Koreans had always regarded their neighbors on the East with the distrust which their not infrequent invasions warranted, and they believed that Russia, while she might invade, would not seek to Russianize; while she might plunder, would not colonize, or interfere at least more than incidentally or occasionally with personal right or private concerns as the others were almost certain to do. Whenever trouble seemed brewing between Japan and other powers, whatever may have been the reason, the Korean government at least almost invariably went with the other side, and at this time Korea and her royal family counted a long score of injuries and wrongs from Japan. The murder of their Queen, the cutting of the top-knots, and the hard and burdensome laws enacted at that time, the indignities the Emperor had suffered in practical confinement and the insults heaped upon the dead Queen could not be forgotten. On the other hand Russia had sheltered and protected the King on his escape, had favored his complete freedom of action even while he resided in her Legation, and when patriotic Koreans had complained that Russian influence was becoming too great, had withdrawn all the causes of complaint, removed her bank, and the obnoxious officials, favored the departure of the King to his own palace and left everything in the hands of the Koreans. Such conduct, whatever its motive, could not but excite gratitude, and add to this the degree of certitude with which nearly the whole East awaited the speedy defeat of the Japanese by mighty, all-powerful Russia, it is not hard to see why the Korean government were so strongly pro-Russian. This, then, by way of partial explanation of the attitude of Yi Yong Ik and the Korean court and government and in fact of a great many of the Korean people, though just here it may be said that multitudes of the Koreans with all the Americans and Europeans, except perhaps the French, were pro-Japanese, believing that they would prove the saviors of Korea from all-absorbing Russia, that reform and progress, good government and order would follow in their train, and warm were our good wishes and hearty the delight with which we witnessed Japanese successes at the opening of the war. This attitude of the Korean government continued without change from the beginning to the end of the war, and now was the time when they might venture to show their real feeling and attempt some reprisals upon Japan. First of all, then, the minister took the ill-advised measure of forbidding the use of the notes of the Japanese bank in Seoul, causing a run which came very near wrecking it. As the Japanese were in a position to retaliate, this resulted in apologies and withdrawals by the native government, but left a debt uncancelled for the Japanese to remember by and by.