whole question of a change in the location of the Customs having been reserved by the officials of the Court. Unfortunately, the demands of the Court could only be contested in so far as they continued to be peremptory in their nature. When, later, due warning was given to the Chief Commissioner and a fresh domicile appointed, as a servant of the Crown Mr. McLeavy Brown was unable to ignore the mandate. Prior to this notice, the Emperor had insisted, very foolishly, upon the immediate evacuation of the Customs buildings, a demand compliance with which was impossible, and in resistance to which Mr. McLeavy Brown was very properly supported by Mr. J. G. Gubbins, C.M.G., then acting Consul-General to Korea.
After the murder of the Queen in 1895, the Korean Court fled from the old Palace, in the least healthy part of the city, (o the vicinity of the British and American Legations, and built there a new Palace in a safer and more pleasant locality. But the new Palace is overlooked by the British Legation and by the residence of Mr. McLeavy Brown. The Emperor, spurred on by his eunuchs, had cast envious glances on the dwellings of these foreigners, and not unnaturally decided that these properties would make a very pleasing addition to the Palace which he is now constructing. Unhappily, there was reason to suspect that, in turning the Chief Commissioner out of his house, the Emperor, or rather Lady Om, who desired the house, and Yi Yong-ik, who coveted the Customs, hoped at the same time to expel him from the country. That the attempt to oust Mr. McLeavy Brown from his home really aimed at removing him from office can hardly be doubted. When the house question rose, Mr. McLeavy Brown was given exactly two days' notice—from the 19th to the 21st March—to
