impressions of hurried visitors chiefly eager to see as much as possible in the shortest possible time, there are not many serious works to be consulted. Subsequent to the appearance of the " Capital of the Tycoon," a narrative of a three years' residence in Yedo, the three first of any diplomatic intercourse by permanent missions-supplying as faithful a picture of the actual situation and the position of affairs from day to day as I could give,—a valuable work was published by Mr. Adams, Secretary and sometime Chargé d'Affaires at Yedo after my departure in 1865, entitled "The History of Japan from the Earliest Period to the Present Time."* This writer carried the narrative of events down to the year 1871, and gave also in the first volume a very complete history of Japan from the earliest record of any authenticity or authority.

This work was followed and ably supplemented during last year by an account of the Satsuma Rebellion from the pen of Mr. Mounsey,† another Secretary of Her Majesty's Legation at Yedo, which is full of interest. It gives, from the best sources, a graphic narrative of the most recent of the tragic episodes which took place after the Mikado's resumption of the supreme power, and throws great light on the mingled motives of feudal devotion and patriotism which, combined with a passionate sense of personal wrong and the deprivation of substantial means of existence, led to an outbreak of Samurai under Satsuma chiefs, to end in the destruction of nearly all engaged in it.

And now we are favoured by another history of Japan, purporting to give a narrative of events from the earliest date, and the progress of affairs to the present day, by Sir Edward Reed-the fruit of a visit to the Minister of Marine early in 1879.

There is yet another book just issued from the press, "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," by Miss Bird,§ already favourably known by her travels in the Sandwich Islands and the Rocky Mountains. This work, with no pretension to the title of a history, gives much information of a trustworthy kind on the present state of Japan, the condition of the country, and the people in all their social aspects, and satisfactorily supplies a want in the most readable form. The two last works, indeed, form an amusing contrast. Both issue from the same well-known publisher, and are equally attractive in the get up, and full of promise as to the contents. But the one recounts the travels and observations of a politician, a member of Parliament and scientific constructor

The History of Japan from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (1871). By Francis Ottewell Adams, F. R. G.S., Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of Embassy at Bulea, formerly Her Britannic Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires and Secretary of Legation at Yedo. Two vols. 1875. H. S. King & Co.

The Satsuma Rebellion: An Episode of Modern Japanese History. By Augustus H. Mounsey. One vol. John Murray. 1879.

Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions, with the Narrative of a Visit in 1879. By Sir Edward J. Reed, K. C.B., F.R.S., M.P., &c. &c. &c., with Map and Illustrations. Two vols. John Murray. 1880.

§ Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: An Account of Travels in the Interior, including Visits to the Aborigines of Geso, &c. By Isabella L. Bird. Two vols. John Murray. 1880.

of navies, who, during his three months' sojourn in the Land of the Rising Sun, was, if not the "trusted friend of princes," certainly the honoured guest of Ministers, who in his rapid journey through the country and to the various places of interest made a kind of triumphal progress,-to whom all doors were thrown open, temples and palaces, and imperial cemeteries the most sacred were unveiled, and all mysteries and traditions expounded. We cannot be surprised that, with such exceptional advantages so freely placed at his command, he felt prepossessed, and disposed to regard all that came under his observation with a favourable bias and from a Japanese point of view. The other traveller was under very different circumstances-a lady, making her way with a single native attendant into the most inaccessible regions, she would not only have more leisure for careful observation, but be less disposed to see with Japanese eyes, and more likely to be impartial in her judgments. She is certainly no ordinary traveller, and besides being a shrewd observer of men and manners, and whatever was most characteristic of the people and country, she has the power of pleasantly telling what she saw and heard, together with the impressions received; and the result is a bright, sparkling, and thoroughly enjoyable book, full of valuable information on many aspects of Japanese life, social and domestic, but little known. Miss Bird has not given us a history of Japan, and has not much to tell us of its traditions and religion, or political organization; but what she does tell seems to be very reliable and often novel. The reader will feel that the opinions expressed, whether right or wrong, are, as she asserts in her preface," wholly her own." It is true she concludes with a "Chapter on Public Affairs," and for many of the facts and all the statistics she was indebted to the courtesy of Japanese Ministers and heads of departments-but it is a model summary of events and progress both in its clearness and impartial spirit. The work, we are told, consists mainly of letters written on the spot for a sister, which may account for the easy and natural style of the narrative, and a kind of personal interest attaching to all her travels. Thus, although she commences by saying, "This is not a book on Japan, but a narrative of travels in Japan, and an attempt to contribute something to the sum of knowledge of the present condition of the country," it is better than many books of a more pretentious kind.

III.

I have spoken only of modern works on Japan as supplying the materials for a history of Japan. But it would be a great injustice to pass over without mention the most painstaking, intelligent, and honest of students in the field of Japanese history, and all that concerns. the people, their institutions, habits, and customs. The work of Engelbertus Kaempfer, M.D. Physician to

Court, and a reside e narro

Embassy to the Emperor's the Dutch settlement at

Decima in 1690, long formed the quarry from which all compilations relating to Japan were taken, with or without acknowledgment, and even to this day no better or more truthful picture of Japan and its condition at the end of the seventeenth century can be found.

The only use, however, of any details that have come down to our times of the remote history of Japan, is to enable us from the mixture of legend and truth, myth and fiction, to form some conception of the relations established between the Rulers and the people, the feudal conditions existing from the date of the earliest authentic records, and the character of the civilization attained. And for this object sufficient materials have been collected, but nothing can be more unprofitable than an attempt to follow the endless succession of Mikados-who were often children, sometimes women, and, whatever their age or sex, seldom allowed to occupy their position many years or even months. From the rise to power of the Fujiwara family, sprung from the Imperial line, and to whom the title of Kuambaku or Regent was given in the tenth century, to the rise of the Tokugawa dynasty of Shôguns at the beginning of the seventeenth-through all the interminable struggles of the Hei and the Gen, marked by fierce conflicts between rival clans for the possession of the titular sovereign's person, and with it his power, there is little to interest beyond the bare fact that such was the evil state of affairs from the tenth to the seventeenth century.

It is difficult to understand, therefore, what Sir E. Reed could have proposed to accomplish by filling the larger half of his first volume (240 octavo pages), with the barren recital of these sceptred Mikados and the succession of heads of clans or successful generals who kept them in safe ward. Kompfer, and recently Mr. Adams, in his " History of Japan," had already given, much more succinctly and quite as authoritatively, all that can profit any European. The long list of quickly succeeding puppets and the feuds of their jailors, through many centuries preceding the last dynasty of Shôguns, can serve no useful purpose.

It is only with this last period that we have any practical concern, for all previous annals merely recapitulate the rise and fall of successive usurping generals or Mayors of the Palace, who all followed each other's example in dividing the land among their followers and kinsfolk, and filling with these all offices of power and influence. It was Iyéyasŭ and his immediate descendants, more especially the third of these, Iyémitsu, who reduced the whole country to order, and established the laws and conditions under which the empire remained, and very much in the state in which we found it when the first treaties were made. To this third occupant of the Shogunate is attributed, in 1623, the important step of compelling the Daimios to reside at Yedo with their families for certain periods. This order, bringing them into more complete subjection, was subsequently made by his son Iyétsuna still more oppressive by a decree that, even when absent from Yedo, they should leave their families behind them as hostages. The country had been divided amongst a number of

chieftains and a feudal system established by means of hereditary occupation of lands by the same families, with military service and other conditions attaching. Still, in theory the Mikado was Suzerain over all and lord of the soil, and neither land, nor rank, nor office, could be conferred upon subjects by any other authority. Kuge nobles, descended from the Imperial stock, made his court. The Daimios in the country were divided into three classes-Kokushiu, Tozama, and Fudai; under them were the Hutomoto, the Gokenin, and the great bulk of Samurai. The Kokushiu, as they were termed, dating far back from Yoritomo's time, were Daimios who had snatched possession of lands and had sworn no allegiance to the founder of the last dynasty, but had simply submitted to the superiority of a stronger and more able adventurer in the person of Iyéyasu. These were more like "nominally tributary potentates, and the Shogun himself, was the most powerful Daimio who assumed the custodianship of the sovereign." This is important to remember from its influence on recent events. Besides the Kokushiu Daimios, there were the two classes, "tozama," or "outside nobility," and the "fudai," composed of the Shôgun's own adherents, vassals of the dynasty. The great object of the Shôgun was naturally to lessen the power of the outside Daimios, which he effected by fines and confiscations, and by making the power of both tozama and fudai as equally balanced as possible, and by giving the fudai class lands in the neighbourhood of one of the tozama, in order that the former might be able to watch and spy over the latter. But the same fate befell the Shôguns in their hereditary usurpation that had overtaken the Mikados, they became effete, and so also with the Daimios. The actual power of the Shôguns, and the business of the clans under their respective chiefs or lords, fell into the hands of any clever men or set of men of the lower ranks about them, "who, joining daring to ability and unscrupulousness, kept the princes and the 'karos' or 'elders' (offices held by the cadets of the House as counsellors) out of sight, surrounded with outward forms of respect, to enjoy their empty titles." Hatemoto, Gokening, and Samurai formed the classes to whose influence and action was due the revolution, though every act was performed in the name of their lords, so that we hear of Satsuma, Choshiu, and other Daimios, just as we hear of emperors and kings, accomplishing deeds and carrying out policies of which they were perhaps wholly ignorant, the true authors and wire-pullers being inferiors.

Only thus can many of the chief incidents of the five years preceding the fall of the Shôgunate, in 1868, and the otherwise inexplicable acts of renunciation and self-effacement of the whole class of Daimios on the Mikado's resumption of the reins of government, be understood. The sacrifice of land and revenues and the pomp and state of princes was more apparent than real. Their karos and of retainers had left them little to resign worth retainin The mode a Japanese, whatever his rank, s accustomed to Spartan fare

was very simple; t

of rice and fish chiefly. His luxuries scarcely extended beyond changes of silk dresses for himself and his women. The rest of his revenues, however large, passed to his household of hungry retainers, all of whom he had to keep as the chief evidences of his dignity and power. Like our own feudal barons, the Daimios all maintained a great following, but, unlike them, leading only an idle and effeminate existence, when no longer allowed to harry their neighbours' property and make war on each other or the Shôgun, they could have had little enjoyment in their possessions or surroundings. What had they to give up, therefore, which would not equally be theirs in one of their family temples, where so many in all ages had been in the habit of voluntarily retiring to get rid of the responsibilities and duties of high station? It was otherwise with those who, wearied with merely pulling the strings, desired to see the way open to the possession of real power and an active career as chiefs and ministers themselves. A long peace had closed all the avenues, and the bondage in which their master was held extended to his servitors and retainers. They had everything to gain in times of change and turmoil, and little, as they thought, to lose in comparison. So, to such men the time seemed ripe for revolt and political change, when the hated strangers intruded on the scene, and brought in their train the disturbing element and general excitement needed for a revolution.

It is not so strange that such a theory of dual government should have been devised, or even for a long time maintained, in the interest of usurping Mayors of the Palace and conspiring nobles, since we know that a similar state of things prevailed, though only for a couple of generations, in the seventh and eighth centuries, with the descendants of Clovis, when Karl Martel, or "Charles the Hammer" (a title he seems to have well deserved), first exercised the functions of a Mayor of the Palace. But he was succeeded by Pepin only, for already in 757 the old dynasty of Clovis had died out from the public mind, though alive in a cloister, and a Pope found that the time was come to crown him King of the Franks, saying, "It was right that the kingly title should rest where the kingly power now is," and thus substituted a strong reality for a shadowy sceptre. In Japan it was not so; and here we tread on different ground. The system of government and usurpation, which could not endure for one century in Europe, survived in Japan more than eight, and to all appearance would still have continued, but for the forcible interposition of a foreign element, which introduced a motor power of greater energy, and one rendering the continued maintenance of a dual system of government, the shadow and the substance, no longer possible. Whether the whole fabric would have given way by inherent vices in the feudal institutions and the usurped nature of the Shogunate, in its turn subject to effeteness, if no such alien and disturbing power had been in question, may be doubtful. To all appearance, when Commodore Perry first appeared in the Bay of Yedo with