Page:In Korea with Marquis Ito (1908).djvu/319

Rh without malignant anger or lasting resentment to unwelcome advice and even to stern rebuke. On the other hand, as already said, he is a master of intrigue; and more than once, until very lately, he has succeeded in quite surpassing at their own tricks the wily foreigners who thought to get an advantage over him. On the other hand, his ignorance and credulity haye often rendered him an easy victim to the intrigue of others. As one foreign minister, a stanch friend, said of him: "You may give His Majesty the best advice, the only sensible advice possible under the circumstances; he will assent cordially to all you say, and you leave him confident that your advice will be followed. Then some worthless fellow comes in, tells him something else, and what you have said is all wiped off the slate."

In spite of his natural amiability this ruler has frequently shown a cold-blooded and calculating cruelty, made more conspicuous by ingratitude and treachery; and his reign has been throughout characterized by a callous disregard of the sufferings of the people through the injustice of his own minions. To quote again the estimate of a foreign minister: "His Majesty loves power, but seems color-blind when it comes to the faculty of distinguishing between the true and the false. He would rather have one of the Government Departments pay 20,000 yen in satisfaction of a debt which he owes than pay 5,000 yen out of his own purse.

And he allows himself to be cheated with the same sense of