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    WHO SHALL RULE THE ROAST ? The Liberal party means , it has been announced ,, as Mr . Bright hinted at Birmingham , to hare its Reform Bill in the ensuing session , and he is to beits 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 . Tlie ^ Ministers have intimated their intention ^ to propose Parliamentary Reform , and we are likely therefore to have ^ three , if not more , measures of reform pronosed for public acceptance . At least it is certain

    that there are now three distinct parties with" distinct leaders bidding for public support , and each , expecting to gain it Dy conceding or carrying largemeasures 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 p lace the ? administration of the country in the hands of a family party . We are duly sensible of the quiet gains in regard to commercial freedom which thai 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 out legislation since 1832 , beginning with the New Poor Law , and remarkine : vear after year a continual increase of

    expense and a continued extension of Government control , we cannot conclude that the revolution of 1831-2 was accomplished in the interest of thepeople , 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 them additional power in . Parliament as a compensation for wliat they have

    lost in public opinion . The Whigs ana JLord John Russell will make their nppoal to the middle classes of towns , and will expect success from some scheme to secure them against the bugbears of the ballot and universal sullrogo . Even Mr . Brig ht 1 ms a party , avid ho would limit the franolnso by an assessment to the rates . He , too , would propitiate opposition by conceding a principle . We hear also of u proposed class representation , to give influence to peculiar kinds of talents , and ensure at least a fair share of intelleot to tho national representation . All theso schemes fall far short of the object at whioh logically tho nation ought to aim , and which might perhaps bo worth attaining ovcu by tho revolution whioh party leaders aro now to provoke lor their own purposes . . , The present system purports to be a representation of the pconlo , and it is oondoinuod because it is not . It is a sham , a fiction , a romwoiilAlion ol a small class , of property , and not ol the people It must bo made rf ' lrulli , » ronhtjr . Purhumonl must cithor bo discarded as a I ' ultw thing , loit in it is to

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    siveness which has held its own for so long anc against so many attacks cannot be the result wholly of accident . In the form of government , with its twin Emperors , as in Begharmi andBurmah ,. we . have signs of mere , barbarism , ; , but it is in the inherent obstinacy of the people that the strangest antagonism to Western civilisation will be found . Of this obstinacy we have had recent proof . When Commodore Perry tried to go nearer Jeddo in 1854 , he was put off not only by assurances that the anchorage was " dangerous , " but by the more formidable assurance that , if lie 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 into the And

    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 witliin the law is the decree of Providence ; to the Ziogoon or

    Tycoon , the Caisar , who , like the Venetian -Uoge , can only gainsay the edicts of the Government Council at his 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 , like of 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 au 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 haveand which they call Nayboen ; and we

    , have it in England . It is a custom by favour of which everybody concerned ignores the most notorious events , arid behaves as if things were as they are not . Thus , a man who dies in debt , is supposed to be alive , in order that the family may draw his salary , .. . pay his creditors . A man who 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 . prpbleni . 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 made some

    satiate itself with admiring t he 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 oalled 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 often waive their in

    shown that they will conquering - stincts 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 rauk of a middle class—a middle class of a contemned race , a sort of Jews

    lodged in a half-floating Ghetto oil the Wapping of Japau . When , hig her powers tried to succeed where the Dutch had failed , they were , to n great extent , misled by '' their predecessors . The commercial jea-Ious 3 of the Dutch made them exaggerate 1 he difficulties to which they themselves had succumbed . England tried in vain : when Sir Stamford Raffles 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 bailled . 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 whorn they called " the English of the secondchop , " Russia , who has been able to penetrate almost everywhere ,

    sent Count ResanoIFwith 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 of 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 very carefully packed up for the Parcels Delivery Company , and when , reduced to that state of helplessness , were , treated and fed with much kindness and

    benevery 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 and 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

    volence , and sent away . Thus Japan , the tid bit of tiie far east , or far west , which ever you like to call it , was denied to tho longing eyes and lips of European enterprise . The Russians used their eyes , though they were not in tho best position . A shipwrecked sailor — Captain Broughton—who visited Japan towards the end of the hist century , before the most rigorous exclusion , obtained some characteristics ; others have supplied materials , especially the Dutch . But the most successful liavc been Krcmpfcr and Thunbcrg , Swedish physicians at tho Dutch factory ; and , above all , Dr . " Von Sicbold , a learned German doctor of philosophy , who accepted the post of

    pliysmalier 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 expeditio ' n under Lord Elgin found in full operation , especially the Consul . Commodore Perry left with the wondering Japanese the draft of a treaty ; in 1 S 54 , ho weut with a larger squadroiVto invite their consent ; and thus America opened Japan to the world . Tho ground was admirably prepared for Lord Eltrin . and he cultivated tho treatv so well that he Elginand he cultivated tho treaty so well that he

    sioian for tho express purpose of exploring the country , which he had an excellent opportunity of dohu ? m one of tho ollicial periodic expeditions ol ' the Dutch Oppcrhoofd from Dczima to Joddo . Every account helped to increase our wonder . The country was beautiful ; the people so prosperous that tliero aro no paupers among them ; tho Government tho most perfect model of a paternal rule , —a despotism so comploto that the despot himself is amongst tho enslaved ; the pcoplo broken up , not into custes but- into trades , not unlike

    , enlarged tho numbor of ports which are to be opened , secured a fixed tariff of 20 per cent , including all charges of port dues , with 5 per cent , for piece goods and several other articles ; and though last not least , a British . Minister to be received at Jeddo . Tho provisions aro not nearly so complete as those of the ^ Chinese treaty ; but it is the if rat British treaty . Moroovcr , the Japanese havo evidently been misrepresented by their Dutch lodgers ; they aro frank , intelligent ,

    not hostile 111 leoluig , capable ot appreciating not only the advantages of trade , but tho improvements ol' modern science They soom to bo of' the Mongolian nice , as the Chinese arc , but with striking dinoroncea from that people ; for their oyes aro loss oblique , their noses are loss flat , thoy have sonio colour in their checks , somo apprehension of now itlous in their brains , and in liou of tho Chinese inono , vyllubic impracticability thoy huvo a language elaborately polysyllabic * . Japan is opened to . European influences 5 but it is doubtful whether grout changos are to bo sudlonly brought about in such a nation . Tho

    oxeluvery tho fixed incorporated trades ol ' Europo in tho middle ages . Tho attempt to break away from that station of life to which Providence had plcmsetl to call a man , was , if ho fried to go upwards an audacity almost morally impossible ; sinoo , if il Under . could by any degrees manago to purehnsctho right to wear " the sword and trousers , " ho was still oonfenmecl , though in that imposing oostunio , ami he could novor think of arriving at two swords and that petticoat sewn together between tiio legs which is so magnificent

    the case of a former entry country . 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 Mong-ols accordingto Caucasian standards , and how far the markets of a people so industrious , so long trained to self-support , 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 breakingto p ieces the glass house of limited despotism into which we have forced our way .

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    Tin . . 4 JS 0 . November 6 , 1858 . 1 THE LE .. APBB . 1195

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 1195, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2267/page/19/