police.

These agreements gave the Korean monarch--who now took the title of
Emperor--a final chance to save himself and his country. The Japanese
campaign of aggression was checked. Russia, at the time, was behaving with
considerable circumspection. A number of foreign advisers were introduced,
and many reforms were initiated. Progressive statesmen were placed at the
head of affairs, and the young reformer, So Jai-pil, Dr. Philip Jaisohn,
was summoned from America as Adviser to the Privy Council.

It must be admitted that the results were on the whole disappointing.
Certain big reforms were made. In the period between 1894 and 1904 the
developments would have seemed startling to those who knew the land in the
early eighties. There was a modern and well-managed railroad operating
between Seoul and the port of Chemulpo, and other railroads had been
planned and surveyed, work being started on some of them. Seoul had
electric light, electric tramways and an electric theatre. Fine roads had
been laid around the city. Many old habits of mediaeval times had been
abolished. Schools and hospitals were spreading all over the land, largely
as a result of missionary activity. Numbers of the people, especially in
the north, had become Christians. Sanitation was improved, and the work of
surveying, charting and building lighthouses for the waters around the
coast begun. Many Koreans of the better classes went abroad, and young men
were returning after graduation in American colleges. The police were put
into modern dress and trained on modern lines; and a little modern Korean
Army was launched.

Despite this, things were in an unsatisfactory state. The Emperor, whose
nerve had been broken by his experiences on the night of the murder of the
Queen and in the days following, was weak, uncertain and suspicious. He