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oppression of the local Governors, who had obtained their appointments by giving high bribes, and intended to pay themselves back by squeezing every penny out of the pockets of the people they governed. These discontented people were anti-foreign, because in their eyes the vices of Corean officialism were due to the corruption of good morals by contact with the foreigners—i.e., Japanese most of all. They formed themselves into bands with the following reactionary motto. ‘Reorganize society on the principle of Confucian virtue. Restore the right way by driving out the Japanese barbarians. Enter Seoul with armed force and exterminate the nobles and the officials. Re-establish moral order according to the teachings of the Chinese sage.’ Towards the end of May an army of several hundred men sent out by the Central Government suffered ignominious defeat, and the enraged populace now marched against defenceless Seoul from all directions. The terror-stricken Government of the Bin party asked China for aid, and Li-Hung-Chang despatched an army of 1,600 men under Sho-shi-sho, and two men-of-war commanded by Admiral Tei-jo-sho (Ting). In fulfilment of the Treaty of Tientsin the Chinese Government notified the matter to our Government on the 7th of June, 1894, but in the note produced by the Chinese Minister in Tokyo Corea was called the ‘protectorate’ of China in one place, and her ‘dependency’ in another. The Japanese Government at once retorted that they had never recognised China’s claim to ‘protection’ or ‘suzerainty’ over Corea, and, mobilizing the 6th Division, hastily sent out a mixed brigade under General Oshima to Corea. The Japanese army entered Seoul while the Chinese army was still in the province, and the Japanese Minister Otosi forced the King of Corea to ask the aid of Japan in driving out the Chinese army threatening her independence, and thus was begun the war between Japan and China, the course of which need not be retold here.

By the Peace of Shimonoseki, China formally recognised the independence of Corea, and thus the question of Corea was at last solved.

After the war, Russia, France, and Germany objected to Japan’s annexing the Liao-tong peninsula on the ground that such annexation was dangerous to the peace of the Extreme Orient. The Emperor of Japan listened to the seemingly well-intentioned advice of the three Powers, and retroceded the Peninsula sans condition. But why, it may be asked, did not the Japanese diplomats obtain from the intervening Powers assurance that they, too, would never attempt to annex the peninsula under any form or pretext whatever? The case was as follows: The intervention of the three Powers began