Until recently neither public education nor public justice, in the modern meaning of these terms, has had any existence in Korea. Even those who were regarded as preferred candidates for government positions in educational and judicial fields were not really fitted for the intelligent and faithful performance of their duties—supposing (what, in most cases, was not true) that they really desired efficiency and true success. For the common people of Korea, indeed for all except the most highly privileged classes, there was no opportunity for learning and no conception or experience of the fair, legal safeguarding of human interests and human rights. The older educational methods, so far as method existed at all, were patterned after those of China; but they were never so thorough or excellent of their kind as were the Chinese. Civil service examinations were indeed required for official preferment. These examinations were exceedingly superficial, and were not guarded against fraud; so that the selection of successful candidates was too frequently made on quite other grounds than those of superior excellence in passing the examinations. To this latter fact the Korean stories of poor and worthy candidates who have been unjustly deprived of the offices to which they were entitled bear an ample and often dramatically pathetic witness. While, as to the almost total absence of even-handed justice, from the central government at the Court down to the most petty of the local magistrates, the entire history of Korea is one continued pitiful story.

With regard to the condition of the public education as late as just previous to, and even after the attempted reforms of 1894, we quote the following description from the Korean Review of November of 1904:

It would seem from this account that the contemplated reforms of the educational system, which had been inaugurated ten years before, when the old-fashioned civil-service examinations were abolished, had remained, as is customary with all reforms in Korea if not enforced from without, merely matters of so much paper. Another writer[72] about midway in this decade gives a somewhat better account of Korean educational affairs after the Chino-Japan war. The “present favorable aspect of education” at that time this writer attributes to the influence of the war. It is to be noted, however, that the “favorable aspect” covers, for the most part, only the special schools established in Seoul and does not regard the unimproved and still deplorable state of the public education in the country at large. Stricter attention to the extent of this alleged improvement, even within the city of Seoul, shows how limited it really was. Besides well-deserved praise bestowed upon the few missionary schools, only the governmental so-called “Normal School,” in which 30 scholars were enrolled, and which was presided over by Mr. Homer B. Hulbert, and a school for teaching English to the sons of nobles, numbering 35 pupils, are given as examples. Inasmuch as the latter school had the same teacher, and he was justly complaining that his obligation to teach the young Yang-bans interfered with his legitimate work, the cause of the public education could not have made any considerable advances at this time. The same report speaks of a Japanese school maintained in Seoul by the Foreign Education Society of Japan, in the following significant way: “It was organized in April, 1898, as a token of the sincere sympathy for the lack of a sound educational basis in Korea, with the view of giving a thorough elementary course of instruction to Korean youths, and ‘thus aiming to form a true foundation of the undisputed independence of that country.’”

In further proof of the undoubted fact that the reforms of 1894 had accomplished little in Seoul itself, and almost nothing at all in Korea outside of the capital, we may appeal again to the testimony of the writer in the Korean Review: “We do not see,” says this writer, “how the government can be made to realize the importance of this work. When no protest is made against the appropriation of a paltry $60,000 a year for education as compared with $4,000,000 for the Korean army, there is little use in expecting a change in the near future. The government could do nothing better than reverse these figures; but the age of miracles is past.”

“Before suggesting a possible solution of the question,” this writer goes on to say, “we should note with care what is at present being done to provide young men with an education. There are the seven or eight primary schools in Seoul with a possible attendance of forty boys each. This means a good deal less than 500 boys in this city of over 200,000 people, including the immediate suburbs. At the least estimate there ought to be 6,000 boys in school between the ages of ten and sixteen. Practically nothing is being done. As for intermediate education there is a Middle School, with a corps of eight teachers and an average attendance of about thirty boys. The building, the apparatus, and the teaching staff would suffice for about four hundred pupils. There are several foreign language schools, with an attendance of anywhere from twenty to eighty each, and they are fairly successful.... Then there are the several private schools, almost every one of which is in a languishing condition. A Korean will start a private school on the least provocation. It runs a few months and then closes, nobody being the wiser, though some be sadder. When we come to reckon up the number of young Koreans who are pursuing a course of instruction along modern lines, we find that they represent a fraction of less than one per cent. of the men who ought to attend, and might easily be doing so.” Such was then the condition of the public education in Korea even down until after the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war, or in November of 1904.

The foregoing true account of educational matters in Korea is further confirmed and expanded by the Official Report more recently given out in the name of the Residency-General.[73] The report, however, notices the existence of the accepted means of education for the village children in the provinces. These means were employed, after a debased Confucian system, in so-called Syo-bang by a sort of village dominie, who gathered about him the children of the neighborhood and taught them the rudiments of reading and writing the vernacular. There were in 1894 some ten thousand of these schools scattered throughout the peninsula. In the barest rudiments of the native language the instruction they gave was deficient; of modern education in other matters, there was nothing. In Seoul there was also a high-school of Confucian learning (a Syöng-Kyūn-Koan); where the students were taught the three “Primary” and the four “Middle Classics,” and were given some lessons in history, geography, composition and mathematics.

The same Report further agrees with the Article in the Korean Review in considering the reforms proclaimed in 1894 by the government as ineffective. The schools which sprung up under the “Primary School Ordinance,” with the intention of introducing the Western system of education, were almost without exception of the old (Shobo) character. And, indeed, how could it be otherwise, when there were no teachers who could give the rudiments of a modern education, and few pupils who desired such an education? As for the middle-grade education which the Seoul schools professed to give, there was little or nothing to bear out their pretensions.

The Residency-General aims, therefore, “at nothing less than the establishment of an entirely new system of education for Korea.” But the system does not propose to interfere with, much less wholly to close, the existing old-fashioned Confucian institutions. It will, the rather, gradually displace them by something better. The Government system as now planned contemplates supplying the nation with the necessary schools of the different grades, in accordance with the outline of reforms given below.

Any account of educational reforms in Korea would be quite inadequate if it did not include mention of the new provisions for medical and surgical treatment and for the education of native physicians and surgeons. Incredible as it may seem, it is true that there was in the spring of 1907 only one native in all Korea who had received a thorough modern medical education; and this one was a woman who had studied in the United States and was connected with the medical work of the Methodist Mission at Pyeng-yang. In connection with one of the three small hospitals hitherto existing in Seoul there has been for some seven years a Seoul Medical College, with only one Japanese instructor. The hospitals are now to be united in a single large institution, for which 280,000 yen, to be spent in construction, and 123,600 yen, for maintenance, have already been provided. This hospital will also have charge of training for the medical profession and for hygienic and sanitary administration. The site has been secured and the construction of the buildings begun, with the expectation of having them completed during the year 1907.

The educational work thus far actually accomplished in Korea has been chiefly done by the missionary schools. Among these schools those belonging to the Korean Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the United States are most numerous and effective. The Annual Report of this Mission for the year 1906, under the head of “Educational Work,” furnishes information as to the following among other particulars. The total enrolment of the “Academy” was 160, of whom 104 remained in school till the close of the year. In the autumn of 1905, twelve of the students, “contrary to advice and orders, left the school and joined the throng at Seoul, who wanted to lay their lives on the altar of their country in the effort to retain their national independence. The twelve were suspended for the year. Order was finally restored, and the remaining pupils returned to their work with renewed zeal.” The class which graduated in June, 1906, consisted of four members. In the fall of 1906 a sum of money amounting to somewhat more than $2,000 was collected with a view to starting a so-called “college.” The theological instruction which was carried on at Pyeng-yang during the months of April, May, and June, of the same year, became the germ of a developing “Theological Seminary” for the training of an educated native ministry. An advanced school for girls and women had an enrolment of 53 for the year. The number of local primary schools was 4 for boys and 3 for girls, with a total attendance of 494; to these should be added, of the “country schools,” 62 for boys and 8 for girls, with a total attendance of 1,266. Such is the report of the “Pyeng-yang Station.” In the “Seoul Station,” for the same year (1906) the report shows a total of 105 boys, in 4 schools, under 5 teachers, and of 48 girls, in 4 schools, under 4 teachers (rated as “Primary Schools”), in the city of Seoul; and 27 schools with 303 boys and 35 girls, belonging to the churches in this station, outside of Seoul. There was also in this district one “Intermediate and Boarding School,” with 60 boys and 23 girls numbered among its pupils. While the building to accommodate the boys of this school was in process of erection, they were combined with those of a corresponding school belonging to the Methodist Mission; and the united work carried on in the building belonging to the latter Mission thus attained a total enrolment of 150 pupils. Without mentioning the educational work done in less important stations of this Mission, it is enough to say that in the year 1906 there were 7 schools of a grade above the primary, giving instruction to 255 boys and 125 girls, and 208 schools of the lower grade with an enrolment of 3,116 boys and 795 girls as the aggregate number of their pupils. Most of the schools of the primary grade, however, consist of “classes” somewhat irregularly taught, insufficiently supplied with teachers, and wholly without adequate permanent accommodations.

Into the actual condition of educational work in Korea, so far as such work is dependent upon the attitude of the Koreans themselves, the following extract from the Report of the Union High School gives a significant glimpse:[74]

The Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Korea, in its Conference Report for the year 1906, gives the number of its so-called “High Schools” as 2, with 3 teachers and 93 pupils, and of its “other schools” as 54, with an enrolment of 1,564 day scholars. A year later the statistics presented to the Conference stated: “The Mission maintains 106 schools with 3,787 pupils under instruction.”

In connection with the hospitals under both these Missions at Seoul and at Pyeng-yang, a beginning has been made in the preparation of medical text-books for native use, and in the training of natives for the medical profession.

The showing made by the facts just stated is meagre enough, when we consider that it is the best that can honestly be made for a modern nation of about ten millions. There is reason to believe, however, that the statistics exaggerate, rather than minimize, the results already achieved along educational lines. There has, indeed, been a beginning, but only a beginning. There are generous plans adopted and set in operation; but the effectual working of these plans on any considerable scale remains for the future to bring about. The interest of the Emperor and his Court in the educational reform of Korea was no more to be depended upon than was their interest in any other reform, or real and substantial good, accruing to the benefit of the Korean public. So far as these influences prevailed, the Korean system was in 1904, and would have remained, an affair of paper only. But the Korean Department of Education, under the Residency-General, has co-operated faithfully in efforts to give to the country an efficient system of public education. The former Minister of Education, now (1907) Prime Minister Yi, has been at once the strongest and the most sincere of the Korean officials under the Japanese Protectorate. The hope of Korea, and the realization of the hopes of the Marquis Ito for Korea, depend upon the initiation and execution of a wise Government policy of education more than upon any other one influence. Unaided by Japan, Korea would never bring this about. As said Mr. Hulbert, when in his better mind:[75] “What Korea wants is education; and until steps are taken in that line there is no use in hoping for a genuinely independent Korea. Now we believe that a large majority of the best informed Koreans realize that Japan and Japanese influence stand for education and enlightenment; and that while the paramount influence of any one outside power is in some sense a humiliation, the paramount influence of Japan will furnish far less genuine cause for humiliation than has the paramount influence of Russia. Russia secured her predominance by pandering to the worst elements in Korean officialdom. Japan holds it by strength of arm, but she holds it in such a way as to give promise of something better. The word reform never passed the Russian’s lips. It is the insistent cry of Japan. The welfare of the Korean people never showed its head above the Russian horizon, but it fills the whole vision of Japan; not from altruistic motives mainly, but because the prosperity of Korea and that of Japan rise and fall with the same tide.”[76]

In the future development and administration of educational affairs in Korea two principles are especially important to be kept in mind. The first is the necessity for co-operation on the part of all the educative forces under some system or general plan. On the one hand, the private and missionary schools could never suffice for the educational reform of the nation; neither could they supply adequately the needed number or kind of schools for its proper educational development. In general, missionary schools belong to the planting and earlier stages of religious propagandism among peoples who have either no system of public education or a system which is hostile to religious influences. Missionary schools are of necessity foreign schools; when they have effectually performed their initial work, they should somehow become a part of the native equipment for educating the people. As we have already said, they have until recently been almost the only—though exceedingly meagre and faulty—means for giving the rudiments of a modern education to a small fraction of Korean youth. They never could be developed, if they remain simply missionary schools, so as to cope with the entire educational problem in this land of public ignorance and of intellectual and moral degradation. Those who are in charge of them, therefore, should be among the most forward to welcome cordially, and effectively to assist, the organization and advance of a national system of public education in Korea. Otherwise their highest service can never be rendered to the country; their most important and ultimate purpose of contributing toward the evolving of an intelligent Christian nation can never be realized.

On the other hand, any plans for the establishing and developing of a system of education in Korea at the present time should be wise and generous in the matter of taking into its confidence, and availing itself of, the assistance of the mission schools. So miserably poor is Korea in all resources of this character, that the barest principles of economics enforce the necessity of her availing herself of all possible helps. Moreover, the converts to Christianity—although a very considerable proportion of them are ignorant of the truths, and negligent of the morals, of the foreign religion they suppose themselves to have espoused—are multiplying rapidly, and are destined to become of more and more political and social significance in the near future. Some sort of regulated co-operation and conformity to a general plan should, therefore, as speedily as possible be secured between the Government and the private Christian schools. The Japanese and Korean Governments and the Missionary Boards should speedily agree upon some common plan for the requirements of the primary and secondary grades of instruction, and thus actively assist each other in the attainment of their common end. That this cannot be done without sacrificing the special interests deemed most important to each, it would be in contempt of the good sense and sincerity of both to affirm.

The second most important principle to set in control of the educational system of Korea is this. At first, and for a long time to come, it should be pretty strictly limited to fitting the Koreans themselves for a serviceable life, in Korea, and under the conditions, physical, social, and economic and political, of Korea. To educate—after the fashion followed too much by Great Britain in India—thousands of Korean babus, who thus become unfitted for the pressing needs of their country at this present day, and inclined to idleness rather than any hard and disagreeable but useful work, would be a mistake which neither the Government nor the Missions can afford to make. It is a fact, however, that, up to the present time, too large a proportion of the Korean youth, whether educated abroad or in the missionary schools at home, have lapsed into this worthless class. When called upon to work—manfully, faithfully, persistently, doing with his might what his hand finds to do—the Korean, like the Indian babu, is likely to show that his modern education has the more unfitted, rather than the better fitted, him for the effectual service of his country. If this should be the result of modern education, it would be scarcely more to be commended, under existing conditions in Korea, than was the education of the old-time Confucian schools.

The extension of the educational system of Korea ought, therefore, for some time to come to be almost exclusively limited to these two lines—namely, to providing the barest elements of a modern education for all the children of Korea, and to the equipping and developing of the means for fitting the youths of both sexes for the most needed forms of public service. The time to spend large sums of money on the higher branches of a liberal culture has not come as yet for Korea. The present urgent need of the country is for men who will tend her fields and forests, develop her mines and manual arts and manufactures with intelligence; run her railroad trains with safety; who will occupy her magistracies with some knowledge of ethics and of law; and care for her sick and injured with skill in medicine and surgery. Colleges and universities for rearing scholars, authors, philosophers, or gentlemen of learned leisure with Government sinecures, can bide their time.

The deplorable condition of the Public Justice in Korea, from the beginnings of the history of the United Kingdom down to the present time, has been both assumed and illustrated in the preceding pages. It is difficult to give any adequate picture of this condition in few words. The restraints of a constitution or a recognized legal code have had no existence. Court and local magistrates have been alike, with rare exceptions, either inefficient or wholly corrupt. The administrative and judicial functions have not been distinguished, and both have been under the control of “influence,” and devoted to “squeezes” and bribes. Of this illegal and unjust condition the police and the army were, under the old system, the instruments. And whenever during these sad centuries of injustice an occasional monarch, or a few of the inferior officials, attempted reform, if in the one case the attempt was partially successful, the old condition soon returned; while the inferior official who wished to be more just than his colleagues, by this very attempt risked his position or even his head.

Among the reforms contemporaneous with the Chino-Japan war (1894), the remedy for the existing maladministration of justice in Korea naturally had a prominent place. Some of the forms of injustice then in common use—such as the bribing of judges and the punishment of accused persons without even the semblance of a trial—had no justification under Korean law, so far as law existed at that time. Other equally deplorable forms of injustice were, however, strictly legal;—as, for example, the infliction of penalties on the innocent relatives of a condemned criminal, and the imprisonment of the household of an official charged with extortion. In particular, the use of torture—barbarous in kind and extreme in cruelty—was in “full accord” with the legal system of the Ming dynasty in China, which formed the basis of the Korean code. Of the older forms of torture some, such as crushing the knee-caps, slitting the nostrils, applying pincers or hot irons, had already been in 1894 abolished by the Ming dynasty; but a great number of equally painful forms of torture were still legally in practice at that time. Among such were seating the victim on hot coals, driving splinters under the toe-nails, applying fire to the feet and hands, pounding the shins, and squeezing the ankles. On the eleventh of January, 1895, however, the Minister of Justice obtained the king’s assent to the abolition of all the more severe forms of torture except in capital cases. To enforce confession of guilt by beating with a stick was still to be allowed.[77]

The reforms promised and inaugurated in 1895, with respect to the improvement of the administration of justice, like all the other reforms of that time, scarcely went beyond the so-called “paper stage.” Some forms of torture were, indeed, no longer customarily practised; but on the whole the barbarous treatment of accused and convicted criminals was not greatly improved. In civil cases the practice of the Court and of the magistrates was never worse than during the period preceding the Russo-Japanese war. It was, as has already been shown (p. 233 f.), “an orgy of independence.”

In the opinion of Marquis Ito, when he became Resident-General, the primary and most important thing in the interests of the public justice was the discovery, systematizing, and promulgation of the “law of the land.” But how should this difficult task be accomplished? Or—as involving subordinate questions of great importance—upon what foundation of principles should the task be undertaken? In the reforms of 1894-95 the plans of the Korean and Japanese enthusiasts involved the sudden making of all things new. At once, a tolerably complete modern code was to be devised and forced upon the people of Korea. In accordance with these plans an abundance of legislation was enacted; but most of it was, of necessity, ineffective, since it was neither adapted to the present condition of Korean civilization nor ever honestly applied. At the present time in Japan and in view of the large increase of power given to the Resident-General by the Convention of 1907, there is a difference of opinion as to the proper procedure in the reform of the public justice in Korea. A certain party would repeat the mistakes of more than a decade ago. They would have the Japanese Protectorate secure the “entire adoption of the new Japanese Criminal Code, and in civil suits provide Korea with ‘an entirely new set of laws’ patterned after those of modern civilized nations.” This would be a comparatively easy matter, so far as the preparation of a code is concerned. But it would undoubtedly be relatively defective so far as the actual reform of justice in Korea is concerned. “The Resident-General,” says Mr. Stevens, “is manifestly determined to avoid this mistake, and to provide, in the first place, some adequate means for the enforcement of the law.” Meantime, the work of codification is proceeding cautiously. The first step in this work was directed toward the “law affecting real estate.”

“This law”—namely, the law affecting real estate—“has been taken up before all others, because, despite the fact that in the present economic condition of the country immovables form the most important object of ownership, Korea as yet possesses no law of any real efficiency to protect rights relating to real property. For instance, in selling and buying a piece of land or in mortgaging it, the parties concerned have nothing to go by but to follow the old custom of handing over and receiving the bunki, or title deeds, which are generally in the form of a file of documents vouchsafing the transaction. It so happens that the country is now flooded with forged bunkis, and there is really no security for property. For this reason, in July last (1906) the Resident-General caused the Korean Government to institute a Real Property Law Investigation Commission, and urged the investigation of established customs and usages pertaining to immovables, with a view to drafting with the utmost despatch a law of real property of a simple and concise character. The Commission made rapid progress in its work, and in consequence of this the Land and Buildings Certification Regulations (Imperial Ordinance) and the Detailed Rules of operation thereof (Justice Department Ordinance) were promulgated respectively on the 31st of October and the 7th of November following. According to the Regulations, in the case of transfer of land lots and buildings by sale, exchange, or gift, and in that of mortgaging them, the contracts are certified to by a Kun magistrate or Pu prefect; and a contract thus certified constitutes a full legal document, by virtue of which the transfer may be validly carried out without decisions of any law court. When, however, one of the parties to the contract happens to be an alien, not a Korean subject, the document needs to be additionally examined and certified to by a Resident, otherwise the document is lacking in legal efficacy. When neither of the parties are Korean subjects, certification by a Resident alone is sufficient. Simple as the law is, its effect is far-reaching. To give an instance, originally treaties with Korea took cognizance of a foreigner’s right to possess land only within the settlements and one ri zone around them, and hitherto all foreigners have experienced considerable difficulty in securing landed property in the interior of the country; but now, the above Regulations recognize the right of foreigners to possess land in the interior, and the result of their promulgation is the practical opening of the whole empire to foreigners.

“Following this line of action, the Real Property Investigation Commission is steadily working on laws of various descriptions, and it is expected that before long that body will be able to recommend some plan to place the land system of Korea on a solid and fair basis. As soon as the Real Property Law is drawn up and promulgated in a perfected form, the codification of other laws will be taken in hand.”[78]

The necessity for providing means effectively to enforce the existing and the newly to be enacted laws is obvious to any one who is acquainted with the methods of Korean justice down to the present time. This necessity becomes the more imperative on account of the condition of dissatisfaction and unrest which followed the Russo-Japanese war and the establishment of the Japanese Protectorate over Korea. It was further emphasized and brought to an acute form at the time when the abdication of the Emperor and the disbandment of the Korean army, on the one hand, exaggerated the alleged reasons for revolt, and, on the other hand, let loose the forces most ready and appropriate to make revolt effective. The experience in connection with the repeated attempts made to assassinate the Korean Ministry showed plainly enough that Korean police and military could not be depended upon to protect the rights or the lives of their own countrymen. Subsequent events showed that these same “minions of the law” were most dangerous to the property and lives of foreigners. Hence the imperative need of a reorganization of the police. On this matter of reform, the Report of the Resident-General discourses as follows:

The laws of the land may be enlightened in their construction, and the police thoroughly well organized and efficient; but if the courts of justice are not intelligent and honest, the public justice is not secure. In Korea, as in China, from which country she derived her administrative and judicial system, two principal evil influences have prevented any effectual reform in the judiciary. These are the failure to separate the executive and judiciary branches of government, and the fact that officials generally have not been dependent upon sufficient salaries for their reward, but, chiefly, upon the amounts which could be squeezed out of the offices.

“The way in which justice has been administrated in Korea,” says the Report, “is too revolting to all sense of decency to be told in detail. Her political development has never yet attained that stage when the executive and judiciary branches of government separate and become independent of each other. The privilege of meting out justice has always been in the hands of executive officials, and abuses have grown up in consequence of this. Justice, which should always be fair and upright, has generally allowed itself to be influenced by the amount of bribe offered, and right or wrong often changed places according to the power and influence of the parties concerned. The conviction of innocent people, the confiscation of their property, and the liberation of the guilty, all under a travesty of trials, have been common occurrences; very frequently, too, contributions in money or in kind have been extorted under threats of litigation. Korea, indeed, possesses a law court organization by virtue of a law promulgated in 1895, and according to it the courts are of the following descriptions: 1. Special Court of Law (tries crimes committed by members of the Imperial family). 2. Court of Cassation. 3. Circuit Courts. 4. (Seoul) The Trade Port Courts (courts of first resort). 5. District Courts (courts of first resort), and their branches (when needed).”

“The truth is, however, that this organization exists merely on paper, the only courts in actual existence being the Court of Cassation and the Seoul Court. In the provinces, the governors, commissioners and superintendents are, as of old, also judges and hear and judge both civil and criminal cases. The Kun magistrates, too, retain their judiciary powers, which are, however, limited in extent. Even at the independent courts, such as the Court of Cassation and the Seoul Court, judges and prosecutors are men totally deficient in legal knowledge and training, and their judgments often end in the miscarriage of justice. It is not surprising that justice is generally made the object of ridicule and contempt in Korea both by the natives and by foreigners. Treaties give foreigners from the West the right to bring an action against the natives in the Korean Courts in cases of a certain description; but none of them has ever made use of such a right. When any legal dispute arises, these foreigners always make an international question of it and bring it before the Residency-General. Leave the situation as it at present is, and the day will never come when Korea may be freed from the system of extra-territoriality. It being evident that the chief cause responsible for this regrettable state of things lies in the judiciary in force and the incompetency of judges, the Resident-General has decided first to effect reform on these two points, with others to follow gradually. The reforms he has already put in practice for this purpose may be outlined as follows” [Here given only in summary form]:—

The creation of the office of Chief Councillor in the Department of Justice (the incumbent to be a Japanese); increase in the number of judges, procurators, and clerks; the constituting of the Prefects of the eleven Prefectures to act as Judges; provision for proper offices and for the travelling and other expenses of the Judges and the Law Courts; the introduction of rules of the civil service order, so that care may be exercised in the appointment of judiciary officials, etc.

It has already been made sufficiently clear, however, that the one instrument of the public justice which comes closest to the common people of Korea, and which determines more than any other the spirit of satisfaction with their condition or of unrest and revolt, is the local magistracy. On the “Reform of Local Administration” the Report remarks as follows:

The more detailed features of the reforms proposed are uninteresting and difficult to understand for one not making a special study of Korean local administration from the expert’s point of view. In general, the reforms are intended to separate the appointment and control of the local magistracy from Court and other corrupt official influences; to put a stop to the evil practice “of selling offices by holding examinations for official candidates”; to reduce the temptation to increase the squeezes, by increasing the legitimate salary and by providing properly for office, travelling, and other expenses; and to adopt and install “a new official organization for the provincial governors and their subordinates, classifying the nature of the business to be managed by them and defining their powers of issuing administrative orders, of levying local taxes and of conducting other affairs.” These reforms require a considerable increase in the number of officials in both the Do (or Province) and Pu (or Prefecture); but they leave the Kuns (or smaller districts) substantially unchanged in this regard.

Besides the above changes, the Residency-General has already established a Residency or a Branch Residency in each of the provincial capitals. Further, the Local Administration Investigation Commission is now making enquiries into village constitutions, village assembly regulations, and other village association systems, handed down from olden times. From the data thus obtained, a plan will be drawn up for the ultimate introduction of the system of local autonomy. As to the reorganization of the Law Court system, the independence of the Department of Justice, the separation of tax collection from routine executive business as the result of the establishment of a new Taxation Bureau with a chief of its own, etc., these form, no doubt, a part of local administration reform.

Only the result can tell how far, and how soon, these plans for the reform of the public justice in Korea can so change its present deplorable condition in this regard as to satisfy the reasonable wishes of the Marquis Ito, and the Japanese Government, so far as it is supporting him in his peaceful and benevolent plans. The events which have occurred since this Report on Administrative Reforms was composed, have, on the one side, given to the Resident-General and his helpers a freer hand in a more open field, but on the other they have augmented the responsibilities and in some respects increased the difficulties of their task.