ey do not know, and cannot know, because they have had no full
opportunity of learning, what the other has had to say for himself. Too
often, in trying to slay their victim, they injure others who have nothing
to do with the business.

To attack one's victim without giving him an opportunity for defence is
essentially a cowardly thing. Assassination--I prefer to give it its
simpler name, murder--is wrong, whatever the supposed excuse, fundamentally
wrong, wrong in principle, fatal in its outcome for those who adopt it.
Have nothing to do with it.

The murder of Prince Ito was a cruel blow for Korea. It was followed by an
attempt to assassinate the Korean Premier, the man who had handed his
country over to Japan. For some time the military party in Japan had been
clamouring for a more severe policy in the Peninsula. Now it was to have
its way. General Count Terauchi was appointed Resident-General.

Count Terauchi was leader of the military party in Korea, and an avowed
exponent of the policy of "thorough." A soldier from his youth up, he had
risen to the General Staff, and in 1904 was Minister of War in the fight
against Russia, earning his Viscountcy for brilliant services. Strong,
relentless, able, he could only see one thing--Japan and the glory of
Japan. He regarded the Koreans as a people to be absorbed or to be
eliminated. He was generally regarded as unsympathetic to Christianity, and
many of the Koreans were now Christians.

Terauchi came to Seoul in the summer of 1910, to reverse the policy of his
predecessors. He was going to stamp the last traces of nationality out of
existence. Where Ito had been soft, he would be hard as chilled steel.
Where Ito had beaten men with whips, he would beat them with scorpions.

Every one knew ahead what was coming. The usual plan was followed. First,
the official and semi-official plan was followed. The _Seoul Press_, now
the lickspittle of the great man, gave good value for the subsidy it
receives. It came out with an article hard to surpass for brutality and
hypocrisy:--

"The present requires the wielding of an iron hand rather than a
gloved one in order to secure lasting peace and order in this
country. There is no lack of evidence to show an intense
dissatisfaction against the new state of things is fermenting at
present among a section of the Koreans. It is possible that if
left unchecked, it may culminate in some shocking crime. Now