Meantime, as we have already seen, the Resident-General was being opposed and, as far as possible, thwarted, in every effort to improve the civil service and judicial administration of Korea, by the corrupt Korean Court, with its mob of eunuchs, palace women, sorceresses, etc., and by nearly all the native officials and Yang-bans in places of influence and power. _And the chief seat of corruption and of opposition to genuine, effective reform was the smiling and amiable Korean Emperor himself._ How effectively, because wisely and firmly, Marquis Ito initiated and advanced these reform measures will receive its proof, so far as proof is at present possible, by examination of results recorded in official and other trustworthy reports. To the facts already narrated, on which my personal impression of these qualities was based, many others of even a more convincing character might easily be added. Of the feelings of admiration and friendship which grew during these weeks of somewhat confidential relations, on the part of the guest toward his host, it would not be fitting to speak with any detail. But in closing the more exclusively personal part of my narrative I might quote the words of one of the Consuls-General residing in Seoul. This diplomat expressed his feeling toward the Marquis Ito as one of veneration, beyond that which he had ever felt for any but a very few of the men whom he had met in his official career. After all, however, personal impressions, no matter how favorable to truth the conditions under which they are derived, are not of themselves satisfactory in answer to questions so grave and so complicated as those which encompass the existing relations between Japan and Korea. Such impressions must be subjected to the severer tests, the more comprehensive considerations, the profounder sanctions, of history and of statistics. For this reason I now pass on to the much more difficult task of reviewing in the light of these tests, considerations, and sanctions, the impressions of my visit to Korea in 1907, as the guest of Marquis Ito. _PART II_ A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL INQUIRY CHAPTER IX THE PROBLEM: HISTORICAL