CHAPTER XIX.

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation, capitalization, diacritics and spelling

in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical

errors have been corrected.

Index inconsistencies with the text have been regularized with the

text.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

THE ENGLISHMAN IN CHINA

CHAP. XXIII.: Tsze-kung asked, saying, "Is there one word which may

serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" The Master said, "Is not

RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do

to others."

[Illustration: Signature

J. Thomson, photo.

Walker & Cockerell, ph. sc.]

THE ENGLISHMAN IN CHINA

DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA

AS ILLUSTRATED IN

THE CAREER OF

SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK, K.C.B., D.C.L.

MANY YEARS CONSUL AND MINISTER IN

CHINA AND JAPAN

BY

ALEXANDER MICHIE

AUTHOR OF

'THE SIBERIAN OVERLAND ROUTE,' 'MISSIONARIES

IN CHINA,' ETC.

VOL. II.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCC

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

CHAP. PAGE

XIX. JAPAN--

I. THE TREATIES AND THEIR NEGOTIATORS 1

II. THE OPERATION OF THE TREATIES 12

III. ASSASSINATION PERIOD, 1860-61 34

IV. NEGOTIATIONS AND RENEWED ASSASSINATIONS,

1862-64 44

V. THE TYCOON'S DILEMMA 60

VI. THE CRISIS 75

VII. THE BIRTH OF NEW JAPAN 92

VIII. THE DIPLOMATIC BODY--TSUSHIMA 104

IX. TRADE AND TRADERS 115

XX. SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK IN PEKING, 1865-1869--

I. THE BRITISH LEGATION 130

II. FOREIGN LIFE IN PEKING 138

III. THE FOREIGN CUSTOMS UNDER THE PEKING CONVENTION 156

IV. EMIGRATION 168

V. KOREA 175

XXI. THE REVISION OF THE TREATY--

I. PREPARATION 180

II. THE BURLINGAME MISSION 192

III. CHINESE OUTRAGES--YANGCHOW AND FORMOSA 198

IV. REVISION NEGOTIATIONS AND CONCLUSION 210

XXII. MISSIONARY PROBLEM--TIENTSIN MASSACRE OF 1870 223

XXIII. THE EXPANSION OF INTERCOURSE--

I. RUSSIA AND FRANCE ADVANCING 250

II. JAPAN AGGRESSIVE 255

III. KOREA OPENED 256

IV. THE FIRST IMPERIAL AUDIENCE--SUCCESSION OF

KWANGHSU 260

XXIV. THE MURDER OF MR MARGARY, 1875--CHEFOO CONVENTION,

1876--RATIFICATION, 1885--

I. THE MURDER OF MR MARGARY, 1875 265

II. CHEFOO CONVENTION, 1876 275

III. THE RATIFICATION, 1885 282

XXV. A CHAIN OF INCIDENTS--

I. DISPUTE WITH RUSSIA RE KULDJA 290

II. KOREAN IMBROGLIO, 1882-85 293

III. THE PORT HAMILTON EPISODE, 1885-87 303

IV. TIBET 305

V. THE CRUISE OF THE SEVENTH PRINCE, 1886 312

VI. THE EMPEROR ASSUMES THE GOVERNMENT, 1889 318

VII. THE VISIT OF THE CZAREVITCH, 1891 321

XXVI. THE TONGKING QUARREL 324

XXVII. THE FRENCH PROTECTORATE OF CHRISTIANS 336

XXVIII. BRITISH SERVICES: DIPLOMATIC, CONSULAR, AND

JUDICIAL 353

XXIX. CHINA AND HER RULERS 368

XXX. CHINA'S AWAKENING 388

XXXI. THE COLLAPSE 403

XXXII. THE RESETTLEMENT OF THE FAR EAST 417

XXXIII. THE OUTCOME--

I. THE SITUATION IN PEKING 435

II. THE CHRONIC CAUSE 440

III. IMMEDIATE PROVOCATION 447

IV. THE DYNASTIC FACTOR 455

V. THE CHINESE OUTBREAK 461

VI. THE CRUX 464

XXXIV. SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK'S LATER YEARS 476

INDEX 490

ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

PAGE

SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK _Frontispiece_

LORD ELGIN 6

PRINCE KUNG 134

WÊNSIANG 136

MANCHU (TARTAR) WOMEN 138

MANCHU WOMEN 140

CHINESE WOMEN 142

CHINESE STREET SCENE DURING RAINY SEASON 144

LI HUNG-CHANG AT THE AGE OF FIFTY 184

RUINS OF FRENCH CATHEDRAL AT TIENTSIN, BURNED

JUNE 20, 1870 240

PEI-T'ANG CATHEDRAL IN PEKING, PURCHASED BY CHINESE

GOVERNMENT 340

MINISTERS OF THE YAMÊN OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: H.E. SHÊN

KUEI-FÊN; H.E. TUNG HSÜN; H.E. MAO CHANG-TSI 416

MAPS.

BAY OF YEDO 4

MAP OF EASTERN ASIA _At end_

In the contents under Chapter XIX. the date of Commodore Perry's

expedition is by a misprint given as 1883-84 instead of 1853-54.

THE ENGLISHMAN IN CHINA.

CHAPTER XIX.

JAPAN.

I. THE TREATIES AND THEIR NEGOTIATORS.

Commodore Perry's expedition, 1853-54--Townsend Harris--Count

Poutiatine--Lord Elgin--The treaties of 1858--The solidarity of

Western Powers--The practical attitude of the Japanese--Their

yielding to circumstances--The condition of the country--The

character of the people--Nagasaki--The Dutch--Their two hundred

years' imprisonment.

A mystery hung over the island empire, which had been sealed against

foreign intercourse for two hundred years, and its mere seclusion, apart

from the weird romance that gilded such fragments of its history as were

known, invested the efforts to reopen the country with a romantic charm.

It was in Japan that Lord Elgin achieved the real diplomatic success of

his life, in the briefest possible time, at the least possible cost, and

with the most far-reaching consequences; for undoubtedly he hastened the

entry of the Land of the Rising Sun into the family of nations.

The poetical side of the mission was done ample justice to by Laurence

Oliphant in his 'Narrative,' by Captain Sherard Osborn in the pages of

'Blackwood,' and elsewhere. The prosaic side and the practical issues of

this rediscovery of an old world were not so clearly apprehended by them

or by any other contemporary writer. The Powers of Europe and America had

long been watching for opportunities to effect an opening in the barrier,

but all tentatives proved in vain until force was resorted to. This was

first done by the United States, whence a naval squadron under Commodore

Perry appeared off the coast in 1853, repeating the visit, on a still more

imposing scale, in 1854. The apparition deeply impressed the minds of

the Japanese Government and people, who, Lafcadio Hearn tells us, speak

to this day of the "black ships," birds of omen foreshadowing events for

which it behoved them to prepare themselves. Black, indeed, they were,

grim of aspect, huge in bulk, and looming larger than they really were,

with their high sides, great paddle-boxes, and "smoke-stacks." The ships

were armed with a few guns of such calibre and power as had not till

then been placed on any floating battery. Jonathan is never second-best

in naval artillery. Commodore Perry with his three black ships, the

steamers Powhattan, Susquehanna, and Mississippi, and his squadron of

sailing-vessels, opened the door of Japan--not very wide, it is true, yet

so that it could never again be closed. The rudimentary treaty he made was

little more than a covenant to supply wood and water to needy ships and

to be merciful to their crews. A similar treaty was made by the English

Admiral Stirling in 1854, and it included the "most-favoured-nation"

clause, only excepting from its application the privileges enjoyed by

China and Holland.

To carry the work forward to a more practical stage a man of affairs was

required, and he was found in the person of Townsend Harris, who was

accredited to Japan under the title of Consul-General for the United

States. Mr Harris had been nearly two years in the country when Lord

Elgin, with his modest escort, arrived and made his acquaintance. With

infinite patience Mr Harris had been prosecuting his negotiations,

against wind and current, it would seem, until a propitious gale wafted

his venture into port. The black ships had gone, but another fleet more

numerous was assembled on the neighbouring coast, whence their fame had

reached the secluded empire. Riding on the shoulders of the Anglo-French

exploits in China, and not obscurely hinting at the prospect of the allies

shortly visiting Japan, Mr Harris induced his Japanese friends to "hurry

up" with his treaty, that it might not only serve as a model of moderation

for the other Powers when they also should come to negotiate, but provide

in advance friendly mediation between them and Japan. Lord Elgin justified

the forewarnings of Mr Harris by appearing in the Bay of Yedo within a

few weeks after the signature of the American treaty.

How much both Mr Harris's treaty and the one which Lord Elgin was about

to sign owed to the previous Russian negotiations cannot be estimated.

Admiral Count Poutiatine concluded a treaty in 1855, and improved it in

1857, on the basis of Sir James Stirling's opening the ports of Nagasaki,

Hakodate, and Shimoda for ship's supplies, with sundry minor privileges.

When Lord Elgin reached the Bay of Yedo in August 1858 he found Count

Poutiatine already there with a frigate and a gunboat.

[Illustration: BAY OF YEDO.

_Walker & Cockerell sc._]

This convergence of the great Powers of the world upon a single object,

that of breaking down the seclusion of Japan, was clearly recognised, and

its proximate effect weighed, by the Japanese statesmen of the day. Too

wise to oppose an uncompromising resistance to the pressure, they employed

their skill more profitably in deflecting its course. In accordance with

this policy, Lord Elgin's demand, backed as it was by the prestige of

his recent achievements in China, was promptly conceded, and within the

short space of fourteen days from his arrival in the bay a treaty was

concluded of the same tenor as the American, of which Lord Elgin had

obtained a copy from Mr Harris, who also lent him the invaluable services

of his Dutch interpreter, Mr Heusken. By the two treaties three of the

chief ports of the empire were opened to foreign trade within one year,

and two more at later dates. In some respects the English was an advance

on the American treaty. By the latter the import tariff had been reduced

from the old Dutch rate of 35 per cent to a general rate of 5 per cent _ad

valorem_. The British treaty specifically provided that cotton and woollen

manufactured goods should be included in the class of merchandise paying

5 per cent. The immunities of extra-territoriality were unreservedly

conceded, and were only rescinded by the revised treaties, the first of

which was made with Great Britain in 1894, coming into force in July 1899.

One general remark applies to all treaties made between foreign powers and

China or Japan, that the interests of each separate Power were safeguarded

by the virtual solidarity which existed among them, through the operation

of that convenient diplomatic save-all, the "most-favoured-nation" clause.

This comprehensive provision inserted in the treaties secured for all the

Powers the advantages gained by any one of their number. Faith in this

ultimate protection may have led occasionally to slipshod negotiations.

There might even be a temptation in some cases to seek special credit

for moderation, with the foreknowledge that the exactions of any of the

Powers would inure to the benefit of all. Lord Elgin wrote the simple

truth when he said that, "as regards all these important commercial

privileges, I have to fight the battles of the Western trading nations

single-handed." This feature had been particularly noticeable in the

negotiations in China, where it was so well understood that the English

treaty would be the common standard that it mattered little that the

signature of some of the others was hurried forward so as to take priority

of the British in point of date. The treaty which Lord Elgin negotiated

with Japan was destined to occupy the same ruling position as the treaty

with China, and therefore it devolved upon him to make provision for all

manner of contingencies which no experience could enable him to foresee.

Considering that these treaties were drawn up with so little knowledge of

the circumstances of the country and of the future exigencies of trade,

the fact that they have stood the test of forty years' experience redounds

greatly to the credit of the negotiants.

[Illustration: LORD ELGIN.]

Lord Elgin had to learn what a Daimio was from Count Poutiatine, who

probably had but just acquired the knowledge himself. It is strange at the

present day to read the solemn preamble, "Her Majesty the Queen of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and his Majesty the Tycoon

of Japan." "It was not till some time later that it was discovered that

there was a still higher power than the Shôgun," said Earl Russell in

1865. The imperfect knowledge, however, attests the general soundness of

the principles adopted.

It must be admitted that on the Japanese side, also, nothing seemed

wanting to render the treaty a workable instrument. The Japanese

negotiators were animated by a more practical spirit than any Chinese

diplomatist with whom foreigners had had dealings. There was no idea in

their minds of blind obstruction; they were bent, if not upon efficient

working, at least on the minimising of friction and risk. And though it

is probable, indeed quite certain, that no treaty whatever could have

been made without substantial force in the background, intelligently

apprehended by the Japanese Government, yet, that being conceded, it

was clearly their object to make the best of the position in which they

actually found themselves. Under no other circumstances could treaties so

complete in detail and so effective for their purpose have been concluded.

To judge of the acts of the pioneers of foreign intercourse, or to form a

just opinion of the conditions under which the treaties came into force,

it would be necessary for the critic to regard the whole surroundings

as a painter does his subject, not representing what he knows or may

afterwards discover to be there, but considering only what actually meets

his eye. This, of course, is next to impossible in the case of Japan,

where the transformation resulting from the contact with foreigners was

so rapid and so kaleidoscopic, and while foreign knowledge of things

Japanese has increased at so marvellous a rate, that only a series of

mutoscopic photographs could have preserved the sequence. Opinions were

at first, and for some time after, unduly affected by the preconception

of a certain analogy between China and Japan founded on geographical

propinquity, and in a measure on language: this bias influenced the first

influx of foreigners in 1859, who were largely drawn from the commercial

ports of China. Yet those who had been habituated to the manners and

customs of the Chinese were at once struck, not by the similarities,

but by the violent contrasts, which the two peoples presented. These

visitants had left behind them filth and squalor; they met cleanliness

and tidiness of an extreme type. They left behind vagueness of thought,

slovenliness of action; and they encountered pedantic precision. They

left behind indifference and stolidity, with ignorance cherished as a

proud possession; and they encountered a keen and intelligent appetite

for knowledge. These features met the stranger before even his ship had

cast anchor, or he had set foot on shore. He soon perceived, also, that

existence was carried on under an elaborate prescription which left but

a narrow margin to spontaneous action, and such a minute supervision

that a sparrow could hardly cross the road without being noted by the

official guardians of the peace; that every function, whether of official

or private life, was under the undisputed control of the same vigilant

organisation.[1] On entering the narrow waters approaching the harbour

of Nagasaki, he would pass under forts where through a telescope he could

see guns and gunners' quarters all spick and span. If there happened to be

another vessel approaching from seaward, he would know it by the booming

of two guns from the outermost fort, the signal being taken up and passed

on by those inland, and so all the way to Yedo. This, he learned, was

the mode of announcing to the capital the appearance of any foreign craft

off the coast. On entering the inner harbour he would see boats full of

men who looked like women, pushing off to his ship; and then a posse of

officers, each armed with two sharp swords, would come on board. They,

by means of a very imperfect interpreter, would at once ply the master

with questions on every conceivable subject, as if he were competing in

an examination in universal knowledge. The tedious catechism, with its

admixture of seeming frivolity, would have been exasperating but for the

imperturbable suavity of the catechists. Every answer was promptly, yet

deliberately, committed to writing. Such was, and is, the custom of the

race.

Nagasaki being still, in the first half of 1859, the gate of Japan,

and the only sample of the country known to foreigners, the bright

welcome with which it greeted the new arrivals was of happy augury. It

was there, also, that the first observations of the ways of Japanese

commerce were made, for Nagasaki had carried on trade with China and

with Holland for two hundred years,--a trade which was conducted on the

one side by officials of the Government, who fixed the prices of the

commodities exchanged, and which was all but strangled by monopoly. The

restricted annual "turn-over" must have required a high percentage of

profit to support the Dutch factory, and the privilege of trading on so

petty a scale seemed to be dearly bought by the perpetual imprisonment

of the agents. The unfortunate Dutchmen were confined, with their whole

establishment of warehouses, residences, &c., within an area of less than

three acres of reclaimed foreshore called Deshima, thus described by Sir

Rutherford Alcock in 'The Capital of the Tycoon':--

A low fan-shaped strip of land, dammed out from the waters of

the bay, the handle being towards the shore and truncated. One

large wide street, with two-storeyed houses on each side, built in

European style, gives an air of great tidiness; but they look with

large hollow eyes into each other's interiors in a dismal sort of

way, as if they had been so engaged for six generations at least,

and were quite weary of the view.... But the view from the Dutch

commissioner's residence, with its quaint Japanese garden and

its fine sweep down the bay, is very charming.... There flitted

before me a vision of the solitary chiefs of the factory in long

succession taking up their present station in long rotation and

looking forward upon the fair bay with which their sight alone

may be gladdened. How often must the occupants of this lone post

have strained their eyes looking in vain for the solitary ship

bringing tidings from Europe and home!

The imprisonment of the Dutch was aggravated by many degrading conditions

imposed by the Japanese Government. Their position bore some analogy to

that of the English and other foreigners in Canton previous to 1839. In

both cases the Europeans endured indignities at the hands of Asiatics for

the sake of profit, but beyond that point it is the differences rather

than the resemblances which are significant. The humiliation of the Dutch

in the island of Deshima was indeed unmitigated so far as it went, but

it was neither capricious nor spiteful. Once the yoke was peacefully

adjusted, what remained of life to the Dutchman was made as agreeable

to him as to a cockatoo in a cage. His jailors had no particular animus

against him; they had a purpose of their own to serve in keeping open,

through the foreigners, a channel of communication with the West, and

they had as valid reasons of State for tethering him as one may have

for tying up his ox or his ass. These purposes once served, however, the

Japanese did not revel in harshness or cruelty.[2] With the Chinese it was

otherwise. They also had a political object in restricting the barbarians,

only they were never satisfied with its attainment, but continued heaping

up insults on their victims to the utmost limits of their submissiveness.

The petty trade which the new-comers were able to do at Nagasaki was,

in the beginning, managed through the existing agency of the Dutch, from

whom, however, there was nothing useful to be learned, much indeed to be

unlearned; and in a few months it was the Dutch themselves who had to go

to school to the interlopers. As commerce had been kept entirely in the

hands of the Government officials, there had been no opportunity for the

rise of any mercantile class among the natives: that was to be a product

of the new era.

II. THE OPERATION OF THE TREATIES.

Japanese preparations for trade at Yokohama--Mr Alcock's arrival

as consul-general--Assumes the rank of Minister--The situation

as he found it--The establishment of diplomatic intercourse

at the capital--The location of the foreign settlement--The

currency--The low value of gold--Its rapid exportation--Friction

caused by conditions of exchange--Efforts of Mr Alcock to set

matters right--Report by Secretary of H.B.M. Treasury--Japanese

double standard, gold and copper--Japanese courage in meeting

difficulties--The Daimios' coinage--Beginnings of trade--Amenities

of residence--The charm of the people--The two Japans, official

and non-official--Complete despotism and complete submission.

The treaties of 1858 took their proper effect at the two ports of Hakodate

and Kanagawa; but the former being remote from any centre of population,

and its trading resources so obviously limited, it attracted little

attention in commercial circles. It was in the more southerly port that

the new foreign interests became concentrated; and it was so near the

capital--only seventeen miles distant--that the political and commercial

currents soon acted and reacted on each other with direct, and sometimes

violent, effect. To Kanagawa, therefore, the merchants of all nations

gathered in anticipation of the official opening of the port on the 1st

of July 1859.

We say "Kanagawa," to follow the official nomenclature, but in reality

the adventurers who came there to seek their fortunes did not land at

that place, but three miles away from it, at an obscure village called

Yokohama. There the Japanese Government had decided should be the

future settlement for foreigners, and they had made costly preparations,

according to their lights, for the accommodation of the strangers. Roads

were marked out, a certain number of wooden bungalows had been run up,

a few shops had been opened in the quarter which was designed for native

occupation, a custom-house was built, with warehouses attached, and stone

landing-places had been constructed for boats and lighters. The area thus

marked out for the native and foreign business quarter was a narrow strip

along the sea-shore, having in its flank and rear an immense lagoon, or,

as it was called, "the swamp," intersected by boat channels, where punting

after wildfowl provided amusement for idle foreigners. Being an inlet

of the bay, the swamp made a peninsula of Yokohama, which had just been

connected with the _tokaido_, the great trunk road between the capital

of the Tycoon and that of the Mikado, by a new causeway and several good

bridges, admitting of boat traffic between the swamp and the sea.

In the middle of the swamp, in rear of Yokohama, was a reclaimed portion

whereon was erected an extensive range of buildings connected by a

causeway with the dry land of the settlement. From its balconies there

waved pendants of cotton cloth bearing the legend, "This place is designed

for the amusement of foreigners," a class of amusement of which there has

never been any lack in Japan.

Such were some of the outward and visible preparations made by the

Japanese Government, on its own initiative, for the reception of the

foreigners under the new treaties,--preparations which surprised and

somewhat disconcerted the representatives of the Western Governments when

they arrived on the eve of the opening of the port.

Mr Alcock, who had recently returned to his post as consul at Canton,

was chosen as the first representative of Great Britain in Japan, with

the rank of consul-general. As this rank placed the representative of the

leading Power in an inferior position to his colleagues, and consequently

derogated from the influence he could exercise on the Japanese, Mr Alcock

took it upon himself to assume the title of Plenipotentiary, placing his

resignation in the hands of his Government in case they should disavow

his action. At the same time he recommended that the future British

representative should bear the title of Minister Resident. So far from

disavowing his action, the Government appointed him Envoy Extraordinary

and Minister Plenipotentiary, a higher rank than that suggested by him,

and he was authorised to at once assume the title, although so unusual

a proceeding as the transfer of a consular official to the diplomatic

service involved considerable delay while the needful formalities were

being arranged. The appointment, however, was coupled with the conditions

that the step should not be made a precedent, and that it should confer

no claim to future diplomatic employment in the countries of the West.

Mr Alcock was conveyed from China in one of her Majesty's ships,

arriving at the port of Nagasaki in June 1859. There he found a fleet

of foreign merchantmen already in the harbour, and some fifteen British

subjects resident on shore, under the ægis of the old Dutch conventions

supplemented by more recent enactments. Mr Alcock remained some days,

and having made arrangements for the carrying on of trade under the new

treaties, left a consul in charge of British interests and proceeded to

Yedo, where he arrived on June 26.

It is a date to be remembered as that of the practical initiation of

diplomatic intercourse with the ruling Power in Japan. The difference

between a mission to negotiate treaties and one to carry them into effect

is thus set forth by Sir Rutherford Alcock in the preface to his valuable

work, 'The Capital of the Tycoon,' in terms the simple truth of which must

commend itself to every candid reader:--

The Ambassadors Extraordinary had only to extort certain

privileges on paper; it was the business of the resident Ministers

to make of these paper-concessions realities--practical, everyday

realities. As this was the very thing the rulers of the country

had determined to prevent, it cannot be matter of wonder that

there was not, and never could be, any real accord, whatever

the outward professions of good faith and amity. Hence also it

naturally followed that, although the original negotiators were

received with smiles, and their path was strewn with flowers,

their successors had only the poisoned chalice held to their lips,

thorns in their path, and the scowl of the two-sworded braves and

Samurai to welcome them whenever they ventured to leave their

gates--while the assassin haunted their steps, and broke their

rest in the still hours of the night with fell intent to massacre.

To say the situation was novel is to say little. The forces at work in the

Japanese state economy were either unknown to, or, what was perhaps even

worse, misunderstood by, foreign Powers. The lurid history of previous

intercourse, followed by rigid exclusion for two centuries, would have

sufficed to establish one factor in the problem, the iron resolution of

the Japanese rulers. With such men neutrality or indifference was out

of the question, while there was nothing as yet to indicate what was

henceforth to be the ruling motive of Japanese policy. Both parties were

embarking on an unknown voyage, and the avoidance of shipwreck depended

in a very large measure on the character of those who had to discover for

themselves the winds and currents, the rocks and shoals, through which

they had to steer. The leadership among the foreign Powers was tacitly

assigned to Great Britain, and it was a born leader who was commissioned

to represent her. Mr Alcock had had fifteen years' experience of Asiatic

relations, during which time he had proved himself the possessor of those

qualities which were now in special request. These were indomitable

energy, earnestness of purpose much beyond the common run of official

service, fearlessness of responsibility, and alertness to grasp the

nettle danger in order to avert greater evils, and a spirit which would

neither shirk nor postpone an unpleasant duty nor tolerate lukewarmness

nor dilatoriness in others. He was fifty years old--matured in character

and experience, while yet in the prime of his intellectual vigour.

Mr Alcock arrived in Yedo Bay in time to arrange for the opening of trade

at the appointed date, July 1.

Nagasaki to Yedo! Two centuries lie between these points, so

near on the map, but so far and completely separated by the

determined policy of the Japanese rulers. A policy of isolation so

effectually carried out that no foreigner, though he might under

the Dutch flag gain access to Nagasaki, could force or find his

way to the capital.

Steaming up the Bay of Yedo, and leaving Kanagawa unvisited, Mr Alcock

anchored as close to the capital as the depth of water would allow, and

at once informed the Foreign Minister that he had come to stay. This was

done advisedly, as he has explained, to obviate all discussion as to

his place of residence, for he knew that efforts had been made--_more

Sinico_--through Lord Elgin to induce her Majesty's Government to

postpone the residence in Yedo for a couple of years, and to keep their

representative at a distance. His first object was to obtain a suitable

residence for himself and the Legation staff, in which assistance was

cheerfully rendered by the Government officials, as soon as they saw he

was resolved to remain in the capital. Diplomatic intercourse became thus

an established fact.

The opening of the trading-port did not prove quite so simple, for the

consul-general found he had been forestalled in the choice of a site

for the merchants' residence, which the Government had, as we have seen,

prepared at great expense some three miles away from Kanagawa, the port

named in the treaty. Interpreting this hurried action of the Japanese

as covering the ulterior design of segregating the foreigners from the

natives by thrusting them to a distance from the trunk road which led

through Kanagawa, of keeping them in a kind of imprisonment like the Dutch

at Deshima, and of retaining the power to stop their supplies, whether of

the materials of trade or of sustenance, Mr Alcock warmly contested the

action of the Government. In the end he extorted from them the concession

of a commercial site at Kanagawa itself, which, however, was never taken

up. Events proved too strong for the consul-general, for the merchants

of all nations as they arrived settled in Yokohama, where there was deep

water for shipping and every convenience for business. And it soon began

also to be felt that there was an element of safety in this foreign

settlement being removed from the great imperial road along which armed

processions were continually passing to and from the capital. Within a

year the controversy had died a natural death, and Yokohama speaks for

itself.

The second obstacle to the free course of trade was a more deep-rooted

one, being nothing less than that chronic bugbear of commerce and finance,

the currency. There was no circulating medium in Japan in the least

degree adequate for the service of international commerce. The trade in

miniature that had been carried on in Nagasaki had been a simple exchange

of commodities without the intervention of the precious metals. Mr Consul

Winchester says that neither in the Dutch nor in the Chinese factories

was a Japanese coin ever seen. But the commerce inaugurated in 1859

could brook no such limitations, while the extent of its requirements

was of course absolutely unknown to the negotiators of the treaties.

In this state of doubt and ignorance on both sides it seemed that the

best temporary provision that the circumstances admitted of was for the

Tycoon's Government to undertake, after twelve months, to make all foreign

money current in Japan at its natural value, and that until the expiration

of that period Japanese coin should be supplied in exchange for foreign,

weight for weight. Yet it was a monstrous stipulation to insert in any

international treaty, and could never, in fact, be enforced.

The amazing laxity in this respect with which the treaties of 1858 were

drawn opened the door to unfathomed abuses in the matter of currency.

The coin which was in the minds of the American and English negotiators

was what was then current on the coast of China, the dollar, or more

specifically the Mexican dollar. Yet, as was afterwards pointed out by

Mr G. Arbuthnot, Secretary to her Majesty's Treasury, no provision was

made in the treaties expressly for exchanging that, but only British and

American money. In his opinion the Tycoon's Government might have refused

altogether to receive the Mexican dollar, which was the only coin tendered

to them, and thus the currency clause in the treaty would have been a dead

letter from the first. But since they did not know the weakness of the

ground which the foreigners had chosen, they had to fight out the question

under all the disadvantages of a false position.

By the treaty provisions, then, as interpreted by both sides, the foreign

merchants who chose to import specie were to be supplied in exchange with

current coin of the realm whereby they could purchase the produce of the

country without awaiting the slow and uncertain realisation of imported

merchandise. But the Japanese, apart from any question of good faith,

had vastly under-estimated the demand which this agreement was to make on

their mintage resources. They could only supply tens where thousands were

required, and in consequence of their scarcity native silver coins were

soon run up to a high premium. These coins were needed not alone for the

purchase of produce, but for the more lucrative investment in the gold

coinage of the country; for an extraordinary anomaly presented itself to

the foreign traders in the relative value of silver and gold in Japan. The

ratio between the two metals throughout the commercial world was at that

time about fifteen to one, but in Japan, owing partly to the fact that

the silver _ichibu_ was a token coin, and yet interchangeable, weight for

weight, with foreign silver coins, the ratio in the market was reduced to

five to one. Nothing could better show how completely the country had been

isolated than this simple phenomenon. Since the seclusion of Japan no such

opportunity of profit without risk had ever tempted merchant adventurers

outside the dreams of romance.[3] It could not be the intention of the

treaty-makers to deprive Japan of her gold, yet the exportation of it

was not only not prohibited, it was expressly sanctioned by treaty, the

export of copper coins alone being forbidden; and once the conduit was

opened no power could arrest the flow from the higher to the lower level.

The currency question presented many intricacies and anomalies against

which the foreign representatives struggled in the dark, but the ratio of

gold to silver was the ruling factor which underlay the whole problem,

and until every _koban_ was exported, or the relative value of gold and

silver had been assimilated to that of the outer world, there could be no

settlement of the currency question in Japan.

In the mean time the friction caused by the unsatisfied demands of the

traders was considerable; it became in time ludicrous. There was a daily

exchange held at the custom-house, and various arbitrary systems of

distribution were adopted by the officials there. The discovery that a

kind of manhood suffrage was recognised, and that an employee received

as much as his employer, led to applications being made in the names of

servants and even of fictitious persons, to each of whom an allotment

was granted. Again, the discovery that allotments were also made _pro

rata_ according to the amount applied for led to the applications being

sent in for ever larger and larger sums until billions and quintillions

were reached. By such devices, no doubt, some of the applicants may have

gained a momentary advantage over their neighbours, but at no time did

the merchants receive a sufficiency of Japanese coin to carry on the most

restricted business. At one time, about a year after the opening, it was

estimated that there was in the hands of foreign merchants one million

and a half of dollars which were not exchangeable, and were a "drug in

the market."

Their wants were, however, partially supplied in another manner. For among

the anomalies of the place and period one must be mentioned which had a

quite peculiar bearing on the supply of currency for commercial purposes.

The precious coin, which was doled out homœopathically to merchants, was

supplied to foreign officials in liberal measure. Every minister, consul,

and assistant; every admiral, captain, and lieutenant; every paymaster,

for himself and for the service of his ship, received his quota of

Japanese money on a scale graduated according to rank. The amount put in

circulation by these means was given by Mr Winchester as $2,000,000 per

annum. The recipients, whether directly or through agents, were able to

sell their surpluses to the merchants, of course at a handsome profit, and

no doubt abuses grew out of what was in its original intention a simple

measure of justice to salaried officers. The practice was condemned by

Mr Arbuthnot, and was discontinued by order of the Foreign Office in

1864, on the initiative of the Prussian Government, whose agent in Japan

had voluntarily renounced the privilege. But, oddly enough, the official

exchange was resumed by request of the Japanese Government, and continued

for several years longer, until, in fact, foreign and native coin had

found their common level.

Trade certainly suffered much in the beginning from the incongruous state

of the currency, which was greatly more complicated than we have attempted

to outline. Even after the year of probation foreign coins were neither

received by traders at their value nor exchangeable in accordance with

the treaties. Whether the Government was at the bottom of the obstruction

or was overruled by circumstances beyond its control was uncertain, but

the British consul-general made masterful exertions to set the matter

right. Currency reform, however, has baffled so many generations of expert

economists that, even assuming the goodwill of the native Government,

an alien official new to the country must have found it difficult to

accomplish much, with the time and means at his disposal. Earl Russell

in 1862 "declined to pronounce on so large and intricate a question," and

would not even discuss it with the Japanese envoys.

Japanese currency formed the subject of four elaborate reports by the

Secretary to her Majesty's Treasury, extending over twelve months, from

December 1862 to December 1863, drawn up after personal conference

with Sir Rutherford Alcock and on information derived from various

other sources, especially from a series of very able papers by Consul

Winchester. In each of these reports Mr Arbuthnot remarks on the paucity

of data, and in each he qualifies the deductions of the preceding one. Had

the series been still further extended, it is even doubtful if finality

of judgment would have been reached; for in his third report he says, "The

whole question, both as regards the condition of the currency and the real

intentions of the Japanese Government, is involved in so much obscurity

that no sound judgment can yet be formed on the subject" (May 1863).

It would be a mere weariness to the reader to attempt to elucidate a

problem which an expert student found perplexing, but a few salient

points brought out in Mr Arbuthnot's review may repay citation, as

illustrative of the general state of relations beyond the immediate

question of the currency. "We found," he says, "the Japanese with a

carefully devised system of coinage, presenting indeed anomalies, when

regarded from a European point of view, but apparently well adapted to

their domestic wants; and their coins were found on assay in London to be

well manufactured." The Chinese had no such system, and the evolution of

a metallic currency entitled to such high praise, in a country from which

the rest of the world had been long shut off, is one of the most striking

evidences of the high originating faculty of the Japanese.

As to the stipulation in the treaties that foreign coin should be current

in Japan on a par with native, weight for weight (not a word said about

purity), it was not only preposterous and absolutely unworkable, but

it was imposed by the ignorance of the foreign negotiators against the

superior knowledge of the Japanese; for it is remarkable that in the

negotiations carried on by the Americans in 1854 the Japanese took up the

impregnable ground that "American coin was only bullion to them." Force

alone--or the fear of it--drove them from that position in 1858, and in

yielding to the unreasoning pressure of the subsequent negotiators the

Japanese probably consoled themselves with their resources of secret

evasion to save them from the worst consequences of the obligation--a

characteristic of the whole treaty-making campaign.

It appeared to Mr Arbuthnot that the Japanese had a double

standard--itself "a contradiction in terms"--gold and copper; silver

occupying the position of a token currency between the two, at a highly

artificial value, strictly governed by law. The fact was exemplified in

many ways. Art objects in silver contained more metal than the coin paid

for them, the work of the artificer thrown into the bargain. Gold and

copper, on the other hand, bore about the same relationship to each other

as prevailed in other countries. It was silver alone that was maintained

at a conventional level three times above its value in the outer world.

And the philosophy of this is explained by Mr Winchester, who tells us

that, whereas the supply of gold and copper was in many hands, the sources

of the supply of silver were in the exclusive control of the Tycoon's

Government, which derived great advantage from maintaining the silver

coinage at a high fictitious level.

The efforts of the Japanese to readjust the currency to meet the demands

of the treaty were naturally first directed to silver, which was recoined

and revalued, but confusion was worse confounded by all these attempts.

Eventually the gold _koban_, worth intrinsically 18s. 4d. sterling, or 4

_bus_ of the intrinsic value of 1s. 4d., was reduced to a sterling value

of 5s. 6d., but was still rated at 4 _bus_, while the copper coinage was

disestablished and iron substituted of no intrinsic value. "I am aware of

no other example," says Mr Arbuthnot, "of so sudden and violent a rending

of the monetary regulations of a country; certainly of none which has been

produced by the interference of foreigners."

The effect of these inquiries by the Treasury was to discourage further

interference by foreign Governments, to trust much to that great solvent

of anomalies, the silent operation of commerce; while the only complete

remedy was recognised as the establishment of a mint under European

regulations.

The problem was still further complicated by the separate coinage of

the Daimios. Their _nibukin_, as a general rule, passed only at first in

their own provinces, but gradually they filtered down to the open ports,

and at one time considerable embarrassment arose from the mixture of the

coinage thus caused. In 1871-72 the Imperial Government, then just come to

supreme power, took the matter up with the thoroughness they showed in all

their doings. They gave secret notice to the foreign Ministers of their

intention to call in all princes' _nibukin_, and thereupon issued an order

that during one week these coins should be brought into the custom-houses

at the treaty ports, where they would be fastened up in sealed packets

of $100 value, and notified that coins so stamped within the week would

be accepted by the Government as legal tender, but that thereafter their

use would be prohibited. Now, as the Daimios' money stood at about 90 per

cent discount at the time, the fact that some of the foreign officials who

had access to this confidential information were also merchants created

immediate speculation, with the result that within a fortnight these

silver-gilt _nibukin_ rose from 90 per cent discount to 2 or 3 per cent

premium, the officially sealed packets being a most convenient form for

the payment of duties.

The alacrity with which the Government applied heroic remedies to a

disastrous predicament was typical of the energy of the Japanese, which

has been displayed since in wider fields. They do not sit down and bemoan

their troubles, but at once arm themselves against them.

When to the inherent difficulties common to currency problems

generally were superadded the complexities of the monetary system of a

non-commercial and long-secluded country, surprise should be felt that the

regulation of the circulating medium in Japan was accomplished so soon,

rather than that it took so many years to arrive at the solution. The

Tycoon's Government did not live long enough to settle the currency, but

left the problem as a legacy to the Restoration. A good many years elapsed

before the Mikado's Government succeeded in evolving order out of chaos.

In the mean time, in spite of many drawbacks, trade was making headway

in other directions besides the exportation of gold, and quaint indeed

were the beginnings of it. The staple products happened to be the same

in Japan as in China, tea and silk, and they soon began to be regularly

brought down to Yokohama for sale. But business was at first on such

a lilliputian scale, and was introduced in so dainty a manner, that to

merchants accustomed to the large transactions of China the whole affair

wore something of the air of comic opera, or as if children were playing

at being merchants. This impression was strengthened by the aspect of

the fragile wooden structures with their sliding doors and windows, but

without sitting accommodation, wherein business was transacted, which to

those habituated to the massive, if inelegant, buildings of Hongkong and

Shanghai irresistibly suggested the idea of a doll's house. The Chinese

methods also were inverted. Instead of sending samples of substantial

quantities, such as a thousand chests of tea or fifty bales of silk, and

the owner or his broker coming to chaffer in the silk-room or the tea-room

of the foreign merchant, the latter had to go the round of the Japanese

shops to find out what they had got. Early every morning the leading

merchants might be seen booted to the thighs--for the rain was frequent

and the roads unmade--trudging up and down the Japanese bazaar to see

what novelties had come to hand. The more zealous would sometimes make a

second round in the afternoon, in case there might be some late as well

as early worms to be picked up. The bodily fatigue and consumption of time

involved in this process would have rendered a large business impossible.

There were as yet no Japanese merchants properly so called, and their

endless parley resembled more the tenacious higgling of peasants than

the negotiations of men of business. Moreover, the native dealers seemed

scarcely conscious of any law which should hold them to a bargain in the

event of a more acceptable offer turning up.

Conclusions unfavourable to Japanese commercial morality have been

drawn from some of those early--and later--experiences; but commercial

like other kinds of specialised morality has necessarily something of a

professional character. The _akindo_, or merchant, was a sort of pariah

in Japan, his social status being inferior to those of the peasant and

the handicraftsman. His sense of honour was not, therefore, sustained by

tradition or stimulated by _esprit de corps_. There being no mercantile

body in Japan, there was no mercantile code, at least none applicable

to international trade, and those unwritten laws without which large

commerce is impossible had not yet been called into being. Contrasts

between the two neighbouring nations have just been mentioned very much

to the advantage of the Japanese; but in matters of commerce, it must be

conceded, the advantage lay entirely with the Chinese, a nation of traders

from their birth.

In the sale of lacquer ware and objects of art the Japanese were much

more at home than in dealing in raw products of foreign manufactures,

and the treasures which were in the early days exposed in the shops of

Yokohama would make a modern dealer sigh for opportunities which are

no more. Speaking roundly, it would have been safe to buy the stock

indiscriminately at the sellers' own prices, when fortune would have

awaited the investor as surely as if he had bought up the gold coinage

at the ratio of 5 to 1. The same remark would apply to such of the raw

produce of Japan as had been in large demand in China; and conversely

the rule applied also to selected articles of foreign manufacture,

which the Japanese were satisfied to buy at a price mid-way between

the high level of the Dutch monopoly and the low level of what would

remunerate the free importer. Therefore the sudden inroad of open trade

on a market artificially confined resulted in profitable trading while

a new equilibrium was being found; but such prosperity was in its nature

evanescent.

Irrespective of the material aims which attracted foreign residents to

Japan, the life itself presented several novel and interesting features.

Nothing could have been pleasanter than the social relations which

sprang up between the foreign communities and the unofficial natives.

The strangers were received everywhere with open arms, and the residence

among a smiling people (excluding altogether the meretricious allurements

of the country, which have also not been without their influence) and

amid enchanting scenery was found to add a new pleasure to existence.

Here again we must resort for illustration to a comparison with China,

where strangers at the best were sullenly tolerated, where one might live

a lifetime without entering a house, or seeing a respectable woman, or

making a friend save on a business footing. The Japanese of Yokohama and

Kanagawa, as well as in the surrounding villages and temples, never failed

in courtesy and hospitality to passers-by, and were eager for conversation

with foreigners. A useful smattering of the language was soon acquired

under the stimulus of a quick-witted and sympathetic people alert to jump

at the meaning and patient to help the novice to find his words. The women

of the household were always charming, and if their domestic conversation

sometimes startled the stranger by its freedom, there was neither malice

nor any such impropriety as leaves an evil odour in its trail. Friendships

were formed, not deep perhaps, but genuine as far as they went, and

certainly not the less sincere on the Japanese than on the foreign side.

The intelligence also of the common people enhanced both the pleasure and

the value of friendly intercourse with them: apt as they were to receive,

they were no less ready to impart, information. Their appreciation of

their country--its beauties, history, traditions, and folk-lore--was

conscious and unrestrained, indeed it amounted to a passion. This afforded

endless subject for talk. Everything save the politics of the day might

be freely discussed, and though the first-arrived foreigners came poorly

prepared to assimilate so much that was novel, they could not help

carrying away a good deal from their frequent confabulations. The native

guide-books formed a reservoir of suggestive topics: surprisingly minute

they were, noting every gem of scenery or point of interest, with the

legends of history, romance, or mythology attaching to them. So accurate

were these itineraries that with their contents well studied foreigners

might make excursions inland lasting several days without the aid of guide

or the necessity of inquiring the way.

It need not, of course, be said that the mutual intelligence of Japanese

and foreigners did not penetrate below the surface of every-day phenomena.

Of their festivals, their pilgrimages, their votive offerings to temples

and shrines, their ancestral worship, and their whole relation to the

Unseen--call it religion, superstition, or idolatry--the strangers had

no comprehension. Although its outward symbols were passing constantly

under their eyes, esoteric Japan was to them a sealed book, as the mental

processes of the Oriental always are to the Occidental, whose imagination

is cramped by the syllogism, and whose faith languishes for demonstration.

There was, however, ample outside the region of mysticism, outside the

concerns of trade, and equally apart from political questions, to nourish

the best relations between Japanese and foreigners.

The impressions of the British Minister on his journeys of relaxation

are by no means the least interesting portion of his important work,

'The Capital of the Tycoon.' Having shaken off the official incubus, and

breathing the free air of the country, the intercourse with the common

people in which he was able to indulge was fruitful of reflections of

a brighter hue than any that were prompted by his strenuous life in the

capital. He observes:--

They are really a kindly people when not perverted by their rulers

and prompted to hostility.... I had begun to forget I was in

Japan, so much goodwill was shown.... There may be a good deal

of tyranny and oppression, but the people show no marks of it....

The feudal lord is everything and the lower and labouring classes

nothing. Yet what do we see? Peace, plenty, apparent content, and

a country more perfectly and carefully cultivated and kept, with

more ornamental timber everywhere, than can be matched even in

England.... The material prosperity of a population estimated at

thirty millions, which has made a garden of Eden of this volcanic

soil, and had grown in numbers and in wealth by unaided native

industry.

Such were the observations made during a few days' rest at the mineral

springs of Atami, and they coincided exactly with the opinions formed

by those whose daily intercourse lay with these same common people, in

which term, of course, were included such town populations as foreigners

had acquaintance with. A contemporary writer, Nagasaki, 1859, remarked:

"The Government of Japan is the most absolute despotism in the world,

and perfectly successful.... For the present it is consistent with great

prosperity and contentment on the part of the people, but it seems to me

it is only their exclusive policy that has kept it so."

The great, industrious, prosperous masses of Japan, enjoying the gifts of

the gods with thankful hearts, and drinking the cup of life as presented

to them without any acidulating scruples, seemed to be happiest of all in

this, that they were not burdened with the dignity of wearing swords. The

storms that convulsed the upper regions passed over their humble heads

without interrupting the cast of a fishing-net or hindering by a day

the gathering of their harvest. How different the life of the nobles and

their following! their humanity dominated by an elaborate and intolerable

ceremonial, settling their quarrels at the sword's point, and ever on the

alert for bloody intrigue.[4]

For there were two Japans, that of the people and that of the ruling

class, separated by an impassable gulf. "The very existence of the

plebeian seems unrecognised by the patrician in his lordly progress,"

wrote Sir Rutherford Alcock. "And for that very reason there may be more

real liberty among the mass of the people than we imagine."

The members of the official class were distinguished by carrying in

their girdle two heavy swords with a razor's edge, one long, one short.

The functionaries of the custom-house, with whom alone the foreign lay

community had contact, also wore swords as part of their official uniform,

which they placed with delicate ceremony on a rack in front of them

as they sat on their mats at the receipt of custom,--for there were no

chairs, and the habitual posture was squatting on the hams and heels. To

the aristocratic caste the Japanese people were as absolutely submissive

as if every two-sworded man wielded the power of life and death, which,

so far as the common people were concerned, was not far from the simple

truth.[5] The only great concourses of armed men which the foreign

residents were in the way of seeing were the Daimio processions, which,

hundreds, sometimes thousands strong, were constantly travelling along

the highroad; and in the long town of Kanagawa they could observe the

people prostrated by the sides of the road with heads abased while the

great man with his scowling retainers passed. Residents in Yedo--that is,

the _personnel_ of the foreign Legations--had less agreeable experience

of these feudal swordsmen, who, living in idleness during their prince's

sojourn in the capital, were quick in quarrel, especially in their cups,

and far from agreeable to meet in the streets.

III. ASSASSINATION PERIOD, 1860-61.

Storms begin--Russians murdered at Kanagawa--Two Dutchmen

in Yokohama--Prince regent assassinated--Servant of French

Minister attacked--Mr Heusken, secretary to American Legation,

murdered--Ministers withdraw to Yokohama--And return to

Yedo--First murderous attack on British Legation, 1861--Mr

Oliphant wounded--Attempt on a Japanese Minister--The causes

of these outrages--Partly anti-foreign feeling--Foreign

treaties imposed by force on Tycoon never received sanction of

emperor--Hence universal hostility to foreigners--Internecine

jealousy--Mr Alcock makes ascent of Fujiyama--Against the wish of

Japanese Ministers--Makes a second overland journey from Nagasaki

to Yedo--Sullen attitude of Daimios.

The ports had not been many months opened when storms began to disturb the

political sky, and the idyllic charm of the new life became tempered by

assassination. The why and the wherefore of these outrages was imperfectly

understood at the time, though it has since been copiously expounded.

The uncertainty as to the moving cause or causes rendered precautions

difficult, and the only safe resource was a watchful eye and the nimble

revolver.

Much bad feeling had been displayed towards the foreign diplomatic staff

in Yedo, and assaults had been frequent, but nothing of a tragic nature

had occurred until the arrival of a Russian squadron of ten ships, with

Count Mouravieff-Amurski on board. He landed in August 1859 with an escort

of 300 men in Yedo, where he was safe; but an officer and two men at

Kanagawa, buying provisions, were cut to pieces by armed Japanese. This

was what Sir Rutherford Alcock designated as "first blood." The next was

the assassination of a native linguist employed in the British Legation.

Early in 1860 two Dutch shipmasters, one over sixty years of age, were

hacked to pieces in Yokohama. Next the prince regent himself was, within

the precincts of the castle, set upon by an armed band of retainers of the

Prince of Mito and killed, his head being carried off to assure the said

prince of the accomplishment of an act of long-meditated revenge.

Before the end of the year 1860 the Italian servant of the French Minister

had to defend himself at the entrance of the Legation from the murderous

attack of a couple of two-sworded men; and the year 1861 was ushered in

by the assassination of Mr Heusken, secretary to the American Legation,

on his way from the Prussian Minister, whom he had been assisting in the

negotiation of his treaty. This crime filled the cup for the time being.

The Government proved itself unable or unwilling to protect the diplomatic

body from their bloodthirsty assailants, and three out of the four foreign

representatives--the Dutch minister not being at the time resident in

Yedo--made a protest to the Tycoon's Government, struck their flags, and

withdrew to Yokohama. The American Minister alone remained in Yedo. Soon

the Prussian and Dutch returned thither, leaving only the British and

French representatives in Yokohama, where they remained until specially

invited back to the capital under conditions which they had demanded of

the Government.

The following summer witnessed the most desperate attempt of all to

exterminate the inmates of at least one of the Legations. Mr Alcock had

just returned from a long, venturesome, dangerous, but most fruitful

journey overland from south to north--from Nagasaki to Yedo--which

included a sea passage through the Inland Sea, when an assault was made

on the Legation at midnight on 4th July 1861. The Tycoon's guard of 150

men are charitably credited with having been asleep, for they opposed no

obstacle to the entrance of a band of men who cut an opening through a

substantial bamboo stockade at the outer gate, and on their way thence

to the apartments of the Legation staff, a distance of some three hundred

yards, killed, at intervals, four men, some of whom defended themselves,

and a barking dog. The scene is fully and graphically described in 'The

Capital of the Tycoon.' The central object of the attack seems to have

been the Minister himself, who however escaped unhurt, while two members

of the Legation were wounded,--Laurence Oliphant, who had recently come

out as secretary of Legation, having a very severe sword-cut in the arm

and another in the neck. Being more than common tall, Mr Oliphant's head

was saved by the intervention of a low beam, in which a deep sword-cut

was found. If that brilliant writer had seen Yedo rose-tinted in 1858,

he had now at least a chance of judging it in a greyer light. The guard

did not put in an appearance until after the assailants had been beaten

off from, or at least baffled in, their attempt on that portion of the

temple buildings which was occupied by the Minister, and a fierce struggle

ensued in the precincts, in which two of the assailants were killed and

one badly wounded, while twelve of the guard were wounded and one of the

Tycoon's bodyguard killed. The details of Japanese sword-play are not

pleasant matters to dwell upon, but a few words from Mr Alcock's notes

of the tragedy will suffice to give an idea of the manner in which these

massacres were carried out. "I have seen many a battlefield," he says,

"but of sabre wounds I never saw any so horrible. One man had his skull

shorn clean through from the back and half the head sliced off to the

spine, while his limbs only hung together by shreds." "There is probably

not in all the annals of our diplomacy an example of such a bloodthirsty

and deliberate plot to massacre a whole Legation."

This is a sufficiently full list of the outrages of what may be called

the Yedo period, to distinguish it from a subsequent chapter of history

which was opened in connection with the new port in the Inland Sea, but

which is beyond the range of the present work.

The only conclusions to be drawn from these occurrences, and those yet to

be related, were--(1) that either the Tycoon's Government itself or some

powerful faction was in deadly opposition to the admission of foreigners

into the country, and (2) that the Tycoon's Government was either unable

or unwilling to protect the persons of foreigners either within the

capital or out of it; (3) that certain great Daimios were concerned

in these murderous outrages. The Prince of Mito's men assassinated the

regent, and were most probably the assailants of the British Legation,

while the Prince of Satsuma's retainers killed Richardson. Another great

Daimio, whose forts commanded the western gate of the Inland Sea, put

himself a year later in a state of war with all the foreign nations.

The motives of these powerful feudatories were not free from ambiguity,

for they might be animated by a _bonâ fide_ desire to expel the

foreigners, or they might be plotting to embroil the Government with the

Western Powers. It was evident that the authority of the Tycoon over the

great Daimios was far from absolute, and that at any rate he dared not

enforce it in defence of the hated foreigners.[6] Thus the Legations were

left to the mercy of a ferocity which has known no parallel. The midnight

attempt on the British Legation on July 4, 1861, typified the whole

situation. The inmates were ignorant whence the several attacks on them

came, the imperial and Daimio's guard were asserted to have slept through

the crucial stage of the assault, and the provoking cause of the attempt

to exterminate the English was unknown. In such a maze of occult forces

it was almost as difficult to adopt precautions as against earthquakes.

What lay at the root of all these troubles, according to the deliberate

opinion of Mr Alcock, was that the foreign treaties had been forced on the

Government against its will and in violation of the fundamental laws of

the empire. He says the treaties were not sanctioned by the Mikado, and

that therefore the opposition of the Daimios was on strictly legitimate

lines. Also that the law of the seventeenth century which made it a

capital offence for a foreigner to land in Japan had not been repealed.

The Tycoon's Ministers had been scared into signing even Commodore Perry's

almost platonic treaty; for though that officer had strict orders to

use no force, he did not impart this information to the Japanese, and

they could not otherwise interpret the naval demonstration than as an

intimation that the ship's guns would support the commodore's demands. The

case of Mr Harris's treaty of 1858 was even clearer. It had been drawn up,

but the signature postponed _sine die_ until the great nobles should have

been gained over, and Mr Harris retired to his retreat at Shimoda to wait

events. The news of the forcing of the Peiho forts by the Anglo-French

squadron and the imposing of a treaty on the Emperor of China was conveyed

express to Mr Harris by the steam frigate Mississippi. Another vessel,

the Powhattan, arrived fortuitously at the same time, in which Mr Harris

proceeded to Kanagawa, where commissioners were sent down at once to meet

him, and in three days the treaty was signed. Of course the Allies who

had forced the door of China, having no quarrel whatever with Japan, had

no more thought of coercing that country than the United States had in

1853 and 1854; but it was perhaps scarcely conceivable to the oriental

mind that any nation should deny itself the exercise of a power it

consciously possessed. Naturally, therefore, the Japanese were predisposed

to believe in the aggressive purposes of the invaders of China. No less

natural was it that subsequent evidence of the self-imposed limitation of

their pressure on China should lead the Tycoon's advisers to deplore the

panic-haste with which they had been hustled into making treaties against

the will of the great council of the Empire. In the interval between the

signing and the execution of the treaties the Government had time for

reflection on all that: the malcontent majority of Daimios had also time

to consider what resistance they could offer to innovations which they

detested.

The reactionary policy that had set in was also clearly shown in the

obstacles thrown in the way of the negotiation of the Prussian treaty.

Count Eulenberg had been six months at work, and as his treaty was but a

copy of those already signed there was no reason in the thing itself for

the obstruction. But Prussia was not then a nation from which there was

much to be feared at such a distance, and therefore the true disposition

of the Japanese Government had free play.

The Tycoonate itself was a perpetual cause of jealousy among the three

great families, one of which was Mito, who had themselves pretensions

to the honour; and the combination of their private grievances with a

quasi-patriotic and probably sincere hatred of foreign intruders raised

a storm against the Tycoon with which his advisers found it hard to cope.

The Government being committed to the protection of foreigners, massacres

of the latter offered a ready means of gratifying the double passion of

hatred of them and of the Tycoon.

But although the foreign representatives and the Tycoon were thus to an

unknown extent the objects of a common enmity, it was yet impossible for

them to make common cause, for they were not in harmony. The Government

would willingly have got rid of the treaties or reduced them to a dead

letter. The foreign Ministers, on the other hand, had no choice but to

insist on the fulfilment of the engagements into which the Government had

entered. Not for them to count the cost, the difficulties, or the danger:

relaxation of their demands would have aggravated all three. So there was

nothing for it but the "rigour of the game."

The British Minister held decided views on the importance of keeping alive

all rights and privileges by exercising them. China would have taught

him, if the knowledge did not come by nature, the value of the modern

principle of "effective occupation" as the only valid sanction of an

abstract title. The treaties of 1858 conferred upon the representatives

of Foreign Powers the right of travelling throughout Japan. The Tycoon's

Government desired to restrict or nullify the privilege, no doubt for

reasons quite sufficient from their point of view. Mr Alcock on his part

saw good reasons for opposing this tendency from the outset. Consequently,

as a first experiment, he organised a journey by the _tokaido_ to the

"matchless" mountain, Fujiyama, distant about eighty miles from the

capital. Every effort was made by the Government officials to dissuade

him from the undertaking; dangers natural and supernatural were conjured

up, a more convenient season was recommended. At length their pleas

for the abandonment or delay of the expedition having been exhausted

without any effect on the resolution of the Minister, the officials

became helpful in the preparations and most careful to provide for the

success of the journey. The party--eight Europeans in all with a large

native contingent--set out on September 4, 1860, rather late in the year

for the ascent, which was, nevertheless, successfully accomplished, and

for the first time the foot of the stranger trod the sacred summit, the

object of constant religious pilgrimages. The whole journey, including a

detour to the hot springs of Atami, occupied one month: it was fruitful

in first-hand information, and replete with agreeable experiences.

A more important journey was undertaken eight months later, on the

occasion of a return voyage from China and Hongkong, whither the Minister

had gone on certain legal business. Being at Nagasaki, Mr Alcock arranged

to travel in the company of Mr de Wit, the head of the Dutch mission,

across the island of Kiusiu, then by junk up the Inland Sea to Hiogo,

thence by the highroad to Yedo. The proposal met with the same kind of

opposition from the Japanese authorities as the going to Fujiyama the

previous year had done: the dangers of the journey were depicted in strong

colours, and the unsettled state of the country was alleged as a cogent

reason why a foreigner should not trust himself on the highroad. When

these arguments proved unavailing, and the journey was finally resolved

upon, the authorities endeavoured to minimise both its pleasure and its

usefulness by an attempt to extort from the two Ministers an undertaking

in writing never to go in advance of the escort or to leave the highroad.

The plea for the latter restriction was that the road alone was under

imperial control, the land on either side belonging to the Daimios. The

feudatories on their part took effective measures to enforce the condition

by supplying guards through their respective domains, who blocked up every

byway, and in the towns and villages where the party rested screened off

the side streets even from view by means of large curtains stretched on

high poles, emblazoned with the Prince's arms. When the party landed

at Hiogo to resume the journey by the _tokaido_, they were met by a

"Governor" of Foreign Affairs, sent expressly from Yedo to warn the

foreign Ministers once more of the dangers of the road, and to persuade

them to complete their journey by sea. This had become such a stereotyped

formula that the two diplomats paid no attention to the warning, though

they had some reason afterwards to think that on this single occasion

the cry of wolf was genuine; for the assassins who attacked the English

Legation on the night of the return of the party to Yedo were said to have

tracked the foreigners the whole way from Hiogo.

These two interesting and--the second one especially--arduous journeys,

each of one month's duration, settled the question of the right of the

foreign representatives to travel through the length and breadth of Japan.

They also afforded much insight into the state of the country and the

real feeling of the general population. But they were only interludes

in the drama of sensational diplomacy, which had now to be resumed with

redoubled energy. The Legations had been two years located in Yedo, and no

progress whatever had been made towards establishing a state of security

for foreign life. Matters were, indeed, going from bad to worse. One point

had been gained after the murder of the American secretary in January--the

Government had formally assumed the responsibility for the protection of

the foreigners. Moreover, strong guards of the Tycoon's men were posted

in the different Legations; but, as we have seen, they added nothing to

the sense of security. The demonstration of the inadequacy of all these

precautions left the conditions of foreign life in the capital in worse

plight than ever. The attack on the British Legation therefore called for

a fresh review of the position.

IV. NEGOTIATIONS AND RENEWED ASSASSINATIONS, 1862-64.

British and French guards brought to Yedo--Marks a new

era--Decided position of British Government--Concessions asked

by Japanese, refused by Mr Alcock, granted by Earl Russell to

Japanese envoys--Retrogression--Position of foreign Ministers

assimilating to that of the Dutch at Deshima--Mr Alcock's

departure for Europe, 1862--Bad effects of Lord Russell's

concessions to Japanese--Encouraged them to make fresh

demands--The building of a British Legation in Yedo--_Chargé

d'affaires_ resides mostly in Yokohama--Colonel Neale's

account of the system of guarding the Legation--Midnight

attack on the guards--British sentries murdered--Suspicious

behaviour of Government--British guard increased--Admiral

Hope's opinion--Attack on an English riding party and murder

of Mr Richardson on highroad--Admiral Hope's proposal to "nip

assassination in the bud."

The question now, therefore, entered on a new phase. Since reliance on

the Government afforded no sense of security, the foreigners must abandon

the position or find some more effective protection, not to supersede,

but to supplement, that which was afforded by the Government. There was

fortunately a British despatch vessel, the Ringdove, at the moment at

Yokohama, to the commander of which Mr Alcock appealed for a guard of

marines and bluejackets. These arrived the next day, twenty-five all

told, with Captain Craigie himself at their head, and they were happily

accompanied by a detachment of fifteen men from the French transport

Dordogne, brought up by the French Minister, Mons. de Bellecourt,

always a staunch supporter of his British colleague. That gentleman,

on hearing the tragic news at Yokohama, where he had been staying,

returned promptly to his post with this most welcome reinforcement for

the defence of the Legations. This simple proceeding marked the beginning

of a new era in the foreign relations with Japan--the era in which the

Powers represented there took the law into their own hands, with highly

important consequences to Japan and to the world. The British naval guard

was reinforced within a few months by a mounted escort of twelve men

drawn from the force then in China. This step was strongly objected to

by the Tycoon's Ministers, but the answer was complete: the Government's

acknowledged incompetence had forced this measure of self-defence on the

Legations. The position taken up by Mr Alcock was confirmed in the most

explicit manner by Earl Russell a year later, who thus addressed the

Japanese envoys in London:--

Her Majesty's Government will not agree to any proposal which

may be made by the Ministers of the Tycoon having for its object

to preclude the representatives of the Queen in Japan from

maintaining a cavalry escort for the protection of her Majesty's

servants in that country. The Tycoon cannot ensure the safety of

the British officers within the precincts of the capital and its

immediate neighbourhood; and even if the Tycoon were to engage to

do so, it is notorious that he would not have the power to fulfil

his engagement.

This plain speaking defined the status of "old" Japan, and gave the clue

to the remarkable train of events which followed.

Much anxiety and many sinister rumours, but no serious outrages,

disturbed the peace of the Legations and the general foreign community

during the remainder of the year 1861. Mr Oliphant was sent home in

consequence of his wounds, and the occasion was taken advantage of to

have certain private conferences with the Japanese Foreign Ministers, at

which that gentleman assisted, when the "past, present, and future" were

confidentially discussed. Mr Oliphant, thus thoroughly "posted," was able

personally to explain the state of affairs to her Majesty's Ministers,

which greatly assisted them in forming their decisions. He was also the

bearer of an autograph letter from the Tycoon to her Majesty the Queen.

The Japanese Government had long been pressing the foreign representatives

for the relaxation of some of the articles in the treaties, which were

not to come into operation until a subsequent date. These provided for

the opening of Yedo for general residence on 1st January 1862, and for

the opening of the trading ports of Hiogo, Osaka, and Ní-í-gata on 1st

January 1863. The Tycoon's Government was most anxious to postpone all

these privileges to an indefinite period, nominally seven years, and as

the foreign Ministers in Yedo had no such authority--Mr Alcock had been

instructed to grant "no concessions without equivalents"--the Government

prepared to despatch special envoys to the five Courts of Europe with

which they had treaties. A similar mission to the United States the

previous year had been so well received as to encourage the second effort.

The principle involved in the Japanese plea was precisely the same as that

which had kept Canton closed for so many years, notwithstanding the treaty

provision opening it; but there was this difference of fact between the

two cases, that whereas the danger apprehended and alleged by the Japanese

was probably real, that which had been put forward by the Chinese was

false, and manufactured by the authorities themselves.

The Japanese were now in full retrogression, and every point they might

gain was certain to become a new fulcrum for forcing more and more

concessions from the foreign Powers. This was proved in many kinds of

ways. For example, the restrictions placed on the foreign envoys, by

which they were kept as prisoners in their Legations, and were attended

in their walks abroad by officious guards who prevented them from seeing

more than could be helped, and forbade intercourse with the people, were

almost tantamount to those formerly imposed on the Dutch in Deshima.

Mr Oliphant frankly speaks of his "jailors." Then repression, and yet

more repression--as much repression, in fact, as the foreigners could

be brought to endure--was the unvarying rule. Even when they were

themselves seeking favours, and had therefore every inducement to show

their liberal side to the foreign Minister, the rule of repression was

rigorously maintained. Mr Alcock relates how this determination prevented

him from presenting the Queen's reply to the Tycoon's letter. First,

the audience was delayed on frivolous grounds; then the ceremonial was

varied. Among other things it was proposed to place the envoy at double

the distance from the Tycoon which had been observed on a previous

occasion. Being anxious to take his leave, to present his _locum tenens_,

and to deliver the Queen's autograph, Mr Alcock waived these innovations

under protest--"being reluctant at the last moment to stand upon a point

of mere etiquette"; but "having found my desire was strong not to raise

difficulties on any minor points, it had been resolved [by the Japanese]

to profit by the circumstance to gain some further advantages derogatory

to the position of the British Minister," and so after everything had been

arranged according to their own wishes the Court officials returned the

following day to say they had made a mistake, and that, in fact, sundry

further restrictions must be observed. This was too much, and the Minister

quitted the capital without his audience, March 1862.

The same tactics were observed by the envoys in Europe. When the mission

reached London and had laid their case before the same Foreign Secretary

who had instructed the Minister in Japan to "make no concessions without

equivalents," he at once conceded the whole of the Japanese demands

unconditionally, for the nominal conditions were merely that the rest of

the treaty should stand. A detailed memorandum of the agreement was drawn

up and formally signed by Earl Russell and the three Japanese envoys on

June 6, 1862. Having succeeded beyond all expectation in their demands,

the Japanese envoys evidently concluded that the Foreign Office was of

plastic substance, and within two days they had formulated a list of nine

further concessions which they desired to discuss. This, however, was

too much for Lord Russell's patience, and as the envoys had "completed

their business and taken their leave," he declined to enter on any fresh

questions.

The effect of Lord Russell's concessions could not be otherwise than

detrimental, the only open question being whether his insistence on

opening the ports on the agreed dates would have been a greater or a

lesser evil. Mr Alcock points out the family likeness between the Japanese

pleas for suspension of treaty rights and those with which we had so long

been familiar in China. "The time," he says, allowed to the authorities

of Canton to "soothe the people and prepare the way" was deliberately

used by them to "create the very difficulties which they alleged already

to exist, and make it each year more and more impossible to admit the

foreigners,"--a comment on the Japanese proposal which leaves little doubt

as to his opinion of that transaction. Yet there were cogent reasons for

the course actually adopted, if the premisses be granted that the ports

could only be opened by force, and that England would have been left

alone to employ the necessary force. The most that can be said, then,

for the concessions to the Japanese is that they represented the choice

of evils. No one was benefited by them. They did not help the Tycoon or

avert the catastrophe to his dynasty. They did not lessen the friction,

or the danger to foreign life and interests, or interrupt the long

series of assassinations of foreigners in Japan; nor did they obviate the

necessity of using force in that country, to avoid which was the principal

inducement to her Majesty's Government to violate its own principle. The

analogy with China was, in fact, complete; the old lesson was once more

driven home, that there is no safety in doing wrong. As Sir Rutherford

Alcock puts it, "To retrograde safely and with dignity is often more

difficult for nations and their governments than to advance."

During the year 1861 an important improvement was inaugurated in

respect to the housing of the foreign Legations. Hitherto they had been

accommodated in temples neither suited to Western modes of living nor, as

had been proved, adapted for defence. Independent sites were now allotted

on a commanding ridge within the city, where the respective Ministers

might have buildings erected on their own plans. These were promptly put

in hand, and soon after Mr Alcock was able to bring his first arduous

campaign--a term applicable in its double sense--to a close. Having

brought the various business of the Legation into a state convenient for

transfer to new hands, he left Yedo in March 1862, a few days before the

arrival of the future _chargé d'affaires_, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward St

John Neale. The Minister was accompanied to England by Moriyama, the chief

interpreter to the Japanese Foreign Office, who was charged with special

instructions to the three envoys then in England.

From the time that Colonel Neale took charge of the British Legation

events chased each other rapidly. While the new buildings were in progress

the _chargé d'affaires_ divided his time between Yedo and Yokohama, and

while in the capital continued to reside in the temple called To-zen-ji,

where the Legation had been located from the beginning. The inner

buildings were guarded by the mounted escort and by the naval contingent,

which had been renewed as one British warship took the place of another

during the year. In the outer enclosure there was a guard of 500 Japanese,

the retainers of a certain Daimio who was intrusted by the Tycoon with

the protection of the Legation.

In order to understand what follows, it is necessary to give Colonel

Neale's account of the arrangements which were in force for the protection

of the British Legation:--

I found on my arrival that the usual precautions had been taken by

the authorities, and which consisted in placing numerous guards,

entirely surrounding this residence, in detached wooden huts: the

number of these guards, according to the Japanese return which I

obtained, amounted to no less than 535 men, partly of the Tycoon's

bodyguard, but chiefly composed of the retainers of a Daimio named

Matsudaira Temba no Kami, who had been chosen and charged by the

Government with the protection of this Legation.

Small parties of these men came down at short intervals during

the night to the very doors of this residence, and remained for a

short time with our own sentries, leaving behind them one man at

each post to aid in challenging persons approaching and demanding

the parole, which was in the Japanese language, and issued at

sunset each evening.

These dispositions were uninterruptedly observed up to the evening

of the 26th June. At midnight on that day the several British

sentinels were at their post, and challenging with vigilance the

Japanese guards, who, in parties of two or three, descended from

the heights overhanging this building at the back for the purpose

of relieving their men.

What took place at midnight on the 26th June may also be best described

in Colonel Neale's own language:--

At half an hour after midnight the British sentry posted at the

door adjoining my bedroom challenged some approaching object in my

hearing, and received in answer the right parole; but the sentry

sharply challenged again in an anxious and eager manner, as if

some circumstance excited his suspicion, after which he walked

three or four steps towards the object approaching. I rose in

bed to hear the result, and in an instant the deadened sound of

a rapid succession of heavy blows and cuts reached my ears, given

in less than two minutes, and at every one of which followed a cry

of anguish from the unfortunate sentry. Silence succeeded for the

moment, and was followed by the beating of drums from the heights

and the gathering of Japanese guards with their red lanterns....

The assassin having left the sentry at my door, went on towards

the corner of the residence occupied by the guard, a distance

of twenty paces, where he met Corporal Crimp, R.M., coming alone

on his rounds to visit the sentry at my door. A conflict appears

instantly to have taken place between them: a revolver-shot was

heard about the moment the guard was turning out, but nothing

further.

The corporal was found dead with sixteen sword and lance wounds: the

sentry had nine sword-wounds--"every cut had severed the member it was

aimed at"; but he survived long enough to tell of the instant desertion

of the Japanese sentry who was posted with him.

This attack was marked by several distinguishing features:--

1. The assassins belonged to the Legation guard, or were their comrades;

the only weapon found on the ground was a lance of the precise pattern of

those of the Daimio's guard, which was twelve feet long, and, according to

Colonel Neale, no man carrying such a weapon could have passed the strong

barricade or crawled through the brushwood: presumably, therefore, the

lance was supplied from the armoury within the Legation. According to the

Japanese Ministers, there was but a single assassin. In their anxiety to

maintain their contention that the wounds were all inflicted by the same

man, the Ministers explained to Colonel Neale a little of the science of

Japanese sword-play. "They have attained the climax of dexterity. The

sword is always carried at the side, and adepts in the use of it wound

the moment it is drawn." The fatal stroke, upwards, is given in the act of

drawing. Hence, placing the hand on the hilt is equivalent to presenting

a cocked revolver, and if the assailant is not disabled in the act it

is too late for defence. One only, being wounded by a pistol-bullet and

having committed suicide, was found, and though they could not help

admitting that the man was a retainer of the Daimio who supplied the

guard, the Ministers yet drew a vain distinction between him and the men

actually on duty. It could not, however, be denied that he, or they, were

allowed free ingress and egress through hundreds of men carefully posted

as described by Colonel Neale, and already alert and sounding the alarm,

or that the huts of the Japanese were within 150 feet of the spot where

two Englishmen were murdered, and while the assassin (or assassins) was

inflicting sixteen wounds on one victim and nine on the other.

2. The intended attack was publicly known beforehand: for several days

the Japanese servants had refused to remain in the Legation overnight,

absenting themselves against orders. The Government also were aware of

the plot, and of the day when it was to be put in execution, which was

on the recurrence of a festival, and, according to the Japanese calendar,

the anniversary of the attack in 1861. The actual day having passed, one

of the Governors of Foreign Affairs was deputed by the Council to call

and congratulate Colonel Neale on his escape. Colonel Neale remarked that

he had no reason for anxiety. The Governor smiled and took leave. But

the "ides of March ... had not gone," In the darkness of that very night

the attack was made. Colonel Neale, recounting the circumstances to the

Council of Foreign Affairs, asked why the Governor had not warned him of

what was impending, instead of congratulating him on his supposed escape;

but "the Gorogiu, to my great surprise, replied that I was quite right in

my observations, and they regretted they had not thought of warning me."

3. The Japanese Ministers treated the whole matter with apparent

indifference, months having elapsed before any information was

communicated to the British Minister respecting either the cause of the

attack or the execution of justice on the instigators, and then it was

only such information as had been common property for two months. All that

the Japanese Ministers had to say by way of explanation to the foreign

envoys was that the attack proceeded from the unsettled state of public

feeling and from the Japanese nation clinging to the old _régime_; but

that they, the Ministers, hoped gradually to modify this national feeling

so that the foreigners might live in the country without apprehension,

&c. But in the meantime? Well, they "had given strict orders to increase

the protection." Tragicomedy could not well go further. Evidently matters

must soon reach a climax.

As the first outward and visible consequence of the assassination of

the two marines, an infantry guard of twenty-five men from the 67th

Regiment was sent over from China in addition to the naval guard and the

cavalry escort; and thus another step was taken towards the _dénoûment_

of the plot. Then the word "retribution" was revived in the diplomatic

correspondence, after having been launched by the Foreign Office in

1861 but arrested _in transitu_, so that it did not reach the Japanese

authorities. It was Admiral Hope, a man who never shrank from speaking

his mind or backing his opinion, who put the case in a pointed form

to the British Admiralty. "Deeply as I should lament the adoption of

hostile measures against the Japanese," he wrote on August 28, "after

the best consideration I have been able to give to the subject I

cannot avoid the conclusion that it is absolutely necessary to nip this

assassination-system in the bud; and that not to take effectual measures

for doing so now will be merely to postpone the evil day to a future, but

not far distant, occasion."

If further impetus had been wanting to develop this idea, the Japanese

lost no time in supplying it; for the next assassination which has left a

dark blood-stain on the annals of the time was perpetrated on the highroad

between Yedo and Kanagawa on September 14, 1862.

The victims were a party of three gentlemen and one lady from Yokohama who

had crossed the bay in a boat to Kanagawa, where their horses awaited them

on the _tokaido_. This broad road not being macadamised made an agreeable

riding-course, and it was beautified with lines of old trees, one section

in particular near where the tragedy occurred being known as "The Avenue."

The party proceeded from Kanagawa towards Yedo, not intending to go

farther than Kawasaki, which was the limit of authorised excursions in

that direction. On the way they met the _cortège_ of a Daimio, the first

indication of which was several _norimono_ (the heavy palanquin in which

the nobles of Japan travel) with armed attendants, forming an irregular

train with considerable intervals between. When passing these _norimono_

the foreigners walked their horses. In the intervals where the road was

clear they cantered, and this mode of alternate progression continued

for three or four miles. Then a regular procession was met, preceded

by about a hundred men marching in single file on either side of the

road. The foreign party thereupon proceeded at a foot's pace, keeping

close to the left side, until they reached "the main body, which was

then occupying the whole breadth of the road." The English party halted

on approaching the main body, according to one of the survivors; but

according to another, they were stopped "when they had got about twelve

men deep in the procession," by "a man of large stature[7] issuing from

the main body," who, swinging his sword with both hands, cut at the two

leading foreigners, Mr Richardson and Mrs Borrodaile, as their horses

were being turned round, and then rushed on the other two. Whereupon the

advance-guard, who had been described as marching in single file, closed

in upon the retreating riders. They were all able by the speed of their

horses to get clear of their assailants; but Mr Richardson was so terribly

hacked that after going some distance he fell from his horse, dying, or,

as his companions thought, dead. He lived, however, until the Daimio's

procession reached the spot, when several of his retainers proceeded to

butcher and mutilate the dying man in the most shocking manner. It speaks

well for all three gentlemen that Mrs Borrodaile escaped substantially

unhurt, though a sword-stroke aimed at her head cut away her hat as she

stooped to avoid the blow. She saw Mr Richardson fall, and her two wounded

companions, unable to render help, urged her to ride on. She miraculously

arrived at Yokohama, bespattered with blood and in a state of very natural

agitation. Mr Clarke and Mr Marshall, exhausted by their wounds, managed

to reach Kanagawa, where they were properly cared for at the American

consulate.

This tragedy made a more vivid impression on the world at large than

previous ones had done, for several reasons. The cumulative effect of so

many cold-blooded massacres was beginning to tell, and the Japanese cup

was nearly full. There was a lady in the case who galloped seven miles

for dear life, her horse falling twice under her. The chief victim was a

fine specimen of a young Englishman, and very popular. The crime touched

the general foreign community in Japan in a special manner, since the

party belonged to, or were the guests of, Yokohama, where there were also

newspapers and press correspondents to make literature of the event.

Some friction was created between the foreign community and the British

representative by the ghastly circumstances of this murder. The community,

seeing their own comrades slaughtered without mercy, were incensed,

and called for vengeance, which they deemed to be within reach, for the

Daimio's retinue were sleeping at Hodogaya, a station but a few miles

off. There was force enough afloat and on shore to effect the capture of

the murderers red-handed, and the residents called for this to be done.

Reasons of policy and expediency influenced Colonel Neale in a contrary

sense, in which he was fully supported by the Foreign Office when the

reports reached England.

The Richardson murder, like that at the British Legation, had its

special characteristics, though of a different order. The outrage was

unpremeditated; the Government was not implicated: it was a fortuitous

collision between the spirit and traditions of two opposed civilisations.

The deed might be construed as the natural punishment of a breach of good

manners--for Japanese etiquette, of which the party seemed to have been

ignorant, required them to dismount--or, as the spontaneous expression

of feudal Japan's deep hatred of the foreigner, concentrated in the

act of a single moment. There was no need on this occasion to hazard

guesses as to the responsible author of the crime, or to keep up a long

train of make-believe negotiations. The _cortège_ belonged to the Prince

of Satsuma, and was escorting his father, Shimadso Saburo, who went

afterwards to the Mikado and said he had been grossly insulted by the

foreigners on the road, and had ordered them to be cut down.[8]

The problem was thus reduced to its simplest expression. The circumstances

supplied precisely what was wanting to give shape and point to Admiral

Hope's proposal to "nip this assassination-system in the bud"; and a month

after the event he followed up his previous despatch to the Admiralty by

a detailed scheme of reprisals, with the amount and precise distribution

of the force required to give effect to it. And he concludes his despatch

appropriately with the remark, that "should it be found necessary to use

measures of coercion especially against Satsuma, ... the position and

confirmation of his principality render him peculiarly open to attack."

There were now two reclamations on the Japanese Government--redress for

the murder of the two marines at the Legation in June, and for the killing

and wounding of the Richardson party in September. The British _chargé

d'affaires_ pressed both demands, without committing himself to specific

threats until the mind of her Majesty's Government should be known. Lord

Russell's instructions were sent on 24th December 1862, and would reach

Japan some time in February. They were peremptory as to the use of force

in case of need, whether against the Government or the Prince of Satsuma.

V. THE TYCOON'S DILEMMA.

Strife of parties in Japan--Impotence of Tycoon--His prospective

overthrow--Orders issued by Mikado to drive foreigners out of

Japan--Prevarications of Tycoon--Plots and counterplots--French

and English troops in Yokohama--Compensation paid for the

Richardson murder, but assassin not yet brought to justice--Demand

made on Prince of Satsuma--Bombardment of his castle by

Admiral Kuper--Happy results--Offensive attitude of Prince of

Nagato--Firing on foreign ships of war--Sir R. Alcock's return

from furlough--Publication of his book 'The Capital of the

Tycoon'--His exposition of the political status of parties in

Japan--Dubious attitude of Tycoon--And Mikado--Utmost limit of

concession to Japanese pleas of weakness reached.

During the interval that elapsed between the tragedy of September 1862

and the expiation of the crime, revelations of a startling character were

made respecting the strife which was raging among the various parties

in the State--the Tycoon, the Mikado, the great Daimios, and the lesser

Daimios, who followed the Tycoon and the Mikado respectively. These

revelations, however, though they lit up as by lurid lightning-flashes

some corners of the landscape, left the whole in a fog more treacherous

than total darkness. The foreign officials who were called upon to act in

the midst of it confessed themselves unable to unravel the mystery that

surrounded them, nor is it any part of our task to make such an attempt.

It was the chaos which preceded order, a period when the elemental forces

were in the melting-pot, a phase of foreshortened evolution such as had

never till then been dreamed of. However trying such an ordeal was to

the foreign agents who had to go through it, the stress upon them was

as nothing compared to that which lay upon the principalities and powers

of the country itself during the agony of their national birth-throes--a

circumstance which has to be borne in mind when judging of the behaviour

of the Japanese Government in that trying time; for truly the defence of

their proceedings stood much in need of extenuating circumstances.

We have seen that the British Government had already confessed its

belief that the Tycoon's Government was incompetent to maintain order

where foreigners were concerned. Yet until that Government itself should

plead incompetence, foreign States could only hold it wholly accountable

for all that was done affecting their interests. But the Tycoon's

Government fought tooth and nail against such admission, resorting

to every subterfuge to maintain their status, while yet evading the

responsibilities of the position. The success of this ambiguous policy

required that the foreign representatives should be kept in ignorance

of the relations which subsisted between the different parties in the

Japanese State. Hence secrecy and misdirection governed their diplomatic

intercourse. The treaties themselves having been tainted from their

origin with deception, every stage of their execution was marked by

dissimulation, which came gradually to light as the pressure from within

and from without caused now one corner, now another, of the curtain to be

raised.

The Tycoon was between the upper and the nether millstone,--foreigners

pressing him for fulfilment of his obligations, while a power greater

than his own was demanding the complete repudiation, or at least the

substantial curtailment, of all these obligations. The straits he was

put to to keep up his two faces were pitiable and desperate, for he had

to make the Mikado and the Daimios believe he was as much opposed to the

foreigners as they were, while to foreigners he was professing loyalty

and throwing the blame of the reaction on the hostile Daimios. Instigated

by them, the Mikado had fully asserted his authority, and the Tycoon was

no longer able to pose as the sovereign ruler of Japan. The allocation of

a site for the foreign Legations on Gotenyama, a popular pleasure-ground

in Yedo, was attacked, and the Tycoon ordered to rescind the grant, which

he endeavoured to do by proposing the substitution of another site. This

being refused by the British _chargé d'affaires_, the Japanese sentry on

the buildings under construction was assassinated, and soon after the

whole building was blown up and burned.[9] So ambiguous had become the

attitude of the Tycoon, that Colonel Neale was in doubt whether this

conflagration pleased or displeased the Yedo Government. (Six months

later the buildings occupied by the United States Legation were likewise

destroyed by fire.) The hostile Daimios, in the name of the Mikado, were,

in fact, putting strong pressure on the Tycoon, while those Daimios who

had favoured the treaties had been punished by confiscation of their

revenues. The Tycoon's position was fast becoming untenable, and in the

last extremity his advisers decided to take the foreign representatives

for the first time into their confidence.

In January 1863 a Governor of Foreign Affairs informed Colonel Neale

that the Mikado was angry because he had not been consulted about the

treaties, either before or after the signing of them; and that his

Majesty had ordered the Tycoon repeatedly to drive foreigners out of

the country. "But," replied the British _chargé d'affaires_, "that is

wholly inconsistent with what the Gorogiu previously told Sir Rutherford

Alcock." "Quite so," rejoined the Governor; "only what the Ministers told

Sir Rutherford Alcock was false." "But if one member of the Gorogiu can

thus give the other the lie, what security have we that some successor

of yours will not equally disavow what you say? so that at one time

we have the Mikado reported as friendly and at another as hostile to

foreign treaties and trade, and we shall never know which to believe."

This not very promising beginning of "confidences" was quickly followed

by singular confessions and proposals--part of the system of "frauds,

stratagems, and deceptions practised by the Tycoon's Government," as

Colonel Neale characterises them. The Tycoon's Government was ordered to

communicate officially to the foreign representatives the mandate of the

Mikado to drive out foreigners and close the ports. In obedience to this

order a Governor of Foreign Affairs, in announcing the fact to the French

Minister, softened its effect by explaining that this was carrying out the

Mikado's orders "officially"; but "ce n'est là qu'un stratagème nécessaire

pour tromper le peuple japonnais." In developing his plan of campaign the

Governor laid bare to the French Minister the intention of the Tycoon to

deceive the Mikado by pretending to share his views about foreigners; he

was in like manner to deceive the Daimios. Ogasawara, the Minister who was

responsible for carrying out the edict against foreigners, being "un homme

très capable," would find a means of avoiding the execution; he would

himself go to Kioto and make the Mikado listen to reason; if he refused,

then he would pick a quarrel and employ force against the sovereign. In

that case would the foreign Powers assist the Tycoon? All this, however,

must be kept from Hitotsubashi, the First Minister of the Tycoon, "whose

views were as yet uncertain whether to carry out the expulsive orders from

Kioto or not. Ogasawara had formed the plan to declare himself the enemy

of foreigners in order to deceive the high officers even of the Tycoon who

might not be favourable to his scheme; but everything was to be done to

"save Japan." Finally, Ogasawara was to come the day following himself to

interview the foreign Ministers at Yokohama, but not a word of all this

would he utter "for fear of indiscretions." He would only speak briefly

to the point of the notification of the Mikado's order of expulsion. And

if the foreign Ministers would be good enough to frame their reply to that

message in such severe terms as would make an impression on the agitators

in Kioto and Yedo, it would assist the patriotic schemes of this bustling

statesman. So everybody in Japan from the highest to the lowest was to

be bamboozled--even one's own colleagues in the Tycoon's service--and the

only people with whom faith was to be kept were the detested foreigners,

as represented by the Ministers of England and France! Well might Colonel

Neale recoil in disgust from such a brewage of "fraud, stratagem, and

deception." The Tycoon's officers had in all this one definite object

in view, which was to induce the foreign squadrons then menacing Yedo to

transfer themselves to Osaka and Hiogo and menace some one in that part of

the empire. And, curiously enough, the presence of the French troops which

had recently arrived in Yokohama was not only tolerated by the Tycoon,

but they were to serve him as a lever whereby the astute Ogasawara was

to work on the feelings of the Mikado, by representing to his sovereign

the indignation of the foreign Governments and the difficulty of giving

effect to an order for general expulsion, which would include a body of

well-armed troops.

For while such comedies were being enacted at Yokohama the Tycoon himself

was at Kioto under the friendly surveillance of the Mikado and his

faithful Daimios, and it was a reasonable enough calculation that the

vicinity of foreign fleets might tend to moderate the counsels of these

recalcitrants, to ease the tension between the contending factions, and

lighten the burden of the Tycoon.

Meantime the pressure of the British demands for redress of the two

grievances was met by evasions and delays until the ultimatum stage was

reached in June 1863. The pecuniary indemnity charged on the Tycoon,

amounting to £110,000, was then paid under circumstances so peculiar as

to be worth recounting as affording further insight into the agitations

of the period. After exhaustive negotiations, leading to an ultimatum,

an agreement was made whereby the Government was to pay the amount

demanded by seven instalments, commencing 18th June 1863. On the 17th

June Ogasawara, third member of the Gorogiu, wrote a curt note to say

the money could not be paid owing to an "unforeseen circumstance," and

postponing payment till 22nd June. On the 19th the same Minister wrote

to Colonel Neale that he intended to have left Yedo for Yokohama for an

interview, but was prevented by sudden illness. This was followed by an

intimation from the Government that no payment whatever would be made.

Diplomatic relations were thereupon broken off by the British _chargé

d'affaires_, and the conduct of affairs was placed in the hands of the

admiral. This brought about the interview with the French Minister above

alluded to, when the Japanese emissaries promised to pay at once the whole

amount due under the agreement with Colonel Neale, and the specie was

actually conveyed in four cartloads to the British Legation on 24th June.

The only explanation given of this strange shuffle was that the numerous

enemies of the Tycoon and of foreigners were on the watch, and threatened

terrible consequences if any money should be paid to the foreigners. That

difficulty, however, had been surmounted by the resourceful Japanese

Machiavel issuing strict orders that the payment should be kept a dead

secret from all except the Governors of Foreign Affairs themselves,--the

four cartloads of silver, drawn each by a dozen or two of men, grunting

laboriously at the task, from the Japanese custom-house to the British

Legation, remaining for this purpose conveniently invisible to a cloud of

hostile witnesses.

The demands made on the Tycoon in respect of the attack on the British

Legation and on the Richardson party being thus satisfied, it only

remained to carry out the second portion of Earl Russell's instructions

and exact equal satisfaction from the Prince of Satsuma, over whom the

Yedo Government had shown itself to have no control whatever. Much delay

had occurred, due to a variety of circumstances--mainly to the aggressive

acts of another great Daimio, Choshiu, who possessed the western key

of the Inland Sea. This might have necessitated a concentration of the

British squadron in that spot--which actually came to pass a year later.

Finally, however, Rear-Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper proceeded in August to

the Bay of Kagoshima, the stronghold of the Satsuma principality, Colonel

Neale accompanying him to present the demand on the prince with which he

had been intrusted by the British Government.

The sole reply vouchsafed by the Daimio was a recommendation to Colonel

Neale to return to Yedo and treat with the Tycoon, as Satsuma had no

relations with Great Britain. It was now the admiral's turn to act, and

his first step in the way of reprisal was the seizing of three steamers,

then lying in the bay, which were soon burned to relieve the squadron

of their charge. Thereupon the Daimio's forts opened fire, and a hot

engagement ensued in the midst of a terrific gale, which the prince's

people afterwards said was reckoned on as a condition favourable for

his attack on the foreign ships. There was considerable loss of life

on both sides; much damage was done to the Daimio's defences, arsenal,

and magazines. But the inhabitants of the town escaped injury from the

conflagration, they having previously been removed to places of safety.

The squadron returned to the Bay of Yedo.

Within a short time the Prince of Satsuma sued for terms, paid the

indemnity demanded, £25,000, promised to punish the murderer of

Richardson, when caught, and became a good friend to the English, to the

extent at least of desiring to cultivate relations with them.

Thus happily ended the first hostile encounter between Japan and any

Western Power, the first demonstration of the superiority of foreign arms,

and, as some think, the baptism of fire which was the inaugurating rite

by which Japan entered into the comity and the competition of the Western

nations, and into that path of material progress which has since led to

such astonishing results.

The attitude of the Yedo Government in this affair may be said to

have been one of placid observation. They had nothing to regret in the

chastisement inflicted on a prince who set their authority at defiance.

In the interval of time between the settlement of the indemnities for the

two outrages and the departure of the fleet for Kagoshima the Tycoon's

Ministers had drawn closer and closer to the foreign representatives, and

English steamers were chartered for conveyance of the Tycoon's troops

to Osaka with the knowledge and approval of the British authorities.

The defence of Yokohama was by the Government voluntarily confided to

the English and French admirals, and sanguine hopes were held out to

the foreign representatives that if the Tycoon should succeed in his

endeavours at Kioto, foreign relations would assume a totally different

aspect on his return to his capital.

On the other hand, while the negotiations with the Yedo Government had

been dragging their slow length along, another of the great princes

had taken arms against the foreign Powers indiscriminately. The Daimio

Choshiu had made a strong stand against foreign intercourse, and in a

well-reasoned and moderately worded letter addressed to the Tycoon in

May 1862 he urged union between that high officer and the Mikado in order

that the country might be placed in a condition to resist foreigners. The

territory of the Prince of Nagato, as he was also designated, commanded

the narrow strait of Shimonoséki, which connects the Suwonada, or Inland

Sea, with the outer waters. This had become the regular route of steamers

between the Bay of Yedo and the south of Japan, as at this day.