About the same time the Independence Club came into direct opposition to the Government in its strong protest against the appointment of the conservative Cho Pyŭng-sik to the vice-presidency of the Council of State. The commotion, engendered by this, resulted in Mr. Yun Chi-ho being called before the Emperor, where he made a strong appeal in favor of the Independence Club and asserted the continued loyalty of the club toward His Majesty. Unfortunately he asserted that the Emperor having sanctioned the founding of the club could disband it merely by Imperial decree. For the time, this appeal sufficed and the immediate object of the society was secured, but the Emperor did not forget that he had it in his power to dissolve the club by a single word. As a fact, the mere sanction of the founding of the Club gave no more power to dissolve it than the wedding ceremony which a clergyman performs gives the right in future to dissolve that union. There can be no doubt that from this time on the Emperor was determined to eliminate this disturbing element at the first opportunity. He had no sympathy with its platform, one plank of which was the curtailment of the Imperial prerogative. August saw the fall of Kim Hong-nyuk, the former Russian interpreter, who ruffled it so proudly at Court on account of his connection with the Russian Legation. For a year he had a good time of it and amassed great wealth, but when the Russians withdrew their influence in March of this year Kim lost all his backing and thenceforward his doom was as sure as fate itself. The genuine noblemen whose honors he had filched were on his track and in August he was accused, deposed and banished. This did not satisfy his enemies however, but an opportunity came when on September tenth an attempt was made to poison the Emperor and the Crown Prince. The attempt came near succeeding and in the investigation which followed one of the scullions deposed that he had been instructed by a friend of Kim Hong-nyuk to put something into the coffee. How Kim, away in banishment, could have had anything to do with it would be hard to tell. He may have conceived the plan but the verdict of a calm and dispassionate mind must be that he probably knew nothing about it at all. However, in such a case, someone must suffer. The criminal _must_ be found; and it is more than probable that those who hated Kim Hong-nyuk thought he would make an excellent scape-goat. He was tried, condemned and executed.