system which they were bent upon destroying. Even had they cleared the way to such construction they could not have found a statesman in Korea of recognized standing and prestige, to act as master-builder, whose previous record would have made him acceptable to themselves or a fit exponent of their principles. On April 7th the first foreign newspaper was founded by Dr. Philip Jaisohn. It was called _The Independent_ and was partly in the native character. From the first it exerted a powerful influence among the Koreans and was one of the main factors which led to the formation of the Independence Club. Both Japan and Russia were desirous of coming to an understanding as to Korea and on May 14th there was published the Waeber-Komura Agreement which was modified and ratified later under the name of the Lobanoff-Yamata Agreement. According to the terms of this convention both Powers guaranteed to respect the independence of Korea and not to send soldiers into the country except by common consent. The summer of 1896 saw great material improvements in Seoul. The work of clearing out and widening the streets was vigorously pushed and although much of the work was done superficially some permanent improvement was effected, and the “squatters” along the main streets were cleaned out, it is hoped for all time. In July the concession for building a railway between Seoul and Wiju was given to a French syndicate. From subsequent events it appears that there was no fixed determination on the part of the French to push this great engineering work to a finish but merely to preempt the ground and prevent others from doing it. Russian influence doubtless accomplished this, and from that time there began to spring up the idea that Korea would be divided into two spheres of influence, the Japanese predominant in the south and the Russians in the north.