Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/317

 BOMISH CHUBCH IN COREA. 293 as I should have been obliged to wait too long, in order to obtain letters patent from the Corean government, I issued them to myself/' This I quote from the article above referred to. The bishop must have thought it a capital joke to think of the possibility of the Corean government conferring on him the patent of nobility, at a time when he had, by every means in his power, to avoid seeing the face of a single Corean, except those whom he confessed, confirmed, or baptised. To those to whom the end justifies the means, this conduct will appear highly laudable ; and he had the example before him of many of his brethren in China^ who had not had the same excuse. But its results were lamentable to him. "Prince Kung/' ... we again quote from the same authority, "in 1860, ceded to Russia the enormous tract of territory between the Amur and the mouth of the Tumen. . . . Fassiett, a large trading town and military settlement ... at the junction of Russian, Chinese, and Corean frontiers. . . . The Corean king died in 1864 ; and in the end of 1865, Russian ships were in harbour in the north-east of Corea, asking for a treaty of commerce. M. Bemeux was asked by the Corean government to get the Russians put off He declined, though, in case of success, he was promised perfect religious toleration. Soon after he was seized, tortured, and soon put to death, along with several other missionaries, — in all, two bishops and seven missionaries." The course taken by M. Bemeux seemed, doubtless, best to him ; but it is surprising he did not make the attempt to negotiate for Corea^ even if he should have been unsuccessful ; for the attempt would show that his interests were not one with those of the war ships, and that he was not in Corea as the spy of a foreign power. The Coreans believe that all those people who cultivate long beards, and wear tight and short clothing, are, if not the same nation, bound up by the same interests ; and "foreigndom" is to them one country. And no wonder, seeing that after such long contact and inter- course with foreigners, there are very few in China who under-