Korea has completely lacked; and to the difference as respects the essential spirit of loyalty among the people which the feudal system developed in Japan, but which has never been to any extent developed in Korea. The complete inability of the Korean official to comprehend, or to sympathize with, the motives which led the representatives of Japan—first, Mr. Otori and then Count Inouye—to urge the adoption of administrative reforms may be judged by the fact that the King’s father, the Tai Won Kun, handed to Inouye on his arrival as Minister at Seoul a list of sixty persons whom he wished to have forthwith executed in order to secure himself in control of affairs. Squabbles for power between the party of the Queen and the party of the Tai Won Kun therefore continued and even became increasingly acute. The Korean hot-head progressives were pushing reforms without sufficient regard to the existing conditions. But for a time the presence of a real statesman as the representative of Japan in Korea kept the evil forces in check. Count Inouye’s appointment to the post of Minister was an eloquent proof of the profound interest which the Japanese Government took in Korea, and of its earnest desire to aid her in the promotion of domestic reform and progress. On the Count’s part, personally, the acceptance of such a task, difficult and in many ways distasteful, was an exhibition of self-sacrificing patriotism, to which the present action of his bosom friend and associate, Marquis Ito, affords a striking parallel. While striving to reconcile the warring Korean factions, he devoted himself to the improvement of administrative conditions and to the promotion of the public welfare. He attained a measure of success in some directions, and would undoubtedly have achieved more lasting success had it been possible for him to remain longer in Korea. His singleness of purpose was recognized by many Koreans, and the sincerity of his endeavors to benefit Korea was acknowledged by foreign observers. But the task was too heavy for the time he could devote to it.