Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-10
coREA,s EMPEROR.
The Most Hopelessly incompetent
Ruler in the World.

,.,.,,, Correspondence Manchester Guardian
r. the report be true that the Emperor OF
corea Is dead, then I am afraid It must
honestly be said that one OF the MOST
hopelessly incompetent rulers In the woFid
has departed. He was not q bad man, but
he was so weak, so pliable, so blown hither
and thither by every breath of those VINO
had influence over him for the moment
that he was led into doing many things
from which the most INSCRIPTIONS ana
abandoned person would shrink. HIS chiet
queen (for it is only quite recently that ne
began to style himself enperor). VINO was
like many oriental princesses, raised from
the lowest rank to the throne--iike the
Empress Dowager OF China, for example
or the Rance of Jhansi--a woman OF amaZ-
ing force of character and for Corsan)
statesmanlike grasp OF affairs. guided MIN
steadily and safely for years through the
troubled waters Of international inter-
course. ,-..
If ever there was faithful wife and
counsellor she was one, and her husband
relied on her in all things. A band OF Jap
anese countenanced by their minister tWno
was afterward disgraced for MS snare IN
the atrocity), rose one night in Seoul. proke
into the palace slaughtered all they met.
Including fhe queen. and afterward burned
her body with petroleum. She had sWayeo
her husband too much to the Russian size,
1t was thought, and the Japanese look TINS
method of getting rid of her. A rev days
later. and before her remains had been dis
covered, her faithful and af1ectionate nus
band issued an edict denouncing her con-
duct and counsels as IL she had Deen q
common criminal. He held up her name 10
public execration and contempt. and on
cially degraded her In rank as traitress.
A little time passed; her bones were dis
covered, and the king gave them oosequies
Of such splendor that for time the coun-
Sy 6pn otol frlt
No doubt the wretched man was to pc
pitied. What with Chinese. Japanese and
Russians from outside pulling him this way
and that, and the great families staying
each other and being torn to pieces impair
TALLY by the mob of Seoul. his lines mad
fallen in very unpleasant places; Inen
there was his uncle, the notorious Tai w on
Kun, with heart Of stone and bowels or
iron. as Lord Curzon described him. who
was always busy trying to poison an about
him after the most ingenious methods. so
that the miserable king at one time scarcely
dared allow any one around him to taste
swee tmeat. The Tai was carried on into
captivity In China by the Chinese resident
at Seoul after melting revolt IN the capi-
tal,whereupon the king gave the chinese
government no peace with pintul pesa n OF,
alive. When the noble captive was restored
to his weeping relative he promptly showed
his gratitude by trying to poison the queen
with a box Of comfits which ne SAID ne
brought from China on purpose for her-as
perhaps he did.
The king-emperor by that time-Drought
about the war between Japan and China by
calling on the latter, as his suserain. to
help him to suppress a rebellion by sending
troops and then declaring to the Japanese
that the Chinese were invading his country
His political vagaries were countless. ana
were probably due to the perpetual changes
in forceful persons about him. once ne ran
away from his own palace In the night,
where he was guarded by japanese ne nad
himself called in, and found refuge in the
Russian legation, whence he issued a wholly
new set of edicts. contradicting all those he
had recently issued, and denouncing as
wretches those who advised him to issue
than.