Russia has been associated, also, with the Korean army, the Russian military authorities having lent a number of drill-instructors to the Korean service. They have now been withdrawn. The management of the residence, in which apartments are found for the guests of the Imperial Court, has been entrusted to a Russian lady. There are very few Russian residents in Seoul. Those who live there comprise the immediate _personnel_ of the Legation, the Legation guards, priests of the Greek Church, and some sprinkling of the shop-keeping element. The colony is small, but contrives, with the aid of a port guardship at Chemulpo and constant visits from the Pacific Squadron, when performances are given by the band from the guard-ship for the delectation of the Imperial Court, to support the majesty and dignity of the Russian Government with much impressive display. Proposals have been recently made to establish consulates in the open ports of the Empire—the Consulate from the capital is now established at Chemulpo; to increase the services of the steamers of the Manchurian Railway between the open ports of Korea and Manchuria, and to found a branch of the Russo-Chinese Bank at Chemulpo. It is intended, too, that the Russian Pacific Squadron shall use the Korean harbours more frequently as ports of call. For some years Russia has been gradually feeling her way in Korea. Prior to 1885 there were over twenty thousand Koreans settled in her Far Eastern possessions, while in 1888 Russia concluded a Commercial Convention with Korea, which opened the Korean land frontier to Russian traders. In 1893 telegraphic communication between Russia and Korea was arranged, when, just as the Russian policy towards Korea perhaps was beginning to shape itself, war between China and Japan was declared. Whatever conclusions may have been anticipated as the results of such a war, there can be no doubt that its effect upon the actual destinies of Russia and Japan in the Far East was far-reaching. The policy of Russia towards China underwent a change, while the ultimate possession of Korea became equally the objective of Japan as of the greater Power. Russia, however, could not afford to profit at the moment by the downfall of China, and Japan was not strong enough to hold the Liao-tung Peninsula nor bold enough to seize Korea. Nevertheless, driven out of the Liao-tung by the action of Russia, France and Germany, Japan might still have secured for herself complete material and political ascendency over Korea. In time, if such had been her policy, she could have made manifest, too, her occupation of the kingdom and equipped herself with an argument, the parallel of that possessed by Great Britain in Egypt, and by Russia in Manchuria. Unhappily, while Russia with masterly deliberation was moving steadily forward in her subjugation of Manchuria, Japan, whole-hearted but ignorant of the pitfalls of colonial expansion,