as we had done that of Egypt, and I believe they would have done it had they been allowed a free hand. It was apparent, however, that Count Inouye found the task of reformation a far harder one than he expected, and that the difficulties in his way were nearly insurmountable. He said himself that there were “no tools to work with,” and in the hope of manufacturing them a large number of youths of the upper class were sent for two years to Japan, one year to be spent in education and another in learning accuracy and “the first principles of honor” in certain Government departments. Sundry Japanese demands, though conceded at the time by the King, had been allowed to drop, and it was not till December, 1894, that Count Inouye obtained a formal covenant that five of them should be at once carried out. (1) A full pardon for all the conspirators of 1884; (2) That the Tai-Won-Kun and the Queen should interfere no more in public affairs; (3) That no relatives of the Royal Family should be employed in any official capacity; (4) That the number of eunuchs and “Palace ladies” should at once be reduced to a minimum; (5) That caste distinctions--patrician and plebeian--should no longer be recognized. Edicts on some of the foregoing subjects appeared in the _Gazette_, and large numbers of the eunuchs packed up their clothes and left the Palace quietly in the night, along with the “Palace ladies”; but the King in his vast dwelling was so lonely without them that the next morning he sent an order commanding their immediate return under serious penalties, and it was obeyed at once! The attitude of the Korean official class, with the exception of a small number who were personally interested in the success of Japan, was altogether unfavorable to the new _régime_, and every change was regarded with indignation. Though destitute of true patriotism, the common people looked upon the King as a sacred person, and they were furious at the indignities to which he had been subjected. The official class saw that reform meant the end of “squeezing” and ill-gotten gains, and they, with the whole army of parasites and hangers-on of _yamens_, were all pledged by the strongest personal interest to oppose it by active opposition or passive resistance. Though corruption has its stronghold in Seoul, every provincial government repeats on a smaller scale the iniquities of the capital, and has its own army of dishonest and lazy officials fattening on the earnings of the industrious classes.