It does not follow from this, however, that either the rights of the Japanese Government allow, or their obligations compel, it to go to any length demanded by foreign business men, or concessionaires, or even by foreign missionaries, in promoting their real or fancied interests, or in redressing their fancied as well as their real wrongs. There are plainly limits to be observed in meeting demands and requests of this character. It may be the duty of the Japanese Government, for example, to secure and defend all the mining and other concessions made to foreigners which can prove themselves to have been honestly obtained and administered in substantial accord with the initial contract. Inasmuch as few concessions of any sort among those obtained from the last Emperor can stand the test of honesty, or even of tolerable freedom from corruption, it will doubtless be well for the Japanese Government not to be over-scrupulous or too curiously enquiring in many cases. But it certainly is not its duty to allow the Imperial treasury to be plundered _ad libitum_ by contracts made, and concessions obtained, through combinations of corrupt Korean officials with greedy and unscrupulous foreigners. Again: it may be the duty of the Japanese Government to protect a certain “freedom of the press,” in the case of publications owned and managed by foreigners, even if printed in the vernacular and distributed widely among the more ignorant and excitable of the native population. It is certainly greatly to the credit of the Japanese officials to have borne so quietly the slanderous and abusive attacks upon their government of one such publication in Seoul. But surely there may be a limit here also. Undoubtedly that limit was reached, when the vernacular edition of this publication excited the natives to sedition, revolt, and assassination, especially at so critical a juncture in the national affairs as occurred during the spring and summer of 1907. Possibly, there is also a limit beyond which misrepresentation and falsehood directed against individuals not connected with the government ought not to be allowed to pass.[79]