liberal institutions the end of their opportunities for personal power and aggrandisement. The old order of things appealed to them too strongly, and it became evident that the government was rapidly lapsing into its former condition of arbitrary and partisan control. Open and violent opposition to such harmless innovations as the wearing of foreign uniforms by the students of foreign language schools indicated too plainly the tendency of the time, and the Russian authorities did nothing to influence his Majesty in the right direction. Judging from subsequent events, it was not Russia's policy to see an enlightened administration in Seoul. The political plans of that power could be better advanced by a return to the status quo ante. The act of the government in substituting an independence arch in place of the former gate, outside the west gate, which commemorated Chinese suzerainty, was looked upon, and rightly, by the more thoughtful as being merely a superficial demonstration which was based upon no deeper desire than that of being free from all control or restraint except such as personal inclination should dictate. The current was setting toward a concentration of power rather than toward a healthful distribution of it, and thus those who had hailed the vision of a new and rejuvenated state were compelled to confess that it was but a mirage.
Pressure was brought to bear upon the court to remove from the Russian legation, and it was high time that such a move be made. As a matter of urgent necessity, it was considered a not too great sacrifice of dignity to go to the legation, but to make it a permanent residence was out of the question. The King was determined, however, not to go back to the palace from which he had fled. It held too many gruesome memories. It was decided to build the Myung-ye Palace in the midst of the foreign quarter with legations on three sides of it. The present King intended it as a permanent residence, and building operations were begun on a large scale, but it was not until February of the following year that his Majesty finally removed from the Russian legation to his new palace.
