f the natives had a semi-savage aspect, and the abject
servility with which their todzies (interpreters) prostrated themselves
before their officers excited a feeling of contempt.

Like the mayors of the palace in mediaeval France, the Shoguns or
generals had relegated the Mikado to a single city of the interior;
while for six hundred years they had usurped the power of the Empire,
practically presenting the spectacle of two Emperors, one "spiritual"
(or nominal), one "temporal" (or real). Little did we imagine that
within five years the Shoguns would be swept away, and the Mikado
restored to more than his ancient power. The conflagration was kindled
by a spark from our engines. The feudal nobles, of whom there were four
hundred and fifty, each a prince within his own narrow limits, were
indignant that the Shogun had opened his ports to those aggressive
foreigners of the West. Raising a cry of "Kill the foreigners!" they
overturned the Shoguns and restored the Mikado. Their fury, however,
subsided when they found that the foreigner was too strong to be
expelled. A few more years saw them patriotically surrendering their
feudal powers in order to make the central government strong enough to
face the world. About the same time our Western costume was adopted, and
along with it the parliamentary system of Great Britain and the school
system of America. Some foreigners were shallow enough to laugh at them
when they saw those little soldiers in Western uniform; and the Chinese
despised them more than ever for abandoning the dress of their
forefathers.

To protect themselves at once against China and Russia, the Japanese
felt that the independence of Corea was to them indispensable. The King
had been a feudal subject to China since the days of King Solomon; and
when at the instance of Japan he assumed the title of Emperor, the
Chinese resolved to punish him for such insolence. This was in 1894. The
Japanese took up arms in his defence; and though they had some hard
fighting, they soon made it evident that nothing but a treaty of peace
could keep them out of Peking.

Li Hung Chang, who had long been Viceroy at Tientsin and who had built
a northern arsenal and remodelled the Chinese army, had to confess
himself beaten. For him it was a bitter pill to be sent as a suppliant
to the Court of the Mikado. That China was beaten was not his fault. Yet
he was held responsible by his own government and departed on that
humiliating mi