The period which has passed since the country was opened to foreign trade has given the inhabitants time to become accustomed to the peculiar differences which distinguish foreigners. It has afforded Koreans countless opportunities to select for themselves such institutions as may be calculated to promote their own welfare, and to provide at the same time compensating advantages for their departure from tradition. Not only by the construction of an electric tramway, the provision of long-distance telephones and telegraphs, the installation of electric light, a general renovation of its thoroughfares and its buildings, and the improvement of its system of drainage, does the capital of Korea give tokens of the spirit which is at work amongst its inhabitants. Reforms in education have also taken place; schools and hospitals have been opened; banks, foreign shops and agencies have sprung up; a factory for the manufacture of porcelain ware is in operation; and the number and variety of the religions with which foreign missionaries are wooing the people are as amazing and complex as in China. There will be no absence in the future of those soothing conjectures from which the consolations of religion may be derived. The conduct of educational affairs is arranged upon a basis which now gives every facility for the study of foreign subjects. Special schools for foreign languages, conducted by the Government under the supervision of foreign teachers, have been instituted. Indeed, most striking changes have been made in the curriculum of the common schools of the city. Mathematics, geography, history, besides foreign languages, are all subjects in the courses of these establishments, and, only lately, a special School of Survey, under foreign direction, has been opened. The enlightenment, which is thus spreading throughout the lower classes, cannot fail to secure some eventual modification of the views and sentiments by which the upper classes regard the progress of the country. As a sign of the times, it is worthy to note that several native newspapers have been started; while the increase of business has created the necessity for improved facilities in financial transactions, a development which has appealed not only to the Dai Ichi Ginko. The Russo-Chinese Bank is proposing to contend with this Japanese financial house. The establishment at Chemulpo of a branch of the Russian Bank is contemplated, from whence will come an issue of rouble notes to compete with the various denominations of the Japanese Bank. Moreover, the Government is preparing to erect a large building in foreign style in the centre of the city, to be used as the premises of the Central Bank of Korea. It will be a three-storied building, and it is intended to establish branches in all the thirteen provinces of the Empire. Its chief aim is to facilitate the transfer of Government moneys, the transport of which has always been a severe tax upon the Government.