upon, and there is reason to believe that the government chafed under the imposition. At least the telegraph lines which the Russians erected, entirely without warrant, were repeatedly torn down by emissaries of the government, and apparently without check from the central authorities.
In the summer, when the text of the proposed agreement between Russia and Korea anent Yongampo became public, the Japanese government made a strong protest. She probably knew that this was a mere form, but she owed it to herself to file a protest against such suicidal action on the part of Korea. The insolence of the Russians swelled to the point of renaming Yongampo Port Nicholas.
In October the Japanese merchants in Seoul and other commercial centres began calling in all outstanding moneys, with the evident expectation of war. All brokers and loan associations closed their accounts and refused to make further loans. It is more than probable that they had received the hint that it might be well to suspend operations for the time being. From this time until war was declared, the people of Korea waited in utmost suspense. They knew war only as a universal desolation. They had no notion of any of the comparative amenities of modern warfare or the immunities of non-combatants. War meant to them the breaking up of the very foundations of society, and many a time the anxious inquiry was put as to whether the war would probably be fought on Korean soil or in Manchuria. Once more Korea found herself the " shrimp between two whales," and doubly afflicted in that whichever one should win she would in all probability form part of the booty of the victor.
The year 1904, which will be recorded in history as one of the most momentous in all the annals of the Far East, opened upon a very unsatisfactory state of things in Korea. It had become as certain as any future event can be that Japan and Russia would soon be at swords' points. The negotiations between these two powers were being carried on in St. Petersburg, and, as published later, were of the most unsatisfactory
