A panic.... Japanese envoy.... a counter demand.... Chinese troops
arrive.... rioters captured.... the Regent kidnapped.... the Queen
returns.... Foreign Office.... von Mollendorf.... minting....
American Minister.... various innovations.... special envoy to the
United States.... the American farm.... treaties.... liberal and
conservative parties drift further apart.... Pak Yŭng-hyo’s
attempted reforms.... school for interpreters.... fears of the
progressive party.... a crisis imminent.... understanding with the
Japanese.... the dinner at the Post Office.... attempted
assassination.... confusion.... Liberal leaders hasten to the
palace.... Japanese called in.... conservative leaders put to
death.... official changes.... Chinese demands.... the fight in the
palace.... the king goes over to the Chinese.... liberals killed....
the Japanese retire to Chemulpo.... indemnity.... executions....
Japanese terms.... hospital.... missions.... Tientsin convention....
corruption.... von Mollendorf dismissed.... China takes over the
customs.... Judge Denny engaged as adviser.... obstacles put in his
way.... government English School.... mission schools.... Minister
to the United States.... the “baby war.”
A few days after the flight of the Queen a rumor was circulated to the
effect that a large body of men belonging to the peddlar’s guild had
congregated outside the East Gate and were about to enter and loot the
city. A panic seized the people, and men, women and children might be
seen flying in all directions, some out into the neighboring country and
some up the steep sides of the surrounding mountains. The gates being
all locked the people forced the South Gate and the two West gates and
thus made good their escape. The king himself was affected by the rumor
and leaving the palace sought safety at the house of Yi Che-wan. But the
panic ceased as quickly as it had begun, and within three hours the
people were returning to their homes again. The extreme haste with which
the people tried to get away is illustrated in the case of one old man
who seized his little grand-son, as he supposed by the hand, and fled up
a mountain but found to his dismay that he had taken the boy by the leg
rather than by the hand and that the little fellow had succumbed to this
harsh treatment.
On the fifth of the seventh moon Count Inouye arrived in Chemulpo as
Japanese envoy and immediately sent word to have a high Korean official
sent to Chemulpo to discuss the situation. Kim Hong-jip was sent, and as
a result the Korean government was asked to pay an indemnity for the
lives of the Japanese who had been killed. It appears that besides the
Japanese military instructor five or six others had been killed, also a
considerable amount of Japanese money had been seized and destroyed at
the Japanese headquarters. The indemnity was placed at a million cash
apiece for the Japanese who had fallen. This amounted to something like
$2,500 each, a ridiculously small sum, but perhaps all the Japanese
thought they could get. The ex-Regent replied that if the Japanese
demanded this indemnity the Korean government would feel obliged to levy
a tax upon all Japanese merchants doing business in Korea. This was
practically a refusal to pay the indemnity and the envoy took his
departure.
Hardly had he left before a Chinese force 3,000 strong arrived at
Nam-yang off the town of Su-wŭn. They were commanded by Generals O
Chang-gyŭng, Wang Sŭk-ch’ang, Ma Kŭn-sang and by a lesser officer named
Wŭn Se-gă who was destined to play a leading part from this time on.
These troops came, it can hardly be doubted, at the request of the
conservative party and it was from this hour that that faction turned
unreservedly towards China and gave the latter occasion for beginning a
series of encroachments upon Korea’s practical independence which ended
in the China-Japan war. These troops encamped all about the capital,
some at Pă-o-gă outside the West Gate and some at the Ha-do-gam just
inside the East Gate.
Some of the soldiers who had been most active in creating the
disturbance lived at Wang-sim-yi three miles outside the East Gate. The
Chinese made it their first work to seize these men by night. Ten of
them were court-martialed and were torn to pieces by bullocks.
The Chinese general O Jang-gyŭng was told that the ex-Regent was at the
bottom of the emeute, and he sent a letter informing the Emperor of this
fact. The latter ordered him to seize the person of the offending party
and bring him to China. The Chinese general thereupon visited the palace
where the Prince Tai-wŭn was in full control and invited him to visit
Yong-san on the river, where he said there was something important for
him to see. Having once gotten him on board a Chinese boat there, under
pretext of showing him over it, the anchor was quickly raised and the
baffled Prince found himself on his way to China. When he arrived at
Tientsin he was refused audience with Li Hung-chang but was banished by
imperial decree to a place not far from Tientsin, where he was well
cared for until his return to Korea three years later.
After this _deus ex machina_ had spirited the ex-Regent away, an
official, So Sang-jo, memorialized the throne stating that the Queen was
still alive and ought to be brought back to the capital. It is said that
Yi Yŭng-ik covered the space between the capital and her place of
hiding, sixty-three miles, in a single day, carrying the message of
recall. A large retinue of officials and soldiers were sent southward
and brought the Queen back to Seoul where she arrived on the first day
of the eighth moon. The people immediately doffed their mourning garb.
Toward the close of 1882 a Foreign Office was established in the capital
and Kim Yun-sik was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. He invited P. G.
von Mollendorf, a member of the customs staff of China, to act as
adviser, and the Chinese generals Wang Sŭk-ch’ang and Ma Kŭn-sang were
made attaches of the new department.
The year 1883 witnessed more advance in Korea than any year before or
since. In May Gen. Foote, the first United States Minister, arrived and
on the nineteenth of that month the treaty which had been drawn up at
Chemulpo between Commodore Shufeldt and the Korean Commissioners was
ratified. After this was done Gen. Foote left Korea to make preparations
for the establishment of a legation in Seoul.
Kim Ok-kyun, one of the leading members of the progressive party was
made “Whale Catching Commissioner” and departed for Japan to fit out an
expedition to carry on this lucrative government monopoly along the
Korean coast. He was selected for this work because of his intimate
acquaintance with the Japanese. It was a move looking toward the
development of Korea’s resources and was therefore in direct line with
the wishes and plans of the progressionists. At about the same time a
powder-mill was built outside the Northwest Gate, and a foreign mint was
erected inside the Little West Gate. This was done with the aid of
Japanese experts at a great and, as it proved, useless expense to the
government. An office was founded for the printing and dissemination of
useful literature on the subjects of agriculture, forestry,
stock-raising and the like. The ports of Chemulpo and Wŭn-san were
opened to foreign trade according to the stipulation of the Japanese and
American treaties. In contrast to the progressive moves we find that
eight men who were suspected of complicacy with the ex-Regent in the
emeute of the preceding year were executed by poison. Of like character
was the building of the Kwan-wang temple, devoted to the interests of
sorceresses and exorcists who enjoyed the patronage of the Queen.
In the summer of 1883 Min Yŭng-ik was made special envoy to the United
States. His second was Hong Yŭng-sik. Among his suite were Sŭ Kwang-bom,
Pak Un and others, all of whom were members of the progressive party or
at least well affected toward it. This same summer the king founded the
American Farm some ten miles east of Seoul and stocked it with foreign
seeds and cattle, with the idea of providing Korean farmers with a sort
of object-lesson in farming, and to provide seeds for distribution among
the people. The United States Department of Agriculture sent a large
stock of seeds by the hand of the special embassy of which Min Yŭng-ik
formed the head.
Late in the autumn the German representative arrived and concluded a
treaty on behalf of his government. A month later a treaty was ratified
with Great Britain and a Consulate General was founded in Seoul.
With the opening of 1884 the state of affairs in the peninsula was
something as follows. The progressive and conservative elements in the
government were clearly differentiated. The innovations effected by the
progressives had raised in them the hope of being able to speedily
reorganize the government on a foreign basis, and the degree of their
success marked the increasing suspicion and opposition of the
conservative element. The latter were strengthened in their position by
the presence and active support of the Chinese generals and troops, and
the influence of the foreign adviser von Mollendorf was always on the
side of Chinese interests. The ex-Regent was for the time being out of
the war and a great stumbling-block to the Min faction was thus removed.
The king and queen were both favorably inclined toward a progressive
policy but the latter was gradually being drawn back into line with the
conservative element of which the Min family was the leading
representative. Min Yŭng-ik was still true to his better instincts and
was an ardent supporter of the progressionist views but his return from
America was the sign for a vigorous attack upon his enlightened views by
the members of his family and he was being rapidly alienated from the
party whose interests he had tentatively espoused. It was not, however,
till later in the year that he broke away entirely from the progressive
following.
The spring of 1884 saw the arrival of Ensign Geo. C. Foulk as naval
attache of the American Legation. He rapidly became acquainted with the
leading officials and it was through his advice and aid that several
reformatory measures were promulgated. In the sixth moon the influence
of the progressive party secured the position of Mayor of Seoul for Pak
Yŭng-hyo, one of the most ardent of the reform party, and he immediately
set to work at sanitary reforms and municipal improvements. He began by
tearing down houses that had encroached upon the main road between the
East and the West Gates. He had not proceeded far in this good work
before he was blocked by the influence of the opposing faction. His next
move was in the direction of dress reform and he succeeded in putting
through a law prohibiting the use of the long sleeves, long hat-strings
and long girdle strings. In these efforts he was seconded to a certain
extent by Min Yŭng-ik, but at this point terminates the latter’s active
interest in reforms, and from about this time the progressive leaders
began to look upon him as a traitor to their cause. Here again personal
interest came to injure a cause which, while good in itself, was
discredited by the means used to effect its end. One sign of advance was
the establishment of a school for the training of interpreters in
English, under the charge of a competent foreign instructor.
In the autumn of this year 1884 twelve of the young men who had been
sent to Japan to study military tactics returned to Seoul, among them
being Sŭ Chă p’il, known in later years as Dr. Philip Jaisohn, who
though still a youth of about twenty years began to take an active part
in the plans of the liberal or progressive party. By this time Min
Yŭng-ik had practically taken his stand with the conservatives, and this
tended in no small measure to draw away from the progressives the
sympathy and support of the queen. It was becoming evident that the
hopes of the liberals were to be dashed to the ground. Yuan, the Chinese
commissioner, was staying at the barracks in front of the palace and was
active in the interests of his own government, which meant that he urged
on the conservative party in their opposition to reforms. It can hardly
be wondered at then that the progressives looked more and more to the
Japanese from whom they had imbibed their ideas of progress. Japan had
recognized the independence of Korea and this naturally carried with it
a desire to see Korea progress along the same lines that had raised
Japan out of the rut of centuries to the more satisfactory plane of
enlightened government.
How to stem the tide that had set so strongly against them was a
difficult problem for the progressionist leaders to solve. From time
immemorial the method of effecting changes in the Korea government had
been to make an uprising, secure the person of the king and banish or
execute the leaders of the opposition. It must be remembered that at
that time, so far as the mass of the people was concerned, the
progressive party had little or no backing. On the other hand the
conservatives had the ear of the king and were backed by a Chinese army.
It was evidently necessary to secure military backing, and for this
Japan alone was available. But it was manifestly impossible for Japan to
come in and attempt to effect the change. It must be at the request of
the Korean government, or at least of the king. It seemed that the only
thing to do was to hasten a crisis, obtain possession of the person of
the king and then see to it that Japan be invited to loan troops to
preserve the new status.
Instead of waiting patiently and suffering temporary defeat with the
hope of ultimate success, the progressive leaders determined to have
recourse to the old method, and in so doing they made a fatal blunder.
Even had they been successful the means they employed would have fatally
discredited them in the eyes of all enlightened people.
It is generally accepted as true that the progressive leaders had a
distinct understanding with the Japanese. A Japanese man-of-war was on
the way to Chemulpo and was expected to arrive on the fifth or sixth of
December and the uprising was set for the seventh of that month. The
leaders in this movement had not been able to keep it entirely a secret,
for some of them talked about it in a very excited manner of the Naval
Attache of the American Legation and it came to the ears of the British
Consul-general, who, meeting Yun T’ă-jun on December fourth, asked him
if he had heard that there was trouble in the air. That gentleman who
was himself a strong conservative and a close friend of Min T’ă-ho,
hastened to the house of the latter and reported what he had heard. Min
advised him to hasten to the house of one of the relatives of one of the
progressionists and secure information if possible. He did so, and there
happened to meet one of the leaders of the progressive party and
intimated to him that he had heard that trouble was brewing. This man
denied all knowledge of any such plan but the minute his caller had gone
he hastened to the other progressionist leaders and told them that all
was lost unless instant action were taken. News had just arrived that
the Japanese gun-boat that was expected at Chemulpo had broken down and
could not come. There were only a few hundred Japanese troops in Seoul
at the time. But it seemed to these men that it would be better to risk
the whole venture on a single cast than to wait passively and see the
destruction of all their hopes and plans. The seventh of December was
the appointed day but as this was a matter of kill or be killed it was
decided to proceed at once to business. Hong Yŭng-sik had been made
Post-master General and on this very night he was to give a banquet at
the new post-office which was situated in that part of the city called
Kyo-dong. It was decided to start the ball rolling at this point. The
evening came and the guests assembled to the dinner. They were the
Chinese leaders Yuan, Chin and Wang, United States Minister Foote and
his secretary Mr. Scudder, the British Consul-general Aston, the Foreign
Office Adviser von Mollendorf, the Koreans Hong Yŭng-sik, Kim Ok-kyun,
Min Yŭng-ik, Pak Yŭng-ho, Sŭ Kwang-bom, Kim Hŭng-jip, Han Kyu-jik, Pak
Chöng-yang, O Yun-jung and a few others. The Japanese Minister had
excused himself on the plea of ill-health. It was noticed that Kim
Ok-kyun rose and left the table several times and went out into the
court-yard but no special significance was attached to this. The dinner
began at an early hour, not far from six o’clock, and about seven
o’clock an alarm of fire was sounded. A house immediately in front of
the Post Office was in flames. Min Yŭng-ik, being one of the officials
whose duty it was to superintend the extinguishing of conflagrations,
rose from the table and hastened out, calling to his servants to follow.
As he passed out of the inner gate, a man dressed in Japanese clothes
leaped out of the shadow of the gate-way and struck at him savagely with
a sword, wounding him severely in the head and in other parts of the
body. He fell heavily to the ground and in the confusion that ensued the
would-be assassin made good his escape. Von Mollendorf was not far
behind, and seeing what had happened he hastened forward, lifted the
wounded man in his arms and carried him back into the dining-room. The
Koreans who were present fled precipitately making their exit not by the
door but by way of the back wall.
The wounded man was conveyed to the residence of von Mollendorf which
was in the vicinity, where Dr. H. N. Allen of the American Presbyterian
Mission was soon in attendance.
The die had now been cast and there was no retreat. The leaders of the
conspiracy, Kim Ok-kyun, Sŭ Kwang-bom, Pak Yŭng-hyo, Hong Yŭng-sik and
Sŭ Chă-pil, hastened immediately to the palace known to us as “The Old
Palace” where the king had resided since the insurrection of 1882.
Entering the royal presence they announced that the Chinese were coming
to take possession of the king’s person and that he must hasten to a
place of safety. The king did not believe this report but as they
insisted he had no recourse but to submit. The little company hastened
along under the west wall of the palace until they came to a small gate
leading into Kyöng-u Palace which adjoins the “Old Palace” on the west.
As they proceeded Kim Ok-kyun asked the king to send to the Japanese
Minister asking for a body-guard, but he refused. Thereupon Sŭ Kwang-bom
drew out a piece of foreign note-paper and a pencil and wrote in Chinese
the words “Let the Japanese Minister come and give me his help.” This
was immediately despatched by a servant. That it was a mere matter of
form was evident when the little company passed into the Kyöng-u Palace,
for there they found the Japanese Minister and his interpreter already
in attendance and with them some two hundred troops drawn up in line.
When the king appeared they saluted. There were present also the twelve
students who had been in Japan. Word was immediately sent to Sin
Keui-sŭn, Pak Yŭng-hyo and O Yun-jung to come and receive office under
the reconstructed government. Within half an hour they were in
attendance, excepting O Yun-jung who happened to be away in the country
at the time.
Very early in the morning a royal messenger was sent with the
_myong-p‘a_ or “summoning tablet” to the houses of Min T‘ă-ho, Min
Yŭng-mok and Cho Ryŭng-ha, ordering them to appear at once before the
king. They complied and hastened to the palace but no sooner had they
entered the palace gate than they were seized and cut down in cold
blood. Then the summons was sent to Han Kyu-jik, Yi Cho-yun and Yun T‘ă
jŭn. They too were assassinated as soon as they entered the palace. A
eunuch named Yu Cha-hyŭn was also put to death. It is useless to ask by
whose hand these men fell. Whoever wielded the brutal sword, the leaders
of the so-called progressive party were wholly responsible. The twelve
young men who had returned from Japan were all fully armed and it is
more than probable that they took an active part in the bloody work. Not
only was not the king consulted in regard to these murders but in the
case of the eunuch it was done in spite of his entreaties and
remonstrances.
These seven men who thus went to their doom were not entirely
unconscious of what awaited them. When Cho Ryŭng-ha received the summons
the inmates of his house pleaded with him not to go, but as it was the
king’s summons he would not disobey even though he knew it meant death.
Just at daylight the king was removed to the house of his cousin Yi
Chă-wŭn, escorted by the Japanese soldiers who surrounded him four deep.
Kim Ok-kyun gave passes to those who were to be allowed to go in and out
and only such had access to the premises. After remaining there some
three hours the whole company returned to the “Old Palace.” In the
reconstructed government Yi Chă wŭn and Hong Yŭng-sik were made Prime
Ministers, Pak Yŭng-hyo was made General-in chief. Su Kwang-bom was made
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Ok-kyun Minister of Finance and Sŭ
Chă-p‘il Lieutenant-general. The rest of the young men who had studied
in Japan were also given official position.
Before Yun T‘ă-jŭn, Yi Cho-yŭn and Han Kyu-jik went to the palace and
met their fate they sent word to Yuan warning him of the state of
affairs and asking help, but he made no immediate move. As the morning
broke thousands of Koreans came to him and said that the Japanese held
the king a prisoner in the palace and begged him to interfere. Yuan
replied by sending a messenger to the Japanese Minister demanding why he
had surrounded the king with soldiers and had killed the ministers, and
demanding that he immediately evacuate the place. Three hours passed and
still no answer came; and at last Yuan and the two other Chinese leaders
took a strong body of Chinese troops and several hundred Korean troops
and proceeded to the palace. Entering by way of the Sun-in Gate and
passing through the Ch‘ang-kyŭng Palace they approached the Po-t‘ong
Gate which gave entrance to the “Old Palace,” but they found it strongly
guarded by Japanese. Here a sharp encounter took place which lasted an
hour, beginning about three o’clock in the afternoon. About ten each of
the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans fell in this assault. As the darkness
came on the Japanese began to fall back and taking the king and the
newly appointed ministers they made their way to the extreme
northeasterly portion of the palace grounds, not far from the Hong-wha
Gate. The royal party took refuge in a summer house there and the
Japanese stationed themselves behind trees and guarded the place,
keeping up a lively fusillade with the Chinese who had followed them.
Meanwhile the Crown Prince, the Queen and the king’s foster-mother had
escaped in small closed chairs out the Sŭn-in Gate and had found refuge
in the house of Yi Pom-jin in the village of No-wŭn, twenty li outside
the East Gate.
The chances of success for the Japanese were becoming smaller and
smaller and the king was anxiously looking for an opportunity of
escaping from them and making his way to the Chinese side. At last,
taking advantage of the extreme disorder that prevailed, he made his way
to the Puk-chang Gate at the extreme northeastern part of the palace
enclosure. Outside there was a crowd of Korean soldiers who wished to
gain entrance and rescue the king from his captors. When the latter made
his presence known inside the gate these soldiers effected an entrance
and lifting His Majesty on their shoulders carried him in triumph to the
North Temple just inside the Northeast Gate. Seeing that all hope of
immediate success was gone, Pak Yŭng-hyo, Kim Ok-kyun, Sŭ Kwang-bom, Sŭ
Chă-p‘il and a part of the company of military students accompanied the
Japanese troops out the front gate of the palace to the Japanese
Legation which was then situated in Kyo-dong. This was accomplished in
the midst of great excitement.
Meanwhile Hong Yŭng-sik, Pak Yŭng-kyo, Sin Keui-sŭn and seven of the
military students had followed the fortunes of the king. But no sooner
did the party arrive at the North Temple than the people fell upon Hong
Yŭng-sik and Pak Yŭng-kyo and hacked them to pieces before the king’s
eyes. Hong Yŭng-sik attempted to hide in a closet behind His Majesty but
the latter indicated by a nod of the head that he was concealed there
and the people dragged him out and dispatched him on the spot. The seven
students tried to effect their escape but were pursued and killed, one
below Chong-no, and another at Yŭn-mot-kol.
No sooner had the morning dawned than the Japanese Minister formed his
little company in a hollow square, placed the Korean refugees and the
Japanese women and children in the center, fired the legation buildings
and marched out through the city on their way to Chemulpo, shooting at
any Koreans whom they happened to see in their way. They found the West
Gate locked but they soon forced it and hurried away to the port. All
the Japanese in Seoul did not escape thus, for there were a few living
in Chin-go-gă. That same day the Koreans mobbed them and killed them
all, men, women and children.
A Japanese merchant vessel happened to be lying at Chemulpo and the
Minister with all his company boarded her, carrying the Koreans with
them. The latter were hidden in the hold.
That same day, later in the afternoon, the king made his way to the
Ha-do-gam where the Chinese had camped, and put himself under their
protection. Cho Pyŭng-ho was sent to Chemulpo to ask the Japanese
Minister not to leave, and to effect the arrest of the fugitives. In
neither quest was he successful.
An anxious month passed by and at last the Japanese, Count Inouye, came
with a guard of 600 troops and took up his quarters at the governor’s
place outside the West Gate. Negotiations were at once begun and as a
result the Korean Government agreed to pay an indemnity of 600,000 yen.
Sŭ Sang-u and P. G. von Mollendorf were sent as commissioners to Japan
to arrange suitable terms for the renewal of friendly relations. To make
good their protestations of regret at the killing of defenseless
Japanese in Seoul four men who took part in that work were arrested and
put to death. At the same time Yi Ch‘ang-gyu, Sŭ Chă-Ch‘ang, Kim
Pong-jung and five others who had been charged with complicacy in the
plot were seized and executed.
On January ninth 1885 Kim Hong-Jip, Special Korean Commissioner, signed
with Count Inouye a convention regarding the trouble of the preceeding
month, by the terms of which the government agreed to apologize to the
Japanese emperor, to pay an indemnity of 110,000 yen, to execute the
murderer of Lieut. Isobayachi, to give a site for a new Legation and
20,000 yen for its construction and to set aside a site for barracks for
the Japanese guard. Early in the Spring the Japanese Legation was built,
being the first foreign building in Seoul.
The year 1885 beheld many events of importance. The government hospital
was founded under royal patronage by Dr. H. N. Allen of the American
Presbyterian Mission. It beheld also the arrival of that great vanguard
of civilization the Protestant Missionary. Dr. Allen had arrived in the
previous year but now the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches of America
sent a number of representatives into Seoul to secure property and begin
preparations for the founding of regular evangelistic and educational
work. In April the Chinese and Japanese signed the celebrated Tientsin
Convention by the terms of which they both agreed to evacuate Korea and
not to send troops there without previously notifying each other. It was
the breaking of this convention by China which was one of the immediate
causes of the Japan-China war. At this same time, England, fearing the
occupation of Port Hamilton by Russia, sent a fleet of war vessels and
occupied the place herself. She was finally induced to leave, but only
after China had guaranteed to secure it against occupation by any other
power. In October the treaty with Russia was signed and a Legation was
established in Seoul. The ex-Regent was still in China, but the Chinese
government now deemed it safe to send him back to the peninsula, and Min
Chŭng-muk was sent to act as his escort.
Since the day when the Regent threw the finances of the country into
confusion by the debasement of the currency and since the officials had
learned how much the people would endure of unjust taxation, in the days
when every means was adopted to wring from them the funds for the
erection of the palace, official indirection had been on the rapid
increase. The people were being imposed upon more and more. All the
money that dishonest men paid to corrupt officials to purchase office
had to be drawn from the people later by dishonest means. The main
qualification of a successful prefect was the ability to judge when he
had reached the limit of the people’s endurance. The year 1885 beheld a
serious revolt in Yö-ju where the prefect had overstepped the dead-line
of the peoples’ patience. He was driven out and his _ajun_ or clerk was
killed. The prefect of Wŭn-ju also escaped death only by flight, while
an _ajun_ was killed.
Not the least important event of 1885 was the completion under Chinese
patronage of the Seoul-Peking telegraph line by which Korea was for the
first time put into quick communication with the rest of the world. At
the dictation of China a commissioner, Yi Chung-ha was sent north to
meet a Chinese commissioner and determine the exact boundary between
Korean and Chinese territory along the Tu-man River.
A customs service had been begun by von Mollendorf on an independent
basis but in July of 1885 he was dismissed from service in the Foreign
Office and two months later he was relieved of work in the Customs
because of unwarrantable schemes into which he had drawn that department
of the government. The whole service was thereupon put under the
management of Sir Robert Hart the Inspector General of the Chinese
Customs. An entirely new staff of men was sent from China. H. N. Merrill
was made Chief Commissioner and Chemulpo, Fusan and Wŭnsan were put in
charge of men directly from the Chinese Customs staff. This was a
guarantee of excellent management but it proved to be the strongest
lever China had in the carrying out her ambitious plans in the
peninsula. Before the close of the year Gen. Foote without giving
specific reasons retired from the United States Legation and returned to
America, Ensign Geo. C. Foulk becoming Charge d’Affaires.
In the early months of 1886 Yi To-jă, Sin Keui-sŭn, Hong Chin-yu, An
Chŭng-su and Kyöng Kwang-guk were banished to distant islands for
complicacy in the plot which led to the emeute of 1884.
In February the king by royal edict abolished the hereditary
transmission of slaves and the use of slave labor by the guilds in the
work on the palaces. This was a measure of far-reaching import had it
been carried out in full; but we find that it had to be re-enacted in
1894.
The government desired to secure the services of a foreign expert as
adviser to the Home and Foreign Offices and with the sanction of Li
Hung-chang, the Chinese Viceroy, Judge O. N. Denny, ex-Consul-general of
U. S. to China, was called and he arrived in the spring of 1886 just in
time to be present at the signing of the treaty with France. He had for
some years been on rather intimate terms with the Great Viceroy and it
is probable that the latter hoped to use the Judge in forwarding Chinese
interests in Korea. If so he found himself grievously mistaken for the
United States as well as Japan and France, had recognized the
independence of Korea, and Judge Denny devoted his energies to the
maintenance of that independence. Yuan the Chinese commissioner had
taken up his residence in Seoul and had dubbed himself “Resident” in
opposition to the Korean claim to independence. The Peking government,
forgetting or ignoring the fact that whenever Korea had gotten into
trouble she (China) had always disavowed responsibility and had
practically disclaimed suzerainty, now began to bolster up her claims
and to use every means to make good her pretensions. The dominant party
which had ridden into power on the shoulders of the Chinese put no
obstacles in the way and thus Judge Denny found himself blocked in his
efforts to better the condition of the country.
It was generally understood that the right of Japanese and Western
foreigners to reside in Seoul was based on the most favored nation
clause in the treaties and that if the Chinese removed from Seoul the
others could be compelled to do likewise. The Chinese, therefore,
hoping, it is said, to secure more exclusive power in the capital by the
removal of other foreigners began to agitate the question of removing
all their nationals to Yong-san near the river three miles from Seoul.
For a time it appeared as if this might be done but the large vested
rights of the Japanese in the capital as well as the interests of others
caused a counter agitation which frustrated the scheme.
Geo. C. Foulk, Ensign in the U. S. Navy, had long been in connection
with the Legation in Seoul. Early in 1881 he had suggested to the
government the advisability of founding a school for the instruction of
young Koreans in Western languages and sciences, and consequently the
United States Secretary of State was requested by the Korean government
to secure three men as instructors; but the emeute of that year had
deferred the matter. In 1886 it was again brought up and in July three
men who had been selected by the U. S. Commissioner of Education arrived
at the Korean Capital. A terrible epidemic of cholera devastated the
city that summer and as many as seven or eight hundred deaths occurred
daily. It was in September that the Royal English School was opened.
Chinese claims to suzerainty emboldened the Chinese merchants to attempt
to evade the customs regulations and the result was a serious affray in
Chemulpo when the Chinese tried to evade the export on ginseng. The
Chinese Commissioner tried to uphold them in it but a vigorous protest
to Li Hung-chang righted the matter and the offenders were deported and
the Customs Service was vindicated.
It was in this year that the trading station Whe-ryŭng on the Tu-man
River was established for convenience of trade with Russia but it was
not made an open port. About this time the school founded by the
American Methodist Mission received royal recognition and the king
conferred upon it the name Pai Chai Hak Tang or “Hall for the Rearing of
Useful Men.”
Contrary to the wishes of the Chinese a Korean Minister to America was
appointed in the person of Pak Chöng-yang, but in attempting to start
for America he was intercepted by the Chinese just outside the South
Gate and compelled to return. Two months later, however, he succeeded in
getting away. He was received in Washington with all the punctiliousness
due to a Minister from any sovereign power. This helped in a certain way
to forward Korea’s claim to independence but America’s well-known policy
of non-interferance in foreign matters largely neutralized its effect.
The year 1888 beheld what is known as the “Baby War.” The report was
spread abroad that the Europeans and Americans were stealing children
and boiling them in kettles for food. It was also generally believed
that the foreigners caught women and cut off their breasts in order to
extract from them the condensed milk which was so commonly used among
the foreign residents. The Koreans knew that the foreigners had no cows
and they could explain the use of milk only on the above theory. The
_modus operandi_ was said to be as follows. The foreigners were
possessed of a peculiar drug which became a powerful gas when introduced
into the mouth. Approaching a Korean paper covered lattice door at the
dead of night the operator would make a tiny hole in the paper and
applying his mouth to it would blow the gas into the room. The effect
would be that if there were a woman in the room she would waken and be
seized with an uncontrolable desire to go outside. Once without the
door, the foreigner would seize her, cut off her breasts and return to
his home. It was believed that they had paid agents among the people to
whom they taught the secret and whom they sent about the country to
secure women’s breasts. Two suspicious looking men were set upon in
Hong-ch‘ŭn charged with being breast-hunters. They narrowly escaped with
their lives. For a short time there was imminent danger of an uprising
but a royal proclamation couched in trenchant language did much to calm
the excitement and the danger subsided as suddenly as it had arisen. In
Eui-ju there was a most destructive flood in which 300 lives were lost
and 1927 houses were swept away.