Note 42 — Chapter XI · THE COMPACT

The purpose of this significant Memorial, we repeat, is self-evident. The Ministers, who had agreed to the Treaty by the Emperor’s commands and with his concurrence and approval, were being attacked as traitors. The Emperor himself was secretly favoring the attack and endeavoring to create the impression that he had not agreed to the Treaty, but that it was the work of the recreant Cabinet without his approval. The Memorial forced him to abandon that position once and for all. As before stated, it was officially promulgated with the Imperial sanction, and should have ended all controversy at once. In any country but Korea, and with any but the class of writers whom these incidents have developed, that would have been its result.