Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/422

392 the foot of the range of mountains that traverses the province.

The of Corea, though a of the, is within his own country an absolute, with  over the  in the land. He is the object of almost s; it is  to utter the name which he receives from, and that by which he is known in  is only bestowed upon him after his death by his successor. To touch his person with a of  is high ; and so rigidly is this rule enforced that Tieng-tsong-tai-oang suffered an  to put an end to his life in 1800, rather than submit to the contact of the. Every must dismount as he passes the, and whoever enters the presence-chamber must  before the. Should the ignoble body of a subject be touched by the royal hands, the honour thus conferred must be ever after commemorated by a. In consequence of such punctilious, personal access to the is exceedingly difficult; but, as according to theory, his  ought always to be open to the complaints of his people, an  to his authority is nominally permitted. He is expected to provide for the of his realm, and there are always a large number of ers on the. The s of the blood are most jealously excluded from power, and their interference in the slightest degree in a matter of is regarded as. The, however, have within the present century extended their influence, and infringed on the royal prerogatives. The s are poor, but an extensive and a large body of s are maintained.

The is practically in the hands of the three principal s of the king, who are called respectively seug-ei-tsieng or admirable councillor, tsoa-ei-tsieng or councillor of the left, and ou-ei-tsieng or councillor of the right. They are nominally assisted by six pan-tso or s, each of whom has his own tsam-pan or substitute and tsam-ei or adviser. The ni-tso, the first of these judges' departments, has charge of the public s and employments; the ho-tso takes the, apportions the es, and looks after the s; the niei-tso supervises religious and ; the pieng-tso is the department of ; the hieng-tso administers the criminal courts; and the kong-tso has the oversight of, , &c. In the there are three sug-tsi, or functionaries charged to put on record day by day all the royal words and actions. The eight provinces of the kingdom are each administered by a, dependent on the ministerial council; and each of the 332 districts into which the provinces are sub-divided is under a separate. Military commanders have the chief authority in the four s of Kang-hoa, Sou-wen, Koang-tsiou, and Siong-to or Kai-seng. Theoretically every one of these posts is open to any Corean who has acquired the necessary degree in the public examinations; but actually they are almost all appropriated by the. A is maintained along the principal s,—the s being kept by the Government, and the grooms and riders holding almost the position of royal s. The  nominally, who does not belong to the ; but only a small proportion of the men are brought. The s, though chosen from the, are in far less estimation than the civil functionaries of corresponding rank. The of the s and other high  are large, but as the term is only two s, and the custom of the country is for a person in  to support all his relatives, it is seldom that the position proves genuinely lucrative. In addition to the various regular already mentioned there are a number of e-sa, or anaik-sa, who are despatched by the king, armed with absolute power, to visit the provinces at irregular intervals and  the condition of affairs. , however, universally and openly prevails, and the supervision even of these irresponsible emissaries affords little protection against in. The is for ordinary  the absolute  within his district; but if the matter is very important it may be referred to the provincial, or even ultimately to the king himself. are decided by the, and the final  is to the great  of the , which consists of two parts—the po-tseng which collects the evidence, and the ieng-tso which passes the sentence. and culprits accused of or  are tried by a special  called the keum-pou, the members of which are named directly by the king. In a case of high the whole family of the guilty person is involved in his fate. A large portion of the real administrative power lies in the hands of the subaltern of the civil and  s, who are distinguished by M. Dallet as &ldquo;pretorians&rdquo; and &ldquo;satellites.&rdquo; The former compose a formidable  class, which rarely  with the rest of the community; the latter are recruited from the lower ranks of. is freely employed in ; and the unhappy victim may either have the s of his s dislocated or bent, his reduced to rags by blows from a heavy plank, the  of his s cut through by the continuous friction of a rough, or his whole body agonized by a prolonged suspension by the. is the usual form of both in  and.

The ' of Corea belongs to the, and agrees with the other in all the main features. It is written ically, by means of fourteen s corresponding to the an ', ', ', ', ', ' (or '), ' (or '), ', ng or ', ts, tsh, kh, th, ph (i.e., ', not ') and , and eleven s, which go to the composition of thirteen s. The s appear either in an ordinary or a  form. Every line is written from the top to the bottom of the page, by. The vocabulary is greatly mingled with ; but these undergo the regular Corean. The has nine, including the. s proper there are none, the s and s supplying their place. For the names of the s above 90, such as 100, 1000, &c., recourse is had to the. The possesses, besides the simple affirmative, a conditional, an interrogative, an honorific, a causative, and several other forms; but it has no distinctive inflections for number or person. The honorific form is employed in speaking of dignitaries; and indeed the must slightly vary according to the status of the person addressed. The study of their native is greatly neglected by the Coreans, and the  classes regularly employ  both in  and social intercourse. The of the kingdom, the s,  s, public inscriptions, and even shop-signs are all written in the foreign ; at the same time the Corean pronunciation is so peculiar as to be unintelligible in the ears of the. That at one time there was an extensive native there seems no doubt; but it is now represented only by a few , popular s, and ,—to which, indeed, must be added a number of works composed by the , who have encouraged the preservation and cultivation of the national. There is an official translation of the of, in which it is  to change a single word without the order of the Government; and a line , prohibited by the authorities, circulates secretly among the