Now this intrinsic freedom of the Korean from Chinese ideals argued strongly in favor of the belief that from the year 1894 Korea would gradually cast off even the mental vassalage and would begin to work along individual lines. This could happen only in case the individualism of the Korean had outlasted the deadening effects of Chinese predominance. There are many evidences that this individualism has survived but it must be confessed that it is in a crippled condition and all but unable to walk alone. It is to the process and method of this great transformation in Korean conditions that we must now turn. Up to the time when the Japanese began active operations in Seoul by the seizure of the palace, Korea considered herself safe under the aegis of China. Had she not secured the murder of Kim Ok-kyun and the return of his body on a Chinese vessel for the purpose of wreaking upon it the old time vengeance? Had she not invited Chinese troops into the country in direct contravention of the agreement between China and Japan? In every way and by every means Korea had expressed her contempt of Japanese power and of Japanese interests. Under the hideously corrupt regime of such men as Min Yong-jun the country had been going from bad to worse until the people found it utterly impossible to endure the oppression any longer. The provinces were in a state of anarchy and Yuan Shih-kei, the unscrupulous Chinese “Resident” in Seoul, stood smilingly by and watched the tragedy without suggesting any remedy for the disease that was destroying the country, but ready to increase the prestige of China in the peninsula by offering troops with which to crush the starving malcontents in the provinces. The condition of things was about as bad as it could be, and it was at this psychological moment that Japan lifted her hand and at a single blow tumbled the Chinese house of cards about their heads. By the twenty-first of July the situation in Seoul had become unbearable for the Chinese. There was a small Chinese force at Asan but Seoul was occupied by a strong Japanese force and every day the outbreak of hostilities had become more imminent. On the early morning of the 20th Yuan Shih-kei, in a mean little sedan chair, and entirely without escort, made his escape from the city and hastened to Chemulpo, leaving all his nationals to shift for themselves. His flight became known almost immediately and there was a general scramble on the part of the Chinese merchants and other Chinese to escape from the town. When the Chinese Minister left Seoul their interests were put in the hands of the British representative. On the morning of the 25th the palace was taken and the city walls manned by the Japanese. Min Yong-jun, who was largely responsible for the parlous condition of the government, fled that night to the country, and found refuge in the town of Ch’un-ch’ŭn about sixty miles east of Seoul.