The fall of P’yŭng-yang before the victorious Japanese on September 15-17 and the flight of the Chinese inflicted great sufferings upon the Koreans in the north. The Chinese followed their usual medieval tactics and pillaged right and left. The local magistrates and governors fled to places of safety and the people survived the best they could. The government hastened to send a high official to the north to calm the excitement and counteract the disintegrating effects of the Chinese flight. At the same time the perfect orderliness of the Japanese army began to be understood by the people, and between these two agencies the northern province speedily settled down to its former status. The city of P’yŭng-yang had been almost deserted by its 60,000 or more of people and it was many months before the town resumed its normal status. As August drew to an end the Japanese deemed the time ripe for completing the purposed union with Korea and on the 26th there appeared a provisional treaty between the two countries, which was not an offensive and defensive alliance but one in which Japan guaranteed the independence of Korea and Korea engaged to look to Japan for advice and to aid her in every possible way. The nature of this agreement was practically the same as that made between the same countries at the opening of the Japan-Russia War in 1904. In it Japan once more emphasized the independence of Korea which she had consistently championed ever since the Japanese-Korean treaty was signed in 1876. The month of September opened with the arrival of Marquis Saionji with presents and a friendly message from the Emperor of Japan. The visit was merely a complimentary one and seems to have been devoid of great political significance. It was evident that Japanese influence was overwhelmingly predominant in Seoul and as the government had committed itself to the policy of selecting advisers for its various departments there was reason to believe that most of these places would be filled by Japanese and that they would so predominate numerically as to seriously impair the autonomy of the government. As foreign powers had concluded treaties with Korea on the basis of equality, this possibility became a matter of concern to them and through their representatives here they protested against the employment of an undue number of assistants from any one nationality. Whether there ever was any such danger as was anticipated we cannot say, but this preventive measure was successful at any rate and the apparent independence of the government was never shaken.