be no occasion to do aught but support benevolently the policy of Japan, without unnecessarily endorsing the aggressiveness which distinguishes the attitude of the Island Empire to its neighbour. But if we wish to preserve our position we must put a little more vigour into our policy, and, while maintaining our working agreement with Japan, proceed to guarantee the integrity of our own interests. These would be best served by insisting upon the retention of a British nominee in the supervision of the Korean Maritime Customs. Our action in this respect would meet with the unqualified approval of Japan and the United States of America, whose trading interests, equally with our own, justify predominance in this control. The financial embarrassment of the Korean Government, at the present time, is the outcome of the abnormal extravagance of the Court. Anything which would tend to increase the load of debt with which the Emperor encumbers the dwindling resources of the national wealth, is neither politic nor desirable. The sources of the Imperial revenue resemble in lesser degree those which prevail in China. There are the Land Tax, paid no longer in grain, which returned four and a half of the seven million yen odd, composing the total domestic revenue in 1901; a House Tax, assessed capriciously and evaded by the practice of a little discreet bribery; the net Customs revenue, which was returned for 1901 at more than one million and a quarter yen (1,325,414 yen; £135,303 sterling at exchange of 2_s._ 0½_d._), and the proceeds of the various concessions, monopolies, mines, and mint, and the sums derived from such miscellaneous and irregular taxation as may suggest itself to that keen-witted Minister Yi Yong-ik. Taxation is heavy and relentless. The list of the more important objects, upon which an impost is levied, includes, in addition to the land, customs and house taxes, salt, tobacco, fish, fur, lumber lands, minerals, ginseng, minting, cargo-boats, guilds, licences, paper, cowhides, pawnbroking, &c. In more recent times certain taxes have become obsolete. But this list, however, does not by any means exhaust the means by which the Emperor contrives to make his subjects “pay the piper.” Quite subsidiary to the regular cases, but of great value in themselves, are the donations which are sent up from various parts of the country for the gratification of the Throne. These gifts are very comprehensive, and embrace the fruits of the land as well as the products of the sea. Little escapes the schedule of donations, and no intervention can bring about the discontinuation of the custom, while a failure on the part of a prefect to attend to this matter would result speedily enough in the loss of his office.