Korea

by A. Hamilton

JUSTICE IS NOT TEMPERED WITH MERCY

The rights of the children of concubines vary according to the moral laxity of the class in which they are born. Among the upper classes they possess no claim against the estate of their progenitors; entail ignores them, and they may not observe the family sacrifices. In the absence of legitimate issue, a son must be adopted for the purpose of inheriting the properties of the family and of attending to the ancestral and funeral rites. Great stress is laid by the upper classes upon purity of descent; among the middle and lower orders there is more indulgence. Save in the lowest classes, it is usual to maintain a separate establishment for each concubine. The fact that among the lower classes concubine and wife share the same house is responsible for much of the unhappiness of Korean family life. In every case the position of the children of concubines corresponds with the status of the mother.

Within recent years, considerable changes have taken place in the Government and in the administration of the law. Under the old system the despotic thesis of divine right was associated with many abuses. Justice was not tempered by mercy, and, in the suppression of crime, it was not always the guilty who suffered. The old system of government was modelled upon the principles of the Ming rule in China. The power of the sovereign was absolute in theory and in practice. He was assisted by the three principal officers of State and six administrative boards, to whom, so soon as the country was brought into contact with foreign nations, additional bureaux were added. Modifications in the spirit, or in the letter of the law have taken place from time to time at the instance of reformers. Before the ascendency of the Japanese came about, the principles and character of Korean law presented no very marked deviation from that which had been upheld in China through so many centuries. For a long time the intense conservatism of China reigned in Korea. The authority of the sovereign is more restricted to-day; but in the hands of a less enlightened monarch it would be just as effective as ever against the interests of the country. Happily, however, the era of progressive reform, which illustrated the inauguration of the Empire, continues.

CHILDREN OF THE LOWER CLASS

The Government is now vested in a Council of State, composed of a Chancellor, six Ministers, five Councillors, and a Chief Secretary. The will of the sovereign is, however, supreme. The Departments of State are conducted by nine ministers, chief of whom is the Prime Minister, assisted in his Cabinet by the President of the Privy Council, the Ministers of the Household, of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Finance, War, Law, Education, and Agriculture. With improved internal administration many of the abuses which existed under the old system have disappeared. There are still many grievances, and the working of the new machine of State cannot be said to give unalloyed satisfaction. Justice is still hedged about with bribery; official corruptness admits of the venal purchase of office. Much outcry accompanies the sweeping of the Augean stables; and, at present, the advantages of the improvements hardly justify the ecstatic jubilation by which their introduction was greeted. It is early yet to prophesy; but, if the honourable administration of the public departments can be obtained, there is no reason why success should not attend the innovation. The responsibility for the working of the administrative machine, however, rests, in the interval, entirely upon the shoulders of the foreign advisers. It remains to be seen, therefore, if the united services of these distinguished people can prolong in any degree the era of honest government in Korea.

CHAPTER X

Farmers—Farming and farm animals—Domestic industries—Products—Quality and character of food-stuffs

The Koreans are an agricultural people, and most of the national industries are connected with agriculture. More than seventy per cent. of the population are farmers; the carpenter, the blacksmith, and the stonemason spring directly from this class, combining a knowledge of the forge or workshop with a life-long experience of husbandry. The schoolmaster is usually the son of a yeoman-farmer; the fisherman owns a small holding which his wife tills while he is fishing. The farming classes participate in certain industries of the country; the wives of the farmers raise the cotton, silk, linen, and grass-cloth of the nation, and they also convert the raw material into the finished fabrics. The sandals, mats, osier and wooden wares which figure so prominently in Korean households, are the work of the farming classes in their leisure moments. The officials, the yamen runners, the merchants, inn-keepers, miners, and junk-men are not of this order, but they are often closely connected with it. The Government exists on the revenue raised from agriculture; the people live upon the fruits of the soil; Korean officials govern whole communities given over to agricultural labour. The internal economy of the country has been affiliated for centuries to the pursuits and problems of agriculture. Koreans are thus instinctively and intuitively agriculturists, and it is necessarily along these lines that the development of the country should in part progress.