“ There were Japanese controllers in all the departments, the army was drilled by Japanese drill instructors, a police force was organized and clothed in badly fitting Japanese uniforms, a Council of Koreans was appointed to draft a scheme of re- form, and form the nucleus of a possible Korean Parliament, and Count Inouye as Japanese adviser had the right of con- tinual access to the King, and with an interpreter and sten- ographer sat at the meetings of the Cabinet. Every day Japanese ascendency was apparent in new appointments, regulations, abolitions, and reforms. ”

“ This day, the "Great Fifteenth Day," concludes the kite- flying and stone fights which enliven Seoul for the previous fortnight, and every Korean insists on keeping it as a holiday. Graves are formally visited, and gathered families spread food before the ancestral tablets. Curious customs prevail at this time. A few days before, the Palace eunuchs chant invoca- tions, swinging burning torches as they do so. This is sup- posed to ensure bountiful crops for the next season. People buy quantities of nuts, which they crack, hold the kernels in the mouth, and then throw them away. ”

“ If a boy has been born during the year, poles bearing paper fish by day and lanterns by night project from the house of the parents. The people at night watch the burning of candles. If they are entirely burned, the life of the child will be long; if only partially burned, it will be proportionately shorter.
I left Seoul very regretfully on 5th February. The Japanese had introduced ji'nn'^s has, but the runners were unskilled, and I met with so severe an accident in going down to Chemulpo that I did not recover for a year. ”

“ One day barbarous and brutalizing punishments were wisely abolished ; another, there appeared a string, of vexatious and petty regulations calculated to harass the Chinese out of the kingdom, and appointing as a punishment for the breach of them a fine of 100 dollars or 100 blows! ”

“ Also on the Great Fifteenth Day men try to find out the probable rainfall for each month by splitting a small piece of bamboo, and laying twelve beans side by side in one of the halves, after which it is closed, and after being bound tightly with cord, is lowered into a well for the night. ”

“ That the Tai-Won-Kun and the Queen should interfere no more in public affairs; (3) That no relatives of the Royal Family should be employed in any official capacity ; (4) That the number of eunuchs and "Palace ladies" should at once be reduced to a minimum; (5) That caste distinctions — patrician and plebeian — should no longer be recognized.
Edicts on some of the foregoing subjects appeared in the Gazette, and large numbers of the eunuchs packed up their clothes and left the Palace quietly in the night, along with the "Palace ladies" ”