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Leader (1850-1860), 6th November 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, WHO SHALL RULE THE ROAST ? The Liberal p...

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      Japan. A\ R Iio Would Have Thought Some ...

      satiate itself with admiring the finished aspect of English scenery . The garden of Japan , however , rises to mountains which England cannot match , and volcanic agencies add to the variety ot the climate . No doubt these elements have contributed to strengthen and . embolden the Japanese character , while the geniality of the climate has called forth a spirit of good-will and kindliness equalled , perhaps , in Italy alone . If the foreigner endeavoured to invade a country so tempting , accident again backed the Japanese . The persevering Dutch insisted upon trading , but the Dutch ,

      although persevering , and bold to tyranny , have olten shown that they will waive their conquering instincts to obtain some present trading advantage ; and consenting to lodge themselves in one of the most ludicrously constructed districts ever invented , a district built upon piles off the coast of Nagasaki , and , used as a prison in which to keep the alien denizens , they permitted themselves to become examples of the inexorable jealousy which the Japanese could assert over even powerful European peoples . The contempt for trade nourished by the upper classes of Japan , the model of a feudal

      aristocracy under a -paternal government , helped to keep ' down these foreigners , their Governor and all , to the rank of a middle class—a middle class of a contemned race , a sort of Jews lodged in a half-floating Ghetto off the Trapping of Japan . When higher powers tried to succeed where the Dutch had tailed , they were , to a great extent , misled by their predecessors . The commercial jealousy of the Dutch made them exaggerate f lic difficulties " to which they themselves had succumbed . England tried in vain : when Sir Stamford liafflcs was Governor of Java over the head of the Dutch

      colonists , he attempted to introduce English . trading through the Dutch agency , but the Dutch-thwarted the device , and thus England was baffled . Certain pushing American ship captains took Dutch employ , and then tried to trade in Japan on their own hook , but the Japanese detected and '' . repelled those whom they called " ~ fhe English of-the second chop . " Russia , who has been able to penetrate almost everywhere , sent Count llesanoiFwith an embassy and presents ; but-he was held off by forms ; and when the Russians were audacious enough to-invade- Sagalin , they did no more than . inflict injuries common in a marauding

      expedition / ' and thus provoked the degradation oi the Prince Matsmai , a Japanese of the highest rank , who was punished for not succeeding against the foreigner . Afterwards , Golownin . was sent to Japan itself ; but that unhappy officer got ashore when he did not intend , was captured , and treated with a mixture of rigour and kindness that immensely magnified the European idea of Japanese impenetrability . The Russians were tied up all over with cord , like a parcel verycarefullypackcdup for the Parcels Delivery Company , and when reduced to that state of helplessness , were treated and fed with much kindness and

      benevolence , and sent away , lhus Japan , the Ud bit of the far cast , or far west , which ever you like to call it , was denied to the longing eyes and lips of European enterprise . The Russinns used t heir eyes , though they were n . ot in the best position . A shipwrecked sailor—Captain Brouglitou—who visited Japan towards the end of tho last century , before the most rigorous exclusion , obtained some characteristics ; others havo supplied materials , especially the Dutch . But the most successful have been Kiempfcr and Thunberg , Swedish physicians at the Dutch factory ; and , above nil , Dr . ' Von Sicbohl , n learned German

      doctor of philosophy , who accepted the post ol physioian for the express purpose of exploring the country , which he had an excellent opportunity ot doing in one of the official periodic expeditions ol ' tho Dutch Opporhoofd from Dcziin . ii to Jeddo . Every account helped to increase our wonder . Tho country was beautiful ; the- people so prosperous that there arc no paupers among them ; the Government tho most perfect model of u paternal rule , —a despotism so complelo that the despot himsolf is amongst tho enslaved ; the people broken up , not into castes but , into trades , not very unliko tho fixed incorporated trades of Europe in tho middle ages . Tho attempt to brenk awny from tliat station of life to which Providence had pleased to call a man , was , if ho tried to go upwards an audacity . almost morally impossible . ; since , if a trader could by any degree ' s manage to purchase the right to wear " ' tho sword and trousers , " ho was si ill c . ontcnmed , though in thai imposing coslumo , and lio could ucsvor think of arriving nt two swords and that petticoat sown together between , tho logs which is ao niagniilccnl

      in the eyes of the Japanese and so ludicrous in the eyes of recent visitors . But the feudal Seignor , whose authority is absolute , leaves his family in hostage at the capital ,, and is himself , under such innumerable restraints—the very hour of his getting up and going to bed being dictated- —that abdication is the commonest event in Japan . It extends even to the Mikado , whose decree within the law is the decree of Providence ; to the Ziogoon or Tycoon , the Csesar , who , like the Venetian Doge , can only gainsay the edicts of the Government Council at tis peril ,, with the consequence of abdication if the Council decide against . him ; while the Ministers , should they suffer the adverse

      attacks of the Council , are obliged by etiquette not simply to resign , but to rip themselves up . To such a degree has Ministerial responsibility been carried in the island empire , which our Venetian statesman , Mr . Disraeli , ought to consider the model republic . The Government is completed , likcof that Venice , by a perfect army of spies ; with an organisation not unlike our tithing and hundred , making every man responsible for everybody else , to such an extent that misdemeanours which are obnoxious to capital punishment involve not only the offender , but his family . It would seem that a system so perfect must have destroyed Japan long ago but for an admirable institution which they have , and which they call Nayboen ; and we

      have it in England . It is a custom by which everybody concerned ignores the most no-! torious evcuts , and behaves as if things were ias they arc not . Thus , a man who dies in debt , is supposed to be alive , in order that the family may draw his salary , and pay his creditors . A mail wlio commits suicide to avoid the frequent ignominious punishments for breach of etiquette , is for some time not considered to be dead , and then is understood to have fallen a victim to disease . By this crowning beauty of the Japanese system , which always assumes the law to be " not at home " when its presence would-be-inconvenient , the other perfections are rendered tolerable . But did not European science long to know more of a problem so interesting—did not European enterprise believe that a country so beautiful must produce exports , a people so numerous and so prosperous be in want of profitable imports ? Of course ; and it was the Americans who declined to be ' denied when they knocked at the door of this inhospitable host . In 1 S 53 Commodore Perry . penetrated to the Bay of [ Nagasaki , and ina . de some very interesting discoveries . He found the Japanese with some knowledge of Europe and of modern discoveries . In India , lately , a train and its steam-engine were gazed upon by the Hindoos with amazement ; the Japanese who visited the American Commodore on board inspected the steamengine with no fear , but an intelligent curiosity find a glimmering idea of the mode in which the steam set the enormous mass in motion ; one of them even inquired if it were not , the same machine on a smaller scale , which was used on railroads ? A railroad was subsequently given to them , with a little engine , as well as a very intelligent American Consul ; machines which tho English expedition under Lord Elgin found in . full operation , especially the Consul . Commodore Perry left with tho wondering Japanese the draft of a treaty ; in 1 S 54 . ' , lie wont with a larger squadron ] to invite their consent ; and thus Amorica opened Japan to the world . The ground was admirably prepared for Lord Elgin , and he cultivated tho treaty so well that ho enlarged tho number of ports which are to bo opened , secured a iixed tariff of ' 20 per cent , including all charges of port dues , with 5 per cunt , for picco goods and several other articles ; and though last not least , a British Minister to be received at Jeddo . The provisions arc not nearly so complete as those of the Chinese treaty ; but it is the ilrst British treaty . Moreover , the Japanese have evidently been misrepresented by their Dutch lodgers ; they are frank , intelligent , not hostile in fee ling , capable of appreciating not only t he advantages of trade , but the improvements of modern science . They seem to bo of tho Mongolian race , as tho Chinese are , but with striking differences from that people ; for their oyes ure less oblique , their noses arc less lint ; , they havo soi . no colour in their chocks , some , ripprohouslou of new ideas in their bruins , and iu lieu of tho Cliincso luonuAyllubio impracticability they huvo 11 language- ehilioralVly polysyllabic . Japan is opened to European influences 5 but it is doubtful whether great changes arc to bo suddenly brought about ixi such a nation . The

      oxclusiveness which has held its own for so long and against so many attacks cannot be the result Whollj ot accident . In the form of government , with its twin Emperors , as m Begharjni andBurmalij we have signs of mere barbarism ; but it is in . the inherent obstinacy of the people that the strongest antagonism to Western civilisation will be found . O £ this obstinacy we have had recent proof . When Commodore Perry tried to go nearer Jeddo in 1854 , fie was put off not only by assurances that the anchorage was " dangerous , " but by the more formidable assurance that , if he did , divers eminent persons would be obliged to ' , perform the ceremony of the hara-kiri , — that is , to rip themselves up ; a course actually enforced in the case of a former entry into the country . And

      worse still , since the treaty of 1854 , it is reported by Mr . Spalding that attempts have been made to evade the provisions of the Perry treaty in protection of shipwrecked sailors . It is an important question , therefore , how far the Elgin treaty may be observed by these amusing Mongols according to Caucasian standards , and how . far the markets of a people so industrious , so long trained to self-sunport , so peculiar , and in the upper classes so anticommercial , may be open to us . The doubt is all the greater , since it would be impossible to introduce the railway , steam-engine , telegraph , American merchants , and European ideas , without breaking to pieces the glass house of limited despotism into which we have forced our way .

      No. 450, November 6, 1858.1 ' T H E ^Jg....

      No . 450 , November 6 , 1858 . 1 ' T H E ^ Jg . AigJg g' 1195

      Who Shall Rule The Roast ? The Liberal P...

      WHO SHALL RULE THE ROAST ? The Liberal party means , it has been -announced , as Mr . Bri g ht hinted at Birmingham , to have its Reform Bill in the ensuing session , and he is to be its sponsor . Lord John Russell can scarcely allow the Whigs to be driven from their own peculiar , field without a struggle , and he will probably introduce or patronise a Whig reform . The Ministers have intimated their intention to propose Parliamentary Reform ; and we are likely therefore to have . three , if not more , measures of reform proposed * for public acceptance . At least it is certain that there are now three distinct parties with

      distinct leaders bidding foi public support , and each expecting to gain itl > y conceding or carrying large measures of reform . At least there is to be a public ,, not to say national , agitation with a view to satisfy reformers , and secure by their means the ascendancy of one party . Lord John Russell once characterised the Reform agitation of 1831-2 as a revolution ,, and if we are now to have another similar revolulution , the public , forewarned , must take care that it be not used like the former , chiefly to place the administration of the country in the hands ot a family party . We are duly sensible of the quiet gains in recard to commercial freedom which that revolution

      has enabled the middle classes to obtain , and through , this freedom to promote the welfare of the multitude ; but looking at the whole course of our legislation since 1 S 32 , beginning with the New Poor Law , and remarking year after year a continual increase o £ expense and a continued extension of Government control , we cannot conclude that the revolution of 1 S 31-2 was accomplished in the interest of the people The public must not again be cozened to waste its energies for the advantage of a few selfseeking politicians . According to report Mr . Disraeli is to cajole the whole agricultural population and all the

      Conservativo party by promising power m Parliament as a compensation for what they have lost in public opinion . Tho Whigs and Lord John Russell will make their appeal to the middle classes of towns , and will expect success from some scheme to secure them against tho bugbears of the ballot and universal suffrage . Evon Mr . Bright has a party , and ho would limit tho francluso by an assessment to tho rates . Ho , too , would propitiate opposition by conceding a principle . Wo hear alsoof a proposed class representation , to give influence to peculiar kinds of talents , and ensure at lent , ! , a fair share of intellect to the national representation . All these sohemos fall far short of the object at whioh logically the nation ought to aim , and winch might perhaps bo worth attaining oven by 'ho revolution which party loaders aro now to provoKO

      tor thoir own purposes . . . , Tho present system purports to ho a ^ prcsontntiori of the people , and il , is condemned because it is not . It is a sham , a notion . » renre . cnfatjon of a siiaU class , of property , and not ol he people , It must bo made a truth , a roali y Parliament must 0 thcr bo discarded as a false thing , lotfe us it is to

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111858/page/19/