As Prince Yi was returning from the ex-Emperor’s funeral that afternoon, a group of twenty literati approached his carriage and attempted to present a petition.  They were stopped by the police.  A petition was sent by the literati to the Governor-General; the delegates were told to take it to the police office.  Here they were arrested.

Two of the most famous nobles in the land, Viscount Kim and Viscount Li, sent a dignified petition to the Governor-General, begging him to listen to the people, and deploring the severe measures taken to suppress the demonstrations.  Viscount Kim was senior peer, head of the Confucian College, and had ever been a friend of Japan.  As far back as 1866, he had run the risk of death by urging the King to open the country to outside nations and to conclude a treaty with Japan.  The Japanese had made him one of their new Korean peerage.  He was now eighty-five, feeble and bedridden.  The protest of himself and his fellow senior was measured, polished, moved with a deep sympathy for the people, but with nothing in it to which the Governor-General should have taken offence.

The Japanese treatment of these two nobles was crowning proof of their incapacity to rule another people.  The two were at once arrested, and with them various male members of their families.  Kim was so ill that he could not be immediately moved, so a guard was placed over his house.  All were brought to trial at Seoul in July.  With Viscount Kim were Kim Ki-ju, his grandson, and Kim Yu-mon.  With Viscount Li was his relative Li Ken-tai.  The charge against them was, of violating the Peace Preservation Act.  Ki-ju aggravated his position by trying to defend himself.  The Japanese press reported that he was reported to “have assumed a very hostile attitude to the bench enunciating this theory and that in defence of his cause.”  This statement is the best condemnation of the trial.  Where a prisoner is deemed to add to his guilt by attempting to defend himself, justice has disappeared.

Viscount Kim was sentenced to two years’ penal servitude, and Viscount Li to eighteen months, both sentences being stayed for three years.  Kim Ki-ju, Kim Yu-mon and Li Ken-tai were sentenced to hard labour for eighteen months, twelve months and six months respectively.  The sentence reflected disgrace on the Government that instituted the prosecution and decreed the punishment.

The white people of Seoul were horrified by the Japanese treatment of badly wounded men who flocked to the Severance Hospital for aid.  Some of these, almost fatally wounded, were put to bed.  The Japanese police came and demanded that they should be delivered up to them.  The doctors pointed out that it probably would be fatal to move them.  The police persisted, and finally carried off three men.  It was reported that one man they took off in this fashion was flogged to death.