Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/210

 All sources of revenue and methods of raising taxes shall be placed under the control of the Finance Department, no other department, officer or corporation being allowed to interfere therewith; and the annual estimates and balances shall be made public. The existing laws and regulations shall be enforced without fear or favour.

It will be seen that several of these measures strike directly at powers which have been held for centuries by the King himself, and it cannot be supposed that his Majesty would listen willingly to the voice of the common people when they demanded such far-reaching innovations. The whole thing was utterly distasteful to him, but the united voice of the people is a serious matter. These demands were not such as would involve any immediate changes; they all looked to the future. So it was an easy matter simply to comply with the demands and wait for the public feeling to subside. On the last day of September his Majesty ordered the carrying out of these six propositions.

The trouble was that the Conservatives felt that they had not sufficient physical power to oppose a popular uprising. The temporary concession was made with no idea of real compliance, and was immediately followed by measures for securing a counter demonstration. The instrument selected for this purpose was the old-time Peddlers' Guild. This was a defunct institution, but the name survived, and the Conservatives used it to bring together a large number of men who were ready for any sort of work that would mean pay. These were organised into a company whose duty it was to run counter to all popular demonstrations like those which had just been made. No sooner was this hireling band organised than his Majesty, in pursuance of the hint dropped some months before by the president of the Independence Club, ordered the disbanding of the club. From this time on the Independence Club was no longer recognised by the government, and was an illegal institution, by the very terms of the unfortunate admission of its president that the Emperor