for if any were made the subject of comment, there is not one which would deserve to go unnoticed. We will therefore only say, that we are acquainted with no series of American or modern biographies that can be perused with as vivid interest as this will command with American readers, nor yet with any that better deserves to take its place by the side of those series which time and common consent have rendered classical.

ART. XII.—1. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854, by Order of the Government of the United States, under the Command of Commodore W. C. Perry, U. S. N. Compiled from the Original Notes and Journals of Commodore Perry, at his request, and under his supervision, by FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D. With numerous illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1856. 8vo. 2. Message of the President of the United States, transmitting a Report of the Secretary of the Navy, with the Correspondence, &c. relative to Japan. Senate Executive Documents. 1854-55. No. 34.

3. Message of the President, &c., with Documents serving to illustrate the Existing Relations between the United States and Japan. Senate Executive Documents. 1851-52.

No. 59.

4. The Japan Expedition. Japan and Around the World. By T. W. SPALDING. With eight illustrations in tint. New York: Redfield. 1855.

5. Japan as it was and is. By RICHARD HILDRETH, Author of "History of the United States," etc. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. 1855.

On the eastern coast of Asia, there is a country of about the size of Italy, of something of its long, boot-like shape, kicking with its toe one or two southern Sicilies, from which it is separated by straits, which have doubtless-for what has not?

- their Sylla and Charybdis. A range of other Apennines is the backbone of this eastern Italy. Its name is Niphon, which means "the origin of the sun," or "the east," which name, in the various forms of Niphon, Zipon, Zipango, and Cipango, was known to our ancestors for some centuries, and now, for a long time, has slid into Japan. The analogy of this group of islands to the Italian peninsula, with Sicily, is not the mere resemblance of outline. Half down the shore is the capital city of the whole, the Japanese Rome, to which the governors of various provinces annually make procession with their tributary presents; for the political constitution of the realm is that of an empire, where one state has won a supremacy over a number of others, formerly its rivals. The government at Yedo rules Japan, as Rome once ruled Italy, when the Alban, Etruscan, and other states had successively yielded to its sway; or as each separate sovereign in Italy, and each individual patriot, hopes this day that his own province may at some time rule Italy again.

It is the fashion to say that this Japan is an unknown land. For a century and a half, indeed ever since one sovereign got the control of the whole chain of islands, until Commodore Perry's recent treaty, it has been the policy of the Japanese emperors to restrict, very severely, the communication between their own and other lands. It is therefore true, that very few persons have gone to Japan; but it does not follow, that Europe and America are as ignorant of Japan as the proverbial expressions to which we have alluded would imply. There is a series of accounts of Japan, on the whole more lucid than ordinary books of travels are, beginning with Mendez Pinto's time; for it is a little curious that our first definite knowledge of Cipango is derived from the travels of this prince of liars, as he has been generally called. He has really been harshly treated, if in every regard his narratives bear test as well as do his descriptions of Japan. The great missionary Xavier planted the Catholic religion there, visiting the country with Pinto. A flourishing trade sprang up, in which English, Dutch, Portuguese, and Jesuits vied with one another. We have accounts of the country in those days, from Jesuit missionaries, and from travellers of each of the nations we have

named. We do not speak harshly, if we say that they all quarrelled with one another, and intrigued against one another with the various parties in Japan. Such study as we have given to the merits of the decree which finally expelled all foreigners leads us, not indeed to say that they were all rightly served, but to acknowledge that the measure was forced upon a government still insecure, by the imprudent and even outrageous behavior of Europeans of every name. It was, indeed, a great misfortune that the form of Christianity which had been planted there was so destitute of the eternal elements of our religion that it tempted the government to try to crush it, and then succumbed at once to the attempt when made; for had this Japanese people united to the other peculiar elements of character which have been forming them an adequate religious culture, there seems no reason why they should not stand now among the most highly civilized people in the world.

As it is, they have some things to teach us, and they have never been so secluded but that they have been apt to learn. There is not another nation in the world, of thirty millions of people, which has existed for a century and a half without serious sedition, rebellion, or civil war. In the art of government, then, or of administration, we may have something to learn from a nation whi h has such good reason for clinging to the matchlocks and halberds which with us, alas! were long ago superseded. The Japan of the fourteenth century was probably quite in advance of the Europe of the same time. The Japanese are not a people jealous of innovation. That character belongs rather to the Chinese, whom they despise. They have made steady advance, ever since the fourteenth century. Without a religion, it could not be expected that they should do more than they have done. It remains to be seen whether the twentieth century will not find them abreast of Europe again. The two forms of civilization will never be alike; but there will be no difficulty in comparing them, in the training which they give to the manliness and real character of the people.

Under the auspices of an expedition sent out, as we are proud to remember, by our own government, the world's

knowledge of Japan has just now been doubled, and the world's respect for Japan will increase in proportion. We have before us the early sheets of the government narrative, we have the official volume of Captain Perry's despatches, Mr. Spalding's spirited sketches of his observations there, published in violation of the directions of the government, Mr. Bayard Taylor's letters, published with permission, and several briefer narratives of this successful expedition. From these authorities we can now speak quite definitely of the degree of civilization of Japan, and of the relations which, under the new arrangements, it will assume in the great confederacy of nations. We have some little glimpse of the policy of its rulers. We have the most entertaining narratives of the customs of this strange people, where black teeth are a beauty, where war is a relic of barbarism, where the left hand is a place of honor, and where death is the reward of a politician who moves an unsuccessful bill in the councils, or of the emperor who vetoes a successful one.

It is probably true that this great expedition has not yet received the credit which it deserves. It was set on foot by an administration which was scattered to the winds before it returned. It has been worth the while of no party or press to make much of the praises of Mr. Fillmore, of Mr. Webster, of Mr. Everett, or of Captain Perry, to whom it owed its origin, its outfit, and its consummation. The administration which succeeded Mr. Fillmore's withdrew the force intended for it, not in time to defeat the project, but just in time to forfeit all credit for its success. Such reasons, when joined to the passion for exciting novelty close at hand, are enough to show why the funeral of Bill Poole, or the fillibustering operations in the Gulf of Mexico, should have awakened more display of interest among the people of this country, than has the opening, by peaceful diplomacy, of the Italy of the East to the intercourse of the world, a transaction which gives us access to a nation of thirty millions of people, highly cultivated in the arts and in letters, though infants in the moral sciences and in war. This apparent indifference, however, is of course but temporary. The passage of time will set it all right, and the opening of the Japanese ports will be regarded as one of the most honorable triumphs of our age.

After infinite delays, for so is our government served,Captain Perry sailed for Japan, in the Mississippi steamship, without consorts, on the 24th of November, 1852. Having awaited, in China, the arrival of the rest of his squadron, he was able to sail for Lew Chew, with the Mississippi and Susquehanna steam-frigates, on the 24th of May. With the government of those islands he entered into satisfactory negotiations. On the 9th of June, with two of his ships, he sailed for the Bonin Islands, a little group, discovered by Captain Coffin, in the Transit, an American whaler, in 1823, lying eastward of Yedo, about five hundred miles distant from it. Here Captain Perry made some preparations for a coal station, and returned to Lew Chew. With his two steamers, and two sailing vessels, he then proceeded to the Bay of Yedo, which they entered on the 8th of July. Negotiations at once began with the Japanese officers. Captain Perry maintained his station in the bay; the Japanese were compelled to desist from their accustomed surveillance of foreign vessels; a prince of the highest rank was appointed to receive President Fillmore's letter; and on the 14th of July the Commodore landed, with a party of four hundred men, and, in great state, delivered it to this functionary. The document was kindly received, and friendly communications were at once opened with the natives. The stay of the squadron in the bay, however, was short. Having delivered his credentials and letter, and surveyed the bay with his boats, the Commodore gave notice that he should return for an answer in the spring, and, after nine days, departed.

The remainder of the summer was spent in visits and surveys in the Bonin Islands, Lew Chew, and China. In January, 1854, the squadron, now somewhat enlarged, sailed again for the Japanese Islands. Just as he sailed, Captain Perry received orders from home, detaching one of his three steamers. He proceeded, however, to Lew Chew, where the squadron rendezvoused, and arrived in Yedo Bay, this time with eight vessels, on the 13th of February. Meanwhile the Emperor of Japan had died. The altered policy of the government was evinced by the absence of almost all the warlike preparations of the year before. Batteries were destroyed,