Although Corea is, owing to her own deliberate policy and wish, a_ perfectly friendless country, in whose ultimate destiny nobody, exempt a few devout French priests, cares, its violent absorption by Russia would be stigmatized by the civilized world as an act of pure robbery. Tt must be remembered that Corea is an independent State, perfectly sovereign within her own borders, with a peacofal and industrious population, who desire nothing better than that they be left alone to earn their own bread in their own way, 'The hills which' cover the east of the country are given over to wild beaats it is trae, but wherever cultivar imple methods is possible there it arms with millions of people, and there is no reason to believe that they are not perfectly satisfied with themselves, their rulers, and their country. Of its natural resources we know absolutely nothing therefore they have been pronounced by recent writers to be magnificent. Its commerce we certainly know to be eitherinsiguificant, peddling, or cumbrous barter. Its civilization and form of Government are of that archaic type which alone of all others defies change, the patriarchal Confucian and that dreadful bane to a country, the Chinese written Ianguaye, la in universal use among rich and poor, old and young, governing and governed.' Not only would the annexation of the whole of such a country be called by hard names for which the mens conscia recti of Russia might possibly not care, but it would be a source of weakness to hor as calling for more adminis: trative power than she can at present If bent on spoliation she has to be content Corea as will satisfy the aspirations of her people for a harbour open in winter, or as will suffice to strengthen her position geographically and materially with Corea's quasi-overlord, China, The Coreans are in physique the finest people in Eastern Asia, and in bearing much more manly than it is the fashion to represent them, but they are asa nation absolutely unarmed. They have lived in such complete seclusion that they are frightened with strange sounds and sights even, although thi the timidity of ignorance, not of a craven spirit. Any task of spoliation which Russia assumes will therefore be easily carried out, to begin with, for she will meet little or no opposition from the people themselves. As the Russo-Chinese quarrel is now patched up, the Russians may content themselves by and by with extending their const line as far southward as will include Port Lazareff. Had it not been patched up, Corea would certainly have been shorn of her two northern provinces, which would not only have given Russia that magnificent harbour on the east const but would have given her a pied & terra on the shores of the west coast at the mouth of the Yaloo River, from which she might strike at her will at Peking and the northern ports of China. Were the Coreans other than they are, children in matters of war, this latter position would not be strategically a safe one, but being what they are the Russians could just do what they like. Once permanently established on the Corean coast of the Yellow would be easy to compel the Chinese Government to comply with all the demands they chose to make in case of future difficulty between the two Governments; Corea would be cut off altogether from China. Russia would occupy " magnificent position, not only on the Sea of Japan, but on the Yellow Sea, and she would be rid for ever of her old enemy King Frost, on her Pacific coasts at least.
Although Corea is, as I have said, an independent sovereign State, in the sense that her municipal laws, her executive, the succession to her throne, and the treaty relations she has entered into with Japan are purely of her own creation, she is in another sense a feudatory of China. The services which she performs, whatever may have been their origin, are now-a-days performed from sentimental, not political, motiver, and hor title to the sovereignty she possesses ix not based on their duo performance. To spank strictly, they consist of a formal recognition by the Emperor of China of each successive King, and the despatch to Peking at stated intervals of a mission bearing tribute. It would be easy at any time to get up a frontier dispute between the Russians and Coreans on the Tamen River boundary. There are thou-of Coreans already living as Russian subjects on Russian soil, and the constant friction between them and their old authorities might soon be turned to account. The Corean Government are perfectly well aware of the risk they ran last year in the case of hostilities between their two powerful_neighbours. They wore then warned by Li Hung-chang, the Chinese statesman, that the best thing they could do was to come out into the world and try and make friends with European coun! They have also been told very plainly by the authorities of at least one foreign Power that they are likely to lose Port Lazareft whether there be war or not, and they have listened to the nows calmly. France and the United States, who some time ago, in an Irish manner, invited Corea to come outside," have' had further blandishments thrown in their faces. The Coreans believe nothing except that the sun and moon rise in the east and sot in the west of their country for their particu lar benefit; and they have no notion of sharing these advantages with third parti For the "*red-haired docile" from the West, who from time to time come to fight and then run away, they have a not unintelligible contempt. On the whole, one is naturally inclined to allow this people to drift along into such political adventures as may lio before them, whether with Russia or any other power, without being moved to a higher feeling than that of mere curiosity to watch what will happen. If it is for anybody to interfere on their behalf, it is for China, on the principle of is fuct cui prodest, and we shall have done all that we are called upon to do in the contingency I am writing of if we tell China what Molitre makes Toinotte tell the apothecary in the Malade Imagin-aire, "C'est & vous X mot tre lo nez, Pparceque vous en ave profit."—Times,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.