the
land. The King refused to do anything while the Japanese troops menaced his
capital.

The declaration of war between Japan and China followed. The first incident
was the blowing up by the Japanese of a Chinese transport carrying 1,200
men to Korea. The main naval battle was in the Yalu, between Korea and
Manchuria, and the main land fight, in which the Chinese Army was
destroyed, in Pyeng-yang, the main Korean city to the north. The war began
on July 25, 1894; the Treaty of Peace, which made Japan the supreme power
in the Extreme East, was signed at Shimonoseki on April 17, 1895.

Before fighting actually began, the Japanese took possession of Seoul, and
seized the palace on some trumpery excuse that Korean soldiers had fired on
them and they had therefore been obliged to enter and guard the royal
apartments. They wanted to make their old friend and ally the ex-Regent,
the actual ruler, as he had been in the King's minority but he did not care
to take responsibility. Japanese soldiers turned the King out of his best
rooms and occupied them themselves. Any hole was good enough for the King.
Finally they compelled the King to yield and follow their directions. A new
treaty was drawn up and signed. It provided

1. That the independence of Korea was declared, confirmed, and established,
and in keeping with it the Chinese troops were to be driven out of the
country.

2. That while war against China was being carried on by Japan, Korea was to
facilitate the movements and to help in the food supplies of the Japanese
troops in every possible way.

3. That this treaty should only last until the conclusion of peace with
China.

Japan at once created an assembly, in the name of the King, for the
"discussion of everything, great and small, that happened within the
realm." This assembly at first met daily, and afterwards at longer
intervals. There were soon no less than fifty Japanese advisers at work in
Seoul. They were men of little experience and less responsibility, and they
apparently thought that they were going to transform the land between the
rising and setting of the sun. They produced endless ordinances, and scarce
a day went by save that a number of new regulations were issued, some
trivial, some striking at the oldest and most cherished institutions in the
country. The Government was changed from an absolute monarchy to one where
the King governed only by the advice of his Ministers. The power of direct
addr