ART. IV.-1. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, 58, 59. By Laurence Oliphant, Private Secretary to Lord Elgin. Second Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh and London: Black wood and Sons, 1860.

2. Correspondence with Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 1860.

IN

N a former article on the subject of Japan, we expressed a confident anticipation that the jealous exclusion of foreigners, so long the traditionary policy of that extraordinary kingdom, could not possibly be much longer maintained. Almost immediately afterwards circumstances arose which seemed to promise an immediate realization of the prediction. The American government, taking advantage of the occasion afforded by certain outrages committed on citizens of the United States who had been shipwrecked on the Japanese coast, accompanied their demand for satisfaction of these injuries, by negotiations for the establishment of commercial and diplomatic relations with Japan, which led to the admission of American traders to certain ports of the empire, and to the establishment of an American diplomatic mission in the country.

The success of this American enterprise was not lost upon other nations; and Lord Elgin's Mission, the history of which is recorded by Mr. Oliphant in the second volume of his "Narrative," is the first fruit of British diplomacy in these distant regions; while the Correspondence presented to Parliament, and named at the head of these pages, is the earliest evidence of the working of the system which has arisen out of the treaty negotiated by his Lordship.

The article to which we allude had special reference to the religious system and religious condition of the Japanese empire; and the aspirations which it expressed for the opening of the country regarded the abolition of the ancient exclusive policy, mainly in the light of a step to the introduction of Christianity among these extraordinary people. In pursuing this view, therefore, we dwelt prin

See vol. xxxiii. pp. 269 and following.

cipally on the religious usages and institutions of the Japanese. On the other hand, the line which Mr. Oliphant has taken in his "Narrative," suggests the idea of a brief account of the social and political institutions of Japan, as a supplement to what we have already written on its religious condition; and thus the account which he gives of what he witnessed during his brief visit, may serve as a light and amusing counterpart for the more grave and serious topics to which our former article was devoted.

At the same time it is hardly necessary to say that it is impossible, in considering the social condition of any people, to abstract from the religion which they profess, and from the religious usages which they follow. Perhaps, also, we ought to add, that as regards Japan, the association of these two relations is peculiarly close and for us peculiarly interesting. Considered as a country which, from having once received in a limited measure the light of the Gospel, and from having for a brief period yielded to the Church no inconsiderable number of children, has lapsed, or is believed to have lapsed, into complete forgetfulness of Christianity, its present social condition presents a most interesting subject for study. It would be curious to search after every source of influence, however hidden and unacknowledged, which the lessons once learnt may still be supposed to exercise, even among those who have long since forgotten or abandoned them in the letter; to compare the institutions of the Japanese with the analogous usages of other kindred races among whom the Gospel had never obtained the same footing which it had once held in Japan ; and, even in those of their practices, which, like many of the institutions of Tibet, bear a strong resemblance to the usages of Catholicity, to consider how much of this resemblance may be due to the recollection of the Catholic traditions which they had once imbibed, and how much may be the remnant of that common primeval revelation which, amid all the various corruptions with which it has been overlaid, is still preserved in a greater or less degree in every one of the great religious systems which prevail, or have prevailed, among the heathen nations, whether of ancient or modern times.

Even as regards the national religion of Japan itself, it would be interesting to study its influence as exhibited in the character of the people and in their social condition and social institutions. The Budhism of China, of Tibet,

and of Japan, are in many essential particulars identical with each other. How different, nevertheless, the national character of each people! How many discrepancies, not only in the details of their usages and the nature of their institutions, but even in the general spirit which pervades them, and by which their working is animated and directed! These are questions which cannot fail to engage the mind of the philosophical inquirer, and which to such a mind must force themselves even into the consideration of subjects which at first sight present nothing of the religious character.

These considerations, moreover, must be of the deepest interest, as bearing upon the future prospects of religion among the Japanese, and of the means which may most successfully be employed in order to turn to good account the opportunity for the introduction of Christianity, which the opening of the country to Europeans may be expected to afford. As a field for missionary enterprise, Japan can hardly be said to have any exact parallel among the pagan nations. Considering merely their relative degrees of civilization and refinement, and also the substantial identity of their religious systems, it might be supposed that the prospects of missionary success would, under similar circumstances, be nearly the same in China and in the Japanese empire; but all travellers, ancient and modern, agree in describing the national character of the two peoples as so different, that any argument of analogy between them would be most illogical and most insecure.. Perhaps the nearest approach to the present social state of Japan, is that of Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. But with the social condition of the races all analogy ceases. The religious system of the Mexicans (although here, too, there are some analogies of practice) differed most widely from that of Japan, and differed in those precise points which present the greatest difficulty to a philosophical inquirer.

The condition of Japan, indeed, not only seems in itself to be eminently suitable as a field for the apostolic labourer, but is proved to be such by the acknowledged success of its first great apostle, St. Francis Xavier. Mr. Oliphant himself bears the fullest testimony to the fact. After mentioning, without implicitly accepting, the reports of the early chroniclers as to the miraculous powers of the apostle aud especially of his supernatural gift of tongues, he confesses

that "whatever may have been the means of proselytism employed, there can be no doubt of the marvellous results.' And what is still more important, he adds that "the faith thus implanted in the breasts of some hundreds of thousands of converts was not a mere nominal creed, to be swept away by the first wave of persecution. It not only furnished them with courage, but with arguments with which to meet their persecutors. The answer of a neophyte who was asked how he would respond to his sovereign if ordered to abjure Christianity, is thus recorded: 'Sire, would you wish me to remain faithful, and ever to preserve that submission which it is seemly for a subject to feel towards his king?—would you wish me to manifest zeal for your service on all occasions on which I can be of use, so that no private interest should cause me to forget what I owe you? would you wish me to be meek, temperate, and loving, full of charity towards my equals that I should patiently suffer all the ill-treatment to which I may be exposed?-command me then to remain a Christian, for it is from a Christian alone that all this can be reasonably expected.'"

But, however interesting and important these inquiries, we must for the present confine ourselves to what forms the main subject, both of Mr. Oliphant's volume and of the official correspondence of the Envoy Extraordinary. The visit of the former was so brief, and his opportunities of observation, at least of minute or searching observation, were so few, that he could hardly be expected to enter into any very minute details on the subject of religion. His narrative extends over a few weeks only, and although the correspondence of the British Envoy reaches down to the commencement of the present year, yet it is almost entirely confined to the immediate objects of his mission, which were the inauguration of the Commercial Treaty and the establishment of those diplomatic relations with Japan. which form its principal stipulation. We regret to add that the few particulars which it does contain, as to the prospects of friendly intercourse between the Japanese and Europeans, and of the beneficial influence of such intercourse in forwarding the introduction of Christianity into Japan, are far from encouraging. Conflicts of a highly irritating character have taken place, provoked, it is much to be feared, by the same causes-the avarice, profligacy, arrogance, and licentiousness of the European settlers

which have so often embarrassed and defeated the efforts of the most zealous missionaries among the Heathen ;which drew so many bitter tears from Las Casas and his brethren in Mexico; which caused the Jesuit Fathers of Paraguay rigorously to exclude all Europeans from the precincts of the provinces under their charge; which have led to the almost complete extermination of the Indian race in North America; and which, except in the favoured Catholic missions of Western Canada and the extreme western states, have almost converted the very name of Christian into a by-word of fear and of reproach among the Red Race of the New World.

These unhappy scandals are especially to be deplored, as acting with tenfold influence upon a people whose own public conduct is so irreproachable as is that of the Japanese. "So far as I have been able to judge," says St. Francis Xavier," they surpass in virtue and in probity all other nations hitherto discovered. They are of a mild disposition, opposed to chicanery, covetous of honours, which they prefer to everything. Poverty is very common among them, but in no way discreditable, although they endure it with difficulty." The same characteristics are still maintained.

"As locks and keys did not exist, our rooms were open to the incursions of any of the numerous attendants who swarmed about our lodgings; and though we left the most tempting English curiosities constantly displayed, yet we never had to complain of a single article missing, even of the most trifling value.

"I thought it singular that, during the whole period of our stay in Yedo, I should never have heard a scolding woman, or seen a disturbance in the streets, although, whenever I passed through them, they were densely crowded. Upon no single occasion, though children were numerous, did I ever see a child struck or otherwise maltreated. Thunberg, who passed many years in Japan, mentions the same fact; and in a description of the Empire in the sixteenth century, from The Firste Booke of Relations of Moderne States,' Harleian MS. 6249, the following passage occurs: They chastise their children with wordes onlye, and the' admonishe theire children when they are five yeares oulde, as yf the' weare ould men.' To our own knowledge, this mode of educating youth has been in existence for more than three centuries, and the result, according to universal testimony, is in the highest degree satisfactory. Kæmpfer, Charlevoix, and Titsingh, agree in saying that the love, obedience, and reverence manifested by children towards their parents is unbounded; while the confidence placed by parents in their children.