through our Minister of Public Works, have made the altar higher and broader than before and have placed this monument to keep alive in the minds of generations yet unborn the memory of these events, to show that the goodness of the Emperor is as high as heaven itself. Not that we alone have seen it, for all Manchuria as well was witness to it. Throughout the world that gracious voice cannot be resisted. Though we write with characters as broad as the very earth and as clear as the sun and moon we could never describe his greatness and his glory. For such cause is it written here. Frost and dew are both from heaven. One kills the other vivifies. Thus it is that the Emperor shows goodness in the midst of terror. The Emperor came with over 100,000 soldiers. Many of them were like the tiger and the dragon. Before them, brandishing their spears, went the savages from the far north and the distant west. Fearsome men! But the Emperor’s gracious words came down in a letter in ten lines clear and beautiful, whereby our blinded minds were enlightened. The Emperor’s words are luminous and precise, and we, a small king, confessed and surrendered; not so much because we feared his terror as because we delighted in his graciousness. He treated us kindly, paying all attention to the ceremonies and the rites. Then we were glad and laughed, and every weapon sought its sheath. Then we donned the garment of peace. The people of Seoul, both men and women, burst into singing and said that the Emperor had given us back to our palace. The Emperor pitied the distress of the people and encouraged them to till the fields again. To the dead roots of the tree was brought back spring-time. This stone is lofty and it stands here at the head of the river to show forth the Emperor’s goodness to the Sam-han.” Such was the statement that the Manchus put into the mouth of Korea and until recent years they have claimed Korea as their vassal state. The claim originally was perfectly good. Never did a country make herself more abject in her acceptance of a vassal’s position. And the only line of argument that can be used to prove that that condition did not hold till the treaty of Shimonoseki was signed in 1895, is in China’s occasional disavowal of it, to shield herself from responsibility for Korea’s acts.