The San Francisco call., 1895-11-03

| lowed, but intelligence of the peril having
been conveyed to them, they were easily
| persuaded to avert it by recourse to vio-
lence.
AT A. NJ. on the Sth of October the Sec
ond Battalion marched out of barracks,
| sending an escort to meet the Tai Won
kun, who set out from his country resi-
dence at the same hour. After a brief
delay, due to confusion of routes, the old
Prince found himself at the head of the
troops approaching the palace gate. The
| palace guards offered a desultory resist
ance, but dispersed after one or two cas-
ualties, including the death of their cap
tain. The Tai Won-kun then obtained
audience of the King, and the coup DE- etat
was an accomplished fact. Then ensued
an incident that is still wrapped in some
| obscurity.
| Three women, one of them apparently
| the Queen, were dragged from their cham
| bers, their throats cut and their corpses
| carried out and burned. The perpetrators
| of this atrocity are strongly suspected to
have been japanese. They wore foreign
costume and welded Japanese swords.
| Many of the Soshi class, the curse of mod
ern Japan, have fiocked to Korea in search
| of adventure, and are prepared to use their
| swords in any cause that seems to be for
| their country's benefit.
| The Tai Won-kun may have employed
| band of them--for they are mercenaries as
we'll as cut-throats; the official conspira-
| tors may have employed them; or they
may have acted solely on their own i'm
| pulse, believing the Queen to be fatal OBJ
stacle in the path of Korea's progress. At
| all events, the evidence now available goes
! to show that the assassination OF the Queen
was perpetrated by japanese Soshl, acting
| in collusion with the Korean soldiers. The
| King, Immediately on the outbreak of the
emeute, sent word to the Japanese lega-
ton, and Viscount Miura, the new Japan
ese representative, fastened to the palace,
escorted by small force.
| Order was speedily restored. There re-
mained nothing to fight about. The Queen
| had disappeared; the persons of the King
and Crown Prince were in the hands of the
| conspirators; the Ming faction were utterly
| broken; the Tai Won-kun and the Inde-
| pendents remained absolute masters of the
| situation.
| Few casualties had attended this rapid
coup d'etat, the Minister of the House
! hold, a creature of the Queens, and two
privates of the palace guard being appar-
emily the only victims. By 9 o'clock in
the forenoon the machinery of Govern
ment was moving again as smoothly as
| ever. Three days later the King issued an
| edict that takes rank as one of the most
| extraordinary state documents on record.
1t ran thus:
Our reign has already lasted two-and- thirty
years, and yet it grieves US to think that the
| country has not been sufficiently benefited
| under our sway. Our Queen, of the Min
| family, collecting around our throne large
| number of her relations and partisans, has
| obscured our intelligence, robbed the people,
confused our orders, bartered official rank
| and practiced all sorts of extortion in the
| provincial localities. Bands of lawless rob-
bers roamed in all parts of the country and the
| dynasty was placed in perilous situation.
That we have not punished her, though know
| ing her wickedness, may perhaps be ascribed
| to our lack of wisdom. but it is principally
| owing to the fact that she surrounded us with
| her partisans.
| In order to impose restraints upon the evil
we made VOW to the spirits of our ancestors
| i'll December last to the effect that The Queen
| and all her blood relations should henceforth
| be prohibited from meddling with state affairs
| 1t was our hope that the Queen would repent
of her errors. But instead of repenting she
| continued TO favor her followers and to keep at
| distance those of our own family. She also
| prevented the Ministers of state from directly
| approaching the throne. She further con-
| spired to cause disturbance by falsely
making it known that it was our wish to dis
| band our troops, and when the disturbance
arose she left our side, and following the
| method pursued by her in 1882 she hid herself
| beyond the reach of our search. Such conduct
| is not only inconsistent with her rank as
| Queen, but is the acme of crime and heinous-
| ness. We therefore. in pursuance of our fam
| lily precedents, are compelled to depose our
| Queen and to degrade her to the level of the
| common people.
This wretched monarchs naive confes-
sion that, although well aware of his
spouse's wickedness, he had for years
been unable to shake off her thralldom, Is
worthily capped by his charging the Queen
with "leaving his side'' when she had
been dragged from it by assassins, and de-
| nouncing her for concealing her where
abouts when her charred corpseswas lying
| outside the city walls. But the King of
| Korea is mere puppet. At no time dur
ing his reign of thirty-two years had he
been more completely under the sway OF
his clever wife than in the days imme-
diately preceding the issue of this decree
deposing her. The Queen had taken every
thing into her hands; had appointed and
dismissed high officials without any refer
ence to the Cabinet, in open defiance oil
the new laws; had raised the personnel
of the household from the fixed limit o1
600 to over 2000; had directed that the
finance regulations be set aside to pay
this crowd of partisans; had arranged tc
transfer the administrative control to the
court and had nevertheless contrived that
the King should figure not merely as an
asserting party to all her retrogressive
changes but even as their determined ad
vocate. The King, in fact, does not speak
in the above edict. His share in the mat
ter was simply to append his signature.
For few days the fate of the Queen re.
mained obscure so far as concerned the
general public. Indeed, we have not as
yet any definite news that her body has
been identified, but there is little doubt
that the account given above is correct
Were old-time Korean methods pursued
the attainder and death of the Queen