Before leaving Seoul I ventured to send to His Imperial Majesty of Korea, through one of his most intimate, devoted, and consistent friends of long standing, a message that should embody some of my impressions regarding his own best interests and the essential conditions for the future welfare of his country. I had already frequently addressed his people with great plainness, relying upon an implied confidence in the sincerity of their monarch’s words, spoken at the time of my audience at the Court. It will be remembered (see p. 46) that the Emperor had then said: “He was glad to learn I had come to instruct his people in right ways”; “he hoped they would open their minds to enlightenment and to modern ideas”; he wished “my addresses would contribute to their progress.” The speaker had, therefore, not only royal permission but that request, which, according to the etiquette of this and other Eastern courts, is the equivalent of a command, when he warned his Korean audiences that the real prosperity of their country could not be obtained by intrigue and assassination, but only by cultivating the industries and arts, by improving education, and by regulating their conduct according to the unchanging principles of a pure morality and a truly spiritual religion. Moreover, it should be remembered that, while Oriental monarchs are accustomed to think of themselves as entitled to rule without regard to constitutional restrictions and in defiance of control by any legal code, the Confucian ethics requires them to submit patiently to rebuke and exhortation, on moral grounds. It also exalts the position of the teacher of practical philosophy (or ethics) to the highest rank in the service of the State. Nor had I forgotten the earnest words of the aged Japanese physician at a banquet held on the evening of the preceding 11th of February, in the city of Osaka, by which the one hundred and fifty leading citizens assembled there were reminded that, when the ancient Oriental teacher and the modern teacher from the West agree in the doctrine—“It is righteousness which exalteth a nation”—their agreement is significant of the important conclusion that the doctrine is true. It did not seem improper, therefore, to call his Majesty’s attention to the rocks just ahead, directly for which, under the piloting of evil domestic and foreign counsellors, he was steering the ship of State.

The message emphasized especially the following particulars. Inasmuch as Japan had already fought one internal and two foreign wars, at a cost of millions of treasure and thousands of lives, on account of the political weakness and misrule of Korea, it could not possibly, with a wise regard either for its own interests or for those of the Korean people themselves, allow the repetition of similarly disastrous events. The two nations must learn to live together in amity and with their common interests guarded against invasion and injury from without. History had amply shown that this end could not be secured under existing conditions by Korea alone. The most sacred obligations, not only of self-interest, but also of a truly wise regard for the Emperor and his subjects, bound the Japanese Government to establish and maintain its protectorate over Korea.

Further: no foreign nation, least of all my own, whose constitution and traditional practice forbade such a thing, was at all likely to intervene between Japan and Korea. Those counsellors who had led him to hope for such intervention were deceiving him; and the money which he had contributed to their schemes was not simply spent in vain; it was beguiled from him to his own hurt and to the great injury of his own people, who needed that every yen of it should be judiciously expended upon developing the resources of the country and improving their own material condition.

From these points of view, which had regard chiefly, or even solely, to the interests of the crown and the Korean nation, I regarded the Resident-General as Korea’s best friend; and also—if the Emperor would have it so—his own best friend. Of Marquis Ito’s sincere and intelligent interest in Korea, no one who knew him could have the slightest doubt; the Emperor must see that the Marquis, as Resident-General, was in a position of power. To act truthfully and sincerely in his relations with this powerful friend, and to co-operate with his endeavors at the improvement of the national condition, would, then, be his own best way to secure for his people “instruction in right ways,” “the opening of their minds to enlightenment and modern ideas,” and an effective “contribution to their progress.”

Moreover, it must be remembered that there had been for centuries, and there were still, two parties in Japan, with reference to the proper treatment of Korea. One was the party which favored friendship between the two countries and a peaceful development of the interests so important to them both; the other was the party of the strong hand, which was always urging the immediate application of the most drastic measures. If it seemed desirable at any time for Japan to do so, the latter party was ready for subjugation of the country by the military and for putting it under military control. Marquis Ito had always been one of the foremost leaders of the party of peace; he had indeed risked not only his reputation as a far-seeing statesman, but even his personal safety and his life, in behalf of the peaceful policy. Let His Majesty carefully reflect upon what it would mean for him and for his country for the present peaceful plans of the Japanese Government, under the present Resident-General, to prove unavailing for their difficult task.

But if His Majesty continued to fail of an appreciation of the real situation, if he persisted in trusting those who were deceiving him with vain hopes and robbing him and the nation of its resources and its opportunity, I had the gravest fears that ruin would follow for him and for his house; and then great increase of trouble for the people of the land. All this I wished to say to him, not at all as a politician or as a diplomat, but as a teacher of morals and an observer of human affairs. Nor did I speak on account of my friendship for Marquis Ito simply; and not at all by His Excellency’s instigation or request. I was moved by a sincere desire to see Korea really prosperous and, if it might be so, to contribute in some small way to the instruction, enlightenment, and progress of its people.

This message was in due time faithfully transmitted to the Emperor of Korea, and was listened to with attention and apparently with the same friendly spirit with which it was sent. Its reception was followed by the “sincere (?) promise to heed its injunctions and with a protestation of respect and affection for Marquis Ito.” This is His Majesty’s habit when he is not excited for the moment by the passions of anger or fear. “In at one ear and out at the other”—such is the description which those who have had most experience with this monarch testify as to the real effect upon him of all such advice. If any honest intention is ever really formed to keep the promises, to be true to the protestations and pledges made on such occasions, it is habitually scattered to the winds by the next impure breath which blows upon him. A master of intrigue himself (an intrigue of the Korean type which combines as, perhaps, nowhere else in the world the unmixed elements of a tenuous subtlety and a fatuous silliness), the Emperor of Korea is also the victim and willing subject of intriguing eunuchs, concubines, sorceresses, Yang-bans, and unscrupulous and unsavory foreign adventurers. From his point of view, his missionary physician is his spy; and, from the same point of view, the guest of Marquis Ito was, as a matter of course, suspected of being a spy—in the one case in behalf of, in the other case against, his cherished interests. And these interests are not the welfare of his country, or even those more important and lasting interests that concern his own crown and the perpetuation of the royal house. They are sensuous and personal. Yet this complex character is truthfully described as amiable, kindly by preference, and ready to smile upon and give gifts to all. But this, too, is a problem which requires further consideration, as one of interest from the psychologist’s point of view not only, but also and chiefly, from the point of view which regards the social and political relations of Japan and Korea. At the time my message was delivered, and even before it was sent, the fatal mistake of sending a Commission to The Hague had been made. In the case of monarchs and of nations, as in the case of common folk—individuals and communities—there are promises sincerely made, but made too late, and penitence which follows but does not anticipate and prevent the last fatal consequences of years of folly and of crime.

To these results of my observations in Korea the following particulars should be added in this place. As has just been indicated, one of the strongest and most fixed impressions made was that of the well-nigh hopeless corruption of the Korean Court. Of intrigue and corruption there is doubtless enough in all courts, especially in those of Oriental countries. Nor are these evils by any means absent from the political centres of Republican Governments, whether of the national or local character. But the intrigue and corruption of the Korean Court are of a peculiarly despicable and, indeed, intolerable character. The premises in which it is housed at present are entirely lacking in any appearance of dignity; are, indeed, almost squalid. In a commonplace brick building were lodged the Emperor, the Crown Prince, Lady Om, the little Prince her son, and an innumerable number of court officials, court ladies, and eunuchs. The Cabinet Ministers in attendance during the night await the Imperial pleasure in a Korean house near the courtyard, in rooms hardly larger than horse-stalls. At times the contents of the cesspools, in close proximity to the main palace gates, offend both eyes and nose. So often as the rigorous inspection of the foreign lady in control of such affairs is relaxed, the filth in the apartments themselves begins to accumulate. Gifts to His Majesty, in value all the way from expensive screens to baskets of fruit, are appropriated by the court rabble to their own uses. Dishes, and even chairs, are often stolen by the lackeys and coolies at the Imperial garden-parties. Yet there is a marvellous display of gorgeous uniforms worn by the court functionaries; and these functionaries are numerous enough to cover all the usual bureaus, ceremonies, decorations, and offices really existing or imaginary, with the customary crowd of masters of ceremony and chamberlains thought needful for the courts of the largest and wealthiest nations. At the time of the disbandment of the army, thirty generals and only ten colonels constituted the corps of officers in command.

All these appointments have hitherto been dependent on the “gracious favor” of His Majesty and have been dispensed without regard to moral character or any form of fitness, or to the real interests of the nation. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that they have often been sold to those who offered the highest percentage of squeezes for the outstretched royal hand. To secure them, access to the ear of the Emperor is indispensable in most cases. Not a few of the most low-lived and unscrupulous of his subjects and of foreigners have been recipients of royal favors in this way. To quote the words of one who knows: “Now it was the interpreter of a foreign legation, now a common police spy, now a minister or ex-minister of State, and now some comparatively humble member of the Imperial entourage. The soothsayers, geomancers, and others of that ilk, were always present, and frequently influential in devising grotesque schemes which spelled profit to themselves and to other hangers-on of the court. But the most constant influence at court of late years was that exercised by some of the eunuchs. Among these, the chief eunuch Kang, was probably the most powerful. He grew rich upon the perquisites of office, and would undoubtedly be flourishing still, had it not been for the famous house-cleaning which the-court underwent some time ago. He then fled, and report has it (seemingly with good reason) that he was harbored nearly two weeks for a substantial consideration, in the house of a foreigner connected in a subordinate capacity with an American business concern. When in his heyday he exercised great personal influence with the Emperor, and there are well authenticated instances of cabinet ministers having bribed him in order to secure access to the Imperial presence.”

It should also be remembered that this state of things in the Court of Korea was not at all in spite of the Emperor, but was rather of his own choosing. Indeed, his character and habit of conducting his Imperial office was the principal effective reason for the perpetuation of such corruption. The signs of this stream of evil influence are by no means all concealed. Every day of my stay in Seoul I was witness to the line of jinrikishas, and the procession of pedestrians—many of a by no means prepossessing appearance—along the lane on which stands the gate through which those seeking audience were passing in to the palace enclosure. As to foreigners who, in person, are introduced to the Emperor, the Japanese Government had then a practically efficient control. But for Korean subjects, and for foreigners using Koreans to further their schemes, there was at that time still abundant access. And the number of those who visited this “prisoner in his palace” was frequently advertised in the daily news as counted by scores and by hundreds. To leave his “prison” and go out upon the streets of Seoul otherwise than on those rare ceremonial occasions when everything is prepared beforehand, would have been for His Majesty to break with the etiquette of centuries. Now, however, that the Japanese are in much more complete control, the freedom of the Emperor’s movements is greatly enlarged.

I shall not easily forget how the contrast between the new forces of spiritual uplift and the old forces of intellectual and moral degradation came over me, as I was present one Sunday at the morning service of the Methodist church, which stands just across the way from the palace enclosure. The combined congregations gathered here numbered an audience of more than one thousand, nearly one half of which were children. Bishop Ross preached a short and simple sermon, Dr. Jones interpreting. Several of the American delegates to the great missionary Conference in China, on their way homeward, were present, surprised and rejoicing in the size and enthusiasm of the Korean multitude of hearers. The girls from one of the schools patronized by Lady Om (whose true history is told in Mr. Angus Hamilton’s book, and who is now euphemously styled the “Emperor’s consort”), which had recently been complained of by the English edition of the Korean Daily News for “being used to foster allegiance to Japan,” were singing “I surrender all to Jesus.” But what was then being done a few yards distant, just over the palace wall, where were living a collection of as vulgar, ignorant, corrupt, and murderous men and women as were to be found anywhere in so-called “heathendom”?

How the intrigue and deceitfulness, combined with weakness, of the Korean Emperor and his Korean and foreign friends, terminated with the commission to The Hague Peace Conference is now a matter of history. As such, it demands a further study in its historical origins and historical setting.

The impression which I received as to the capacity and character of the Korean official and Yang-ban (or “gentry”) class was, on the whole, not reassuring in regard to their real willingness or ability to inaugurate and support governmental and industrial reforms in Korea. It is indeed difficult for one born and fostered under an Occidental—and, perhaps, especially an American—system of civilization justly to appreciate the institutions and the personal characteristics of the men of the Orient. Of this difficulty I had had an initial experience on my first visit to Japan fifteen years ago. Repeated visits to Japan, and intimate intercourse with Japanese of various classes, together with painstaking observation of the people, had enabled me to overcome this difficulty to a considerable extent, so far as the Land of the Rising Sun is concerned. But, as has already been indicated, Old Japan was really more like Mediæval Europe in many of its most essential psychological and social characteristics, than like either modern India, or China, or Korea. A winter spent in travel and lecturing rather widely over India was of more important service in coming to an understanding of the upper classes in Korea. This, too, is insufficient for a standard of comparison. With the high-caste Hindu a Westerner of reflective mind will, of course, have many intellectual interests in common. With the Korean Yang-ban, except in the very rarest cases, there can be no common interests of this kind. The problems of life and destiny, the Being of God, the constitution of the universe, the fundamental principles of ethics, politics, and law are of little concern to him. It is doubtful, indeed, whether it has ever dawned upon his mind that there are such questions worthy of patient consideration by the reflective powers. A few, but a few only—such, at any rate, was the impression made upon me—have a genuine, unselfish, and fairly intelligent sentiment of patriotism as distinguished from a desire to use office and influence for the promotion of their own self-interested ends. And these few—even that still smaller number who to the sentiment of patriotism add manly courage, strength of purpose, and readiness to suffer—are incapable of combining their forces so as to carry through in their own land any policy to secure the most imperatively needed reforms. After discussing this matter repeatedly with one of Korea’s most appreciative and respected foreign friends, I forced him to this admission: namely, there were not, then, so far as he knew, two leaders of men in all Korea who could come together, trust each other, agree together, and stand together, to fight and work for the good of their country to the bitter end. Moreover, had it been possible to find two, or even twenty, such strong and trusted political leaders, under his late Majesty and the unpurged court of his rule, the reformers could not have escaped exile or assassination, so far as Majesty and Court were permitted to have their own way. Indeed, it was during all that spring only the determined purpose of the Japanese Government, as administered by Marquis Ito, that made possible the inauguration and progress of any measure of reform. It was the same wise policy that stood between the Emperor and a fate similar to that endured by his royal consort at dawn of October 8, 1895. And only after his friend, the Resident-General, hoping for a long time against the repeated violation of the grounds of hope, had reached the sad conclusion that the Emperor’s “disease was incurable,” and that the vital interests of Korea as well as of Japan demanded the termination of his unfortunate and disgraceful career, did the event take place. Even then, however, it was forced by his own cabinet ministers.

As to the general character of the administration of the magistrates throughout the country of Korea, in the winter and spring of 1906 and 1907, there can be no difference of intelligent opinion. It was essentially the same which it had been for hundreds of years. With rare exceptions, which were liable to make the magistrate suspected and traduced to the Emperor and his court, the local jurisdiction in Korea was a system of squeezes and acts of oppression, capable of classification only under two important specific differences. These differences were, first, the marks of strength and corruption combined with cruelty, and, second, of weakness and corruption without obvious cruelty. The following extracts from the Korean Daily News—the paper which (with its native edition) Mr. Hulbert and Mr. Bethell, its editor, were employing to excite foreign and native opposition to the Japanese—are only a small number of the items of news on which this impression was based:

It must not be supposed that these instances of disturbance in the provinces are rare and selected from a long period of time. Indeed, fully one-half as many instances, illustrative of the condition of things prevalent in the country districts of Korea as have been given above, might have been taken from single issues of this morning paper. So true is this that its daily column headed “Local News and Comment,” called out an ironical article from the Japanese semi-official paper, the Seoul Press, entitled “Speak Well of Your Friends.” In this article was the assertion: “A digest of its issues (i. e., of the Korean Daily News) for one month, as far as they relate to the Koreans, would indicate that outside Seoul every third Korean was a bandit, while in Seoul every other man was either a traitor or corrupt. This hardly appears to be the way to establish a good reputation for the Koreans.” One needs, however, to know only a little as to the proper reading between the lines, in order to discover that the real reason why there was a dearth of good news, of importance enough to print, in this anti-Japanese paper was this: almost all such items would have accrued to the credit of the Japanese Administration. Such items would, therefore, bring into too strong contrast, to suit these foreign friends of Korea, the traditional ways and results of the Korean Government and the already manifest effects of the reforms that were being carried through by the Resident-General and his Japanese and Korean helpers.

The news from the country, as given by the pro-Japanese press did not differ from that given by this anti-Japanese paper from which extracts have already been made. The former, however, dwelt much more upon the changes for the better which were being accomplished, chiefly at Seoul, but also in other cities and even in the country districts. The following extracts, selected from a number of similar items, will show this statement to be true. Says the Seoul Press:

Still another item from the Seoul Press narrates a similar experience:

All this, and similar experiences, as well as the history of the Korean people for two thousand years, raises the serious question of the possibility of a truly national redemption. Both before and during my visit to Seoul I was given to understand by foreign residents, Japanese and European, that the case of the nation is hopeless; their whole social and political system is decadent; they are an effete race, destined to give way before the invasion of members from any more vigorous race. But Marquis Ito evidently entertained no such view. It was the Korean nation which he desired to rescue and to lift up—whether with, or without, the consent and assistance of their Emperor and his court. Of the same opinion with the Marquis were the missionaries. Many of these were extravagant in their praises of the native characteristics of their converts, and not only sincerely attached to them, but also confident of their capacity for educational advancement and moral and social reform. To be sure, when asked more particularly as to what were the precise traits of character which encouraged these hopes and elicited this affection, and when reminded how almost universal had been the confessions, recent and still going on among the native Christians, of long-continued indulgence in the vices of lying, dishonesty, and impurity, there was no altogether satisfactory answer to be given. The grounds for praise were usually exhausted when the amiable and affectionate nature of the Korean had been duly emphasized. To increase my distrust of the view held by the missionaries, were the facts gained in conversation with others who had been witnesses to the actions of the excited Korean populace; who had seen Korean officials that had offended this populace, or had been the object of some trumped-up charge circulated by their political rivals and enemies, beaten, jumped upon, smashed, torn limb from limb by their “gentle” and “amiable” fellow-countrymen. Nor were these things done in remote country-places, but in Seoul itself, near the Great Bell in the neighborhood of Song-do. I had also heard from the lips of Mr. Morris, manager of the Seoul Electric Railway, the story of how, at three o’clock in the morning of the night of May 27, 1900, he had been called out of bed and, accompanied by an escort of Japanese soldiers, taken to the prison near the Little West Gate to view the bodies of An Kyun Soo and Kwan Yung Chin. These were reformers who had been cajoled through promises of fair treatment by the smiling Emperor and his officials to return from exile in Japan; whereupon they had been foully murdered. Was one to share the “shivery feeling” with which Mr. Morris passed between the rows of instruments of torture to view the red marks of the cord with which these patriots had been strangled; or was one to trust the estimate of their Christian teachers regarding the mild and lovable disposition of the native Koreans? There was also the glimpse into the smouldering fires of hatred and cruelty, mingled with cowardice and hypocrisy, which I had myself had during the visit to Pyeng-yang. And there were the unceasing daily items of both the pro- and the anti-Japanese papers, to which reference has already been made. Finally, there was the fact that these characteristics of the Korean populace were historical, and were chiefly in evidence among themselves, in their relations toward their own countrymen rather than directed toward foreigners, even including the Japanese. Out of this confusion of witnesses there slowly emerged the conclusion that the mixture of good and bad needed itself to be historically explained; therefore, neither the denunciations of the one party nor the praises of the other could afford to the observer the sufficient reasons for a just judgment of the native character. It is, indeed, on the whole, just now rather more despicable than that of any other people whom I have come to know. But it is not necessarily beyond redemption. At any rate, here is another question which needs illumining in the whiter and broader light of history.

The impressions gained as to the Koreans—Emperor, Court, Yang-bans, and populace—were, of course, intimately associated with the impressions formed as to the nature and efficiency of the forces chiefly at work for the reform and uplift of the nation. Such reforming and uplifting forces are undoubtedly these two: the personality of the Resident-General, assisted in his work by the official corps under him, and supported by the Government of His Imperial Majesty of Japan; and the Christian missionaries. What impressions, then, seemed warranted by my observations as to the soundness and efficacy of these two forces?

As to the sincerity of Marquis Ito in his self-sacrificing and arduous task of effecting a reformed condition, industrially and politically, of the Korean nation, no shadow of doubt ever arose in my own mind. But this is a relatively small and unimportant thing to say. It is more instructive as to the truth to notice that his sincerity was, so far as I am aware, never questioned by any one, not even by those most hostile to his policy, except in an obviously ignorant and hypocritical way. The extreme military party of Japan, the advocates of the strong hand and of immediate forcible annexation, as well as anti-Japanese missionaries and other foreigners, and even that Korean officialdom which always has so much difficulty in believing that any one in office can be sincere—all these, as soon as ignorant prejudice became but partially enlightened, ceased to bring the charge of self-seeking and deceit against the Resident-General. For he had unmistakably affirmed, both privately and publicly, to his own countrymen, to the Koreans, and to the world, that it was his intention to do all that in his power lay for the betterment of the condition of the Korean people themselves. When His Korean Majesty, who had not only repeatedly violated his most solemn treaty obligations, but had also, with frequent prevarications, falsehoods, and treachery, broken his equally solemn promises to the man who was far more unselfishly interested in the welfare of Korea than was its ruler, involved himself in sore trouble, he, too, turned to the Marquis Ito for advice and help. That even the insincere Korean Emperor and his corrupt Court believed in the sincerity of the Resident-General I have abundant reason to know.

It was not the sincerity of Marquis Ito, however, which made most impression upon the leading people of Seoul; it was rather the qualities of patience, pity, and gentleness. Such are, indeed, not usually the mental attitudes of the diplomat or politician toward those who are intriguing, or otherwise actively endeavoring to defeat his cherished plans. It should not be forgotten that less than a year before, during the absence of the Resident-General, a plot had been formed which involved his assassination; and that this plot had been traced to those who had the entrée of the Palace, in despite of their well-known bad character, and some of whom were the recognized Korean associates of the men whose “services” to the Korean Emperor terminated in the commission to the Peace Conference at The Hague. Of those Korean officials who were most opposed to the Japanese Protectorate, the Marquis was ready to say that he sympathized with them in their desire for the perfect independence of their country; nor did he blame them for their struggles to bring about this result so long as their way was free from lying, robbery, and murder. But the witness of history he regarded as unimpeachable proof of the incapacity of the Korean ruling classes to lift up, or to rule well their own country; unaided, they could never effect the reformation of existing industrial and social evils. Japan, the Far East, and the interests of the civilized world forbade their being longer permitted to disturb the peaceful relations of foreign nations. In this connection the Marquis once spoke of the difficulty which he experienced in preventing his own countrymen from themselves degenerating in character under the morally depressing influences of Korea. These influences had, in his judgment, been more or less effective in the case of most foreigners—diplomats and missionaries included—who had lived for a long time in Seoul. “I tell them,” said he, “you must not become Koreans; you are here to raise the Koreans up, and you cannot do this if you sink down to their level.” At a small dinner party, at the house of one of the foreign consuls, the Resident-General spoke more freely than is his custom about his own early life, his observations during his several trips abroad in America, Europe, and Russia, and the ideals which had guided his official career. In this connection, with reference to his present work in Korea, he referred to the expressions of surprise from some of his foreign colleagues, that he could endure so calmly the ways of the Koreans toward him and toward his administrative efforts; but “in truth,” he added, “I have no feelings of anger toward these people; they are so ignorant, they have been so long deprived of all honest and enlightened government, they are so poor and miserable, I am not angry with them. I pity them.”

It will doubtless seem a strange reversal of what many in the United States and elsewhere have been led to believe was true—and certainly it is a strange reversal of what ought to have been true—when I say that the patience and sympathy of Marquis Ito in his relations with the foreign Christian workers in Korea was a surprise to me. The behavior of some of the missionaries and men prominent in the circle of the Young Men’s Christian Association, which was in receipt of a subsidy from the Japanese Government, had been trying indeed. That their professed Korean converts and adherents had used the name of Christian and the Christian organizations for selfish political purposes could not have been wholly avoided. Even the threats of legal proceedings had been unable to prevent this. But that injudicious reports of wrongs, either exaggerated or wholly false, should be sent by private and public letters to the “home country,” while the requests of the Resident-General to learn of these wrongs and to have the opportunity to correct them remained wholly unheeded, constituted a trial to patience which, I am of the opinion, few men in his position would have borne so well. Emphasis was given to this by the fact that some of the most violent and false accusations against the Japanese Government in Seoul were made in papers and books published by authors who were known to be on terms of friendship with foreign religious agencies. Even certain paid attorneys of the Imperial intrigues against the Resident-General were of this connection. To all this it should be added that His Excellency was being severely (although by no means fairly) criticized in his own country for his “excessive” patience toward these teachers of a foreign religion. Excited by the reports which were coming from the United States (see p. 62), one of the respectable Japanese papers of Tokyo (the Yomiuri, in its issue of May 6th) had found it “necessary to examine the past conduct of the American missionaries in Korea.” It expressed profound admiration “for the personality of the Founder of Christianity and high respect for the enthusiasm and devotion of his followers.” But as for those who, “wearing the mask of missionaries ... pander to the native prejudices ... and endeavor to thwart our policy by disseminating baseless rumors and mischievous insinuations, there ought to be no hesitation to deport them out of the country.” “Marquis Ito, as a friend of peace and liberty, has already shown more than sufficient conciliation and patience.”

The story of the better way which Marquis Ito steadily followed, with its unwavering policy of conciliation and patience, and of its success so far as the majority of the more representative and influential of the missionary body is concerned, has already been told in part. For the small number who still refuse to respond to this policy, it is, of course, not deportation by the Japanese Government, but counsel and rebuke from their employers at home, which is the proper remedy. But the impressions of the visitor, who had full measure of the confidence of the leader of one of these two parties who are working for the redemption of Korea, and some good measure of the confidence of certain leaders of the other party, can be given in no other way so well as by quoting the following words from one of their number:

“From the Peninsula,” said Dr. George Heber Jones, in an address to the First General Conference of the Methodist Church in Japan, “we watch with intense interest the development in Japan; for Providence has bound up together the destinies of the two nations. Nationally, a new life opens up before Korea. Japan has sent her veteran statesman to advise and guide Korea, the man to whom in the largest sense Japan owes so much—the most conspicuous statesman in Asia to-day, Marquis Ito. Plans for the reform of the Government, codification of the laws, development of the industry and business of the people, and extension of education, have been formulated, and in a comparatively short time most promising results achieved. In spite of difficulties which necessarily for the present encumber the situation, the outlook is most hopeful. As a church in Korea we deliberately stand aloof from all politics, but find our work, as it relates to the production of strong character, of honest, upright, true men, most intimately related to the regeneration of the nation. The coming ten years promise to be the most eventful in the history of Korea.”

At a tea-party, given in the gardens of Dr. and Mrs. Scranton, at Seoul, where Bishop Cranston, Bishop Harris, Dr. Leonard and Dr. Goucher, were among the non-resident guests, Marquis Ito was present; having arrived somewhat earlier than the appointed hour. After greeting the ladies and gentlemen present, the Marquis spoke as follows:

But the wisdom and firmness of the Resident-General were no less impressive than were the qualities of patience and gentleness. To the student of Korean affairs, of the more recently past and the present relations of the Japanese to the Koreans, it soon becomes patent what is chiefly needed in order to mend the former and to improve the latter. It is first of all the impartial administration of justice, in the way of righting wrongs, so far as this is possible, and of securing the rights of life, liberty, and property; then comes the fostering of education in the industries and arts, and the progressive elevation of the moral and religious condition of the people. At the time of my visit there were numberless claims pending of fraud and violence—not so much of recent occurrence as acts of some months or years old—on the part of Koreans against Koreans, and of Japanese and Koreans against each other. Land had been seized and stolen outright, or fraudulently obtained by forged deeds or under false titles. Foreign promoters were clamoring over privileges and concessions, which were either purchased with some show of fairness or obtained from His Majesty, or from some subject, by partnership with the crowd of Korean official “squeezers.” The weaker race—it was claimed—was oppressed, insulted, beaten, or rudely pushed around—not now by their own officials or by Chinese or Russians, but by a people whose superiority of any sort it humiliated their traditional pride even grudgingly to admit. The ability of the most honest and capable local magistrate, whether Japanese or Korean, to discover the truth and to do any measure of justice was greatly hampered and, indeed, made almost practically unavailing by the differences in the two languages and by the fact that the interpreters themselves could, for the most part, in no respect be thoroughly trusted. It was, indeed, a favorite trick with the average Korean interpreter to hire out to one of his own countrymen who had a case against some Japanese, and then to betray his client for a bribe from the other side, by misstating or falsifying his client’s cause. And, under such circumstances, what could any magistrate do who understood only one of the two languages? Moreover, according to the testimony of Mr. D. W. Stevens, who had made careful examination into scores of such complaints, it was an extremely rare thing for a Korean, even when he had a perfectly good case, to refrain from mixing a large measure of exaggeration and falsehood with his truth-telling; nor was it easy to find any considerable crime of fraud committed against a Korean by a Japanese without uncovering a Korean partner to the base transaction. So crafty are the Koreans that, in most cases of such partnership, it is not the foreign member of the firm who gets the larger share of the dividends resulting.

All these impressions as to what was most imperatively needed for the emergencies that were daily arising I was encouraged to mention to the Resident-General at any of our several interviews. It was, of course, desirable first of all to prevent the continuance of the evils which had been, both in Korea and abroad, charged against his own nationals in their treatment of the Koreans. Inquiry and observation combined to confirm the opinion that this was already being accomplished. At that time, however, most of the riots in the country districts did not appear to indicate feelings of hatred on the part of the natives toward “foreign oppressors”; they were only the customary expression of lawless resistance to a condition of wretchedness and misrule that was of native origin and indefinitely long-standing. No important acts of violence on the part of Japanese toward Koreans came under my observation, and none of recent occurrence were credibly reported. Even of those petty deeds of rudeness and incivility, which exasperate hostile feeling far beyond their real significance, I saw comparatively few. There was some rather contemptuous treatment of the Korean crowd at the gates of the railway stations and on the platforms of the trains; but the Koreans are themselves exceedingly stupid and ready to crowd others; and the handling given them by the Japanese officials was in no case so rough as that which the proudest American citizen is liable to receive at the Brooklyn Bridge or on the Fourth Avenue street-cars. Once, indeed, my jinrikisha-man, after he had several times warned, by his outcry, a Korean gentleman who was occupying the middle of the street with that dignified and slow-moving pace so characteristic of the idle Yang-ban, in order to avoid knocking the pedestrian down with his vehicle, gave him a somewhat ungentle push to one side. The Korean fell forward, after the manner of a boy’s tin soldier before a marble. His crinoline hat rolled off his head, but alighted a short distance away. At first I was alarmed lest he might be injured, and was about to order the offending kurumaya to stop his running that I might offer my assistance. But when it appeared that neither the victim of this scarcely avoidable rudeness, nor his hat, was injured, and that no one, including the man himself, seemed to consider the incident worth noticing, I decided not to emphasize it further. Undoubtedly, this would not have happened with a Japanese child or woman in the adult Korean’s place; it might easily have happened, however, in the streets of Tokyo or Kyoto if the pedestrian had been a man of obviously inferior rank.

In brief, it was the uniform testimony of those who had been in Korea during the troublous times which followed the war with Russia that, under Marquis Ito’s administration, Japanese wrong-doers were being sought out and restrained or punished, and that deeds of violence and even of rudeness were becoming rarer with every month of his stay.

Other measures which seemed to me desirable to have put in operation were such as the following: a civil-service examination which should provide that every official, Korean or Japanese, whose duties brought him into intimate daily relations with both peoples, should have a working knowledge of both languages; the organizing of a body of authorized interpreters, whose honesty and ability to discharge this very delicate and important function of oral or written interpretation, in all legal causes and matters of Government business, should be guaranteed, the speedy and even spectacular demonstration of the Government’s intention to give to the Korean common people strict justice in all their valid complaints against the Japanese; the improvement of the character of the Japanese civil service and of the Japanese police and petty officers of every kind; and some kind of arrangement between the missionary schools and the schools under the control of both the Korean and the Japanese authorities, by which uniformity might be attained in the primary education, and, in the higher stages, the mistakes made by the British Government in India might be avoided. These mistakes have resulted in educating a crowd of native “babus,” who are both unwilling and unfit for most kinds of serviceable employment in the real interests of their own nation’s development. As to this last matter, the statement may be repeated that not a small proportion of the Koreans educated abroad or in the missionary schools, with an almost purely literary education, have turned out either useless, or positively mischievous, when the practical reform and redemption of their own country is to be undertaken and enforced. For if there is any one thing which the average educated Korean Yang-ban will not do, that thing is hard and steady useful work.

None of these measures—it was soon made obvious—were to be overlooked or neglected in the large and generous plans of the Resident-General for the reform and uplift of Korea. Time, however, was needed for them all; they all required a supply of helpers, to train which time was required. And who that knows the lives of the great benefactors of mankind, or is versed in the most significant facts and obvious truths of history, does not recognize the evil clamor of the press, of the politicians, and of the crowd, to have that done all at once which cannot possibly be done without the help of time. The whole explanation of the delay is best summed-up in the pregnant sentence already quoted from one of Marquis Ito’s public addresses, which was evidently designed as a declaration of settled policy on his part. “As you know very well,” said he, “Korea can hardly be called an organized state in the modern sense; I am trying to make it such,” But as he explained to me more in detail: “I have been at work on these difficult problems only one short year, interrupted by visits to Japan, because my own Emperor required my presence; and the first half of this year was almost entirely occupied with such physical improvements as various engineering schemes, provision for hospitals, roads, and similar matters. There has never been any such thing as Korean law, under which justice can be administered impartially. But, according to the constitution of Japan, no Japanese subject of His Imperial Majesty, as well as no other foreigners resident in Korea, can be deprived of property, or of liberty, otherwise than by due process of law. Nor is my relation to the administration of justice in Korea like that of the British magistrate in British India. With Korean affairs, purely internal, when the attempt is made to settle them in Korean fashion, I have no right, under the treaty, to interfere. And the Koreans, when they could resort to legal measures for settling their disputes, ordinarily will not do so; they prefer to resort to the ancient illegal practice of running to some Korean Court official and bribing him to use influence on their side. As for Korean judges who can be trusted to do justice, there is scarcely any raw material even for such judges to be found. A carefully selected number of jurists, with a large force of clerks, has, however, been brought from Japan; and they are diligently at work trying to devise a written code under which the ancient customs and common laws of Korea, as representing its best efforts to enact and establish justice, shall be made available for future use.”

Meantime, as we have already seen, the Resident-General was being opposed and, as far as possible, thwarted, in every effort to improve the civil service and judicial administration of Korea, by the corrupt Korean Court, with its mob of eunuchs, palace women, sorceresses, etc., and by nearly all the native officials and Yang-bans in places of influence and power. And the chief seat of corruption and of opposition to genuine, effective reform was the smiling and amiable Korean Emperor himself. How effectively, because wisely and firmly, Marquis Ito initiated and advanced these reform measures will receive its proof, so far as proof is at present possible, by examination of results recorded in official and other trustworthy reports. To the facts already narrated, on which my personal impression of these qualities was based, many others of even a more convincing character might easily be added.

Of the feelings of admiration and friendship which grew during these weeks of somewhat confidential relations, on the part of the guest toward his host, it would not be fitting to speak with any detail. But in closing the more exclusively personal part of my narrative I might quote the words of one of the Consuls-General residing in Seoul. This diplomat expressed his feeling toward the Marquis Ito as one of veneration, beyond that which he had ever felt for any but a very few of the men whom he had met in his official career.

After all, however, personal impressions, no matter how favorable to truth the conditions under which they are derived, are not of themselves satisfactory in answer to questions so grave and so complicated as those which encompass the existing relations between Japan and Korea. Such impressions must be subjected to the severer tests, the more comprehensive considerations, the profounder sanctions, of history and of statistics. For this reason I now pass on to the much more difficult task of reviewing in the light of these tests, considerations, and sanctions, the impressions of my visit to Korea in 1907, as the guest of Marquis Ito.