The King at the Russian Legation.... A Royal edict.... Massacre or flight of cabinet ministers.... an excited city.... Japanese consternation.... provincial uprisings.... party reorganization.... The Independence Club.... trial of Queen’s murderers.... Appointment of Dr. Brown as adviser[adviser] to Finance Department.... The Independent.... The Waeber-Komura Convention.... material reforms.... reaction.... The Independence Arch.... Seoul-Chemulpo railway concession.... The new palace planned.... retrogressive signs.... postal and other administrative reforms.
When the public awoke to the momentous fact, a thrill of excitement and, generally, of approval went through the whole population of Seoul. The city hummed with excited humanity. The streets swarmed with the crowds bent upon watching the course of such stirring events.
Later in the day the King put forth an edict calling upon the soldiers to rally to his support and urging them to bring the heads of the traitors Cho Heui-yŭn, U Pöm-sŭn, Yi Tu-whang, Yi Pom-nă, Yi Chin-ho and Kon Yong-jin. But later still this was toned down to read that these individuals should be seized and turned over to the proper authorities for trial.
The reason why the names of Kim Hong-jip, Chöng Pyŭng-Ha and others of the former cabinet were not included was because they had already met their fate. As soon as it became known in the palace that the King had fled, these men saw that their lives were forfeited. O Yun-jung managed to escape to the country but was set upon and killed by the people, Cho Heui-Yŭn escaped, Yu Kil-jun was spirited away to Japan by the Japanese; but Kim Hong-jip and Chöng Pyŭng-ha found no way of escape. Being seized by the Korean soldiers, were immediately rushed by the crowd and killed. Their bodies were hauled to Chong-no where they were stamped upon, kicked, bitten and stoned by a half-crazed rabble for hours. A Japanese who happened to be passing was set upon by the crowd and killed and several foreigners drawn to the spot by curiosity were threatened.
The King was shocked when he heard of the summary execution of the two ministers, whom he intended to give a fair trial. Two days later an edict was promulgated by the King deploring the impoverished state of the country and laying the blame upon himself; and concluded by remitting all arrears of taxes due up to July 1894. The new cabinet consisted of the following men Pak Chöng-yang, Yi Yun-yong, An Kyŭng-su, Ko Yong-heui, Yun Chi-ho, Yun Yong-gu, Yi Wan-yong and Cho Pyŭng-jik.
To say that the Japanese were nonplussed by this coup on the part of the King would be to put it very mildly. All their efforts to consolidate their power in Korea and to secure there some fruit of the victory in the war just finished, had been worse than thrown away. The King had thrown himself into the arms of Russia and the whole Korean people were worked up to a white heat against Japan, comparable only with the feelings elicited by the invasion of 1592. It was a very great pity, for Japan was in a position to do for Korea infinitely more than Russia would do. The interests of Korea and Japan were identical or at least complementary and the mistake which Japan made in the latter half of 1895 was one whose effects will require decades to efface.
When the King thus wrenched himself out of Japanese hands the Japanese papers in Seoul bewailed the fact that the country was without a ruler, and almost directly advised the people to put someone else on the throne, and this without censure from the Japanese authorities. And it is well known among Koreans that there was a strong faction among the Koreans who were willing to attempt to put Yi Chun-yong, the grandson of the Tă-wŭn-gun on the throne, had that ambitious young man been possessed of the requisite amount of assurance. Fortunately such was not the case and the country was saved from further upheaval.
But the Japanese authorities though thrown into consternation by this radical movement of His Majesty did not give up hope of mending matters. The Japanese Minister saw the King at the Russian Legation and urged upon him every possible argument for returning to the palace. His Majesty, however, being now wholly relieved from anxiety as to his personal safety, enjoyed the respite too thoroughly[thoroughly] to cut it short, and so politely refused to change his place of residence. A large number of Japanese in Seoul became convinced that Japan had hopelessly compromised herself, and left the country, but the Japanese Government itself by no act or word granted that her paramount influence in the peninsula was impaired and with admirable sang froid took up the new line of work imposed upon her by the King’s peculiar action, meanwhile putting down one more score against Russia, to be reckoned with later.
The country was suffering from the excitement caused by the news of the Japanese diplomatic reverses, and the people in many districts rose in revolt and declared that they would drive all the Japanese out of the country. These efforts were however scattered and sporadic in their nature and were successfully quelled by Korean Government troops sent down to the various disaffected districts for this purpose.
Now that it was possible the King hastened to order a new investigation of the circumstances attending the death of the Queen. It was feared that this would result in a very sweeping arrest of Koreans and the punishment of many people on mere suspicion, but these fears were ill-founded. The trials were carried through under the eye of Mr. Greathouse the adviser to the Law Department and a man of great legal ability. Thirteen men were arrested and tried in open court without torture and with every privilege of a fair trial. One man Yi Whi-wha was condemned to death, four banished for life and five for lesser periods. This dispassionate trial was not the least of the signs which pointed toward a new and enlightened era in Korean political history.