tituting a
series of reforms, but declined.

The situation quickly grew serious. The Mins, who controlled the
government, declared that the Japanese troops must be withdrawn before
the reforms could be instituted. The Japanese refused. Neither China nor
Japan would yield, but the latter held the capital and had the
controlling position.

It was not long before a crisis came. On July 20, Otori, the Japanese
minister, made certain demands on the Corean government, and stated that
the presence of the Chinese soldiers was a threat to the independence of
the country, their general having proclaimed that Corea was a vassal
state. On the 22d the officials answered that the Chinese had come at
their request and would stay until asked to leave. The next step of the
Japanese was a warlike one. On the early morning of the 23d two
battalions marched from their camp, stating that they were going to
attack the Chinese at Asan. But they quickly changed the direction of
their march, advanced upon the palace, drove out the Corean guard, and
took possession both of the palace and of the king. They declared they
had come to deliver him from an obnoxious faction and restore his
freedom of action.

The Min party was at once driven out and replaced by new officials
chosen from the progressive faction. With a feeble resistance, in which
only two men were killed and a few wounded, a revolution had been
accomplished and a government which favored Japan established. The new
authorities at once declared the Chinese at Asan to be intruders instead
of defenders, and requested the aid of the Japanese to drive them out.
War between China and Japan was at hand.

Hostilities were precipitated by a startling event. On July 25 three
Japanese men-of-war, cruising in the Yellow Sea, sighted two ships of
the Chinese navy convoying a transport which had on board about twelve
hundred troops. They were a portion of a large force which was being
sent to Corea with the purpose of reinforcing the troops at Asan and
expelling the Japanese.

The Chinese ships were cleared for action, and, though the Japanese were
ignorant of the late event at Seoul, they at once accepted the wager of
battle, and attacked the ships of the enemy with such effect that they
were quickly crippled and put to flight. The Naniwa, the Japanese
flag-ship, now approached the transport, a chartered British vessel
named the Kowshing and flying the British flag. A boat was sent from the
J