in a villa belonging to Tai-in-kun, and the various Corean officials came and went with all sorts of pretexts, intended to make him postpone entrance into the city, but Hanabusa disregarded them. When he marched up to the capital, he already saw superior Chinese forces posted around the four gates, and understood for the first time what the remonstrances of the Corean officers meant. They either waited for instructions from Li-Hung-Chang, or wished to give the Chinese forces time to post themselves in advantageous positions. They now freely spoke of the chief Ministers visiting the Chinese men-of-war, and not being able to receive the Japanese Minister immediately.