On this occasion a guard of eighty Russian soldiers occupied a position close to the Royal tent, not far from one in which the Foreign Representatives, with the noteworthy exception of the Japanese Envoy, were assembled. Rolled-up scroll portraits of the five immediate ancestors of the King, each enclosed in a large oblong palanquin of gilded fretwork, and preceded by a crowd of officials in old Court costume, filed past the Royal tent, where the King did obeisance, and the Russian Guard presented arms. This was only the first part of the ceremony. Later a colossal catafalque, containing the fragmentary remains of the murdered Queen, was dragged through the streets from the Kyeng-pok Palace by 700 men in sackcloth, preceded and followed by a crowd of Court functionaries, also in mourning, and escorted by Korean drilled troops. The King and Crown Prince received the procession at the gate of the new Kyeng-wun Palace, and the hearse, after being hauled up to the end of a long platform outside the Spirit Shrine, was tracked by ropes (for no hand might touch it) to the interior, where it rested under a canopy of white silk, and for more than a year received the customary rites and sacrifices from the bereaved husband and son. The large crowd in the streets was orderly and silent. The ceremony was remarkable both for the revival of picturesque detail and of practices which it was supposed had become obsolete, such as the supporting of officials on their ponies by retainers, or when on foot by having their arms propped up. In July, 1896, Mr. J. M’Leavy Brown, LL.D., Chief Commissioner of Customs, received by Royal decree the absolute control of all payments out of the Treasury, and having gained considerable insight into the complexities of financial corruption, addressed himself in earnest to the reform of abuses, and with most beneficial results. In September a Council of State of fourteen members was substituted for the Cabinet of Ministers organized under Japanese auspices, a change which was to some extent a return to old methods.