On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    OUR TllOUBLES IN JAPAN.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    PHILANTHROPISTS sigh in vain for the advent of the time -IT when civilized and Christian nations can manage to come into contact with untutored tribes , or the possessors of different and older forms of political and social existence , without either immediately quarrelling- or laying the foundation-for sanguinary . and aggressive wars . Whenever the news arrives that an untried country is opened to British enterprise , enthusiastic religionists talk of the mission of England to spread the gospel of the Prince of Peace * while at the very moment , mercantile cupidity and the proverbial rapacity of officials are preparing- to propel O ! n" principles with gunpowder and insinuate our faith through the agency of sharpened steel . In old lloman days ambitious generals , or emperors , with

    nothing else to do carried their victorious legions from land to . land ; They professed the business of conquest , and , making allowance for the barbarity of their generation , they managed it well . Their method had at least the inerit of being consistent ; and intelligible . They came with ho hypocritical , pretences or bewildering announcements . They demanded sovereignty , and tribute , and they stole them if their claims were denied . Our way is different , ; and scarcely more commendable . We profess' the u tmost friendship for the objects of our solicitude , and employ somebody who does not ejearly laiow what be is about to negotiate a treaty which the principal parties do not understand . We tell them that our religion and Our calico are much better than theirs r animated by the first , we recognise them as brothers , and love them as ourselves ; accompanied by thesecond ,

    we offer clothing to all the naked who are able and willing to give something more-valuable in return . Xf our new acquaintances could at once give up ¦ ' their , habits , customs , and traditions , and instantly desire to combine missionaries uiid bishops with consuls and factories , "after the British model , all might y go well , but it is not in human nature to iiiake . such abrupt . transitions , and the aristocracy or . ruling powers with whom we have to deal are apt to doubt our motives and despise our ways . Our ' ¦ * free-born Britons " treat their arrangements with disrespect , and neither a chaffering dealer nor an inebriated tar impresses them with a conviction of the superiority of our race . After a little while , some provisions of the treaty are infringed , or somebody gets hustled or pelted in the street . Then our plenipotentiary goes to work . He has acquired

    no intimacy or friendship with the functionaries with whom he has to deal , and can only speak to them through the medium of an interpreter , who is very likely ignorant of the precise meaning of the words either party employs , and after a sufficient quantity of palaver , despatch writing , aiid delay , the quarrel grows as ripe as a pear , and we iighti professing a horror of territorial aggrandizement , and a desire not to overthrow the . government or institutions of the land . The " Correspondence with Heb Majesty ' s Envoy Extraordinary and "Minister / Plenipotentiary in Japan , " recently laid before Parliament , enables us to see the incipient process of this oft-X'epeated game . The first idea of any rational being desiring to open a friendly intercourse with an almost unknown people , would be to learn to talk to them in their own tongue ; and it would not be expecting anything unreasonable if Hup Majest y ' s Groyernment , before acorediting an " Envoy Extraordinary and a Minister plenipotentiary , " should be required to provide a gentleman who could hold a

    conversation with the persons ho was to convince . This would be the way to do it ; but British' statesmen are too Ayell trained in the opposite art , and it might damage the constitution" of a country which boasts of hereditary legislators , and has to provide for their relations and clients , if the principle of securing appropriate aptitude before making appointments , were earned into ottect . Iii the Japan case , our" Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary " is Mr . liuTHEKii-ORP Aix-ook , a gentlomun who , we daro sny , possesses many excellent qualities , and who has shown his good sense in declaring that it nuiat bo laborious and up-hill work to make progress with , a people whom youaro not able to talk- with . "So long as this exists thoro can be nothing very satisfactory oithex ^ in our intercourse or in our relations . It is bad enoug h in discussing a wide range of subjects involving all the technicalities of trade and the provisions of treaties , thut , whatever is said by ouch ot the principals must go-through the process in another tongue . But

    hero the Jast recipient of any ideas sought to be conveyed by us to a Japanese authority offers not the slightest guarantee Jtor / Idelity in rendering even ns much as ho understands of such now mattova , » md that , I believe , is often , very little . " Mr . Aujocjc is not to blaino for this absurd bog-inning j it was the Howe Govorument , which provided a talking apparatus that conUl not talk , and our Mnvoy has a shrewd guoBS that ,. if he learns that art aftei' the fashion or Japan , he shall be sent somewhere else whore it will 1 ) 0 of no uvail . He say $ , " I am so penetrated with this conviction , that no good is to bo done hero until we can ourselves eneak to the authorities , and in their own tongue , thut I ' shall not hesitate to devote ovovy spare hour to the acquisition of their hwp ; qngo . It is quite posaiblo I may not remain long 1 onouerh to turn it much to acoount , but at

    least it will bo a satisfaction to myself , nnd , I trust , may sewo an an encouragement to others who are younger , and have more to look forward to in the scwyico of their country . "

    Untitled Article

    Mameluke , and the f / euclurinerie , oti account of their late . ¦ heroism in the Corso , will have a garland of laurel worked round their left arms ' . . . Of course some snarling-, bitter-tongued Protestants will say that .-the Vove's enthronement in Jerusalem is a fulfilment of Daxijel's prophecy about the " abomination-. of desolations ; ' ' and our Holy well-street Jews will declare that the return of their discounting nation is put off for another score of centuries : but true religion must expect to be railed at . Xor will the Cliurcli in its new seat be divested of its imposing and profitable ceremonies . In the blazing Eastern sun jewelled cope and golden crozier and starry mitre will shine brighter than they ever did in the cold deadly air of the Ti-ainontaim and the steaming balefulness of the Pontiue malaria . Home has been too much lived in ; all the oxygen lias gone from its air—nil the living essences from its sepulchral earth—its soil is a solid paste ; made up of dead Popes and their victims , martyrs and their murderers , relics , " unpleasant bodies "—llomnu emperors and / middle-age bravbes . -.. The last long fallow after its early crops is agaiii lit for the plough , and future harvests lie liid under the bears' ieefc on the little hill of .-Hermb-n , on Sinai , and on Gilboa . The very ' saints' bodies that will be discovered by the ecclesiastical antiquarians will alone turn Palestine . into- a 13 endigo diggings . There- is Moses to look for , mid he can be found " ever so many times , " with considerable . pecuniary advantage to the Papal treasury . As for the Girandole , tliere is no reason tlmt fire-works should not go off as well froua tlie Mosque of Omar as from the Castle of Si . Angelo ( that great stone cheese—rtliat mill-stone round the iieck of Borne ) , and then what an admii-ablc sight ' . might be made by the Pope ouce a year drawing a net of purple silk or gold wire through -the Sea of Galilee , iu veniembraiace of St . Peter and liis early ¦ . avocation ! . . Then again , the scape-goat—there ' s an opportunity ; make it a bull , or even a mule , in allusion to Protestantism ; and what a pretty penny might : be turned by fixing the true sites of miraculous events . These are low grounds , but we select them because , as one of the Fathers says , there . " be people so niggard and naiToWn-itted tliat , ' had they been Lot when his wife turned into a . pillar ' of salt , they had iiathelesse gone back and filled the family salt-box from the saline columna . " For hermits there would be a noble field of enterprise in the desert ; indeed , even martyrs and . confessors , some are of opinion , would find occupation in that unexplored section of the new Papal dominions . It will be the special -object of the Holy Father to obtain Peter ' s' pence from these marauders , to be paid in dates and ostrich-feathers ; and , as soon as possible , that extensive Bedouin country is to be turned into a see for anew bishop not yet . named , though very strongly hinted at . Need we say rumour points to Cardinal W . * * . * * '¦* ' * ' ? With a palace on tlie shores of tlie Lake of Tiberias , and a winter palace near the Via JDolorosa , we see no reason the Pope should not . be soon quite at honie in liis new dominion—with the ' Dead Sea so convenient for bathing , nnd Jericho , witli its plain so admirable i'or liorsc-exercise . The missionary enterprises among the hitherto rather neglected Arabs will agreeably occupy , without straining-, the wind of his Holiness , while lie devotes his moments of solitude to his favourite project for annexing Africa , and settling a Itegent Archbishop at Timbuctoo or Soudan . If all goes well , we see n new career of usefulness open to this ill-xised but excellent man . "We hardly know whether wo can credit a report that tho Holy Father is thinking of'bringing out a popular series of 1 ' apnl Bulls in penn , y numbers for general circulation . This , indeed , shows a detcmiination to meet the wants of tho ngo ; proves what so many people have denied , that Popery is the friend of civilization autl enlightenjnent . The Turks once out of Jerusalem— tho indecent conflicts between tho ( ireeks nnd Latins at Easter put u stop to—the wholo of Palestine mapped out into a now ecclesiastical hierarchical system , wo may expect some good indeed to the world . It will bo n glorious sight to sep tho Porjs , in his simple stato , priding saibly lUong the plains of Armageddon , Vpv being hauled in n . basket up to tho walls of tho rock convenes of Niar Sabn . England must bonoiit by tho inoronsed trade in scratched oystershcils lVoim Bethlehem \ and not a converted Arab will daro appear to kiss the Holy Toe , unless ho be clad in au English shirt . A country with cardinals nnd cotton must be happy . Sinco William o ' t"Tyro , tho Holy City has not smiled tilJL now , and now il is in 0 broad grin at this good news . Happy Pope . I Happy country to hnvo such a Pope ! Home , misornble , ungrntoful ilomo I repent ju suokoloth iuul . ashoa , for thy papa goes to n distant land , and tnkos with him nil tho l'elica tluifc brin ^ visitors ^ His brigands and gondnrmoa nvo ^ oing ovov tho Joftlfiii , mud rotxivn-r-rotuva to Loahober no more ,

    The bloods-red Papal sun sets in the west and dawns iu ' tlie golden east . The dead Popes remain in ]{ omc , because their removal would be expensive . The living incarnation ot Papal wisdom talks of settling at Jerusalem . Lei us breathe a hope that if he does really go to tho other side of Jordan he may not forget to go to Jericho ^— for it is Napoleon's earnrrst ivish ,.

    Untitled Article

    q . iq Tha Trader and Saturdah' Anali / st . TApril 14 , I 860 .

    Our Tlloubles In Japan.

    OUR TUOUBLES IN JAPAN .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1860, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2342/page/8/