violated this contract by dispatching troops, at the request of the king of Korea, whose throne was threatened by a serious rebellion, without sufficient warning to Japan, and further, by keeping a body of these troops at the Korean capital even when the rebellion was at an end.  A disastrous war ensued.  The Japanese were victorious on land and sea; the Chinese fleet was destroyed; Port Arthur was taken; and finally, after surrendering Wei-hai-wei (1895), to which he had retired with the remnant of his fleet, Admiral Ting, well known as “a gallant sailor and true gentleman,” committed suicide together with four of his captains.  Li Hung-chang was then sent to Japan to sue for peace, and while there he was shot in the cheek by a fanatical member of the Soshi class.  This act brought him much sympathy—­he was then seventy-two years old; and in the treaty of Shimonoseki, which he negotiated, better terms perhaps were obtained than would otherwise have been the case.  The terms granted included the independence of Korea, for centuries a tribute-paying vassal of China, and the cession of the island of Formosa.  Japan had occupied the peninsula on which stands the impregnable fortress of Port Arthur, and had captured the latter in a few hours; but she was not to be allowed to keep them.  A coalition of European powers, Russia, Germany, and France—­England refused to join—­decided that it would never do to let Japan possess Port Arthur, and forced her to accept a money payment instead.  So it was restored to China—­for the moment; and at the same time a republic was declared in Formosa; but of this the Japanese made short work.

[I once read the memoirs of a Japanese foreign minister from this period.  He didn’t think much of most of the Chinese diplomats, whom he considered completely untrustworthy.—­JB.]

The following year was marked by an unusual display of initiative on the part of the Emperor, who now ordered the introduction of railways; but in 1897 complications with foreign powers rather gave a check to these aspirations.  Two German Catholic priests were murdered, and as a punitive measure Germany seized Kiaochow in Shantung; while in 1898 Russia “leased” Port Arthur, and as a counterblast, England thought it advisable to “lease” Wei-hai-wai.  So soon as the Manchu court had recovered from the shock of these events, and had resumed its normal state of torpor, it was rudely shaken from within by a series of edicts which peremptorily commanded certain reforms of a most far-reaching description.  For instance, the great public examinations, which had been conducted on much the same system for seven or eight centuries past, were to be modified by the introduction of subjects suggested by recent intercourse with Western nations.  There was to be a university in Peking, and the temples, which cover the empire in all directions, were to be closed to religious services and opened for educational purposes.  The Manchus, indeed, have never shown any signs of a religious temperament.