The commissioners from Seoul attempted to avoid the dilemma by having the treaty drawn up in the names of the respective envoys only; this the Japanese refused to do. A compromise was attempted by having the titles of the Mikado of Japan, and the Hap-mun of Chō-sen inserted at the beginning; and, in every necessary place thereafter, “the government” of Dai Nippon (Great Japan), or of Dai Chō-sen (Great Corea); this also failed. Finally, neither ruler was mentioned by name or title, nor was reference made to either, and the curious document was drawn up in the name of the respective “Governments.” [↑]
[2] This fu city, called by the Japanese Ninsen, or Nii-gawa, was well known by the Japanese, as is shown on their maps of the sixteenth century. The name means Two Rivers. The rise and fall of the tides here is very great, sometimes amounting to a difference of twenty-nine feet; and in winter the shore-water is frozen. Large vessels cannot anchor within a mile of the shore. The port Chi-mul-po is at some distance from the city. [↑]
[3] In this and the following chapter the names of Corean noblemen have been given in their Japanese form, i.e., Bin for Min, etc., but in the Supplementary Chapter according to Corean pronunciation. [↑]
CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE YEAR OF THE TREATIES.
The year 1882 opened ominously. A fire broke out in the royal palace in Seoul, on January 27th, in which two buildings, nearly completed for the heir apparent, were burned down. The fire was at first believed to have political significance, and the tension of the public mind was not relaxed until it was shown that the fire was the result of pure accident.
The spirit of progress made advance, but discussion reached fever-heat in deciding whether the favor of Japan or China should be most sought, and which foreign nation, the United States, France, or England, should be admitted first to treaty rights. Bin, opposed to the arbitrary spirit of the Japanese, edged his argument by proposing an alliance with foreigners in order to checkmate the designs of Japan.
An event not unlooked for increased the power of the progressionists. One Kozaikai urged the plea of expulsion of foreigners in such intemperate language that he was accused of reproaching the sovereign. At the same time, a conspiracy against the life of the king, involving forty persons, was discovered, and the sword and torture came into play. Kozaikai was put to death, many of the conspirators were exiled, and the ringleaders were sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel, the revolutions of which tore off hands and feet in succession. Six of those doomed to death were spared, through the intercession of a minister, and one, the king’s cousin, who delivered himself up, was pardoned by his sovereign on the ground of the prisoner’s insanity. The Progressionists had now the upper hand, and early in the spring Giō Inchiu and Riōsen left on a mission to Tientsin, to acquaint the Americans and Chinese with the information that the Corean government was ready to make treaties, and that the proper officer would be at In-chiŭn to sign the compact and complete the negotiations.
Meanwhile the reforms in military affairs were begun with energy. [[434]]Japanese officers, at the head of whom was Lieutenant Horimoto, drilled picked men in Seoul, with creditable success, in spite of their unwieldy hats and costume, and the jeers of the anti-foreign people, in public as well as in private. Substantial proof of the adoption of Japan’s military system was shown in an order sent to Tōkiō for a few hundred Snider rifles with equipments—the weapon of the British army—and one for twenty thousand of the rifles made at the Japanese arsenal in Tōkiō, which, combining the merits of the best-known military fire-arm, contained improvements invented and patented by Colonel Murata, of the mikado’s army. Two Corean notables later again visited Japan in April of this year, and were annoyed to find a report spread abroad in Nagasaki that they had come to raise a money loan. Nevertheless, they proceeded to Kiōto and Tōkiō. Some of their suite went into the printing-offices and silk-worm breeding establishments to learn these arts, while type, presses, and printing material were ordered for use at home.