“ It is inevitable that British hardware and miscellaneous articles must be ousted by the products of Japanese cheaper labor, and that the Japanese will continue to supply the increasing demand for scissors, knives, matches, needles, hoes, grass knives, soap, perfumes, kerosene lamps, iron cooking pots, nails, and the like, but the loss of the trade in cotton piece goods would be a serious matter, and the possibility of it has to be faced. ”

“ A certain amount of denationalization is connected with most of the Boys' Schools, for the students necessarily receive new ideas, thoughts, and views of life, which cannot be shaken out of them by any local circum- stances, changing their standpoints and the texture of their minds for life. When they replace the elder generation better things may be expected for Korea.
The Korean reformed ideas of education, which had their origin during the Japanese reform era, embrace the creation of a primary school system, an efficient Normal College, and In- termediate Schools. ”

“ A Korean silver, copper, and brass coinage, convenient as well as ornamental, is coming into general circulation, and as it gradually displaces cash, is setting trade free from at least one of the conditions which hampered it, and increased banking facilities are tending in the same direction. ”

“ Narrowness, grooviness, conceit, superciliousness, a false pride which despises manual labor, a selfish individualism, destructive of generous public spirit and social trustfulness, a slavery in act and thought to customs and traditions 2,000 years old, a narrow intellectual view, a shallow moral sense, and an estimate of women essentially degrading, appear to be the products of the Korean educational system. ”

“ Only about a third of the revenue actually collected reaches the National Treasury, partly owing to the infinite corruption of the officials through whose hands it passes, and partly because provincial income and expenditure are to a certain extent left to local management. If the Government is in earnest in the all important matter of educating the people, the increased expenditure can readily be met by imposing taxation on such articles of luxury as wine and to- bacco, which are enormously consumed, Seoul alone possessing 475 wine shops and 1,100 tobacco shops. ”

“ The principal object is to train the orphans as good Roman Catholics. In the Boys* Schools the pupils are taught to read and write Chinese and En-inini, and to a limited extent they study the Chinese classics. The religious instruction is given in En-mun. They aim at providing a primary education for the children of Korean converts.
The boys in the Orphanage are taught En-mun only, and at thirteen are adopted by Roman Catholics in Seoul or the coun- try, and learn either farming or trades, or, assuming their own support, enter a trade or become servants. ”

“ Seventy-seven youths are studying in Japan at Government expense, and have made fair progress in languages, but are said to show a lack of mathematical aptitude and logical power. Altogether the Korean educa- tional outlook is not without elements of hopefulness.
Though the Foreign Trade of Korea only averages some- thing less than £1,500, 000 annually, the potential commerce of a country with not less than 12,000,000 of people, all cotton-clad, ought not to be overlooked. ”

“ Without, I think, being over sanguine, I antici- pate a time when, with improved roads, railroads, and enlight- enment, together with security for the earnings of labor from official and patrician exactions, the Korean will have no further occasion for protecting himself by an appearance of squalid poverty, and when he will become on a largely increased scale a consumer as well as a producer, and will surround himself with comforts and luxuries of foreign manufacture, as his breth- ren are already doing under the happier rule of Russia. ”

“ To sum up, I venture to express the opinion that the circum- stances of the large population of Korea are destined to gradual improvement with the aid of either Japan or Russia, that for- eign trade must increase more or less steadily with increased buying powers and improved means of transport, and that the amount which falls to the share of Great Britain will depend largely upon whether British manufacturers are willing or not to adapt their goods to Korean tastes and convenience. ”

“ Japanese sheetings showed a substantial increase, more than counterbal- anced by the diminished import of the British and American article, and Japanese cotton yarn continued to arrive in larger quantities, and is gradually driving British and Indian yarn out of the Korean market. It can be sold at a considerably lower price than the British article, and practically at the same price as the Indian, with which its improved quality enables it to compete on very favorable terms. ”

“ The effort to acquire a difficult language, the knowledge of which gives him a mastery of his own, is in itself a desirable mental discipline, and the ethical teachings of Confucius and Mencius, however defective, contain much that is valuable and true, but beyond this little that is favorable can be said. ”

“ It is hoped and expected that supply will follow demand, and that in a few years the larger provincial towns will possess Intermediate or High Schools, and the villages attain the advantages of ele- mentary schools, all using a uniform series of text-books in the vernacular. Chinese finds its place in the curriculum, but not as the medium for teaching Korean and general history, or geography and arithmetic, which must be acquired through the native tongue. ”

“ Jaisohn, a Korean educated in America, has recently lectured once a week at this College on the geographical divisions of the earth and the political and ecclesiastical history of Europe, and has awakened much enthusiasm. A pa- triotic spirit is being developed among the students, as well as something of the English public school spirit with its traditions of honor. ”

“ The principal items of revenue are a land tax of six dollars on a fertile kyel, and five dollars on a mountain kyel, a house tax of 60 cents annually, from which houses in the capital are ex- empt, the ginseng tax, and the gold dues, making up a budget of about 4,000,000 dollars, a sum amply sufficient for the le- gitimate expenditure of the country. The land tax is extremely light. ”

“ Two new regiments were added to the army, the old Arsenal, a disused costly toy, was put into working order, with all necessary modern improvements, under the supervision of a Russian machinist, the Kyeng-wun Palace was built, costly ceremonies and works connected with the late Queen's prospective funeral were paid for, and a considerable area of western Seoul was recreated. All civil Government employes (and they are legion) , as well as soldiers and police, are paid regularly every month, and sinecures are very slowly disappearing. ”

“ Their goods reach the shore in manageable bales, which do not require to be adapted after arrival to the minute Korean pony, and their price, width, length, and texture commend them to the Korean consumer. The Japanese understand that cotton i8 inches wide is the only cotton from which Korean garments can be fashioned without very considerable waste, and they supply the market with it ”

“ The net imports of foreign goods have increased from the value of ^2,474,189 in 1886 to $6,531,324 in 1896.1 Measured in dollars, the trade of 1896 exceeds that of any previous year except 1895, when the occu- pation of Korea by Japanese troops, with their large following of transport coolies, created an artificial expansion. ”