This public announcement of the establishment of friendly relations between the Marquis Ito and an influential portion of the missionary body in Korea was drawn up in semi-official fashion. The gentlemen who undertook the duty of making the advances toward the Resident-General were convicted—as is every one who comes into anything approaching familiar relations with him—of the complete sincerity of his purpose toward the people of Korea, and of his frank and fair-minded policy toward all foreign interests. The Marquis himself, after the interview, requested that the substance of it might be made known to the public. Each party prepared with care the few words which declared this unselfish alliance between the representative of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, in Korea and these representative teachers of religion, in the common effort to promote the industrial, educational, moral, and religious welfare of a hitherto unhappy nation. Such an alliance—as we may reasonably hope—will contribute to the reputation for wisdom and unselfishness of both parties to it. At any rate, as soon appeared, the immediate results were in the direction of an enlarged future good. CHAPTER IV LIFE IN SEOUL (_CONTINUED_) The winter and spring of 1907 in Korea were, from the point of view of one interested in this kind of politics, a very lively period, even for a country traditionally accustomed to similar performances. Four attempts at assassination of the Ministry—one of which was successful; daily disclosures of intrigue, plot and counter-plot; revolts against the country magistrates which took the form of refusal to pay taxes, of attacks upon the police, and of highway robbery; plans for plundering the resources of the nation under plausible pretence of schemes for “promoting” the nation’s resources; foolish excitements selfishly fostered by writers for the press who had their own interests to secure; and quite as foolish, but less selfish, endeavors for increase of public welfare, by those benevolently inclined; secret arrangements for the despatch of the unfortunate delegation to the Hague, accompanied by stealings from the impoverished royal treasury to the extent of several hundred thousand _yen_; and, finally, a change, not only in the _personnel_ of the Ministry but in its very constitution and mode of procedure, which amounted to a bloodless revolution—these and other like events were crowded into this one half-year. Meantime, especially after the return of the Resident-General, the foundations of a new industrial and educational development were being laid; and the arrangements for a systematic administration of law and justice were quietly made ready. An extensive religious revival was in progress—with phenomena corresponding to those familiar to students of such subjects, when the moral power of a higher religion first makes itself felt among a people who are ignorant