One-tenth of the entire estimated expenditure—or, more precisely, 1,309,000 _yen_—is attributed to the Imperial Household. But even this by no means represents the cost to the nation of the Emperor and his Court under the former occupant of the throne. For all manner of irregular, illicit, and scandalous ways of obtaining money for his privy purse were resorted to by the ruler, whose character and habits in the obtaining and use of money have already been sufficiently described.[71] The trials which have come upon the Financial Adviser of the Korean Government since his appointment, through the behavior of the so-called “Korean Executive,” can scarcely be exaggerated. One of the questions pending when Mr. Megata first assumed office concerned the size of the allowance for the expenses of the Crown Princess’ funeral. The Emperor’s private funds were at a low ebb (they always are); the national treasury was impoverished (it always had been). Yet the Imperial Treasurer, an official of the old-time stamp, insisted that one million _yen_ was absolutely indispensable for the proper carrying out of the burial ceremony(!). This way of plundering the treasury of the country, which was considered especially legitimate by the Korean Court and its parasites, Mr. Megata dealt with in that spirit of “philosophical humor” which is characteristic of him. He patiently pointed out that the estimated prices of many of the items called for were greatly in excess of their market value. In this manner he finally reduced the wily claims of the Korean official to the modest sum of a half-million _yen_. Two full-dress rehearsals, which differed from the actual ceremony only in the circumstance that the coffin was empty and no official invitations to attend were issued, preceded the final pageant. On each of these occasions the long procession marched pompously through the streets, which were crowded with wrangling lantern-bearers, chair coolies, and the innumerable other horde of a low-lived Korean populace, to the dissipation of all the solemnity of a death-ceremonial, but to the delectation of the spectators as well as the participants. The public debt of Korea in March, 1907, is here exhibited in tabular form: TABLE OF NATIONAL DEBT