Material reforms.... growth of conservative feeling.... Russian influence.... Mr. de Speyer.... his activity.... attack on Dr. Brown.... England interposes.... establishment of the Empire.... the Queen’s funeral.... opening of 1898.... Russians over-reach themselves.... the death of Prince Tă-wŭn.... a paradox.... withdrawal of the Russian employees.... Independence Club beyond control.... abdication conspiracy.... Yun Chi-ho before the Emperor.... fall of Kim Hong-nyuk.... attempted regicide.... foreign body-guard.... Independent program.... popular meetings.... peddlars’ guild.... Independents ask to be arrested.... more government concessions.... Independents arrested.... final overthrow of the Independence party. The first half of 1897 was characterized by three special features in Korea. The first was a continuance of so-called reforms, all of which were of a utilitarian character. A gold mine concession was given to a German syndicate, a Chinese Language School and other schools were founded and the difficult work of cleaning out the Peking Pass was completed. It was announced that Chinnampo and Mokpo would be opened to trade in the Autumn. The second feature was the steady growth of the conservative element which was eventually to resume complete control of the government. As early as May of this year the editor of the _Korean Repository_ said with truth “The collapse is as complete as it is pathetic. After the King came to the Russian Legation the rush of the reform movement could not be stayed at once nor even deflected. But soon there came the inevitable reaction. Reforms came to be spoken of less and less frequently. There was a decided movement backwards toward the old, well-beaten paths. But it was impossible to reestablish the old order of things entirely. We come then to the period of the revision of laws. Shortly after the King removed to the new palace an edict was put forth ordering the appointment of a Commission for the Revision of the Laws. This was received with satisfaction by the friends of progress. This commission contained the names of many prominent men such as Kim Pyung-si, Pak Chöng-yang and Yi Wan-yong as well as the names of Dr. Brown, General Greathouse, Mr. Legendre and Dr. Jaisohn.” But by the twelfth of April the whole thing was dropped and the strong hopes of the friends of Korea were again dashed to the ground. The third feature of this period is the growing importance of Russian influence in Seoul. The training of the Korean army had already been taken out of Japanese hands and given to Russians and in August thirteen more Russian military instructors were imported. It was plain that Russia meant to carry out an active policy in Korea. Russian admirals, including Admiral Alexeieff, made frequent visits to Seoul, and at last Russia made public avowal of her purposes, when she removed Mr. Waeber, who had served her so long and faithfully here and sent Mr. A.