was given to an American company to construct a railway between Seoul and Chemulpo, Min Yong-whan was appointed special envoy to the coronation of the Czar, work was begun on the American mining concession granted the year before, various schools were founded, and the outlook on the whole was very bright indeed. It looked as if a solution had been found for the difficulties that afflicted the state and that an era of comparatively enlightened government was opening. For some time there had existed a more or less secret organization among the Koreans, the single article of whose political creed was Independence both from China and Japan, or in other words Korea for Koreans. Now that the King had been relieved of Chinese suzerainty by the Japanese and of Japanese restraint by himself, this little society under the leadership of Dr. Philip Jaisohn blossomed out into what was called _The Independence Club_. The name but partially described the society, for while it advocated the complete independence of Korea it still more insistently advocated a liberal government, in the shape of a genuine constitutional monarchy in which the royal prerogative should be largely curtailed and the element of paternalism eliminated. At first the greater stress was laid upon the general principle of Korean Independence and to this the King in the joy of his newly found freedom heartily agreed. The royal sanction was given to the Independence Club and it was launched upon a voyage which had no haven, but ended in total shipwreck. This club, society was composed of young men many of whom were doubtless aroused for the time being to something like patriotic fervor but who had had no practical experience of the rocky road of Korean politics or of the obstacles which would be encountered. The cordiality of the King’s recognition blinded them to the fact that the real object of their organization, namely the definition of the royal prerogative, was one that must eventually arouse first the suspicion and then the open hostility of His Majesty and would become the slogan of all that army of self-seekers who saw no chance for self-aggrandisement except in the immemorial spoils system. These young men were armed with nothing but a laudable enthusiasm. They could command neither the aid of the Korean army nor the advocacy of the older statesmen, all of whom were either directly hostile to the movement or had learned caution through connection with previous abortive attempts to stem the tide of official corruption. The purpose of this club, so far as it knew its own mind, was a laudable one in theory but the amount of persistency, courage, tact and self-restraint necessary to carry the plan to a successful issue was so immensely greater than they could possibly guess, that, considering the youth and inexperience of the personnel of the society, the attempt was doomed to failure. They never clearly formulated a constructive plan by which to build upon the ruins of that