The unsuccessful American expedition, as before said, only increased the power nnd dread of the Kegent—whose will was become the only law in the kingdom—where every head bowed before him. Yet the spirit of opposition against the tyranny and oppression of the Ruler and_ his creatures, grew with the sufferings of th people and the humiliations of the uobility. Que noble in particular, 'Tcho-senglia, real nephew of Queen cho, loudly protested ayainst the iniquitous acts of the usurper, and the Regent determined to get Hid' of him, as he had dono with many others. In November, 1873, everything was ready for this purpose, but Tcho-sengha being warned of the danger which he ran, sheltered himself with his Aunt in the Royal Palace. This Indy (Queen Tche,) had long been grieving over the miserable state of the ki not of course forgive the Regent for usurping the throne as he had. Believing the time had arrived for turning the tal upon him, she prepared three cups of rice, with a good dose of poison in each, and then, having invited the Regent and her nephew, she addressed them somewhat to this effect:—" Everything is going to the bad, and the country suffers. I know that you and my nephew do not get on well together; that you, Regent, have all prepared for his death. It is better for all three of us to die; and I have, therefore, procured three poisoned rice cups, which we had better swallow in turn. If, however, I ato first, the Regent might object to follow my example. He must, therefore, begin, or make peace with my nephew, &c., &e." Rather than take the medicine, the Regent made all the promises demanded of him, and the old Queen ti jissed them. Tche-song was thus saved, but the Regent was all powerful, and could any. day place him under arrest, or have him assassinated. His rival felt anything but secure, and therefore did his best to overturn his adversary. He arranged with two high nobles to present a petition to the King. One was a groat Mandarin named chen Tkyon-i, the other with the title of Doctor, named Hong-si-y These were promised biz protection, and his aunt's also, in case of non-success. So the two nobles wrote out the petition, describing the miseries of the people owing to the Regent's maladministration, and proposing urgent changes. The reforms principally required were aight in number, as follow, viz.:—
Ist,—The suppression of arbitrary ta: When the Regent was hard up he made a demand on the first noble or citizen for 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 tea ous (about ten toxons to a tael), as the case might he, which demand must be complied with at once, by selling lands, houses, and being reduced to beggary, 2nd.—Keduction of land taxes, which had been considerably increased by the Regent, Srd.—Suppression of all by the Regent, on goo entering the Capital.
4th.—Prohibition of Ghinese cash, in which a large business was dono since the Regency. The Chinese cash was allowed to become current, although its interim value was at least on Corean cash, a large 8c: became dearer.
5th,—Re-establishment of the worship and honors due to departed great men, 6th.—Equal rights, for gentry and peasants, in the acquisition of dignities, 7th.—Rostoration of the old laws for th regulation of soldiers, Instead of receiving Government pay under the Regent's administration, the soldier had to pay yearly a certain sum as service money, and was allowed to extort by the greatest violone all that he could from the poor As for many reasons the member jad got smaller, t i money or impost was levied habitants of each district, including even the nobility, &e.
8th.—Power of life and death to be limited with the King. We have shown already how much value the Rege attached to the life of anyone who pecan objectionable to him, whether aristocrat or plebeian, Unfortunately the example set by their august master was followed by all the Maudarins, great and small, who all arrogated to themselves the power of life and death.
Now when the two nobles named before, supported as they felt themselves to be by the nephew of.the old Queen, risked their ing the petition, the King, dismissed them without re himself as to the truth ious against his father, he disguised himself, and surveyed his capital followed by a fow guards, On every side he heard about the two nobles and their petition; the conduct of the Keyent was blamed, and the people complained bitterly of the administration. In one of his walks, the King entering an inn, asked for a cup of rice, the price for which so frightened him that he requested to know the cause, Why (sas the reply,) where does the noble gentleman spring from, that he does not know, since the introduction of Chinese cash, everything is trebled in P¥From nine o'clock at night, when the rice."
ells toll as a signal to keep in, till two in the morning, no man is allowed to be abroad, except it be absolutely necessary, pain of being heavily fined. The object of this police regulation is to enable the women to walk out freely. A Jittle while after his ran out, the young King felt inclined to make a night survey of his capital, and was arrested by the police. "What," said he, "doyen mean by stopping a nobleman?" ' "It is the law," he is answered, "to arrest every man, noble or
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.