& K oV W ° ^ c^ * "oV sO «» • * * * o 4o 4?X r.%' a **. 4 o >i» A v * rCV\ s» A ^V% ^ .0' <- ■V 6*°* ?>. ^ ^ ^ * Or-. * 0° «* *h I* *p-v ^°<* -.0 9 / 1 - * *' \>""> v -$*, .V \y* A ~b / ' Ex- Governor Richard B. Hubbard, United States Minister to Japan from 1885 to 1890. The United States in the Far East; OR, Modern Japan and the Orient BY RICHARD B. HUBBARD, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of ths United States to Japan, from 1885 to 1890 ; Governor of Texas, from 1876 to 1879, and Temporary President of the National Democratic Convention at Chicago in 1884. RICHMOND, VA.: B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING CO. 18QQ. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copies Receive*' OCT 17 1903 Copynghl Entry CUSS XXc. No COPY B. Copyright, 1899, by Richard B. Hubbard. Imperfect JID'03 ■ •••••••« • ••• DEDICATORY. This volume of "UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST,— OR, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT," is respectfully dedicated to my life-long friends : THE HONORABLE FREDERICK H. WINSTON, LL. D., , of Chicago, and to THE HONORABLE WILLIAM S. HERNDON, Ex-Member of Congress, of Texas. This simple tribute is neither formal nor perfunctory, but is made from the promptings of an early and constantly Increasing friendship, which remains indissoluble in the evening, as it was joyous and unselfish in the morning of our lives. We, as natives of the same great commonwealth, the " Land of Oglethorpe" ; comrades and class-mates in the ancient law school consecrated by the learning of Greenleaf and Parker, and Parsons and Loring; associated in after times in the political counsels of the Republic ; coming together as we then did from far distant States, in the after years of our maturer manhood, represented our country, respectively, at the Courts of the ancient Kingdom of Persia and of the Empire of Japan. These associa- tions have bound us together with chords of an unselfish friend- ship, which have grown stronger with the flight of years Your experience and mine in the far East, in the light of recent memor- General Frederick H. Winston, United States Minister and Consul General to Persia 1S85-1887, UNITED STATES IK THE FAR EAST. 7 able events of our country's history, will enable you to appreciate more intelligently our brief reviews of the distant lands of which they treat in this faithful record. In this connection, we cannot forego a further public expression of a similar friendship for, and grateful acknowledgement of many obligations in the past of our private and public life to the HONORABLE WILLIAM S. HERNDON, of Texas. Largely because of his generous encouragement and intelligent assistance and material aid extended to the author, have these sketches been prepared for the press, and are now awaiting the favorable judgment of his countrymen. If an intelligent and in- dulgent public shall become interested and profited, and our love of native land be made the brighter by the recitals, then whatever of credit may be given to the author must be divided, share and share alike, between the two distinguished names— eminent alike in the world of statesmanship, law, and finance — to whom I have dedicated this book. Their brilliant successes have been reached by courage and ability and culture and patriotism, which they have made useful to themselves and to their country. I have endeavored to paint the present and prospective rela- tions of Japan especially, and of China and the Orient generally, political and commercial, to our own country without the colors of the rose. Anyhow, it is an earnest tribute to that marvelous people, as this dedication is a sincere offering to the friends of my youth. Hon. William S. Herndon, Ex- Member Congress of Texas. PREFACE Our indulgent countrymen will neither ex- pect nor demand any formal prologue on our first appearance on the stage of American au- thorship. Therefore, without the sound of herald we enter upon the self-imposed task of sketching modern Japan, "The Land of the Morning," as the author saw it during four years of official sojourn, while United States Minister at the Court and Capital of the Em- pire. In approaching this work, we are advised of the fact that others have preceded us in this field; nor are we forgetful of the menace, uttered ages ago, "Oh that mine adversary had written a book." Neither of these con- siderations shall deter us from offering some contributions, hitherto unpublished, and later than any of our predecessors have made toward a better understanding of this most marvelously progressive people of the Orient, and their pres- ent and prospective commercial and political re- lations to the United States of America. CONTENTS. Page. Dedicatory 5-7 Preface 9 List of Illustrations 15-16 Chapter I. Appointment as United States Minister — Receiving Instructions at Washington 17 Chapter II. Interview with Ex-President Grant, Relating to Japan, nearly a year before the Author's Ap- pointment as United States Minister . .... 19 The Educational and Political Progress of Japan in Law, Finance, Legislation, and Toleration of all Creeds and Faiths of Religion 31 Chapter III. Japan's Growth as a Naval and Military Power . . 32 Chapter IV. Tribute to the "Blue" and the " Gray" 39 Chapter V. Across the Pacific to Japan — " Bon Voyage," and Its Incidents 44 Chapter VI. Approaching Japan 54 Chapter VII. Arrival in Yokohama; and Tokio, the Capital of Japan 61 11 12 CONTENTS. Page. Chapter VIII. At the United States Legation 67 Chapter IX. America's Day at Court 74 Chapter X. Physical Features, and Productions, and Material Wealth, and Resources of Japan 82 Chapter XL Earthquakes 104 Chapter XII. Political and Educational Evolutions of Japan . . . 118 Chapter XIII. Japan Awakes from the Sleep of Ages; Enters the Race for Higher Civilization 132 Chapter XIV. Free Public Schools and Universities of Japan . . 136 Chapter XV. The Womanhood of Japan 144 Political Advancement 152 Imperial Decree 154 Chapter XVI. The Revision of the Treaties — Part of Heretofore Unpublished History 155 Chapter XVII. The United States and Japan Independently of the Treaty Powers enter into a Separate Treaty, Recognizing the Early and Complete Autonomy of the Empire 201 CONTENTS. 13 Page. Chapter XVIII. The Religions of Japan and Progress of the Chris- tian Church 211 Part Borne by Christian Missionaries 222 Chapter XIX. Toleration to the Christian Church 228 Chapter XX. Separation of Church and State 231 Chapter XXI. The Population, Area, and Industries of Japan . . 243 Chapter XXII. Future Commercial Relations — Nicaraugua Canal . 246 1^ Chapter XXIII. The Ship Transit in Its Relations to South America as well as Japanese Trade 263 Chapter XXIV. The Chinese War 266 Chapter XXV. Japan Wages a Humane War 273 v Chapter XXVI. Intervention 276 Chapter XXVII. The United States in the Far East 282 Chapter XXVIII. Japan's Military and Naval Establishments in the Chinese War 293 14 CONTENTS. Page. Chapter XXIX. The Home Life of Japan — The Married Rela- tions — Doom of Polygamy 301 Chapter XXX. Japan, and Colonization by the United States in the East 307 Chapter XXXI. The Relation of the United States and Japan to the Proposed " Peace Congress of the World," Called to Assemble at St. Petersburg in 1899 . . 320 Chapter XXXII. Last Days in Japan — Homeward Bound 337 Present Treaty of Commerce and Navigation Be- tween Japan and the United States of America, 345 Amendment to the Foregoing Treaty, Proposed by the Government of the United States of America, 260 Japan's Forward Step 361 Protocol 364 Speech of the United States Minister on the Use of the English Language in Japan, in the Confer- ence of all Nations 366 Speech of the United States Minister on the Au- tonomy of Japan, in the International Confer- ence 370 Speech of the United States Minister on Japanese Jurisdiction 379 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pagb Ex-Governor Richard B. Hubbard Frontispiece General Frederick H.Winston 6 Hon. William S. Herndon 8 Ex- President U. S. Grant (Opp.) 20 Transplanting Rice " 22 A Rice Mill " 26 Japanese Hotel of First-Class ' * 28 Marquis Ito, Premier of Japan " 34 Pilgrims to Fuji " 46 Sacred Mountain in the Distance — "Fuji," " 54 A Scene in Yeddo Bay " 62 Pontoon and Jinrikishas " 64 Frederick S. Mansfield " 68 The Emperor of Japan " 74 The Empress of Japan " 80 Coolies Carrying Children " 84 Familiar Scenes — Shopping in Country Vil- lage " 88 Dinner " 92 Blood Cascade " 96 High Priest of Shintoism ' ' 98 Jinrikisha " 102 15 16 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Sengakuji (Opp Samurai Sleeping A Famous " Belle" of Japan Japanese Lady Playing the M Koto". . . . Typical Japanese Beauty of the Higher Classes Count Inouye, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ex-President Grover Cleveland Hon. James G. Blaine . Hon. Thomas F. Bayard Buddhist Priests Famous Buddhist Temple "Shinto" — Temple Gates Aged "Dimaio" and Wife, of Feudal Times, Approach to the Famous Shrines of the Buddhists His Excellency Li Hung Tsee Pagoda — Tennonji — Osaka Winter Scene Wrestlers "Ahrnohs" (or Nurses) Carrying Children, Sisters , Page. 114 120 130 144 148 152 158 174 202 208 212 216 218 222 236 248 254 280 292 302 308 CHAPTER I. APPOINTMENT AS UNITED STATES MINISTER RE- CEIVING INSTRUCTIONS AT WASHINGTON IN- TERVIEW WITH EX-PRESIDENT GRANT. T was in the good year of Our Lord, 1885, tnat tne author was ?UJs£?S tendered the appointment by the President of the United States and ratified by the Senate, as Representative or, in diplomatic parlance, " Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary," to the Empire of Japan. Early in the month of May of that year, we reported to the President and Department of State for " Instructions," which are always given to the Republic's Ministers or Ambas- sadors before entering upon their accredited missions in foreign lands. Of the special or 2 [17] 18 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. general character of these instructions it is necessary now to say only, that their full meaning and general scope was, of course, to uphold the honor and interests of our country ; and especially, as relating to Japan, to watch and study with earnest vigilance and care her history and progress on the lines of the higher civilization, and her approaches toward the attainment of the capacity to exercise an inde- pendent self-government among the nations. Later on, in these sketches, the special appli- cations of these "Instructions" from our gov- ernment will be noted, when invoked, as they will be, by memorable events in the political evolution and life of Japan, which occurred during our mission from 1885 to 1890, and ex- tending and widening thereafter through the war with China to its triumphant close. CHAPTER II. INTERVIEW WITH EX-PRESIDENT GRANT, RELATING TO JAPAN NEARLY A YEAR BEFORE THE AUTHOR'S APPOINTMENT AS UNITED STATES MINISTER. S$T was while at the capitol at Washington, more than a year &&<$ preceding the foregoing date, that the unpartizan suggestion was kindly made to the author, by a few of General Grant's life-long friends, to visit the Ex-President, then, in 1884, residing in the city of New York. The generous motive given for this kind sug- gestion was that this great American had, some years before that date, made his famous voyage around the world so graphically sketched by John Russell Young, distinguished as an editor and diplomat, and the chosen com- [19] 20 THE UNITED STATES IK THE FAB EAST. pagnon de voyage of the illustrious soldier. We were told by these friends that he tarried longer in Japan, the guest of the Empire than in any other land around the globe. These gentle- men added, what they had heard from his own lips, that his observations and opinions of this people would be of especial interest to any one of his countrymen who might visit those distant shores, whether on pleasure, or on public or private account. We went from the capital to the American metropolis to meet the Ex-President for the first and what proved to be the last time. It was an unheralded meeting. We were received as in "ye olden time," with that genial and undemonstrative hospitality characteristic of that "silent man of destiny." Our brief interview related largely to Japan and the Orient, and we became an earnest lis- tener to his unpretending but deeply absorbing Ex-President XT. 8, Grant of the United States of America. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 21 recital and outline of his opinions of the pres- ent and future of that Island Empire and the Orient, and especially its probable political re- lations to the United States of America. The substance of that interview, brief as it was, we shall repeat, relating to what General Grant saw and thought of Japan while in the far East. Passing by the genial and informal greeting of that hour, General Grant, who, when interested himself in the subjects of his discourse, was always entertaining, after modestly giving a brief resume of his voyage across the Pacific, said his visit to Japan produced the conviction, never changed since, that if he had ever cher- ished ambition for diplomatic life, he had rather have represented his country in Japan than at the Courts of even England, Germany, or France. Not that it was of the same diplo- matic class or of same commercial importance ; but because there was attached to this marve- 22 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. lous country, which impressed him deeply, the added attractions of a rapid yet steady growth ; a striding toward the better and higher civiliza- tion in all the elements that constitute the mate- rial as well as the enlightened political and moral power of a State. He saw in his study of their educational, political and judicial institutions, and their absolute toleration of all religious faiths, the promise, though far in the Pagan Hast, of a people soon to take their co-equal and independent place in the family of nations. On his first arrival in Japan what struck General Grant most forcibly, was the physical characteristics of the country. Its soil, even on the mountains and especially in the valleys and by the sea- side, was of wonderful fertility and cultivated with all the care and skill of pro- fessional gardeners in Europe or America. For thousands of years these lands have been enriched by fertilizers and composts. From MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 23 their tender nursing of flowers, of which they are passionately fond, and the culture of shrubs and trees and vines, a stranger of the Occident feels that he has entered a very fairy-land. This native and cultivated love for the beauti- ful of forest and field and garden manifests itself in their unequalled artificial landscape gardening which everywhere, from the sea to the mountain, attracts the eye of the most aesthetic traveler from western lands. Poor John Keats, who died in the morning of a great career, sang long ago, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." The song would have found a realization in Japan. Not alone in the flower- gardens, but as well in the arrangement of their rice fields, furnishing the bread of an empire, and their cultivation of tea and silk — in fact of everything that grows from the earth or buds and blossoms under the sun, this universal national love of the beautiful is observed. In 24 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. approaching their "farms," as we call them in the West, one sees at a glance that the land- scape arrangement always relieves the drudgery of the laborer. The monotony is broken here and there by mots of live oak and evergreen and venerable trees and clinging vines planted by their own hands, and amid it all living waters are flowing in Hogarth's curving lines of beauty, or falling murmuringly over artificial beds of granite, or mimic cascades and waterfalls. "This," said General Grant, "was to me, as it will be to you, a veritable and beautiful reve- lation of physical Japan." The author in the after years of his residence in Japan, in his study of the traditions and customs of this people, was assured by them of the fact that for many centuries, even antedating the Chris- tian era, their native and cultivated love for flowers and forests and the beautiful in na- ture had literally resulted in transforming these MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 25 islands into landscape gardens of rare flowers and orchids where in the long ago nothing but rugged granite and mountain sides or barren plains offended the eye. And so it is, to this day, the love of the Japanese for the tree and flower and the vine has covered the whole land by the willing labor of his hands, with carpets of beauty, hiding from the traveler the bleak- ness of the mountains, on which, in ages past, they had planted the cedar and Eucalyptus and fadeless evergreens, extending to the table- lands and lowlands by the sea. And another remarkable, and for that latitude of thirty-three degrees, exceptional fact which he observed and learned, as did the author in after years, from the highest sources, was, that the frost even when black and poisonous, seldom ever nipped to death the tenderest fruits or plants, save now and then when the winds freighted with volcanic-vapors from the seas, as they generally 26 THE VNITEB STATES IN THE FAR EAST. are, fail to blow to the landward, and then "un- timely frosts " there, as here, would wither and kill. So that in the winters, which are ever mild, the fruits and flowers in the more southern por- tions of these islands are always budding and blossoming and fruiting. And while in color and tint from the native and gorgeous chrysan- themum to the blushing rose and sensitive plant, the flora of no portion of the earth is their equal, yet, strange and unique as it may appear, there is not a shrub or flower in all Japan that has even a suggestion of fragrance. The Savants attribute this misfortune to the influ- ence of the sulphurous volcanic vapors that en- velop them — coming from the ocean, borne on the nieht winds. But leaving its physical character, General Grant told the author in that unassuming man- ner which marked his career through life, "that the most gratifying incident of his visit to Japan MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 27 was the earnest welcome which he received, as all Americans do receive it, at the hands alike of prince and subject, from the moment the good ship reaches its shores until, homeward bound, the returning voyage is made to native land." General Grant with his sensitive modesty, which never obtruded his own personality to the front, did not acquaint the writer with any of the special evidences of this historic welcome to himself but spoke only of the genial char- acter of that greeting, and attributed it all to the affection which Japan felt for our country rather than for himself- — a country which they always denominated "The Great Republic of the West." He seemed to think that his mag- nificent welcome was simply because he was a citizen of that Republic, who, though no longer in official station, had been loyal to the Union, upholding its flag in the perilous days of the civil war, and who had last, though not least, cap- 28 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. tured the heart of Japan by his outspoken foreign policy when President, advocating the revision of the treaties with Japan, the early ab- olition of ex-territoriality, and recognizing her acquired capacity for self-government, because of her marvelous advances in civilization, in statesmanship, and toleration in church and State. For over forty years under the exac- tions of the Treaty Powers, including our own country, Japan, China, Asiatic Turkey, in fact all Asia and Africa were subjected by forced-treaty stipulations to submit to the dic- tations of the Treaty Powers in all matters relating to tariffs and duties on imports. And no subject or citizen of any Christian na- tion, whatever his offense, could be tried in the courts of these so-called " Heathen Lands." It is so to this hour. The United States was the first nation to advocate the abolition of this unjust discrimination against Japan. These were some of the special causes which, doubt- 3 MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 29 less, made the welcome of the great American ex-President surpass, in magnificence and ori- ental splendor, any reception ever before ex- tended within the memory of man to princes or to crowned heads or to the great field- marshals of war from imperial Europe or the Orient. Her army and navy were placed at his service that he might study their evolutions on shore and sea. He was the guest of the Emperor in an ancient palace surrounded by gardens and landscapes and with views of the sea with which, in beauty and romantic environ- ments, the palace-gardens of St. Cloud and St. James were hardly to be compared, as the author long afterwards verified from personal observation. Hundreds of trained servants and attendants of the descendants of the old "Samrai" and princess of the blood were in waiting. Not obtrusive, but always present and anticipating every want, from the service 30 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST of the national beverage to the chivalrous courtesies of the court. The writer himself became familiar with all these things during the subsequent years of his mission. Long after General Grant had passed " across the river," like a knight of old, the writer saw them as they had been recited by the hero a year before his mission began. We shall have occasion later on in these recitals to verify the prediction of General Grant, that the welcome of all Americans to this Empire would be like his own, in spirit though not in degree, earnest and honest, because they represented a country for which Japan cherished a sentiment of love, rather than the traditional cold and formal entente cordiale of diplomatic protocols and treaties. We listened with respectful attention to what General Grant further on related of his impres- sions of MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 31 The Educational and Political Progress of Japan in Law, Finance, Legislation, and Toleration of all Creeds and Faiths of Re- ligion. As to this interview, hasty and unheralded as it was, we can make only brief record of his general conclusions as to the future of Japan and the rest of the Orient, based upon its pro- gress as he had seen it. That judgment, calmly formed and expressed, modestly but with earnest conviction, was, that this " gem of the Orient" was to become in some future day a great power in the far East and command the respect of all western nations. Leaving the discussion of the educational advances and the political and progressive statesmanship of the Empire, he said, in substance, that what impressed him more than anything else he saw or heard was the progress of Japan in the "arts of war." CHAPTER III. JAPAN S GROWTH AS A NAVAL AND MILITARY POWER. F my opinions are worth anything," he said, "they are founded upon &£&$. my experience and life as a sol- dier. Serving as cadet at West Point in my early manhood, and thereafter in the regular army and in the war with Mexico, and, after an inter- val of years in private life, serving again in the armies of the Union, in the civil conflict, it was my business and my duty as well to study in the field as elsewhere, the ' arts of war.' ' While in Japan the general had the opportunity of becoming familiar, as he did, with the military and naval establishments of the country. Of course he did not go into details, but he did [32] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 33 say to the author that, from the standpoint of a soldier, this people had accomplished more in the last one-third of a century in establishing an army and navy, justly commanding the respect of the world, than any other of the Powers of the earth had accomplished, in the same number of years, before that time. He saw their drills and their movements by sea and land, their life and discipline in camp and field, and their instructions in the imperial mili- tary and naval colleges, similar to our own at Annapolis and West Point. From these oppor- tunities and observations, he arrived at the conclusion that the time would come, before a decade has passed away, when all the great Powers would see the verification of his opinion of Japan's martial prowess ! " I think," he continued, "that the test will be made in a coming war between China and Japan ! I shall probably not live to see that conflict, but it is 34 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. coming ! While a visitor to both of those old nations, there were ' strained relations ' between them, even then foreboding war." [It is now well known to our government as well as to all the Treaty Powers that a war was prevented at that time only by the fact that China and Japan submitted their old disputes, involving Formosa and the Loo Choo islands, to General Grant, as umpire, with plenary powers to settle the entire matter.] Though then only a private citizen of America, General Grant acted as that umpire, and on his decision these ancient dynasties shook hands and " smoked the pipe of peace," Count Ito for Japan and Prince Li Hung Chang for China, accepting the decision of the American referee. This is now of record in the archives of both China and Japan ; yet General Grant observed, even while, for the time, peace was assured, that the old wounds were only healed on the surface, Marquis Ito, Premier of Japan's Cabinet. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT 35 while " bad blood " still rankled in the hearts of the seemingly reconciled nations, and was con- cealed only by artful diplomacy. "War may not come," he said, "but if it shall come, my own prediction and belief as a soldier is that Japan, with less than forty millions of people, will cross the sea by way of Corea with her well-equipped and disciplined army while her war ships attack the forts of Port Arthur and Yaloo on the sea, and in less than twelve months, China, with her five hundred millions of people, will be a conquered power and a suppliant at the feet of Japan suing for peace." He spoke this, he said, with all deference, but earnestly. Those were in substance the memo- rable words of General Grant, which, as all the world now knows, proved to be prophetic in less than a decade from the hour of our meet- ing in 1884, m the almost literal fulfillment of the prediction of the great soldier. That 36 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. mightiest nation of Asia was crushed by this "Lochinvar" out of the East, in less than a year of war ! General Grant passed through "the valley and the shadow of death," fearless and full of Christian hope, within a year after the date of our meeting, and long before his prophecy became verified. The ex-President confessed that these opinions of the land of which he had been a loved and honored guest were somewhat influenced by the boundless hospitality shown to the United States in the person of himself. This hospitality was shown largely because he was an American citizen, and because the occasion furnished to Japan the opportunity to manifest her respect and her love for our country. From Li Hung Chang to the Chinese Empress Dowager and the coolie — from Pekin to Shanghai in the Mid- dle Kingdom — they showered upon him like- wise a most gracious hospitality. His opinions MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 37 were founded on the evidence he everywhere saw of Japan's wonderful advance in civilization and in all the qualities which constitute the true power of a State. He would have us under- stand that he avoided trenching upon the peaceful and tolerant conflict in those far east- ern lands, between Paganism and the Christian religion. But believing, as he did, in the God of the old Bible and in the Christ of the New Testament, in the Crucifixion and the Resur- rection, nevertheless, he said that the only Paganism he heard of in Japan was confined to the temples and not exhibited by the State, and seemed to rest lightly on the people, from the prince to the peasant. In a word, we were assured that almost complete toleration in mat- ters of church existed there. The denial by the Buddhist church of the divinity of Christ Jesus and its denial of eternal punishment after death did not seem to produce fanaticism in the gov- 38 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. ernment, or lessen their love for our country, or teach intolerance of the Christian mission- aries, or hinder their progress in any way toward the higher hopes and civilization of the West. When he returned from his long voyage around the world, and said to his countrymen in part what he said to us, many of his sincerest friends thought that he was painting Japan in the colors of the rose, and that his honest opinions thus and then expressed, smacked of Munchausen. We here close the brief recital of the substance of this the first and last interview on Japan which the writer ever had with the famous sol- deir and ex-President of the great Republic. CHAPTER IV. TRIBUTE TO THE " BLUE AND THE "GRAY. m ^ " HOUGH it does not by any means relate to Japan, yet the author feels that it is just to the mem- ory of a great and typical American now gone to his reward, that he should give a faithful and brief recital of Grant's parting words. He ex- pressed the sincere hope that our people would soon forgive and forget the bitter memories and bad blood of that fratricidal conflict be- tween the States. "I rejoice in the prospect/' he continued, " of the early return of the old time spirit of union and fraternity between the North and the South. The very fact that, from the peaceful civic revolutions and changes in our political home government, many of the 4 I39J 40 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Southland who fought against the Union, will ere long bear the National flag to foreign lands as representatives of the restored Union will show that however we may have differed in political faiths, yet, at last, the old love for our native land comes back to us and asserts its supremacy as in the days of our fathers." He hailed these signs as the harbingers of a glorious day now dawning on the country. He was for the Union, of "course, with all his soul, but he earnestly said to us that our people, North and South, must forgive and forget. They could afford in honor to do both. As foemen they were worthy of each other's steel, on every field of battle where the Blue and the Gray fought and fell together. "We believed," he continued, " that the South was wholly wrong in her appeal to arms, but her soldiers put all controversy to the end of time at rest as to their absolute honesty and belief in the justness MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. . 41 ) of their side of that struggle; at any rate, like the Union soldiers they sealed their convictions with their blood, and from that last judgment there can be no appeal." * * * From that good hour, if never before, General Grant in our heart and head — unquestioned it shall be for all time — took his place by the side of the great patriots and field marshals of history, who fought for principles and not from passion or ambition, and whose lives are crowned with blessings and benedictions, in that they could both forget and forgive a brave and honest adversary who had fallen in defeat. Unlike the human vultures of the past who follow and feast upon the blood and booty of the wounded and the dead, they soar above the clouds of hate, as eagles, toward the sun. In the inaugural message of President Grant, he closed, as all the world knows, that brief historic message to his countrymen with the memorable words 42 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. "Let us have peace!" In the "Personal Reminiscences of his Life," written near its close to win from hard fate a living for his then almost impoverished household, and nearly at the conclusion of that autobiography, which every American should read, the dying hero repeated the same invocation to Almighty God on behalf of the restored union of these States. These were the hopeful words put on record while the golden halo of his setting sun was then gathering around his head. They are a legacy to his countrymen worthy to be enshrined with the " Farewell Address " of Washington. " I feel that we are on the eve of a new era, when there is to be great harmony between the Federals and the Con- federates, I cannot stay to be a living wit- ness to the correctness of this prophecy, but I feel it within me that it is to be so. The un- usually kind feeling expressed for me at a time MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 43 when it was supposed that each day would be my last, seemed to me the beginning of the answer to, * :i: * ' Let us have peace ! ' * :!: * It is a significant and gratifying fact that Con- federates should have joined in this spontaneous move. I hope the good feeling thus inaugu- rated may continue to the end." In a far distant land, more than a year after this informal interview, the flags of our country were flying at half mast from the heights of the American Legation and from our war ships in port, black crape was draped from every American's door in Japan and the Orient, and hearts were sad and eyes were moist at the an- nouncement by cable under the sea that the great soldier and ex-President had yielded, and like a hero, to the "Last Enemy." CHAPTER V. ACROSS THE PACIFIC TO JAPAN " BON VOYAGE," AND ITS INCIDENTS. E have now crossed the continent with our family and staff, and have arrived, in the latter part of June, 1885, at San Francisco. We do not wish to tax the reader with the oft-repeated stories of an ocean voyage. However, it must be confessed that from Marryatt's ''Tales of the Sea" to the apostrophe of Byron in a Childe Harold" calling in vain unto the storms and fleets which sweep over the seas ; from the white sails of commerce entering harbors of peace, to the thunder of battle-ships in war, there is always and ever will be an enchantment of which we never grow weary [44] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 45 from childhood tp old age. Our single design now, however, is to describe the good ship of the American merchant marine, the "Tokio," of the " Pacific Mail," in which we were a passenger, and the personnel of its officers and men and the good ship's company, embarked in the cabin or in the steerage. We shall take our readers on board with us, and they shall see as we saw, and feel as we felt in the struggles of the brave ship against winds and waves for the twenty-three days we were passing over that lonely sea. The officer in command of the "Tokio" was "Commodore" Maury, a retired captain of the United States Navy, who was styled " Commodore " because of being the oldest officer then in the continuous service of that great merchant line. He was a gallant naval lieutenant in the war with Mexico and in the late Civil War. He was a near kinsman of the Confederate Commodore, Matthew F. 46 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. Maury, of Virginia, who was, before the war, the head of the National Observatory at Wash- ington, and who made the famous charts of the winds and the tides — of the dangerous currents and reefs of all the seas around the globe. Our " Commodore" Maury, of the "Tokio," was a typical representative of the American sailor. On board, on the passenger list, was the American Minister and his family and staff. There were consuls and consul- generals from our own country as well as from some European nations, and a few Japanese returning to their native land from our Ameri- can schools and universities and military and naval institutions. There were also merchants in the Oriental tea and silk trade on board, bound for nearly all the great ports of the Orient. These, with the lady contingent, con- stituted the diplomatic and political and mer- cantile and military portion of the cabin MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 47 passage. With them, as fellow-passengers, was a number of devoted missionaries and their wives and children, mostly from the United States, but with some representatives from European lands. Many of these godly men and devoted women were returning to Japan and China and India or other countries of the far East from long-deserved vacations, or going out for the first time, bearing the ban- ner of the Cross, under appointments of the Christian-world, of all creeds and denomina- tions ; going — " From Greenland's icy mountains To India's coral strand." There were in the steerage more than a thousand Chinamen from the Pacific slope, returning to the " Celestial Kingdom"; many of them bearing, with loving care, the ashes of their dead, to find holy sepulchre under the shadows of the temples of Buddha — it being an 48 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. ancient superstition of the Chinese Buddhists that the future happiness of their kindred is never absolutely assured until their mortal remains shall at last repose in their native land. The remainder of the ship's company were the gallant officers under the " Commo- dore," and the " jolly tars " before the mast. We are now far in the afternoon of a cloudless summer's day in June, and about to sail. The last good-byes have been said on shore and ship to the loved ones who have followed us across the continent. The " signal gun" is booming "farewell" to the shore, and the swift commands in nautical phrase to make the ship ready and clear the decks for the coming battle with wind and waves, receive answers, " Aye, aye, sirs," from the sailors from the deck to the topmost masts. The national ensign is now floating above us, and the great ship moves steadily from her moorings and anon in MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 49 mid-stream is passing down to the " Golden Gate." We are in the most placid and enchanting harbor on the earth, excepting the "Bay of Yeddo," to whose peaceful waters our good ship is bearing us, six thousand miles from our native land. We are now out upon the vast Pacific. It is a happy law of compensation that enables human memories to forget recent sorrows and to look into the face of the future with cheerful hope. So it was with that good ship's com- pany. The sadness of leaving our common country and the kindred and friends we loved, is succeeded by the mutual congratulations alike of strangers and friends on the upper decks. The author had never crossed any great sea before, and many of his fellow-pas- sengers, like himself, were genuine " land- lubbers"; who had, in the " delsartian " schools of elocution, sometimes posed and 50 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. recited * * * " roll on thou dark and deep blue ocean, roll," or sung, "What are the wild waves saying?" in Dombey and Son! Some of this school were on board, but alas, the song and the romance belonged only to the land and not to the sea. Introductions were taking place and we were " getting ac- quainted," each with his companions of the voyage. The writer in the center of that then joyous company, observed early in the evening that the music had hushed — when looking to the right and to the left, he saw, one by one, "like leaves in wintry weather," our good ship's company beating hasty retreats to the cabins below ! It was the awful curse — as chronic as the moan of the waves — that bore down mercilessly upon those "fair women and brave men," alike on the Pagan and the Chris- tian, the Jew and the Gentile ! There were many who did not fall victims in that unequal MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 51 conflict against defenseless men and women. And yet the great ship sails on ! " Commo- dore " and captains and sailors before the masts, and those abnormal freaks of men and mariners who never get sea-sick, are laughing at our calamities and mocking as our fear cometh ! From such as these, " Good Lord and holy angels deliver us ! " We were kindly informed by these evangels, who were immunes from mal de mere, that terrible earthquakes were frequent in Japan, and that ships sometimes went down in the tempests of eastern oceans. We were further assured, not boastfully, that their faith would defy all such calamities of land or sea ! Our readers will have occasion after reaching Japan to recall these incidents en route — outward bound. Shipwreck and the earthquake had not then come to us, as they did afterwards, with terror unknown for a third of a century 52 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. before. The "Tokio" is now nearing the Kurile Islands, and though it is summer-time, the winds from " Greenland's Icy Mountains" sweep down upon us with their chilling frosts. We are near the southernmost fields of the whale fisheries. At early morn, the officers of the bridge announced " whales in sight ! " We forgot for the moment all else, including the sickness, and, hurrying to the upper deck, saw what old mariners often see in these waters, thousands of these mastodons of the deep, spouting, like geysers on land, streams of salt water from five to twenty feet in height. Through all these in that rarest of atmos- pheres around the globe, the risen sun flashed its rays, forming myriads of the bright colors of the prism and the rainbow. It was a beau- tiful scene away out on those lonely and path- less seas, to watch these "schools" of whales gambolling in sport like children on the green, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 53 utterly fearless of the mighty iron ship which cleaved the waves about them. We have now turned our course and are bearing down to the coast of Japan, sea-sick and weary, after twenty-one days. We will tax our readers with further recital of inci- dents of this, to us memorable voyage, only to say that in the last days there were discussions in the salons among our passengers ; and political as well as religious disputations were conducted — strange to say, in brotherly mood and temper, and not with the acrimony which too often characterizes similar discussions on dry land. * * * CHAPTER VI. v APPROACHING JAPAN. f/ jfrm\f N the twenty-second day of this * IE 9 * 3 long voyage, we get a view of &&&±^>i/ the famous "Sacred Mountain" (Fuji-San), which rises many thousand of feet above the level of the Pacific. Like a hoary monarch, it lifts its eternal granite form to the skies, with a crown of snow that never melts, upon its head. At its base the orange and fruits of the tropics flourish as in perpetual summer-time, and every year, the pilgrims of Buddha clamber up its heights to greet the " rising sun," and worship at the shrines of the mountain temples. It is their "Mecca," and has been for over two thousand years, since the birth of their [54] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 55 great High Priest, Buddha, which occurred more than five centuries before the birth of Christ in Judea. Their traditions teach them that this lofty mountain was consecrated to Buddha, and that from its summit he was borne to "Nir- vanna." Five hundred millions of worshippers are now bowing at the shrine of Buddha, as their ancestors did centuries before the birth of Jesus, ere the good shepherds followed the " Star of Bethlehem," to the cradle of the infant Christ. We are now approaching the beautiful shores of this wonder-land on the last day of our voy- age. It was the realization of the poet's dream of beauty, this first near approach to the mountains, covered all over with evergreens and clinging vines and flowers of every hue, from the imperial chrysanthemum to the tender violet. Sir Edwin Arnold, in his weird " Light of Asia," did not exaggerate in his wonderful word-painting these scenes, as first beheld 56 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. from the deck of an incoming ship. It is now the twenty-third day and the last of our voy- age. We are now, at sunset, entering the Bay of Yeddo, a body of water surpassing in beauty that of our own San Francisco, or of far-famed Venice by the sea, or the blue ''Aegean" of Grecian song. All the officers are at their posts on the ship. The " Commodore " and officers are on the bridge, and no sailor is per- mitted to sleep. Strained eyes and tired limbs of the passengers looking and waiting all day from the ship's deck toward the shore, have closed in sleep, or rested in repose. It is a narrow entrance — deep in the mid-channel — with treacherous currents and dangerous rocks and reefs on either side, thence the ship is going under "slow bells," and besides the night is Egyptian and the fogs of the Orient are hiding even the stars. At the hour of midnight the " Commodore " MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 57 raps at our cabin door. Alone, as we suppose, of all that great ship's company, we were awake. Quickly we answer the alarm, and are told quietly but quickly that our ship is upon a granite shelving rock, within sight of the shore, having been slowly moved by treacherous cur- rents out of the path of the main channel on to the rocks. The reef was afterwards ascer- tained to have been covered with sea weed, and hence, with our slow speed, no great shock had been felt by the ship. The announcement of " Commodore" Maury of course brought all to the deck. We were told of the danger that confronted us. The brave old ship that had brought us over five thousand miles was sinking within sight of Japan ! The ocean cables and swift steam craft informed the De- partment of the Marine and his Majesty, the Emperor, of the imminent danger of the Amer- ican ship. The " welcome" promised to us by 58 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. General Grant was then and there fulfiled, in the presence of what we supposed would be death in the breakers of the sea, with the ter- rible tides going out like torrents. The for- ward part of the ship was on the rocks and the rear in ten fathoms of water ! Of course the great ship would soon break in two, and it was only a question of quick time. Then succor and relief came speedily and amid thanks to Almighty God and our brave officers and sailors and especially to the naval and civic officers of Japan by whom we were saved. These sketches avoid the word-paintings of sensational and tragic incidents then occur- ring — it is enough to acknowledge the knightly assistance of Japan, to whom our good ship's company is largely due for their salvation and safe arrival at the port of Yokohama. There were some scenes on that doomed ship at the wreck and at the rescue, illustrating the MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 59 old proverb that the " bravest are not the most boastful," and that the truest Christian who clings to the " Rock of Ages," does not pose as did the Pharisee on street corners or on decks of sinking ships, thanking God that he is not like unto other men. Before referring to our land- ing in Yokohama, the principal commercial em- porium of Japan, we must crave indulgence for a moment to repeat what the cablegrams of that day, and the Oriental and London and American press declared, and truthfully, that on board the sinking "Tokio," not one of all the pure de- voted women — American or European — lost her courage in the presence of threatened death. We recall it now as a beautiful vision of the past, how wives and daughters, forgetful of danger, buckled "life-preservers" around their fright- ened husbands and fathers and brothers, and poured into their often unheeding ears the promises of salvation in the Better Land. 60 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. But, as in all ages of her glorious record, from the Cross to the Sepulchre, she was then as now, though frail in body, heroic and stal- wart in heart, standing by the side of, and ministering to human calamity everywhere under the sun. Our Christian women, from the Mother of Jesus to this day, are always alleviating the sorrows of human hearts when breaking, and when the summons comes, whether in pestilence or, as then, amid the wrecks of ships, or in distant lands, they enter the " valley and shadow of death, fearing no evil." Thus the author, as he saw them, pays this brief but just tribute to our blessed mis- sionary-evangels, our wives and daughters and sisters in pagan lands. We shall have occa- sion hereafter to express the opinion (and our reasons for it) that the coming evangelization of the -'Far East" will be due more to the devoted work of women than of men. CHAPTER VII. ARRIVAL IN YOKOHAMA ; AND TOKIO, THE CAPITAL OF JAPAN. T was on the twenty third day after our doomed ship, now at the bottom of the sea, left San Francisco, that we arrived on a Japanese vessel at the port of Yokohama. Our welcome there was cordial and earnest. We were more than six days overdue, and the news of our wreck — flashed to the American Legation at Tokio and to the palace of the Emperor, and to the good missionaries in Japan, and to America and Europe — had made the impres- sion that our good ship was lost with all on board. The correction of this first sad message [61] 62 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. brought thrice hearty and thrilling greetings to the rescued. We are now on board the railway, English- built, going from Yokohama to Tokio, twenty miles distant, and the present capital of the Empire, known in the days of the Shoguns as " Yeddo." We repeat, what we have already put on record, that the Bay of neither San Fran- cisco nor Venice compares in romantic beauty with the Bay of Yeddo. The city, fronting on the quay by the sea-shore, is foreign-built; in it we recognize the blended English, French, and German architectures. The great busi- ness-houses, representing the tea and silk trade, are mostly controlled by foreigners, who have lived here, many of them, for more than a third of a century. Some of these great tea and silk houses and ''Go-Downs," full of precious wares and curios, and of the dry goods and general merchandise, are massive - • tKt^ •. m liii . ■■■>■ % i \ MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. G3 and imposing. The Japanese Government buildings in latter years have been mostly con- structed on models of European architecture. The private residences and streets of the foreign merchants (the 3?W^^. p. p^iP p-*k [ ^'tl^U ^rU 1 EFORE discussing-, as we observed, the evolutions and progress gen- erally of Japan and her relations to this country in latter days, it is fitting that we invite our readers to a brief outline of its physical features and productions and material wealth and resources, with which an area not quite half as large as the great State of Texas, feeds and clothes and maintains forty millions of subjects in peace and plenty, besides an imperial establishment and an army and navy and a great export trade, which in recent years has not only commanded but won the respect of all nations. We shall not go into minute [82] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 83 details, giving routes and inklings by the way- side as have the traditional " globe-trotters," flitting on swift wings, drawing skeleton maps, and gleaning from the geographies of the out- of-print histories of the Empire of half a century agone. It is rather the headlands only, the important and distinguishing marks of practi- cal interest to our American countrymen that we shall attempt to describe. Brief reference has already been made to the forestry and flora and the fruits and the life sustaining pro- ductions of the soil of Japan. Of the forestry growth of Japan, the most important are the indigenous bamboo cane, the evergreen oak, the northern pine and fir tree, and a tree resembling the famed "red wood" of California. Most of the deciduous tree types of our American forests are found here. The cottages of the people, forty millions in num- ber, are erected sometimes of this fine old red 84 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. wood, but generally with the bamboo cane. It is used for thatching the roof, for their sliding-panel-doors — for everything, in fine, useful or ornamental for the home. The tender buds are used for food, the large-sized canes for water-pipes and mains, and with the seasoned cane their skilled artisans fashion the most beautiful, as well as useful, household furniture and valuable curios for commerce. In their more northern forests of Yesso, the bear, the largest known to the animal world, is found, and the ape in the lower latitudes. The tiger and the leopard, of a less ferocious type, also exist in the far interor and among the mountains. Of domestic animals, the horses are few, and so as to cattle and sheep, and especially swine, which last, though the great delicacy of Chinese epicures, is never reared or consumed in Japan. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 85 Of their birds, we briefly remark that there is but little difference between those in Japan and in America. The quail and pheasant and the wild and domestic duck and the reed-bird are the bird game for food, the stork being the national bird, and consecrated by their poets in song and by their painters and sculptors on canvas and in bronze. The fishes of Japan contribute the principal and almost only meat food of the Empire, and their infinite variety and excellence are inex- haustible in supply. Often in American waters, inland or in the bays of the sea, by depredation and poaching, as in the seal fishing, the fresh water fish as well as the shad and salmon and mackerel and cod, become seriously diminished in supply. Not so in Japan. To their scientific classification we make no pre- tense. The " Isaac Wal tons " who have luck and leisure and gold, can in twelve days, by 86 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST, steamer from San Francisco or from Vancouver, enjoy the finest fishing ground in the world. The game salmon of Yeddo surpass our own of Oregon, and their "Tye" of the bays of Nippon are gamer and more delicate to the palate than the famous speckled trout of the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, the shell fish of Japan, like those on the Pacific slope, are use- less, being copperish in taste and unfit for the table. A country with such a population, vastly dis- proportioned to its territory to support, calls for constant fertilization and preservation of its soil as an absolute necessity. For thousands of years, so their traditions run, every foot of land from the lowlands by the sea, or on her inland waters, or at the summit or sides of her mountains where a tree can be planted or a vine be made to grow, by artificial earth and culture, has been utilized by constant daily MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 87 application of every character of fertilizer and phosphites, and the cities and towns and • country folk residences are forced by law to send every particle of decayed vegetable mat- ter or animal or human excrement, in covered boats in earthen vessels on the canals or rivers or in carts drawn by the native coolies or by the Indian buffalo oxen, down to the rice-fields by the sea or inland waters, to the tea and silk fields, to the orchards and vineyards, and the incomparable vegetable gardens, where with deft hands every day of the whole year the lands are enriched and preserved beyond that of any other part of the known world. Hence, the Medical Faculty in Japan tell us that this necessary observance of hygiene and the laws of health among their forty millions of people gives to them a 25 per centum less death rate than in European or American States, except only the northern nations of Europe. It is a 88 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. fortunate fact that frost or snow, in latitude 35 degrees down to the farthest southern limit of 24 degrees, not more than once in fifteen or twenty years blights or blasts the ripening fruits or crops or flowers of the Empire. The Christian world, while accepting the theory of the Savants and chemists, that this comparative exemption from vegetable death before its time is due to the peculiar character of that atmosphere, and the volcanic winds blowing landward from the sea, is inclined to assert right reverently that a merciful Provi- dence has had more to do with the exemption than the theories of the chemists. Admitting both to be true, in whole or in part, we found, whatever its cause, that not a suggestion even of fragrance was possessed by any fruit or flower in all Japan ; not even the imported jassamine or the " sweet-scented shrubs " of the wild-wood of our boyhood in MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 89 Western lands had any more odor than the block of granite at our feet. And yet their oranges, especially the seedless " Chieu Shu" variety, their persimmons, their plums and ber- ries and pineapples of the far south, and their vineyards of luscious grape, possessed, never- less, all the saccharine properties of the same fruits of Europe or America. Strange but true ! The great remunerative commerce of Japan is in her tea and silk and rice, and precious wares known in commerce as " China wares," her copper and lacquers and curios. On their raw silks and teas, there is no import duty to America. They are duty-free / Of these two articles alone, this country imports nearly thirty millions in value annually. Our export and import trade with Japan combined in round numbers will, it is estimated, in the present year of 1898, reach forty millions of dollars. 90 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. Her trade with England has fallen below that with the United States, and yet the "balance of trade " is against both Great Britain and the United States and in favor of Japan. And so it is in less degree with all other nations — Germany and France ranking next to the United States and England in the volume and value of exports and imports — in their trade relations with Japan. The people live on fish for meat, unsur- passed in quantity and quality, found in the mountain streams or in the bays all around their islands. Their bread is rice, and their beverage is native tea. Their clothing is chiefly silk, all of which is grown and gathered, and afterwards woven in their own looms, in ample quantity to clothe forty millions of people, be- sides furnishing an export trade all around the globe, of this staple product, of over one hun- dred millions dollars annually in British ster- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 91 ling. Their daily food costs, in silver coin, on an average, only from three to five cents per day for each adult, and that discounted there as here by the exacting gold exchanges of Europe, who fix the prices of Japanese silver every day in the Bank of England. They eat no animal food. Fish and fowl and eggs and rice and fruits and all varieties of vegetables and sweet-meats and the " sugar " cane and " sugar" beet, which grow to marvellous per- fection in taste and richness ; these constitute the menu, so to speak, of Japanese life. The wages of the laborer is graded and classified ; a master mechanic, one who understands the architecture of his country and can build a temple or a palace, receives daily not more than fifty to sixty cents in silver coin. The same laborer here would command from five to ten dollars in gold. Yet the purchasing power of the Japanese mechanic's wages is, 92 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. for what he wants in living and clothes, about equal to the European or American laborer's or mechanic's wages of the same grade. The silk with which the coolie clothes his family, who live in a bamboo cottage of thatched roof, costing not as much as five silver dollars in the national coin, costs him far less than the prints or shirtings, or especially linens or woolens, of European or American mills, transported five thousand miles as they are to him across the sea. His wife and daughters and little ones are clad in silks gathered by their own hand's from the mulberry and cocoons, and spun and woven at their own humble homes, as did our grandmothers in "ye olden time" spin and weave the hemp or the cotton by the "spin- ning jenny," the domestic loom and shuttle and hand-cards now obsolete and discarded, and almost forgotten in America. The rice for bread and the tea for drink and fish for MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 93 meat, are staple products, and these, including fruits and vegetables of the garden, for each stalwart laboring man cost on an average, as we have stated, only from three to five cents per day ! The people never seem in want or hungry. In a residence of over four years, mingling largely with the native population of all classes, the writer does not recall a single instance of meeting a professional beggar. The climatic features may be compared favorably with those of the United States of the same latitude and longitude. In latitude 32 degrees to 35 in our country, the ther- mometer often rises in summer to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, while in Japan, in the same lati- tude it seldom rises higher than 80 to 85 degrees. And yet foreigners find it almost beyond endurance to live in the capital (Tokio) in July or August with the mercury at 80 degrees, because of the sultry, close humidity 94 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. of the atmosphere which makes breathing diffi- cult and at times even painful. The natives are acclimated, but all foreigners find it a necessity to go to the mountains where the climate is cool and invigorating, and bathing in the thermal waters of the famous hot springs or spouting geysers insures the most delightful and health-giving outings in mid-summer. It is the testimony of intelligent travelers and med- ical men, as it is our own, that the winds and waters at Nikko, Myanoshita, and Hakoni, and Kusatsu, and other places of less fame, for the salubrity of climate and curative prop- erties of their healing thermal waters, have no equal at Baden-Baden, Saratoga, the Hot Springs, of Arkansas, or the famed Manitou, of our Colorado of the West. Their mountains extending from sea to sea, the Hakoni being the longest range, have an average elevation of 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, and MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 95 traverse the entire island of Nippon from its eastern to its western boundaries. The highest of these mountains is Fusiyama or "Sacred Mountain," eighty miles from Tokio, the capi- tal, and is estimated at 14,000 feet. Its summit is covered with perpetual snow. It was once an active volcano but has been extinct since 1707. In the northern island of Yesso, the moun- tains rise to 8,000 feet among- wild and vener- able forests, as yet largely unexplored, although in a land three hundred centuries old, and from which forty millions of people draw their suste- nance from the soil of an area of only 128,000 square miles. The rivers are very numerous, but clear, and rising among the mountains, ordinarily shallow, but during the "wet seasons" and " freshets " the streams become torrents, dash- ing down to the sea, often carrying wreck and ruin in their pathway. 96 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Often among the mountain ranges, from which Sir Edwin Arnold has added another of many romantic names and called Japan the " Switzerland of the Orient," — among these mountains are found lakes as clear as crystal, thousands of feet above the sea level, which, though making no pretension to size, are beautiful to the eye and almost as cold as ice, fed as they are by the melted snows or the unfailing springs from the mountains. There is but one fresh-water lake of any pretensions to size in Japan, and that is known as " Biwa," near the ancient capital of Kyoto. It is ten miles in width and thirty-five miles long, con- necting by steamer and sail Kyoto with Osaca, the second great city of the Empire. That and the lesser inland waters of Hakoni require but a little stretch of fancy to recall to memory the graphic picture of the "Lake of Como " of Bulwer's drama of "The Lady of Lyons." Blood Cascade. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 97 The cities of Japan are numerous. In fact, the observation of the writer showed that the instinct of the Japanese was gregarious, and from the fishermen by the sea through all classes and castes, from prince to peasant, they prefer to live in villages, towns, or cities. There is properly, from a Western standpoint, no country life in any part of the Empire. They cultivate the lands from moorlands to mountain sides, but the laborers radiate from a common center town or village to these culti- vated gardens and fields. The largest and most populous of the cities is Tokio (known before the destruction of the Shoguns as "Yeddo"), of a million and five hundred thousand inhabitants, the present capital at the head of the Bay of Yeddo, where the beautiful " Sumida-Gawa" enters the sea. It is a picture of " Old Japan," and though eing recently a treaty port, foreign ships of 98 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. commerce do not come to its wharves because of the shallowness of its harbors. Five miles below there is deep water. Here are the palaces of the Emperor and of the Old Daimaios, or Princess of the days of Feudalism. The walls and moats are still mostly intact and v/onderfully preserved. Their temples, some thousands of them, dedicated to Buddhism and Shintoism, are here. Some of them are of magnificent proportions and illustrate the palmy days of Oriental architecture. The " Temple of Sheba," so the writer has been told by archeologists and those who pretend to be versed in the religious cults and creeds and history of the church of Buddha, was named for that veritable queen of the East, whom the Hebrew Bible records as visiting the "Temple of Solomon." It may be, and we suppose is, a myth and figment of fancy — one of the legends of the old land. The fancy pictures High Priest of Shintoism. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 99 of " Solomon's Temple," on which we gazed with reverent admiration in our youth time, are nearly all of them literal copies of this and other great temples of Kyoto and Nikko from paintings which were made of them by Italian masters, by order of the Roman Pontiff, and which are now in the Vatican at Rome, with copies in the famous galleries of art on the continent. Here are the Parliament buildings and the Imperial University, the Governor's palace with spacious structures for hospitals and asylums for the insane, the blind, and deaf and dumb, and the helpless infant and pauper. The modern palace, erected in the last decade on the ashes of the former one, is a splendid structure, combining Oriental and Western architecture. The great reception or throne room of this palace has been compared to the "Alhambra" of the days of Spanish chivalry and power. L.ofC. 100 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. The residences of the foreign settlements are in what is called "Ske-ji" (the English pronunciation), a concession fronting on the sea, where all the missionaries and other foreigners live, and where the United States Legation was then located. The Legations of all the Treaty Powers, and the United States Legation now, are located in separate and spacious grounds in the main city and outside of the " concession." The English Legation buildings are. costly and magnificent, valued at a quarter of a million of gold. Next in size and value are the German and French Lega- tions. To each of these Legations, including the Russian, from twenty to thirty thousand dollars in gold is given by their governments for an " entertainment fund," to expend with lavish hand in the diplomatic season. The United States has no such fund. The second city in size in Japan is Osaca, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 101 containing, it is now estimated, a population of over eight hundred thousand. It is a treaty or open port, and is the "Wall street" of Japan. The canals, as in Tokio, are numerous, and its bridges at every intersection of the streets are often exceedingly handsome. Along these canals are borne from the great ships from their own and foreign lands the commerce of every clime, and down the same water-ways are carried to the harbor their teas and silks and rice and curios and costly wares for foreign ports. If in Venice, these beautiful waters by moon- light would bear the graceful gondola with songs of lovers to the accompaniment . of the guitar or the harp, recalling the ancient troubadours, pictured in song and story. Here is located also the second largest mint in the world. The next city in size, and now the most 102 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. important commercial port of the Empire, is Yokohama on the sea, twenty miles from the capital, and connected with Tokio by a govern- ment English-built railroad, making hourly trips, and by steam craft on the bay (now for travel almost obsolete) . We have heretofore in brief made mention of this last port. It has absorbed the once rival city of Kanagawa hard by, on whose historic waters the war-ships of the great American Commodore Perry rode at anchor when on peaceful mission, and by skill ful and unselfish diplomacy, without the sound of a gun from his ships, he opened the closed gates of this old Hermit nation, shut against all, foreigners for three hundred years. It is a broad and secure harbor, and on the sea side has every appearance of an American or I European port. The next in size and importance are Kobe and Nagasaki. But we will tax our readers MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 103 with these geographical data only to say that all these principal cities are connected at this day by railways or by steamers or by old national overland highways like the " Tokio- ado" and the " Nakasendo," over which for centuries the trade of the nation was borne to the ocean and the armies of Japan marched in peace or war. These highways are still kept in perfect repair by the Government of the "Fus" or States through which they pass. Over them thousands of " ginrikishas," a sort of enlarged baby carriage, drawn and pushed by the athletic and swift-footed coolies, are constantly going and returning as if in the main streets in a great city. The coolies charge the passen- gers (they carry two) only twenty-five to thirty cents in silver for thirty miles, and bear their own expenses. CHAPTER XL EARTHQUAKES. f. 1 HIS chapter on the physical char- acteristics of Japan would be in- complete — the play of " Hamlet " with the Prince of Denmark left out — were we to fail in paying our respects to the earth- quakes of Japan. There are now eighteen active volcanoes in Japan, Asami and Yamei being the principal ones. They are the u escape" or "safety-valves" for the exit of gases and subterranean forces of the earth. Their origin and cause — all that curious and scientific discussion — we relegate to the Savants who have made a study of seismology in Japan. It will be our purpose briefly to tell our [1041 MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 105 readers of our forced introduction to these startling exhibitions of the volcano and earth- quake in action. To begin with, we were told by the most eminent scholar and professor in the Imperial University of Japan, and famed in science around the world (Prof. John Milne), that the center or radiating point of the earthquakes of Japan was about underneath the city of Tokio, where we proposed to reside during our ministry ! Until these unpleasant revela- tions we were in blissful ignorance of these terrible upheavals of nature save as gleaned from the tragic stories of Vesuvius and Her- culaneum and Pompeii, and the destruction of Lisbon, of a later age. But these even had faded away into a sort of romantic memory to awaken quickly when this great Professor said to us seriously, that with the coming of the winter-time the author would have ocular evi- 106 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. dence and demonstration that he was in Japan — quiet at intervals, like a lion chained to his cage, but anon leaping from the caverns of sea and earth, and shaking both, and threatening all living creatures therein with death ! Fortunately, these most destructive visitations come only three or four times in a hundred years. No scientific doctor can "diagnose" an earthquake, and tell from pre- ceding symptoms, the quiver of the earth or the restless waves of the sea, how mild or how terrific the shock is going to be, in the finale. And hence the only advice given to the "inno- cents" from "abroad" is at the first shake to make for the open, and neither to stand nor tarry on the order of his going ; stopping not a moment to arrange the toilet or gather gold and silver, but as he is, breaking all former records for speed, if possible, in rushing for the streets. These startling facts for the first MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 107 time were narrated to the writer, of course after his arrival in Japan. If it had been before our sailing from America, it might have been possi- ble if not probable, under the then untried political doctrine of "civil service reform," that our distinguished predecessor, who for thirteen years had honored himself and his country in that high station of American Embassador, might have been allowed to re- main undisturbed at the court of the Mikado. We have heretofore had occasion, when sea- sick and weary, to listen to recitals of good missionaries who had felt earthquakes, and assurances strong in the faith of the Master, of others who had never been in Japan, that they would welcome even an earthquake as the voice and act of God, and would "fear no evil." In the second year's winter of our stay in Japan, after frequent but mild exhibitions of these uncanny visitors, there came one of a 108 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. heroic character just before the dawn. It was one of those awful demonstrations which at the first rap at the door of the sleeper finds him awake and flying for his life to the sea- side. It was, fortunately, not destructive, but it was fully as demoralizing as the great earth- quake of 1855 m tn i s sam e city, where over one hundred thousand people lost their lives in a fearful upheaval. The earthquake is now on ! The great Legation building quivers like an aspen leaf, and quicker than ever before or since we rush to the quay. We found a pale-faced, ghostly- looking multitude who had just preceded us. They were robed in spotless white, and many on bended knees strove to appease the wrath of the gods of the earthquake and the storm. It was our first experience, the first move- ment in force of the "main army" in our front. (Has the reader ever felt one?) The MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 109 whole earth is shaking as if in a fit of ague, and reeling to and fro, seemingly, as a drunken man, and the high hills and loftier mountains appear to bow and swing like pendulums, while fancied explosions in the unfathomable earth below transfix the helpless men and women who couch in fear. [The Japanese afterwards told us that these supposed explo- sions were the crash and war of the tidal waves coming to the shore.] The air appeared to be filled with the smell of sulphur, the "fire and brimstone " of the old-folk lore of our ancient nurses, hushing us to silence. It seemed hours, but it was all over within the limits of twenty minutes. Thankful to Almighty God, we have reason to know that in a serious earthquake men ask His mercy who never did before. We feel now that the world is steadying* on its normal axis and righting itself as a ship and answering to the 10 110 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. helm of the pilot in the tempest of the ocean. It is over I The picture is not overdrawn. Human language becomes a beggar in finding words to express the sublime terror and awful exhibition of the power of the Almighty in the midst of such a scene in the Far East. Yet after the curtain drops on the tragedy, there are often humorous incidents that (only when the performance has closed) amuse the actors in the cast, looking backward. So it was in our experience. Looking up from our Legation and along the sea walls, we saw approaching us a distinguished American visi- tor and " globe-trotter," who greeted us smilingly, asking the wholly useless question, " How did you stand the earthquake?" He was our guest and had won his spurs in the Union army against the "Lost Cause," to which latter we had belonged, and we gave him credit for courage, but did not relish being MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. Ill taunted with such an inquiry at such a time ! We said to our friend, "That all our lives we had made it a rule never to laugh at a man's calamities or mock when his fear cometh. That if he would kindly tell us when and where his laugh came in, we would be hugely obliged." To this he made the generous "amende honor- able." "Excuse me, but my smile was in re- membering the dear old Christian missionary from our common country, who told you during the voyage and at the wreck of your ship, that ' trusting in the promises of the Redeemer, he was sure of being undisturbed in heart or hope in wrecks or earthquakes, or even at the jaws of death.' Well, it so happened that I knew this good man, then coming for the first time to Japan, away back in our boyhood. In the midst of this last terrible shake-up, coming down to your Legation, I heard a familiar voice rising above the moans and thunder of the 112 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. waves. He was in prayer on his 'ebeneezers,' right by the shore. These were his words, and in no spirit of sacrilege do I repeat them : ' Oh, God, look at the mountains ! Dost Thou not feel Thy foot-stool shaking to pieces ? and wilt Thou not help Thy poor servant in this awful hour? Oh, Almighty Power, if there ever was a time to show Thy mercy to a poor lost and helpless sinner, now is the time to show it! Come, come quickly, and come Yourself, and don't send Your Son, our Father, who art in heaven ! ' " Now," said our dis- tinguished guest, who confessed that he was badly disgruntled himself, " this is my apology for the 'smile,' and a discovery of the 'place where the lauorh comes in.' " o I Durinor this same conversation we heard the authentic story of an old captain and soldier who was visiting Japan, and who had been one of the few survivors of the "Irish Brigade.' ' MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 113 He followed Cardigan at Balaklava, and had lost a leg in that awful charge — " into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell," as Tennyson recites in his immortal battle-hymn. He had many times predicted that henceforth the word "fear" was not in his dictionary. The earth- quake came in his rear and on both flanks, with a demonstration of death and power to which Balaklava was a reed in a cyclone. Up he sprang and out he rushed, with a crutch and one leg, surpassing the record of any sprinter in Ireland. "What are you running for, Captain ? " said his friend, meeting him in the height of the convulsion. " Running ! I am running, sir, because I can't fly! " These incidents do not show the want of physical courage on the part of the soldier, nor a discount of the faith of the Christian. They are related only in illustration of the tempo- rarily demoralizing effects of these terrible 114 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. agencies alike on Jew and Gentile and the Christian disciple. Once during the last year of our mission, the British and American Legations, and some of the Cabinet of His Majesty, and thousands of other visitors, were spending the mid-summer on the heights of Nikko, the far-famed Baden- Baden of the Japanese and of the Imperial court. Here are the burying-places of the early Emperors and Shoguns, commemorated by temples splendid for magnificence and archi- tectural beauty, unsurpassed by any churches or cathedrals, St. Paul's or St. Peter's, or any other on the globe. We do not mean to com- pare them with the last-named churches in size, but in harmony of design and proportion. On this mountain the writer, his family, and Legation, and a number of others, in the sum- mer of 1888, early in the morning were stand- ing on the summit of the high peak, looking to QC MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 115 the far mountain ranges and to Fuji San, and at the dashing river, like a stream of mol- ten silver flowing at our feet, when an emi- nent Japanese statesman, who spoke English fluently, said, pointing to a mountain north of us, " That mountain you see about forty miles from this spot was eleven hundred years ago an active volcano ! Its name is ' Bon Di San.' For all these centuries since then it has been silent. It is about 6,000 feet high." While he was talking to us we noticed that the sea-birds and the land-birds and the storks (their national bird, as the American eagle to us) were flying over our heads, screaming, it seemed, as if in fear and terror. We noticed that the few dogs with us were on their haunches, howling mourn- fully. We asked our Japanese servant, " What does all this mean?" His quiet and careless reply in broken or " pigeon" English was, " Earthquake coming ! The bird and the 116 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. dog, he know first before ' Mellican man ' or Japanese man, when earthquake is acoming.' , Before we had time to reply to what we sup- posed was the craze of a crank, the trembling mountains and the swaying summits of other peaks around us and the sickening nausea produced by the drunken-motions, so to speak, of the mountains, told the story too truly that the "Jap" knew what was coming! The theory is that the finer and more delicate and sensitive nerves of the beast and bird feel the first and faint vibrations of the earth and the air and sea lone before the duller nerves of man. In the midst of this trembling we looked to the mountain, which we had been told was once an active volcano. It had been blown up from its base into the heavens, scattering its ashes and debris far inland and on the sea, and falling back its rocks and earth had covered forever from the eyes of man a village at its MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 117 base — a summer resort for bathing. It was lit- erally Herculaneum and Pompeii reinacted; that fallen debris of the mountain was the monument and mausoleum of the dead, to rescue whose remains no pick or spade or mortal agency was ever invoked, nor will be till the judgment-day. These incidents may not be attractive to our countrymen as they were not to us, yet as we recall them now, after nearly a decade, we shudder with mortal dread at the memory of their mystic and awful power, coming " like a thief in the night," to awaken only to destroy. Earthquakes and Asiatic cholera are the only dark spots on the otherwise fair picture of physi- cal Japan. They, however, do not frighten, much less appall, the Japanese. His supreme belief in eternal rest in " Nirvana " after death in the great hereafter, is the faith that supports him in peace or war, in life or death, hopeful and happy and absolutely without fear in the dissolution of life. CHAPTER XII. POLITICAL AND. EDUCATIONAL EVOLUTIONS OF JAPAN. mmim OR the more useful and practical purposes of these recitals, it is ~^i&$gk not necessary that the author should lead the reader backward through the traditions and mystic legends of thousands of years. It is proper, however, as a land-mark from which to reckon in these surveys of a remarkable history, to be reminded that Japan claims that its real national existence began five hundred and eighty-five years before the birth of Christ. Jimu Teno was the founder of the dynasty, and the present Mikado (1898) is the one hun- dred and twenty-first successor, without a miss- [118] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 119 ing link in the long chain of that imperial house. This dynasty traces through the ages past its birth-day back to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. According to the State religion the present dynasty sprang from the Gods. The title of "Teno" has been borne by every Mikado for over two thousand years. Accord- ing to their pagan calculations, the Japanese dynasty goes back ten thousand years before Jimu Teno, when, quoting the words of the present Emperor on his ascending the throne, " When our divine ancestors laid the foundation of the earth." Of course all this is part of the tradition of a false pagan mythology. In 1 192, the eighty-second Mikado invested Yoritomo at Kamakura with the chief military power, the Mikado still reigning as the spiritual ruler. The Government henceforth became a dual power, and the Shoguns title was heredi- tary, and the Feudal system was organized by 120 THE UNITED STATES IJST THE FAR EAST. royal decree. For many centuries, and until after the first American treaty with Japan in 1854, the Shogun (or Tycoon) was a real active ruler of Japan. He organized the country into Fus and Kens, or States, and over each placed Dimaios or princess, who were feudal lords, and with their retainers, the "Samrai," constituted the armed military reserve of the Empire. The Mikado was never seen save by his royal household, but was the spiritual, in- fallible Emperor, whose commands the Tycoons and Dimaios were compelled to obey under penalty of death. The power of life and death was absolutely in his hands. There was then no written code, civil or criminal. It was the "lex non scripta " of the Shoguns or the Diamios that controlled in the judicial tribunals, where ''precedents" did not govern and were never invoked, and from whose decisions there was no appeal. And yet down through all these Samurai. The Soldier of Japan in days of the Shoguns. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 121 dark ages there was no domestic treason or revolts against the crown, and there was abso- lute devotion to the dynasty, and the millions of subjects loved peace and abhorred war, save in defense of Japan. Such was their record far in advance of any other Asiatic Power up to the date of the first American treaty. But it may be further said to the credit of this people, that, though in the midst of superstitions in state and paganism in church, they never waged unjust war for conquest against neigh- boring nations. Thus, centuries ago, in her first great conflict with China, on account of Formosa and Corea, Japan fought in defense of violated treaties, and while triumphant, was generous and humane to the vanquished, absolutely giving autonomy to Corea instead of chaining her as a captive to her chariot wheels. The new era of Japan began in the year of 11 122 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. our Lord, 1854. Like the fabled Delos rising from the waves of the sea, Japan commenced to rise from that good hour to a higher and yet higher plane, and to a loftier and nobler emi- nence of national life. For over three hundred years she had been the hermit of Asiatic nations. With a toleration of spirit and good neighborli- ness indeed, for over three centuries, antedating the first American treaty of amity and commerce, she had opened her ports, as well as the inte- rior from the mountains to the sea, to people from all foreign lands, and bade them welcome, as if " native and to the manner born." The Dutch came and with their ships reaped a rich commercial harvest of trade, and at Nagasaki built the first factories and mills. From the other nations of Europe, from France and Spain and Russia and Italy came, likewise, traders, and later came the religious order of the Jesuits. The latter built splendid cathe- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 123 drals and temples, and thousands of the natives acknowledged Christ, and turned away from the pagan worship of Buddha, and of the faith of their fathers. For all this propogandism there was absolute toleration by the Japanese State. The priest- hood, the bishops and archbishops of the Jesuit arm of the " Mother Church" of Rome, so the native historians of Japan inform us, after centuries of protection, began to interfere with the temporal and political power of the Empire, suggesting new concessions and de- manding a representative voice in the State, as well as "bulls" against the national church of Japan. To all this the Emperor and the princess and priesthood of Buddha at first only kindly protested. These protests were una- vailing and added fuel to the flames of fanati- cism which there, as in former ages, stained the world's history with bloody war. Falsely this 124 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. has been done in the name of Jesus of Naza- reth, whose divine mission on earth was her- alded by angels with the immortal song of " Peace on earth and good will to men." The terrible illustration "that extremes meet" was at hand when over 100,000 con- verts to Jesuitism, native and foreign born, were tortured to death. The attempted political propogandism of the Jesuit missionaries was met by the fagot and the sword. This fearful religious crusade against Christianity became so intense that in 1636, the Emperor issued his decree that even the images of the Saviour and of the Cross, whether in coin or paintings of cathedrals, should be periodically desecrated and trampled under pagan foot. Therefore for three centuries succeeding, the gates of this old Empire were closed — grimly and se- curely closed — against the people of all other lands under the sun. Their "bulls" against MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 125 Christianity continued in force even until the year 1854, when the great American Commo- dore and diplomat, persuaded Japan, with war ships in port, to open those gates of exclusion to all Christian nations. This treaty and those similar to it, negotiated by England, France, Germany, Russia, and Portugal, following the leadership of the United States in solemn form, and by mutual stipulations, opened the ports of Kanagawa (now Yokohama), Hakodoti, and Shimoda to foreign commerce. In 1858, the additional ports of Hiogo, Kobe, Osaca, and Neigata were opened also to foreign commerce. * These treaties we cannot amplify in detail, we shall mention them for the purpose of marking distinctly the wonderful changes since that day in the political and onward march of Japan. These treaties all provided for what diplomats and publicists term "extra-territori- ality." That is to say : 126 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST i st. Japan agreed to open certain of her sea ports to the Powers designated in the treaties for commercial intercourse. 2d. That as to this trade, there should be no invidious discriminations in favor of or against any one nation over another. In other words, the " favored nation clause " was inserted in all of these treaties. 3d. Within a designated area, or "conces- sion" including these treaty ports, foreigners might buy and sell and ship and receive the Japanese products of the field or farm or fac- tory, on the same free conditions as the natives could. Under these provisions, the foreign subject or citizen could only pass beyond the limits of the treaty concession into the interior by a passport of the Japanese Government, countersigned by the Minister of the Treaty Power. But he could not trade, buy or sell while in said interior, nor reside permanently MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 127 for any purpose whatever. One rare exception was made in the treaties of 1858, that missiona- ries of any religion were not to be prohibited from preaching to the natives. 4th. On the other hand, the Treaty Powers exacted from Japan that their citizens or sub- jects while in Japanese territory, for any al- leged violations of their civil or criminal law, where the Emperor or any of his subjects was a party, whether complaining or defending, could be tried only before the Consul of the Treaty Power of which the foreign party was a subject, with appeal to his Minister as a court of last resort. To illustrate to the unprofes- sional reader : If an American citizen in Japan, for instance, should be charged with burglary or robbery or murder, or any other crime, he could be arrested on oath of Japanese subjects before a Japanese court, but his trial could be held only before an American Consular court, 128 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. and would be conducted solely under the laws and penalties of the United States. A prince or a lord of Japan and of the royal family might be murdered or robbed by an American or British subject, yet no Japanese court or tribunal under these treaties dare assume jurisdiction to try the case. And so likewise with civil causes, involving often in the tea and silk trade, hundreds of thousands of dollars in admiralty and otherwise. To all their civil complaints, when the Japanese sues or defends, their courts were compelled to be silent. We amplify these provisions of the treaties because out of them grow the memorable contentions of succeeding years, involving the question of Japan's capacity for self-government, and the revision of the treaties. 5th. These treaties provided for the absolute ex parte imposition and regulation of all tariffs on exports from treaty nations to Japan by the MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 129 said foreign Powers. Without taxing our readers with the tedious lists and rates of duty on such exports, which are found in the tariff tables, these unjust and invidious iron-clad pro- visions were so rivetted in these treaties that, from the date of their ratification in 1854 and 1858, Japan was prohibited from charging at her own custom-houses more than five per cent, advalorem on any exports into Japan from any foreign nation, or its equivalent in "specific duties," calculated on the same basis or standard of valuation. There was no agree-' ment or restriction that the Treaty Powers should not impose on Japanese exports any higher duties than Japan imposed on the foreign imports. Thus while the boasted Christian Powers claimed that their denial to Japan of criminal jurisdiction to try foreign violators of her laws was because Japan was a pagan and heathen nation, they forgot the 130 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAB EAST. Christians' "Golden Rule," to "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you"; that, in the forum of justice or in the market- place, there should be no higher exaction of the pagan than of the Christian. The Christian Power that with Shylock de- mands his money or blood, follows the cold letter of the "Bond," but crucifies the divine spirit of the Master. And such was the forced tariff impositions on Japan. It is the role of the highwayman, who, with the knife at your throat, demands "your money or your life." There was at the time of these treaty negotiations some excuse for withhold- ing from non-Christian Powers the right to sit in judgment on the persons and property, the liberty and lives of the subjects of said Chris- tian Powers. At that darker age of their national life there were no written constitutions and laws, and the one-man power often de- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 131 stroyed liberty and life, without what civilized nations called "due process of law." But the argument does not and cannot apply to commerce, or the barter and trade of the world's market-places in any age. The pagan and the infidel, by natural or revealed religion, has the same heaven-born right to receive equal and exact justice as the Christian from enlightened lands. Honesty among nations is not to be measured by the orthodox or hetero- dox standards of cults and creeds. The treaties compelled Japan to admit all the commerce of treaty nations to her custom-houses, imposing no higher duty than five per cent, advalorem, while Japan's manufactured goods and wares, silks and distilled " saki," going to treaty ports, were subjected to a tariff often as high as ioo to 150 per centum advalorem. The "Golden Rule" of the Christian nations, good in theory, was murdered in cold blood in practice in the marts of trade of the Far East. CHAPTER XIII. JAPAN AWAKES FROM THE SLEEP OF AGES; ENTERS THE RACE FOR THE HIGHER CIVILIZATION. NLIKE all other non-Christian nations, Japan cut loose her ship then and there — in 1854 — from the moorings of old superstitions, and ventured on a voyage of discovery over unknown waters to the ports of the nations of the West. She sent a diplomatic embassy of thirty-five of her most eminent subjects, princes and lords and counts and field-marshals, representing the civic and military power of the Empire, to Europe and America to see for themselves, and for the first time, the political and industrial institutions and constituent elements of foreign armies and navies. In a word, they were ordered to brave [132] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 133 the perils of the sea — not on a "junketing" tour, nor as "Paul Prys," with idle curiosity to gratify, but on a serious mission, seeking what- ever was good in the West in the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of govern- ments ; to study their laws, and their systems of education ; their internal improvements of the rail or of the factory, the mill or the mine ; of finance and the peaceful arts of agriculture ; in a word, to study and compare them with their own crude and impracticable systems of political government and their modes of so-called education, with no advance for a thousand years. The reception in 1855,- extended by the United States at the Capital by the President and the American Congress, to this friendly embassy of Japan, is within the memory of living men. It was a strange and unique incident in the 134 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. world's history, that of the oldest nation, per- haps, of the globe, seeking and praying unto the West for light and guidance out of the night — into the sunlight of a better and brighter day of national life. It was the Old East, where the cradle of the race was rocked, extending her sun-browned hands of friendship in grati- tude to the distant and mighty West. It was an appropriate and chivalrous acknowledgment of America's generous treatment of Japan in the time of her trial thus to make their first visit of state to the American Capital. It was the realization of the prophetic dream of the poet; that "one touch of human kindness makes the whole world kin." Our readers must not be mislead into the belief that this old Empire was then or had been for ages bar- barian. She had adopted centuries before this time, the ancient learning of China and the philosophy of Confucius, a civilization sui- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 135 generis, in which painting and sculpture — in marble and bronze, and the science of mathe- matics, and astronomy, and hydraulic engineer- ing — were in these far back times, voiced in the ideographic characters of China, or by their own. They were not " barbarians." Hence this imperial embassy took notes and copies of all that was good and better than existed in their own country, and brought back faithful reports of their great mission. The echoes of this embassy's work, have been heard for nearly forty years, and in their finances, postal, mili- tary and naval educational institutions, and law and statesmanship, America's impress is seen everywhere as clear as the day. 12 CHAPTER XIV. FREE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES OF JAPAN. -j/JTm\\NI^ of the earliest and noblest \ ^L^F I results of this memorable visit &^±j&£/ of her representative men to the West was the organization of the university and public school systems. The systems so adopted, were modelled mostly after the early New England public schools by the famous Japanese scholar and diplomat — Count Mori — with the added compulsory features of the Prussian national schools of that day. Into their free public schools, every child from the age of seven to fourteen was com- pelled to go. The curriculum is not selected by the parent or guardian, but prescribed by the [136J MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 137 educational bureaus of the Empire. Having, of course, no teachers of her own educated in the learning of the West at that time, Japan sent to all of the Treaty Powers in quest of the most eminent scholars of America and Europe ; to the great universities of Harvard and Yale and Columbia of America, and to denomi- national Christian colleges, and to Oxford and Cambridge of England ; the polytechnic schools of France, and the famed universities of the German " Fatherland." These foreign scholars were employed at salaries often thrice the com- pensation received in their native lands. Thus, first through interpreters, and afterwards hav- ing acquired the native language, these learned 3avants organized their schools of science, of law and medicine, and engineering, and of literature, political as well as national, in all the departments of the highest mental culture. In the last one-third of a century, since the 138 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. first American treaty, Japan has built her own imperial universities, endowed by the Emperor, the equal of many of the great institutions of Europe or America. Their colleges of civil engineering have been pronounced unsur- passed by the most distinguished American engineers. General Upton of the Union Army of the " Civil War," himself a distinguished civil engineer, after the most thorough inspec- tion, said to his great chief, General Grant : "in my observations of the best schools of engineering of Europe and of our country, Japan's school of engineering compares most favorably with any of them." The canals and railways of the Empire and public works, requiring a knowledge of civil or hydraulic engineering, are now all built under the superintendence of native engineers, graduates of the national schools of their own country. Their " National Observatory" is MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 139 now controlled by Japanese scholars and as- tronomers, and their reports are quoted as authority around the world. Their medical schools in their early organization, had the guiding hand of the most learned men of medi- cal science in all departments for thirty years. And so their law schools, a part of the National University, are a marvel and a surprise to the visitors and ministers of all civilized nations, who witness the progress of " Young Japan," in the learning- of the laws and the elements of enlightened political government. The writer, in 1888, at the request of the Minister of Justice (the same as our Attorney- General), was invited to attend the Imperial University Law Department, where over one thousand bright young men were studying what they denominated " Anglo-American Law " preparatory to entering the practice of law in their own courts. Most of the students 140 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. could speak English and could read in the Japanese tongue the translations of the stand- ard works of the great American and English jurists and their decisions. In that Oriental law school, we heard the opinions of Mansfield and John Marshall, the greatest of English and American jurists, read and discussed learnedly in faultless English. Many of their most learned lawyers and judges had been educated in the law schools of the United States, and of England and the continent, and many of their scholarly men during the last third of this cen- tury, have been educated at the best schools of science and of medicine and engineering, and of art of America and Europe. So solid, and yet so rapid, had beer the advance of Japan along all these lines, that her history since Commodore Perry's day and since the restoration of the Mikado, sounds like the stories of old romance. With all this wonder- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 141 ful development and intellectual and national growth that challenged competition with the Treaty Powers, the brightest coloring to this thrilling race to the front has been the exercise of a catholic spirit of generosity and unselfish toleration in Church and State to her own and to the subjects of all friendly foreign lands. Their patriotism is without a parallel in the history of nations. When the Shogun was dethroned, after a fierce and bloody conflict, the Imperial Government granted full pardon to the many thousands of its rebellious sub- jects, including alike the prince and the coolie, and many of them, as the writer can testify, hold at this hour some of the highest positions of trust and honor in the Empire. In 1869, all the princes or Diamos volun- tarily yielded up their feudal rights to the Emperor. In making this patriotic sacrifice, these noblemen declared "that their single 142 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. object was to raise the national standing by perpetuating the centralization of power in the Imperial Government, and thereby enabling the Empire to take its place side by side with the other civilized nations of the world ! " No longer hermit, the Emperor has broken through the old superstitions of the past that hedged him around as a god, and moves among his devoted and loyal subjects with the heart of a man, while wearing the crown of a king. With ambassadors at the courts of £very civilized nation, and consulates to guard the friendly commerce which is exchanged with them all around the globe ; with merchant marine by steam and sail on every sea and with mighty modern battle-ships, with a grow- ing commercial wealth ; with light-houses to warn of dangerous coasts ; with telegraphs on land and cables under the ocean ; with an army and navy ranking alongside those of the great MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 143 military powers, cherishing the good-will of all nations, Japan recognizes by deed rather than by word, that "peace hath her victories no less renown'd than war." Out of all this progress has grown to be recognized by imperial power the nobler man- hood of man, without reference to class or caste. The farmer or mechanic, or shepherd among his flocks, may aspire to win the highest prizes of fame and power and usefulness in the Empire by patriotism and personal worth. CHAPTER XV. THE WOMANHOOD OF JAPAN. UT the capstone of the temple was the recognition of the equality and the subsequent elevation of the womanhood of Japan to the level of man- hood in education and in the social life. For ages, woman in Japan occupied a com- paratively inferior position in the social scale. She was never, as among the savage Indians of the West, required to perform the drudgery of menial labor in the home, in the chase or in the field. But she could aspire to no higher development than motherhood and the cradle and the home. Her culture of the old-time, and until the American treaty, consisted in thrumming the " samisen " and guitar to the [144] A Famous ' ' Belle ' ' of Japan. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 145 weird notes of sad and mediaeval music, or in spinning and weaving the native silks, or beautifying them with the richest embroidery and tapestry, and " needle-painting " of birds and flowers, with blended colors, famous around the globe. But her enforced sphere was her humble bamboo home, and above the spinning and the weaving and the delicate and tasteful embroidery of her gentle hands, and the music, and her duties of motherhood, and the love of her children, and her worship of her liege lord and master — above these limits her aspirations could not rise. Yet notwithstanding her inferior position there was a chivalrous devotion of the father and husband to his wife, and a love for their children equal to and surpassing, if that were possible, the domestic attachments of the home- life of our Christian lands of the West 146 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. Her educational privileges in the public schools are now on the same plane with those of her brothers, and higher colleges, especially established for the mental training and educa- tion of the daughters of the Empire, are now wide open to her. The schools and colleges of all the great Christian denominations, in charge of educated and devoted Christian mis- sionaries, have also been for many years receiving and teaching the daughters of Japan, alike of the nobles and of the peasants. In the music of the West and in modern art, she, like her brother, has advanced far to the front, almost abreast with her " pale-faced sisters" of the Occident. Japanese women have, like their brothers, in the search for a higher intellectual life, for a third of a century drunk freely of the fountains of knowledge of Western lands, for ages denied to their mothers. Indeed, on this long night of MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 147 her past the sun of civilization has arisen and advanced far toward the noon of a better day for Japan. Their Ambassadors to Europe and America at the great Republican or Imperial Courts are often accompanied by their cultured wives. The writer was associated for years with a dis- tinguished American citizen, then, from 1885 to 1890, one of the secretaries of his own Lega- tion, and afterwards United States Minister to Japan (the Honorable Edwin Dunn, of Ohio), whose beautiful and cultivated wife was a daughter of one of the noble houses of the Empire. Only one Japanese woman bears an English title. She is Lady Arnold, wife of Sir Edwin Arnold, author of "The Light of Asia." Lady Arnold is a typical Japanese beauty. It is dif- ficult to reproduce her charm by western pho- tography or art. Her family name is Kurotawa 148 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Tama, which, being translated, means " jewel of the dark river." She was born at Sendal, Japan, on "November 21, 1869. Her family is a noble and ancient one, even in a land where families measure their antiquity by a thousand years and more. Sir Edwin Arnold, who is a knight com- mander of the Order of the Indian Empire, passed the greater part of his life in the civil service in India. After his official career was completed he spent some years in visiting the less known countries of the East. He tarried in Japan, which had not then acquired its great popularity as a happy hunting-ground for trav- elers, or its political importance, due to the result of the war with China. Sir Edwin was largely responsible for familiarizing the people of England and America with "The Land of Rising Sun." To him in a great measure we owe Japanese furniture and Japanese vocations. t 3 5 13 MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 149 He wrote the most sympathetic and enthusiastic descriptions of Japanese beauty that have ever appeared in English. No woman, he said, sur- passed the Japanese for loveliness, gentleness, and all truly feminine qualities. Then it was announced that he intended to wed a Japanese maiden. His family protested. It was reported for a time that the marriage was off, but Sir Edwin stood firm, and wedded his Japanese beauty. Several of the most beautiful short poems written by Sir Edwin are descriptive of the sweet, delicate charms of his girlish bride, for she appears to be but a delicate flower. He is most devotedly attached to the wife in whom he has found an ideal. The Arnold residence is rich in oriental decorations and furniture, but the more substantial household gods of the Occident are not overlooked. Lady Arnold, in the privacy of her house- hold, wears the kimona and the other graceful 150 THE UNITED STATES IN THE EAR EAST. articles of attire of her native land. On her public appearances in society and when pre- siding in her own drawing-room, she wears the conventional costumes of London. Lady Arnold is gaining great social popularity in England. , Many years ago during Count Mori's career as Japanese Minister and Consul General to the United States, a Japanese maiden of noble family, then in her early teens, with others from the "Far East," was placed at the famous American college of Vassar on the Hudson, to be educated. She remained there for years, and won the highest honors in a large class of American girls. During that long stay, she nearly forgot her native tongue, learned to love our country, and felt as if " native and to the manner born." Returning to her native land, she was the reigning belle and the most beau, tiful woman of Japan. Her heart and hand MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 151 were sought by the bravest and noblest in station and blood of the Empire. She became the wife of General Count Oyama, then the Minister for War, who had won fame in the great rebellion of Saigo and Satsuma. This noble countess dispensed in their splendid palace, magnificent and refined hospitality. The writer and his wife, and Lady, Plunkett, herself American born, have many a time en- joyed the hospitalities of this cultured woman. In the late war with China, her husband, still the War Minister, became a field marshal, and was the great leader with General Yamagata and others. Combining the strategy and the dash alike of Sheridan and "Stonewall" Jackson, he aided in bringing a nation of 500,000,000 people to the ashes of defeat. Countess Oyama was the second vice-president of the "Red Cross" Society (her Majesty, the Em- press of Japan, being the first president). 152 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. These are types only of what this wonderful development, this glorious progress of the in- dividual and national life has done and is doing for Japan's womanhood. Political Advancement. From the " Old Japan " of the ages past the shackles of political and largely of religious superstitions have been stricken to the earth, and the press has become as free as in France or Germany or Russia, and has grown to be a political factor in this progress of the "New Japan." Codes and courts on Western models, and a constitutional form of government with parliamentary representations, have followed in the wake without sudden or violent shocks in the transition. The author's official life -in Japan was, fortunately, co-temporary with the organization of Japan's modern judicial and parliamentary Typical Japanese Beauty of the Higher Classes. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 153 systems, civil and criminal, and the discussions relating to the proposed changes of her political institutions. The first most important event of that era was the creation of a national " deliberative body" without direct representation, whose object was to ascertain the wishes of the people for definite action by the Imperial Counsel of State. In 1875, tne Emperor, from his throne, uttered the following remarkable proclamation : " We have ordered the assembling of the repre- sentatives from the various provinces of the Empire, to ascertain and best consult the public interests, and to determine the wisest administration. We hope by these means to secure the happiness of our subjects and of ourself. And, while they must necessarily abandon many of their former customs, yet they must not on the other hand yield too impulsively to a rash desire to reform." Six years later, in 1881, followed, in fullness of time and promise, the still more important event in the reign of the present Emperor, 154 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. when he issued the decree for the establish- ment of a Constitutional Government. It was in these words : Imperial Decree. " We, sitting on the throne which has been occupied by our dynasty for over 2,500 years, and now exercising in our own name and right the authority and power transmitted to us by our ancestors, have long had it in view to establish a constitutional form of government, to the end that our successors on the throne may be provided with a rule for their guidance. * " * We, therefore, hereby declare that in the twenty-third year of Meiji (1890) we will establish a parliament in order to carry into effect the determination we have announced ; and we charge our faithful subjects bearing our commissions to make in the meantime all necessary preparations to that end." The great event heretofore briefly outlined, naturally invoked autonomy and independent self-government. CHAPTER XVI. THE REVISION OF THE TREATIES PART OF HERE- TOFORE UNPUBLISHED HISTORY. [§J^\\N th e first day of May, 1886, the delegates from all the Treaty Powers met at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at Tokio, the capital of Japan, by virtue of the following official protocol : " The Government of Japan and the Governments of Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, the Swiss Confederation, and the United States of America, respectively, recognizing the desirability of arriving at a common understanding with the object of completing the work of the revision of the treaties begun in the Preliminary Conference of 1882, have appointed plenipotentiaries to represent them at a new Conference convoked by the Japanese Government for this purpose." [155J 156 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. To this protocol was signed the names of all the delegates embraced therein. His Excel- lency Count Inouye, the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, by unanimous approval of all the Treaty Powers, was made the President of the Conference. This eminent statesman, who had presided with signal ability over the pre- liminary Conference of 1882, and the Premier, then Count (now Marquis) Ito, have been called respectively the Bismarck and the Gladstone of Japan. That last Conference was a memorable assemblage, worthy of the great Powers that it represented. The personnel of that picture would have been all the great nations of the earth, empanelled and sitting as a jury, with Japan pleading her own cause, asking not for mercy but for jus- tice, even-handed justice, at the judgment-seat of the younger Powers. The author, as heretofore recited, repre- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 157 sented his government in that Conference. In the cause of truth concerning that Con- ference which held its sessions for nearly three years, and whose transactions are largely a " sealed book" to the American and European public, we shall freely appeal to an impartial record now only to be found in the archives of Japan and of the Treaty Powers, and in the possession of the individual delegates who sat in that International Conference. The United States has much to gain and nothing to lose by that record. The proceedings were in the French and English languages — Japan, Great Britian, the United States, Austria, the Netherlands, and Portugal, electing the English ; and France and Germany and Belgium, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland, electing the French language. For centuries in European courts, as all the world knows, the French has been recognized 158 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. as the " court language." The court language now follows the flag under whose folds the commerce of the world mostly floats and is protected. England and the United States, the great English-speaking peoples, command not only with Japan and the Orient, but else- where a major part of the world's export and import trade. Henceforth, therefore, the English language will be the official language of the courts, as it is now of the world's exchanges. The Presi- dent (Count Inouye) Foreign Minister, opened the Conference with the following address : " The Conference which has assembled to-day, has for its object the revision of the existing trea- ties, and the conclusion of a Convention which shall for many years regulate the intercourse be- tween Japan and the Western Powers. "The Conference of 1882, which was called for the purpose of establishing the basis for the revision of the treaties, was a success in so far as it enabled the Imperial Government to point out, clearly, various i£» > t r Count Inouye, Minister of Foreign Affairs. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 159 desirable reforms — notably, the reform of jurisdic- tion, and to declare its liberal policy in regard to the opening of the whole country to foreign trade and intercourse. The proposition then submitted by the Imperial Government in this respect, did not meet with the full concurrence of the Treaty Powers; but the discussion on commercial matters led to a satisfactory result. A counter proposition of a tariff prepared by the foreign delegates, has been accepted by the Imperial Government, and the questions of tonnage-dues and the charter of for- eign vessels have been agreed upon ' en principe? "As you are all aware, the object which this first Conference had in view — namely, the formation of a basis for the revision of the treaties, was attained only after prolonged negotiations between our re- spective governments. The various points under consideration were embodied in the Memorandum of August, 1884, which I am happy to say has been accepted by all the governments represented at this Conference, either as a basis, or at least as a 1 point d'appui.' "In preparing, therefore, the drafts of the propo- sitions, which I shall have the honor to submit to you, I have been guided by this Memorandum, and you will find that I have been able in nearly every point to adhere to the spirit by which it was dic- tated. 14 160 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. "I regret that so much time has been taken up in the preparation of these documents, but I am happy to think that this time has not been spent in vain, for the study of the complicated judicial questions involved has produced corresponding reforms in Japanese legislation. I assure you, gentlemen, that the Imperial Government is fully aware of the re- sponsibilities which will be incurred by it if the modifications proposed in the system of jurisdic- tion over foreigners in this Empire are carried out. "I now beg leave to submit to you printed copies of the drafts which the Japanese Government has prepared, and which I recommend to your earnest and careful consideration. "The interest which we all, in common, have in the development of intimate relations and a prosperous commerce between this Empire and Western nations will, I permit myself to believe, be a guarantee that the great difficulties which naturally present themselves in dealing with the question before us may be overcome, having regard more especially to the equitable and conciliatory spirit by which we are animated. "I trust you will not lose sight of the fact that you, as the representatives of Western civilization, are called upon to pronounce judgment upon the pro- gress of this country, and that your decision will demonstrate to the world whether or not the policy MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 161 which this government and nation have been pur- suing since the time of the restoration, has suc- ceeded in producing a feeling of confidence and sympathetic approbation among the nations, which you represent, such as to justify the adoption of a system different from that which has hitherto pre- vailed. "Gentlemen, I bid you a most hearty welcome, and echoing the sentiment of my august sovereign, I permit myself to entertain the confident hope that the Conference so auspiciously commenced, will be productive of a result beneficial alike to the in- terests of the Treaty Powers and of the nation I have the honor to represent." All the Treaty Powers were represented in that Conference. England, Germany, and Japan had two delegates each. The United States, France, Russia, Italy, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, Den- mark, Belgium, and Switzerland, were severally represented by their accredited Ministers, with plenipotentiary powers. As the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Japan 162 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. had announced, this Conference had been in- voked to consider the revision of all the various treaties which had been negotiated between that country and Foreign Powers since 1854. There had been a Preliminary Conference in 1882, which, as stated by the President of the Conference of 1886 and 1887, had been successful so far as it enabled the Imperial Government to point out clearly desirable reforms, notably of jurisdiction, and to declare its liberal policy in regard to the opening of the whole country (of Japan) to foreign trade and intercourse. The proposi- tion then submitted as a finality in that respect failed to receive the concurrence of all the Treaty Powers. The discussion of 1882, on commercial mat- ters, did lead, however, to a satisfactory result at the time, and a " counter proposition " of a tariff prepared by the foreign delegates was MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 163 accepted by Japan. That counter proposition of a revised tariff could not be made final and effective in a convention or treaty until a similar unanimous agreement had been reached on the matter of jurisdiction by Japan over foreign citizens or subjects and the consequent opening of the entire Empire to foreigners for residence and trade. This revision remained in statu quo until 1884, when Japan embodied in a now historic Memorandum all the points considered as fait accompli in 1882, and, as a basis for the subsequent adoption of 1886, those which in 1882, had lacked concurrent adoption. That Memorandum was accepted by all the governments now represented in this Con- ference. (For convenient reference and more intelligent understanding of these most impor- tant questions, the author refers the reader to the various protocols and memoranda relating to tariff and jurisdictional regulations attached to this volume.) 164 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. The author promises his readers to relieve them of the details of the discussions and pro- ceedings of the Conference, holding sessions for over three years, and reported literally (then under the seal of " executive sessions") as they occurred, in volumes larger than the Congressional Registers at Washington. The author fully recognizes the dignity and impor- tance of a body of representatives of all the civilized nations, and the first of that character ever convened for such a purpose by mutual consent in the world's history Our main object, however, while meting impartial justice to all, is to give to our own countrymen the part which the United States played on that diplomatic stage, where every other Power was watching its own chances with friendly jealousy to win an equal, if not the "lion's share" of the rapidly-growing trade of Japan and of the Orient. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 165 The early discussion of this Conference was : 1st. On the revision of the tariffs ; and 2d. The matter of Japan's civil and criminal jurisdiction over the persons and property of foreign subjects or citizens. We have already briefly adverted to the fact - that the earliest as well as the subsequent treaties with Japan reserved the iron-clad pre- rogative to the Treaty Powers of determining for Japan what tariffs or import duties she should be allowed to impose on the commerce of foreign nations ; and we have also outlined the substance of the same treaties, positively forbidding any judicial tribunals of Japan from assuming any jurisdiction whatever in civil or criminal matters in contentions arising between the Government of Japan or her subjects and a foreign subject in civil or criminal suit, and relegating all such trials to the Consular Court of the Treaty Powers exclusively. 166 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. This brief recital is a summary of the sub- stance of the old Convention, to revise which, both in jurisdiction and tariff taxation, was the sole object of the Conference of 1882 and of 1885. When in May, 1886, this body con- vened, the subjects first discussed were the project of the Revised Tariff of 1882, the Memo- randum of 1884, and the Revised Convention of 1886, prepared by the delegates of Japan. For these drafts England, by Sir Francis Plunkett, and Germany, by Baron Von Hol- leben, their respective and able Ministers Plenipotentiary, offered a substitute relating to the future jurisdictional powers of Japan, which was accepted by the Japanese Government as the substitute for all former projects. We have given the substance of the Tariff Project of 1882, which, with the Memorandum of 1884, constituted the text and subject-matter of the important and often exciting debates MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 167 which followed. In that Conference, the new Tariff Revised Project authorized Japan to im- pose and collect a tariff ad valorem from ten to twenty per cent, higher than she was permitted to impose under the then existing treaties of 1854 and 1858, and also recognized her sover- eign right to impose duties on her exports to foreign countries. The matter of jurisdiction and the opening of the interior of Japan to foreign trade and residence involved an entire and radical change of existing treaties. They denied and still deny any exercise of jurisdiction over foreign- ers by Japan and their residence beyond treaty ports and concessions. We deem it, therefore, necessary at this point to give a full text of that proposed Convention. It is as follows, as it appears in the official protocol, not heretofore published : 168 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. ARTICLE I. The Imperial Japanese Government agrees to open the whole Empire to foreigners within two years after ratification of this treaty, and to place them on the same footing as natives in every re- spect, unless the present treaty or subsequent Con- vention, which may hereafter be agreed upon, should contain anything to the contrary, * * * subjects shall enjoy the right to travel freely in the Empire, to reside there, to carry on commerce and industry, and to acquire and hold real and personal property. ARTICLE II. The Imperial Japanese Government agrees to organize a constitution of the law courts of the Empire in accordance with Western principles and the provisions of this Convention, and to carry into effect the following codification by the time named in Article I. These codes are : 1. Criminal Law. 2. Criminal Procedure. 3. Civil Law. 4. Commerce, Shipping, and the Law of Bills of Exchange. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 169 5. Civil Procedure. 6. Procedure in the questions contained under No. 4. 7. Bankruptcy Laws. Moreover, the Police Laws and Regulations actually in force shall be, as far as possible, col- lected. ARTICLE III. The Imperial Japanese Government agrees to remit to the * * * Government the authorized text in the English language of the constitution of the law courts and of the codification enumerated under Article II., not later than six months previous to the term fixed in Article I., namely, eighteen months subsequent to the ratification of the treaty. In the same manner the Imperial Japanese Government agrees to bring to the knowledge of the * * ■ * Government all alterations intended in these laws six months before they come into force. ARTICLE IV. From the time named in Article I., the * * * Government will confinetheir Consular jurisdiction to the treaty limits of Tokio, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaca, Nagasaki, and Hakodate, and all * * * 170 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST subjects outside are subjected to the Japanese jurisdiction. ARTICLE V. In respect to the civil law suits in which * * * subjects outside the above-named treaty limits take part as plaintiff or defendant, and in respect to the criminal offenses with which * * * subjects outside treaty limits may be charged, the following special stipulations shall come into force : A. * * * subjects shall have the privilege that their civil law suits, in which the amount involved, or the value of the object in dispute exceeds ioo yen, shall at once be brought before the Courts of Second Instance. B. The same rule shall apply in all cases where " :: " * subjects are charged with a delict or crime. C. In the cases under A and B the court exer- cising jurisdiction shall be composed, in numerical majority, of judges of foreign nationality. The institution of such a civil action, or the pre- liminary examination of such a criminal process, shall be under the direction of a judge of foreign nationality. D. The official language of these courts, besides Japanese, shall be the English language. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 171 E. In case courts with juries are introduced, the cases where * * * subjects are prose- cuted shall be conducted with a jury composed of a majority of foreigners. F. The trial must be conducted in public. G. In every Superior Court competent interpre- ters are to be provided. H. Whenever a * * * subject is charged with a criminal offense, he shall be provided with an advocate conversant with the language of the court. /. In such cases a foreigner appointed for this purpose shall exercise the function of public prose- cutor. K. Care shall also be taken that every court shall be provided with competent advocates. L. The subjects of capital charges and execution shall be reserved for special arrangements. M. Special provisions for the confinement of foreign prisoners shall be made, and communicated to the * * * Government at the same time as the codes mentioned in Article II. N. There shall be an appeal to the highest court from all decisions given in pursuance of the above stipulations. 0. In respect to the composition of the court (which decides upon the appeal) and as regards procedure, defense, public prosecution, etc., the 172 THE UNTTED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. stipulations made for the courts of Second Instance shall be equally applicable. P. From the decisions of the highest court there shall be an appeal on questions of law to a special court composed of judges of the highest court. The stipulations with regard to courts of Second Instance and appeal shall be equally applicable to the special court. ARTICLE VI. The Imperial Japanese Government shall appoint judges and public prosecutors of foreign nationality to the extent that may be agreed upon. The Japanese Government, however, binds itself to make choice only of such persons as have, in their own country, acquired the qualifications for judge- ship. ARTICLE VII. Judges of foreign nationality shall be engaged for a fixed time, and shall be, during that time, irremovable, except upon the demand of a discip- linary court, composed entirely of judges of foreign nationality. ARTICLE VIII. The system of judges of foreign nationality, the stipulations of which are, according to Articles II., MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 173 III., and V., to be communicated to the # * * Government with the capital codes mentioned above, shall remain in force for a period of fifteen years. Every previous alteration of this system is dependent on the consent of the * * * Govern- ment. ARTICLE IX. The * * * Consular jurisdiction shall still re- main in force for the period of three years from the time that this agreement enters into operation, but such Japanese Police and Administrative Laws as shall have been agreed upon shall in the meantime be inforced by the * * * Consular Courts. article x. The * * * Consular Court shall remain competent for * * * subjects in questions of personal status. ARTICLE XI. In case * * * subjects should desire to make use of the rights granted by this Convention even before the same enters into operation, they may do so provided they submit themselves to Japanese civil jurisdiction. 174 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. ARTICLE XII. This Convention shall remain in force for seven- teen years from the date of its ratification, and, with reference to its denunciation, shall be gov- erned by Article * * * of the Commercial Convention of this date. The reader is referred to the subsequent and final action on the foregoing draft, marked "Annex A" in the appendix to this volume under the head of " Articles of Draft, Jurisdic- tional Convention agreed upon by this Confer- ence up to the 2d of April, 1887." The position of the United States in this Treaty Conference, in obedience to the instruc- tions of the then President of the Republic — Mr. Cleveland — as well as in accordance with the well known and uniform convictions of all his predecessors, in that great office, from Commodore Perry's Treaty to the present, was no longer left in doubt after the memorable Ex-President Orover Cleveland, of the United States of America. 15 MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 175 debates on the " Revised Tariffs " and Jurisdic-. tional Conventions had begun. The writer, then United States Minister to Japan, deems it an act of justice to his govern- ment and people, and to a true and impartial history of great events never before recorded, that he should repeat from the official steno- graphic reports, the remarks submitted by him to this Conference of all the Treaty Powers, and never before published. Mr. President and My Colleagues : The order of discussion, as adopted by the present Conference, invites our consideration first of the project for a revised tariff with Japan. The President has presented a project which he main- tains is identical in substance with the " counter project" for the " Revised Tariff," (with one excep- tion) unanimously proposed by the foreign dele- gates to the Conference of 1882, and which was unconditionally accepted by the Japanese Govern- ment at that time. This " counter project" was calculated and agreed to as Protocols 5, 6, 9, and 10 of the Conference of 1882 indicate, "on the 176 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. basis of a mean ad valorem duty of 10 or n per cent, on articles of importation," etc. It was rec- ommended to the Treaty Powers, the United States delegate alone dissenting, on the ground that the said "counter project" was unjust in demanding a reduction by which Japan lost millions of revenue. This " counter project " was then estimated to yield $3,300,000 (or, with charges, $3, 570,000) which was about a million dollars less than the original " Revised Tariff" proposed by the Japanese Gov- ernment would have yielded. As a part of the now familiar history of that discussion on the Tariff, we read that a "Joint Committee" was ap- pointed by the Conference of 1882 to work out the values of imports and the charges to be added in calculating the rates of duties; also to propose the articles for which specific duties should be fixed. It will be observed from the proceedings of the Conference of 1882, that this " counter project " for a Revised Tariff was to be reported to the respec- tive Treaty Powers whose delegates had then agreed to the same, with a favorable recommenda- tion for its ratification and approval. The committee of delegates was appointed with authority from the Conference of 1882 to call to their aid mercantile experts familiar with the export trade of Japan, to check off the dutiable values of such importations as were to be estimated "on a MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 177 mean ad valorem basis" of from 10 to n per cent., etc. — as well as to determine the articles on which specific duties should be levied. Our predecessors clearly expressed in three languages (the English, French, and Japanese) the idea that this "counter project " was to be a schedule of tariff rates com- posed of ad valorem and specific duties. The present ad valorem duty is only 5 per cent. Such, Mr. President and my colleagues, is a plain and correct historical statement of this tariff question, up to the present. The committee, it is true, performed the work originally entrusted to them after the adjournment of the Conference, but the result of their labors is before us. The " Re- vised Tariff" now presented to this Conference is, in fact, the " counter project" of 1882, amplified on the lines adopted by the committee. If the "counter project " still has binding force, the mere change of this ad valorem rate into specific duties by the com- mittee (which is all that has been done) cannot make their work less binding. However the Conference of 1882 may be regarded by those who have spoken of this Conference as in some way a continuation of that body, it is still a fact that when the Confer- ence of 1882 adjourned, it did so sine die \ and, in legislative and parliamentary parlance, left no un- finished business which could be taken up by this Conference. An adjournment from day to day, as 178 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST in the Congress of the United States and in European Parliaments, marks a continuous session, but the dissolution of a Parliament or the adjourn- ment of any legislative body sine die is the end of all unfinished business which may be pending. Yet the moral and political force, significance, and usefulness of their deliberations, both finished and unfinished, practically estimated by diplomats and statesmen, fortunately remain to be drawn upon, and to afford lights to guide intelligently, future deliberations on the same subject. The present American representative has thus regarded the action of the Conference of 1882. While not binding in any legislative or conven- tional sense, yet if the project for the Revised Tariff as now presented to this Conference by Japan is in substantial identity with the one agreed to in 1882 by both Conference and committee, and is per se a just and equitable proposition, then surely we may invoke the wisdom and ardous labors of our predecessors to aid us in deciding this question of the tariff. If the "counter project" for a tariff of 1882, and the committee's report afford a fair and liberal solution of the tariff prob- lem, we should be, it is respectfully submitted, not only willing, but even anxious to avail ourselves of the results of those deliberations, in rendering a MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 179 long deferred and tardy justice to a progressive Empire of forty millions of people. We have carefully considered the Revised Tariff now proposed without any reference to the trade values of 1882 (and the three years next preceding), nor do we advocate it because it is in substance and in fact the once accepted '" counter project " of 1882. On its own merits, we have come to the conclusion that it is a most reasonable and equi- table project. When specially considered in con- nection (or in contrast, if you please) with import duties of many powers represented here " even- handed justice" in the opinion of the American delegate earnestly and respectfully expressed, pleads with this Conference for its early adoption. We are not asked to consider the question of con- ceding complete tariff autonomy to Japan ; even if we were, the same questions would not arise as in the consideration of purely extra-territorial and judicial questions. The question before us relates to trade and commerce, to facts and figures, the history of which is written and known to all the exchanges and exchequors of the nations, and does not therefore require Western technical knowledge or acquaintance with Western judicial systems to afford security and safety to the Treaty Powers, their citizens or subjects. The one only true standard of action is to be found 180 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. in the inquiry — Is it safe, is it just to the nations here represented, to allow Japan to impose the same duties on our exports as we impose on Japan's exports ? The " Golden Rule," equally applicable in the marts of trade and commerce, as to moral codes, demands a hearing for Japan, in foro conscic?itiae, at least, even though she is hedged about by conventions exacted a third of a century ago from a nation then young in statesmanship, clinging to precedent and still asleep, but which, we must now confess, has achieved an intelligent and stalwart national growth. There may be occasion (when the time comes) for considering the question by this Conference whether it would not be wise to withhold assent, for awhile, to granting complete national autonomy to Japan as to jurisdictional power over foreign subjects or citizens. The Japanese Government has not asked so much ; but only desires to con- sider a probationary jurisdictional system from which Japan hopes to emerge the fully recognized equal to all other nations. But this question of the tariff is one of dollars and cents, of yen and sen, of pounds, shillings, and pence, involving the right of a people, forty millions in number, whose financial status and credit are respected at home and abroad, to expect, not demand, friendly Treaty Powers to grant this revised tariff, which, at most, only in- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 181 creases her revenue by the comparatively insignifi- cant sum of two or three millions. Yet it is intimated that while all this may be true, still the dutiable values estimated in 1882 must not be applied in 1886. Let us see. Suppose that the " counter project" of 1882 had gone into effect (as all the Powers except the United States, agreed that it should), would not all our governments to-day (and for years to come) be paying these in- creased import duties of from 10 to 1 1 per cent., calculated on the mean values of the three years next preceding 1882 ? No one can controvert that proposition. Ought we to lose sight of the fact that the failure at that time to make that "counter project " (as already amplified by the committee and delegates of 1882) a completed revision caused a loss to Japan in the past four years of seven or eight millions of revenue ? On the other hand, we ought not to forget that by the same failure the Treaty Powers have saved to their full exchequers and to their commerce, the amount which Japan has lost. It is not a question of who is best or least able to suffer this loss. If so, the question could be answered at once. Nor is it a question of physical endurance or brute force. It is simply a matter of justice that Japan should have this in- creased revenue from 1882 to 1886. The Confer- ence of 1882 answered that question affirmatively 182 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. in advance. Is it not right that she should have it now — from 1886 onward? Is it not equally just that we should not forget that the value of raw ma- terial produced in all of our countries as well as the values of manufactured wares and merchandise are subject to yearly (almost daily) changes in the world's market places ? The conflicts of capital and labor which now and then startle all nations ; the fluctuations of gold and silver ; the failures of crops; over production; supply and demand, all lend their influence in raising to-day and depress- ing to-morrow the values of the world's products at home and abroad. Shall we fix one rule for Japan, and another for all other peoples ? The values of certain products which some allege have fallen since 1882, may, and probably will, rise in the next few years and then Japan would be the loser even though least able to bear it, while all the Treaty Powers would be correspondingly the gainers. The changes in the values of gold and silver at the present time, and during the past few years, have seriously affected Japan as well as other Eastern countries. The depression of silver has most seriously affected Japan, while those Powers whose standard is gold, and to whom the East (in the discount of exchange) pays enormous tribute, have reaped the benefit of this depreciation. In MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 183 this connection also, let us not in fairness conceal the fact that the dutiable values of imports to Japan have been estimated in gold, while the duties have been paid in silver, in the same manner as if the two metals were exactly equal. The " trade regu- lations " now proposed by the Japanese Govern- ment are evidence of this fact. My government expects that no invidious dis- criminations will be made against the imports of the United States into Japan. Nor do we antici- pate that any such discrimination will be made by Japan. Our amicable relations and the mutual benefits we derive from our trade intercourse will not permit it. The United States, therefore, have no hesitation in recognizing the right of Japan to determine this question in accordance with just treaty stipulations. Our several treaties are separate and distinct, and there is no league for a protectorate among the Treaty Powers. This Conference meets simply in compliance with Japan 's request. Hence I have confined myself to the scheme of treaty revision which the Japanese Government has proposed conced- ing to the other powers, while I reserve to my govern- ment the right to treat independently with Japan, and the privilege of sitting in this Conference upon the invitation of Japan. My country is more largely interested in this tariff than any other Power. American trade with 7 184 THE VNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Japan amounts to more than $18,000,000 annually (over $14,000,000 of which we admit duty free). As I read the figures of 1885, we take 313,000,000 more of Japan's exports than Great Britain, $9,000,000 more than France, and $15,000,000 more than Germany, and yet our prineipal export to Japan, petroleum oil (amounting to a little more than two and one-half millions in value) will have to bear under the revised tariff a duty equivalent, in 1882, when the schedule was framed, to 15 per cent, ad valorem. In this ''revised tariff" you find the dutiable value of kerosene oil stated at 18 sen, and the duty at .027 per gallon, which is equal to 15 per cent. ad valorem; an increase of 5 per cent, over the average duties (if considered as ad valorem) on the products imported from other countries to Japan. And still this tariff is not in excess of the duty enforced by other nations on this and many other articles of import. All nations enforce tariffs, sometimes for " reve- nue only," and sometimes " for protection ; " some- times " prohibitory," and sometimes "retaliatory." In regard to this "revised tariff" proposed by Japan, it is almost the " keystone to the arch " in the beginning of a successful and fair solution of treaty revision ; it is the key which will unlock the doors leading to self-support, and the reasonable MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 185 increase of needed revenues which will lessen the home taxes of the Japanese people, and add to their " sinews of war " as well as of peace. I have spoken on the resolution offered by the second delegate of Germany, with deference to his great ability and long experience in the consular service of his country; but I must here and now express the deliberate opinion that if we " rub out and begin anew," which the appointment of this committee pre-supposes, we shall not soon, if ever, reach a satisfactory solution of treaty revision. Mr. Consul Zappe admits, and so do all the dele- gates, the equity and binding force of the counter project of 1882, next to Protocol No. 10; but he seems to ignore the results of the labors of the committee of delegates of 1882, of which he and my colleague of the Netherlands — Hon. Mr. Van der Pot — were such able members. If this revised tariff, now presented, combines the counter project and the committee's work as it does, why take the one and reject the others ? Both are the authorized work of Mr. Consul Zappe and his associates in 1882, and so recognized in the Memo- randum of 1884. I have only spoken, my colleagues, for my own country and ad referendum. But of this discus- sion I hope good may come to Japan. The friendly concern of the Republic of the United States in this 186 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. body is for the peoply only, in their upward strug- gle for civilization and the just exercise of their rights. The Treaty Powers are abundantly able to take care of themselves. So far as my remarks which have excited so much interest among my colleagues are concerned, I need only say that they were occasioned by the belief that the Revised Tariff submitted to this Con- ference by the Japanese Government was a just and equitable scheme, and one which imposed smaller duties than most of our governments levied. I was willing to accept it on behalf of the United States, and, without pretending to decide for others, I saw no reason why the representatives of other Powers should not do the same. But, because prices have fallen since 1882, the Conference has decided that the question shall not be reopened, and that new dutiable values shall be substituted for those proposed by the Japanese Government. Be it so. I have expressed the views of my gov- ernment upon the subject, and it only remains for me to say that the United States will not submit to any discrimination against any of their imports in the specific rates of duty now to be determined. So far as the work of this Conference in that direc- tion is concerned, I deem it my imperative duty, in view of what has occurred, to make a very clear reservation. J MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 187 And now, lastly, in reply to my esteemed British colleague, let me say that if I did injustice to Eng- land, he must ascribe it to the fact that in citing the figures to which he objects, I quoted from the only source of information in my possession, the report of Japan's Foreign Trade for 1885, which I have before me. I think I was justified in supposing that the Japanese Government knew what imports they received from our respective countries, and what exports they sent to us respectively. Sir Francis Plunkett says, in effect, that the report is not correct, and that China, instead of Great Britain, receives credit for several million dollars worth of sugar imported to Japan, while a large amount of the exports of Japan credited to the United States really proceed by way of San Francisco to Canada. I must still adhere to the opinion that the figures I quoted were correct. They can be found in the returns to which I have alluded on pages 89 and 99. They show, in brief, that the exports of Japan to the United States exceed her exports to Great Britain by $13,281,890; and they show also that the combined exports and imports of the United States from and to Japan exceed those of Great Britain by $3,512,653. It is a fact, also, and I speak advisedly in the presence of the representa- tives of the free trade countries, that of the $15,000,000 worth of the exports of Japan annually 188 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. admitted to the United States, $14,000,000 worth are so admitted duty free. That a portion of the purported exports of Japan to the United States may find their way to Canada is possibly true, but I cannot see that that fact lessens the force of my argument. This trade belongs as much to the United States, so far as the official records show, as any other portion to which we can lay claim. But the question is not, after all, a material one. The United States and Great Britain are competitors for the world's trade, but they are manly competitors and not envious rivals. The considerate courtesy with which I have been treated by the delegate of Great Britain, on this as on all other occasions, is a fair illustration of the relations of our respective countries. They may give rise to discussions, but they can never result I in serious misunderstanding or disagreement." The British and German representatives in- dicated the want of unity among the delegates of the Powers when those distinguished diplo- mats (Sir Francis Plunkett and Baron Von Holleben) proposed a substitute for all former projects, and said : " We believe that both the Plenipotentiaries of MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 189 the Japanese Government and most of our col- leagues here assembled, will concede with us the view that the drafts so far submitted for the re- vision of the treaties do not offer the elements of a permanent solution, nor do they afford, unless very much altered, a prospect of being practically feasi- ble, even as a temporary modus vivendi" The discussions proceeded on the substi- tuted project of England and Germany, and resulted, after nearly three years, in the agree- ment of delegates to said project, with amend- ments looking to a jurisdictional convention for Japan, as appears by the "Annex A," hereto attached. The object is obtained of presenting the true status of the United States in her willingness to give enlarged autonomy and jurisdiction and tariff to Japan, with a view to complete autonomy in the early future. This contention was based on the sacred tradi- tions of the Republic that all nations, whose progress and education and advance in the true elements of law and finance and political id 190 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. intelligence and civilization exhibited a capa- city for self-government, should be recognized and admitted as co-equals in the family of nations. In the opinion of the United States, as long ago voiced in the administrations from Grant to Cleveland and Harrison, Japan de- served such recognition of independence as a State. The failure of this Conference of 1886 and 1887, as of the former one of 1882, cannot be laid, therefore, at the door of the great Re- public of the West. The wreck of all the hopes of Japan, after years of patient waiting, was announced to the Conference by the Presi- dent and Minister for Foreign Affairs, in the following communication, which sounded more like a dirge than a formal State paper : "Gentlemen of the Treaty Powers: The undersigned has had the honor to inform the honorable delegates of the Treaty Powers at the last meeting of the Conference, that His Impe- rial Majesty's Government had desired to propose MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 191 certain modifications in respect to the draft of the Jurisdictional Convention, and that he would be shortly in a position to communicate them to the members of the Conference. A careful examination to which the draft of the Jurisdictional Convention was submitted on the part of the Imperial Cabinet showed that essential modifications and additional interpretations were absolutely required ; .particular exception was taken however by the Imperial Cabinet to the stipulation of Article 5, according to which the Japanese Cod- ification had to be submitted to the approbation of the foreign powers. It is true that the wording of the article itself is not exactly expressed in these terms, but the subsequent interpretations which have been given to it, prove, in the opinion of the cabinet, that this was the real aim. The cabinet was, in respect to this, unanimously of the opinion that it would be more in conformity with the dignity of the Japanese Empire if the laws were completed in the first instance, because this result would then, in all probability, be sufficient to prove that there existed really no cause for the submission of the codes to the Treaty Powers, as intended by the draft of the Jurisdictional Conven- tion. The undersigned has, in consequence, to inform the honorable delegates that he is authorized by his 192 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. government to declare herewith the adjournment of the Conference sine die, until such time as the Japanese delegates will be able to place before the Conference, the work of codification which will serve as the best evidence of the sincere intention which continues to animate the government for the assimilation of its administration and laws with the west. The undersigned trusts that this work, the com- pletion of which stands in such an intimate connec- tion with the opening of the Empire, will not fail to obtain, for the great scheme which the Conference is engaged upon, the friendly support of the Treaty Powers. The undersigned avails himself of this occasion, etc., etc." (Signed) INOUYE KAORU, President of Treaty Powers and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hence Treaty Revision by a Conference of the great Powers had thus met its death in the " house of its friends." It was the first con- ference in the world's history, where every civilized nation, at the prayer of a so-called pagan land, had sat around the same council MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 193 board to decide the momentous question of its national independence. And it requires no ken of prophet or seer to predict that it will be the last. The Treaty Revision is now completed, as we write. We attach hereto, "Appendix B," a copy of the last treaty with the United States with which all the others are practically identi- cal, with the exceptions which we shall point out hereafter. The intention of Count Mutsu, one of the most eminent diplomats and statesmen of the Empire, under whose direction, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, this last successful attempt to revise the treaties was begun in 1893, was to include Conventional Tariff in four of the trea- ties, namely in those of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. These tariffs were to cover the principal articles of import from the countries mentioned (whose 194 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. trade with Japan, as we know, is more impor- tant than that of any other of the Treaty Powers), and were to be co-incident with the duration of the treaties, in twelve years from the date when the treaty should go into opera- tion. The date fixed was July 18, 1899. But, by a Protocol appended to the treaties, it was agreed that before that date Japan might, upon giving due notice, put the new tariff into opera- tion before the rest of the conventional arrange- ments were enforced. The articles not covered by the Conventional Tariffs were included in the "General Statutory Tariff," or, in other words, the tariff fixed by domestic legislation. Although only four Powers were to have Con- ventional Tariffs all the others will be able to avail themselves of the benefits of those tariffs under the "most favored nation clauses" in their treaties. This was the original arrangement. It has been carried out in substance. MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 195 The United States Government, when the last treaty came to be negotiated, waived its right to have a Conventional Tariff, while the Austro-Hungarian Government insisted upon having one. All the treaties having been completed and a general statutory tariff having been passed, the Imperial Government of Japan gave notice, in July, 1897, that the new tariffs would be put into operation on the 1st of Jan- uary, 1899. These new tariffs will range from five per cent, to thirty per cent, ad valorem. Only a few articles, such as tobacco, liquors, wines, jewelry, etc., will, however, come under the higher rates. Important staples will pay, on an average, not more that ten per cent. Kerosene will be fifteen per cent. Raw cotton (and that is an important item so far as the South especially, and the whole United States generally is concerned) will be free. Bread- stuffs, except rice, which is free, will be five per 196 THE UNITED STATE 8 IN THE FAR EAST. cent. On the whole, the rates are very mod- erate. The tariff is in no sense protective, but is framed solely with an eye to an increase of "revenue only." The jurisdictional part of the treaties is in substance similar to that which the author agreed to, when United States Minister. Japan will assume complete jurisdiction over foreign- ers after July 19th of next year, 1899. In some of the treaties, notably in those with France, Germany, and Great Britain, it is stipulated by an exchange of diplomatic notes, that the new codes shall be put into operation before the treaties go into effect. That has already been done. The negotiations with the Powers have been in continuous operation since 1895 until the spring of 1898, when the Austro-Hungarian Treaty was signed. England made the first treaty, then the United States, and soon there- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 197 after, Prussia and Germany. France held back for a long time, and some of the Powers hav- ing the smallest interest, like Austro-Hungary, withheld consent. Now, however, all the trea- ties have been happily completed, and on the 19th of July, 1899, Japan will enter upon a new era, and will begin a national existence of complete independence. Some foreigners, especially old residents of the treaty ports, who do not believe that any good can come out of Nazareth, express fear of the result ! It is hardly necessary for us to say that we do not share in this pessimistic belief. Foreign inter- ests, in our opinion, will be as safe under the new regime as they are at present, and in some sense safer, because we will be rid of all the inconveniences and sometimes ludicrous anom- alies inseparable from the conflict of jurisdic- tion. Japan will be, in a way, upon trial before the world, and we may depend upon it that no 198 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. effort will be spared by this wonderful people to earn the approval of impartial observers. The present condition in Japan is a curious condition. Marquis Ito, Count Inouye, Count General Yamagata, Count General Kuroda, and others of the older leaders are ? in retire- ment (in 1898), voluntary and otherwise, and Count Oku ma and Count Atagaki have formed a party cabinet. The former is at the head of the Shimpobo (Progressionists), and the latter of the Jiuto (Liberals). Hitherto these parties have been at daggers drawn ; now they have formed a coalition, making the most powerful political combination which has thus far ap- peared in Japan. How long it will last, and how harmoniously it will v/ork, remains to be seen. At all events, it looks from this side of the Pacific like the beginning of party govern- ment in Japan. Our readers must not imagine from what we MODERN' JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 199 have said above that Ito and Inouye have been put on the shelf. Either of these really great statesmen could figure in the public affairs as of old if he chose, but we believe that Inouye, the Minister for Foreign Affairs during three years of our ministry, is sincerely convinced that he has earned a long deserved rest, while Ito merely bides his time. .' These great men have deserved too well of their country to be ignominiously set aside, and either of them could gain the leadership as of old if he chose to enter the contest for supremacy. The leading questions with which the Japanese Government has to deal at present, are most important. One is the finan- cial situation. There is a deficit, as we write, temporary, but troublesome. This could easily be met by reforming the national land tax ; but the present government is pledged not to adopt that measure. Probably recourse will 200 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. be had to a foreign loan, say of $50,000,000. The Empire is, on the whole, in a highly pros- perous condition. The Chinese war caused the usual expansion, and now there is reaction and contraction, but all the indications are that it is temporary and precedes the "red letter day" in Japan's material prosperity. CHAPTER XVII. THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN INDEPENDENTLY OF THE TREATY POWERS ENTER INTO A SEPARATE TREATY, RECOGNIZING THE EARLY AND COMPLETE AUTONOMY OF THE EMPIRE. 'if'~wr% hk United states after the faiiure V M J of Japan (in 1896-7), to obtain &^$±4&>Z' from all the Powers a recognition of her right to partial if not complete inde- pendence, and their neglect as she regarded it, to lighten the yoke of extra-territorialism and to strike off the shackles of political vassalage, proposed to Japan the negotiation of a sepa- rate convention without the leave of other nations. That proposition after full conference with the President and the State Department of the Government at Washington was form- [201] 202 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. ally submitted by the United States Minister through the Foreign Affairs Department to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. That important negotiation began within ten days after the final adjournment of the Treaty Conference in 1888. The despair of Japan of ever obtaining the just and long deserved recognition of her national independence was now manifest. Her only hope, the only star that beamed on her night was in western skies. One of the greatest of the representative men of this new era was Fuji Sawa, a patriot and scholar, the founder of colleges, the advocate of free schools, and the father of the modern and enlightened and liberal press of Japan, and its greatest editor. He called upon the United States Minister, and that interview is worthy of enduring record. Fuji Sawa had often declined the highest positions in the cabi- net and royal titles from the crown. Of that Hon James O. Blaine, Secretary of State under President Harrison's Administration and under whom Minister Hubbard served a part of said Administration. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 203 proposed separate treaty between our respec- tive nations, he expressed the most grateful approval. We give an accurate translation of his eloquent words, never before in print : "Japan has emerged from the night of ignorance and superstition ; she has for over a third of a cen- tury invoked every agency for good, drunk from every fountain of knowledge within her reach, and reaped from every field of statesmanship the higher civilization around the earth. She has worshipped at the altars of peace, but prepared for war by sea and land if injustice and oppression from abroad should seek her destruction. She has extended to the wes- tern nations, the " olive branch " of toleration and grasped their hands in unselfish fellowship. In our hopeful confidence, now shattered, we asked only for the acknowledgment of at least, our gradual and deserving approach to national autonomy. It would be cowardly now to curse the hand whose aid we sought. The great Powers came to Japan forty years ago and more, bringing to us a new and strange religion ; but teaching what they called the " Golden Rule." That teaching has sounded sweetly to our ears, but has been broken to our hopes. The United States is a republican and democratic power, and opposed to dynasties of 17 204 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Emperors and Kings. Nevertheless, your country has been the first to open the gates of the oldest Monarchy on the globe, save China, with a promise of hope, and in all the years since that historic day, down to this late abortive International Conference, you have been ready and seemingly anxious to wel- come Japan into the independent family of nations. Deeds, not words, have made your intercourse with us fruitful of noblest results. We shall respect our old treaties till " forbear- ance ceases to be a virtue." But we must say calmly, as did your ancestors in 1776, in the " Dec- laration of Independence " that, " Japan has a right to be a free and independent State." Yes, sir; this Empire will join the United States in such a treaty, and cut loose her ship from the moorings of the past, feeling confident that, with the strong arm of the United States to aid us, we shall yet be free." Those were the literal words of this great untitled Japanese. He touched the pulse of the Empire from Emperor to coolie ! We can never forget, and never wish to forget, until knightly courage and justice shall cease to rule in the counsels of men, how Japan took the proffered hand of our country in her proposal MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 205 to enter at once into a separate and independ- ent treaty. The Emperor and the successor of Count Inoye, His Excellency Count Okuma, like the former, one of the ablest men of Japan, echoed the sentiment of Fuji Sawa. "The stone which was set at naught by the builders is become the head-stone of the corner." The main essential of the independent treaty which the United States had negotiated in 1878, and which, unfortunately, being ad referendum, the other Powers rejected, was again invoked sub- stantially in this last project, independent of the action of all the Treaty Powers. That Treaty became an accomplished fact, and was duly signed and approved by His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, and His Excel- lency, the President of the United States, con- forming to all the diplomatic formalities and then transmitted to Washington for the final action of the American Senate. 206 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. It reached the capital ten days after Presi- dent Harrison had succeeded President Cleve- land in the presidential office. The author was personally and officially cognizant of the fact that the foreign policy of the United States toward Japan had been for a third of a century wholly unpartisan. This last independent Treaty of 1888 would have been ratified (a part of the unwritten political history of these times) had it reached Washington before the change in the political administration of the government. That change naturally demanded time and consideration de novo in so radical and grave a treaty as it was, by senators and a president who was just entering the new ad- ministration. Meantime through artful diplo- macy, Japan was induced to ask that the treaty be temporarily withdrawn or returned for fur- ther action by her government. President Harrison concurred in the policies of our gov- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 207 ernment toward Japan, and of all his great pre- decessors, and from personal conference with the then Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, we were assured by that great secretary and typical American of the fact that the failure to submit this independent treaty to the United States Senate was neither the fault nor the desire of the administration of President Harri- son. We digress for a moment to place an ''immortelle" on the grave of the great sec- retary. The author, at his request, met Mr. Blaine at the famous sea resort of "Bar Harbor," on the New England coast, in 1890, on his return from Japan. We never listened to more eloquent defenses of the then, as now, foreign policy of this country favoring the sep arate negotiation of treaties recognizing all nations, whether pagan or christian, who by advances in civilization deserved self-govern- ment. Years passed by. The seed sown by 208 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. our country did not fall in waste places nor on stony ground. The reaping in due time will follow the sowing, and the full fruition, as the dew of heaven, will " bless him that gives and him that receives." The brave and statesman- like part which President Cleveland and Mr. Secretary Bayard then bore in behalf of Japan, from 1885 to 1890 will grow brighter with the years. The treaty now ratified and awaiting its time and the similar conventions of England and other Powers, changed in form but not in substance since the Conference of 1886 and 1887, will, in the swiftly coming time (in 1899), usher Japan into the independent family of nations. Impartial history will accord to the United States the inauguration of Japan's real independence. It is no vain boasting. While we pen these lines (in 1898), there reaches our State Department at Washington, Bon. Thomas F. Bayard, United States Secretary of State from 1885 to 1890. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 209 and the Japanese Legation, an official procla- mation and notification that on the ioth of June, 1898, the Government of Japan pro- claimed that the new Japanese statutory tariff with the United States as well as the English, German, French, and Austro-Hungarian Con- ventional Tariffs, would be put into effect on the 1 st of January, 1899. This step marks the inauguration of Japan's new treaty relations with the western Powers. The following is a list of the new duties on some of the principal exports from the United States to Japan : (The " Iron clad " treaties of 1854 and 1858 restricted their imposition of duties on exports from all the countries to 5 per cent, ad valorem.) Iron and steel, manufactured, 10 per cent.; pig, 5 per cent.; grain, of kinds except rice, 5 per cent.; alcohol, 40 per cent.; liquors, 40 per cent.; tobacco, leaf, 35 per cent.; cut, cigars, and cigarettes, 40 per cent.; sugar, raw, 5 per cent.; refined, 20 per cent.; 210 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. crystalized, 25 per cent.; molasses, 10 per cent.; cotton, raw, waste, and spun, free; yarns, 10 pet- cent.; sewing thread and other manufactures of, 15 per cent. It has been truthfully written that " Trade and the Almighty Dollar whether among men or among nations, has no 'coat of arms,' no marks of patriotism and exhibits no gratitude for the past or philanthropic ambitions for the future."' That may be true as a rule ; yet the picture which the lantern casts on the canvas of the future, will portray the United States as a "great rock in a weary land" under whose shadow and protection Japan first sought refuge and liberty not in vain. Other nations followed but did not lead our country, in this grand achievement for justice and humanity. CHAPTER XVIII. THE RELIGIONS OE JAPAN AND PROGRESS OE THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. zw"- \$ l \ ll HE religions of Japan are Buddhism and Shintoism. The authodox >**gp ^^^^^^^ world would classify these beliefs as "pagan" and "heathen." The Japan of to-day resents this last imputation because of the offensive definitions attached thereto by the English lexicons. In the meaning of sen- sual depravity, and barbarism and that sort of superstition in Church and State, unrelieved by the light of civilization, this people are hetero- dox, it is true, but not "heathen." The creed of the Buddhists for 2500 years, like the Koran of Mohammed, the philosophy and pandects of Confucius and Mencius teaches a code of good [211] 212 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. morals, presenting the duties of the subject to his home and to his country, and to his fellow- man (largely embracing in substance, the "Ten Commandments" of our own Hebrew Bible), in spirit that must be honored by all christian lands, without reference to its origin or its creed. And yet, in their religion, one finds no permanent solace here, or hope for the here- after. Searching therefor he wanders and gropes in a night of mystery and gloom. There is to him no polar star rising above that night to guide his ship to ports of security and everlasting rest. The author proposes to speak only of the prevailing religions of to-day in Japan, and not of the centuries of their ex- istence, for Buddhism claims to antedate the christian era by over 500 years. It is the old- est form of worship known to men, excepting only that disclosed in the Hebrew Bible, wherein prophets and "holy men of old" wrote Buddhist Priests. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 213 under the inspiration of God, foretelling the coming- of Christ on earth ; His crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension, and the promises of immortal life, literally fulfilled nearly 2000 years ago in Judea and on the cross of Calvary. Buddha, as painted in Sir Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia," founded on profane history and hoary traditions, was as well authenticated as the birth of the Christian Redeemer at Beth- lehem. He was the son of a prince and excelled all the youths of his time, and in early manhood he led to the altar of holy wedlock a beautiful princess, and in a splendid palace his life was all happy until, so runs the romantic legend, he looked out on the world's sins and desola- tions and sufferings and sorrows, and, resolving to devote his life to their alleviation, he became a self-imposed exile from his palace, his wife and children, and, renouncing the inheritance 214 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. of a mighty kingdom, amid perils and priva- tions sought to find the way to true happiness. The story recites that the " devil " appeared to Buddha and tempted him (as our own Christ was tempted on the mount), with the promise that all the world should be his Empire ; and eternal life in "Nirvana" should be his if he would only bow down to His Satanic Majesty. Buddha resisted the arch tempter, and be- came transformed and divine. Henceforth his active mission began, and he went from house to house and land to land and sea to sea, preaching the new doctrine of his church. He taught that by overcoming temptations to sin and wicked desires, mankind might reach eter- nal happiness and a life of progression in divine knowledge after death. He was, long after his death, by inspiration of the gods, made a deity. He was, nevertheless, only a philosopher, not a redeemer. Like Confucius, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 215 his cult claimed and still claims, that men may work out their own salvation, that the divinity- which makes life happy here and beyond the grave (for the immortality of the soul is taught) is devotion and obedience to the Good as a passport to the rest of Nirvana. The idea of the Christians' living God existing from eter- nity, Creator of heaven and earth and all things, appears only vaguely in the earliest canons on Buddha. These were written during his life, but for twenty centuries no well-defined, intelligent recognition of one omnipresent and omnicient God appeared in any of their so- called '• Bibles," or in any of the legends and traditions of their creed. And yet, carved in leaves of bronze in the great temples of Kyoto and Shiba, are inscribed these words, purport- ing to be from the pen of Buddha : " Higher than the heavens and far beneath hell, beyond the farthest stars, and farther than Brahma 18 MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 217 reads as follows : " He who has toiled as a slave, may reappear as a prince ; he who has ruled as a king may, perhaps, on his reappear- ance wander in rags. Higher than India (the God of heaven) ye may exalt your lot, and sink it lower than worms. Seek nothing from helpless idols (of Brahmanism), salvation lies in yourselves. Every one makes his own prison ; his own actions prepare for him joy or pain." According to this ancient religion, the earthly life is made unhappy only as a result of the present or former sins of a man or of his ancestors. Five hundred millions of pagan worshippers embrace the creed and hope that the happiness of this life and of the life to come depends solely on the man and not on the God. Whether this transitory existence is to be long or short, a pathway of flowers or full of thorns, depends entirely on the individual. But whether this life is stained with ''murder 218 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. or theft or robbery or lying or hypocrisy or anger, pride, envy, greed, talkativeness, cruelty to animals," all of which black catalogue is de- nounced by Buddha, or whether it is ennobled by "love of father and mother and children, gratitude, patience, calmness of soul, and fidelity," all of which he commands, neverthe- less, there is to be no hell here or hereafter ! The highest known authority on Eastern cults, Dr. Eitel, a Christian, says that " Budd- hism is but a philosophical atheism." It deifies man instead of God. It banishes from the universe the existence of a creative and ruling deity ; yet it has exerted a great civiliz- ing power in Asia ; has driven out the bloody sacrifices of earlier cults ; counteracted the rigid spirit of caste ; and spread a mild and peaceful tone of thought among the great masses of the people. It has fostered, if not generated in Japan, the MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 219 unique civilization and culture which existed up to the memorable negotiation of the first American treaty, and has intensified by its teachings, the susceptibility of the people to the beauties of nature and of art. It has fur- nished China and Japan more than Shintoism ever did, or than the moral teachings of Confu- cius and Mencius and the Chinese sages of old ever did. In brief, Buddhism is Atheism deifying man in the form of a romantic and weird worship; morally, it teaches the " vanity and instability of all earthly good, the migra- tion of souls, and the final absorption in Nir- vana (the Buddhists' heaven)"; and that the salvation from sin and crime, and the atone- ment to Nirvana must be made by our own strength and good deeds. Of Shintoism, we need only say in passing that it makes no pretenses to divine origin. It is the deification of patriotism of the soldier 220 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. who dies for his country, and of the household gods of the home, and the worship of the Mikado, descended by their mythology from the gods. It had and has no heaven, no denunciation of hell, no bright hopes beyond the grave. It is essentially infidel or agnostic, and is passing away. Since the restoration, the Emperor has appeared and emerged from his "celestial cloisters" of Kyoto and walks among his subjects as other men, and while they love, they no longer worship him as a god. Shintoism among the millions is doomed. There are but few great temples dedicated to that cult in all the Empire. The Buddhism of to-day, as the author saw it outside and inside of the temples, or in the ministrations of its priests, is also in the decadence of its long life. Most of the Buddhist priests of this era have forgotten the earnest exhortations of the early church to self-knowledge, purity of life, and of MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 221 the home and of the State, and spend their time in external observance and idle mummeries, and display debasing and astonishing ignorance even of their own religion of Buddha. The millions knowing nothing of, and caring less for, its early teachings, are won by the gilt and glare and pomp and splendor of their olden temple worship and unmeaning ceremonials and the festivals of the saints as celebrated by the priests. Thus, when Christianity was borne across the sea, nearly half a century ago, from the West to the far East in Japan, it was soon recognized by natives as well as foreign born that its teachings and its hopes, reaching " beyond the vale," were alone of all the beliefs adapted, not only to develop the higher civili- zation in life, but to yield complete satisfaction to the earnest religious yearnings of every race for rest eternal. 222 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. Part Borne by Christian Missionaries. We cannot suffer this opportunity to pass without paying a just and deserved tribute to the noble part the devoted missionaries of all Christian lands have borne in the moral and educational evolution of Japan. Their acquisi- tion of the native tongue is, of course, the first desideratum of the Christian evangelists who make the preaching of the gospel in foreign lands a life-work. The next, and to our obser- vation the most effectual means of reaching and converting the pagan mind and heart, is through the medium of the missionary schools. The last is the public " preaching of the Word," and those precepts of the new and to them strange religion of Christ, enforced by practice and example of daily life in relieving the sick and the suffering. Thus, with confidence gained and prejudices destroyed, the trusting Aged "Dimaio" and Wife, of Feudal Times. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 223 and intelligent pagan is led into the way he knew not before. The missionaries have done a great work for the elevation of Japan outside of their distinctive Christian evangelization The nobles and the coolies — all classes — with- out a shadow of sectarian feeling, patronize the schools of the missionaries, representing all the different Christian denominations of civilized nations. They are opened, of course, without charge to the children of the natives as well as, to adults — men and women of all ages. The invitations are always eagerly accepted, the first and great ambition of the people being to acquire Western secular knowledge. Thus, by winning the confidence of the student and youthful class and leading them into new paths of learning and new views of our civilization (to them veritable revelations), the beginning is made and the soil is ready for sowing the seeds of Christianity. From a small beginning in 224 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. that distant field forty years ago or more, without friction with the government or the Buddhists prelates and priests, a great harvest has been gathered by the reapers up to this happy hour. That ingathering by all the denominations of the Christian church, it is esti- mated to-day, amounts to 150,000 of native converts. That membership is composed mostly of the middle and more intelligent unofficial classes of the Empire. Some few high in position, as famous editors of great daily newspapers and in the Department of the Government, are now, and have been for many years, worshipping at Christian altars. Largely the native Christian churches are becoming self sustaining, with their own buildings and pastors. While in name and in doctrine defin- ing the policies and modes of these churches, among the foreign Methodists, Baptists, Pres- byterian, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and the Greek, and all other faiths, the same distinctions MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 225 are preserved there as in the West ; yet we found no acrimony, no sectarianism, as such, no discussions of bitterness among them. They long ago formed themselves into a " Christian Union," and excepting only the Church of England, the Roman Church, and the Greek Church, all unite in the worship of God and in the spread of the gospel of Christ as one church in the public ministry. Relegating questions of creeds and local church differences to their respective organized bodies, they all unite in acknowledging the same Almighty God, the Father of the Son who died a vicarious sacrifice for the human race ; the atonement ; the resurrection, and the life everlasting. To do otherwise would be to be confronted by the native enquirer for truth with the embarrassing question often put to the early missionaries " Why do you pro- claim a religion of peace on earth and goo^ 19 226 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. will to men and yet engage in war among yourselves? " But aside from the increase of their Christian followers, the influences of these missionaries — devoted men, and yet more devoted women — through school and social intercourse, has wrought a wonderful advancement in the civili- zation of the East, in the creation of ambition for higher mental attainments. The author, in the after years of his sojourn in that beautiful land, realized the truth of the touching tribute once paid by the Empress (heretofore recited), to the noble part performed by Christian missionary women in the elevation of the womanhood of Japan. While Buddhism is the prevailing religion of the Empire, and has been for many centuries, and differing, as of course the author does, and as does the Christian world, from the pagan worship of Buddha, we would be unjust to his- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 227 tory did we not make glad acknowledgment of the fact that the Government of Japan allows complete religious freedom. CHAPTER XIX. TOLERATION TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. N this regard she stands separate and alone among all the nations '?[$€$ of the Orient. In the now nearly one-half of a century since Japan and the United States pledged, in their first treaty, friendship and honor and fidelity to each other, not one instance of religious persecution against Christians has ever occurred. Not only has that government kept faith with the stipulations of the letter of the treaties that the freedom of the American and the Japanese to worship in either land as they pleased, should be acknowledged ; but the spirit of that toleration finds a voice and an echo throughout an Empire of forty millions of people, nine- [228] MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 229 tenths of whom are still Buddhists in faith. During our mission at the capital, the author on various occasions in private intercourse, as well as in official discussions of the new Re- vised Treaties, has heard the Emperor himself, through the interpreter and such really great statesmen as Ito, Inouye, Okuma, Mori, Yos- hida, Fuji Sawa and others, declare unreservedly " that Japan, as a political power, did not con- cern itself with religious cults or creeds — those at home or those from abroad." The substance of these remarkable and tole- rant words was that they were glad to wel- come all good men, and especially Americans, whether coming as traders and merchants or as missionaries, bearing and teaching as they do, a new and strange religion. They send their children to the colleges and schools of the mis- sionaries as willingly as to their own. They have added to their ancient arts of sculpture 230 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. and painting, the learning of the modern schools of the West. Conversing once with the eminent Japanese Minister to the United States, Count Mori, who himself became a Christian while in America, and afterwards Minister of Educa- tion, and Minister to England, he said to the author: "The Emperor and his cabinet, so long as no unkind assaults are made on the national religions, will in the future continue to exercise absolute toleration. They do not care if all Japan's millions of subjects unite with the Christian church so it is done of their own free will, and without menace." It was this great Minister who once earnestly sought the adoption of Christianity as the " State Church" of Japan. CHAPTER XX. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. E cannot refrain from adverting to the separation of Church and State in Japan, which occurred shortly after the Revolution. For ages the Imperial Government had maintained the Budd- hist and Shinto churches as the national re- ligions, exempting them from taxation and imposing taxes on the people for their support. By decree of the present Emperor, the tem- poral support of the former national church was withdrawn forever. In this regard it stands alongside of Mexico in the confiscation of the wealth of the Church of Rome in that Republic by President Juarez after the fall of Max- millian. Japan in this regard has outstripped £231] 232 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. even England and Germany and Russia, whose State religions (Episcopal, Lutheran, and the Greek church), for years have been maintained by the government from taxes imposed on all " dissenters," and on the " heterodox" millions of those Christian lands. The author makes no invidious assault on those Christian Powers because of their "State religions," but American as he is, and glorying as he does in a constitution and laws reco^niz- ine freedom of conscience and freedom to wor- ship God " under our own vine and fig tree," where " none dare to molest or make us afraid," we confess to a profound admiration for such an unparalleled revolutionary act by a pagan land. It was a new departure from the record of the past, a record two thousand years of age, when intolerance and superstition sat side by side. It was and is the harbinger of a better day MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. ' 233 for Japan. We note before closing this chap- ter that already Buddhism and Shintoism rest lightly on the masses, and especially on the Imperial houses of the Empire. The truth must be told, and it does not offend them to tell it, that as a rule to-day, Buddhism and Shintoism have but few followers, save in name, among the princes and nobles of Japan. The same is true to a great extent of the young men of the colleges and universities of Japan, and of those who have been educated abroad, especially in the German universities. They train with the schools of Huxley, John Stuart Mill, Darwin, Paine, and Ingersoll, and are really ''agnostic," if not infidels. One finds the works of all these great authors translated into Japanese in the libraries of the govern- ment, as well as in the private libraries, and on the shelves of all the great book stores of the cities of Japan. Nevertheless, the free-thinkers 234 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. of the natives will listen earnestly to the public and private teachings of the foreign mis- sionaries and often contest their arguments. If they are convinced of their error, they make open confession always, and their espousal of Christ works to them no prejudice, much less loss of position or prestige in the Empire. The author, whose place is in the pew and not in the pulpit, will be pardoned for saying to his Christian countrymen and to Christians in other lands, that in the propagation of the Christian religion in foreign pagan countries, Japan has for many years been sadly neg- lected. India and Burmah and Hindoostan, and China especially, have received hundreds and thousands of these noble and self-sacri- ficing evangelists, from Judson and Cary, of blessed memory, down to this day. Not until the past two or three decades has Japan re- ceived that attention from the Christian world that she deserved. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 235 Her gates are wide open and the hearts and homes welcome the missionaries always with kind greetings. Their toleration is real and not perfunctory. Forty millions of souls are there to be saved, and yet hundreds of thousands and millions of these people have never heard of Christ or His promises of the better and eternal life. In Burmah, Hin- doostan, Corea, and China, there is, outside of the treaty ports, barbarous and bloody intol- erance against the Christian religion. Many missionaries, in the interior, and their families have been murdered or driven from their posts by fanatical Buddhist mobs, and their residences and schools and church buildings often burned to ashes. The late troubles with Germany, as aforetime with Great Britain and the United States, arose almost entirely because of the destruction of persons and property of foreign missionaries by fanatical Buddhists. 236 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. In no instance in all these years since Com- modore Perry's time has Japan ever offered any indignity, much less sought to injure, the persons or property of the missionaries. The Buddhist so-called religion promises them abso- lute immunity from punishment after death. In China and Corea, that belief means license and fanaticism. In Japan the church obeys the government implicitly. One of the romantic features of their faith is the belief that after death the Buddhist believer is borne on spirit wings to Nirvana, where, at its gates, like the "Peri" of the song, their kindred of all ages welcome them with music of harps to everlasting rest. The writer, in 1887, during a terrible epidemic of Asiatic cholera, when six or seven hundred people were daily dying in the capital, was invited with his bright Secretary of Legation, Mr. Fred. S. Mansfield, by one of the most eminent Approach to the Famous Shrines of the Buddhists. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 237 physicians of Japan, to go with him to the national hospital. We accepted that, to us strange invitation, with reluctance. His apology was, that he desired to show us, in no spirit of proselytism, that the "Japanese Buddhist was never afraid to die!' We were willing to admit anything to avoid this gruesome visita- tion ! In the vast national hospital we saw at least twenty of the patients of all classes die. They were told by doctor and by priest that they had but an hour or more to live. In genuine " Asiatic cholera," an hour or more before dissolution, pain ceases and reason returns to its throne. We put on record here the fact, not as establishing in the least degree, for it does not, our own or any well-grounded belief in the truth of their creeds, but as show- ing their unbounded faith in the Buddhist's Nirvana. That faith made these dying pagans, when told by doctor and priest that they could 238 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. not live, smile with rapture as they fearlessly- entered the " valley and shadow of death." In pestilence or war, they are, on this account, utterly fearless of death. Preceding the hour of dissolution, their kindred and friends exhibit the natural grief as in Christian lands, but when death comes and conquers, then, robed in spotless white, with music and songs of joy, and with " immortelles," they bear the loved one to their national crematories where the body is burned to ashes, and placed in sacred urns, forever thereafter to be worshipped as the "lares and penates " of home or temple. Most modern poets, like Sir Edwin Arnold, and Hearne and Lowell, and others, have dis- credited Christianity in Japan, and to that ex- tent discredited the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament Revelations of our Christ. Their ship, however, without Christ as compass, is sailing on a fathomless sea of mysticism. It MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 239 is beautiful in precepts of love and fidelity to home and country, but there is no sure anchor for the believers in the night of the tempest. Huxley, the great author on " evolution" and the ''survival of the fittest," says that " Budd- hism accepts that god of the Brahmins who is the creature and not the supreme creator of 'evolution,'" and the learned Dharmapoli, of India, whom the author met at the World's "Congress of Religions" at Chicago, says, "there is no difference between the perfect man and the Supreme God of this world." In conclusion, we must admit, nevertheless, that Buddha was a greater philosopher than Confucius or Mencius. The religion that he formed before the coming of Christ, may be likened to a river rising from mountain heights, flowing through forest and field, with never a storm on its bosom, with overhanging ever- greens, where music of bird and winds aeolian 20 240 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. mingle together, and on whose waters happy men and women are borne to the sea ; but it is a shoreless and unknown sea. That is Budd- hism ; beautiful in life, but hopeless in death. Most of our readers, perhaps, have read that weird and beautiful poem, the " Light of Asia," of which we have already made mention, and consequently they are familiar with the story of the Indian prince who, taught within the precincts of a palace to believe that the world was all beautiful and all mankind happy — was so shocked and bewildered by his first contact with pain, poverty, and sorrow, and by his inability to alleviate or remove them, that he renounced all worldly honors and pleasures and devoted himself to a life of religious mendicancy and meditation. In some of the old temples of Japan there is a picture of the death of Buddha ; and in " Sheba Temple," of Tokio, it will be found engraved on a small MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 241 monolith. The artist has introduced into his picture representatives of all orders of created beings, and the different ranks of human society as mourners around the couch of the dying sage. The inhabitants of three worlds, heaven, earth, and hell, contribute to the impressiveness of the scene ; and one cannot but feel that the picture, whencesoever its inspiration came, supplies at least a clew to the solution of the problem of life and death ; that the Raphael-like precision and suggestiveness of the " Death of Buddha" are more satisfying than the gorgeous Orientalism of the " Light of Asia ; " and that the painter has surpassed the poet. And yet with all its impressive romance and beauty, there is no anchor "sure and steadfast " to make safe the ship of life in night and tempest. There is nothing in the pandects or poetry or sculpture or painting of their pagan religions that brings to mortal life 242 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. surcease from sorrow here and hope of the life everlasting, as does that one simple recital of the sympathy and power and majesty of the Christ at Bethany, when to weeping sisters, He bade the dead brother rise to life again. By that loving and omniscient act death was con- quered and the resurrection is vouchsafed to the fallen race. The light that never fell on sea or shore breaks upon us ; the strains of the harpers, whom we cannot see, are wafted to us, and already in spirit we join our friends above on the other and eternal shore. That is the Christian religion, and its promise of the ever- lasting rest. CHAPTER XXI. THE POPULATION, AREA, AND INDUSTRIES OF JAPAN. HE exact extent of Japanese terri- tory is set down in their official tables at 156,604 square miles. The population at the last census (1890) was 40,453,461. Of this total, 20,431,097 were males, and 20,022,236 were females. The exports of the Empire were $790,527,272, and the imports from foreign countries was $62,927,268. Of railways there were 5,000 miles, connect- ing all the principal cities from the extreme northern frontiers to Nagasaki in the south. A new departure from the West will be observed in the fact that in 1892, their parlia- ment permitted the government to construct, L243] 244 THE UNITED STATES IN THE EAR EAST. own, and control lines of railway, and to issue bonds thereon. These bonds were negotiated in the great financial markets of Europe, and eagerly taken at par and three per cent, interest. The State ownership and control of railways has long been in the United States, as is well known, a mooted and questionable policy. In Japan, nearly all of the great transportation lines by rail or river, canal or sea, are owned by the government. The cost of passenger transportation is from one to three cents per mile (silver) according to the class of coaches ; and the cost of freight is in the same ratio, less than in Europe or America. There are of telegraph lines about 8,000 miles, connecting the cities by the sea with the interior towns, at rates fifty per cent, less for ten words than in the United States ; while all the great cities like Tokio, Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki, are connected by cable with Europe and MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 245 America by two routes, costing from two to three dollars in gold per word. The postal service of the Empire is modelled after our system in America, and their national banking is an exact copy or reproduction of the American national banking system. Besides all these comparatively recent im- provements, they have now the electric light ; the street-car (electric and cable), and the telephone in nearly all the great cities, and sometimes they are found far inland. CHAPTER XXII. FUTURE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS NICARAUGUA CANAL. E have briefly adverted to the commercial status of Japan in 1 886-1 887 towards the United States. While the author was at his post at Tokio, the Suez canal passed into the control of England. Count De Lesseps went down in financial wreck in the attempt to build the ocean transit at Panama. It was during the last days of our adminis- tration that we had conference with Marquis Ito and Count Inouye and Count Okuma, the then, as now, three great leaders of the Empire, and with the Chinese Minister, His Excellency Hsu Cheng Tsu, and the Corean Minister, as [246J MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 247 well as with a number of the most opulent and oldest tea and silk merchants of the East, familiar with the commercial wants of the countries represented by them. These con- ferences, not strictly official in a diplomatic sense, were nevertheless intended to reach in an unofficial way the government at Washing- ton, as they did. The subject discussed was the Nicaraugua canal, in its prospective relations to Japan and the Orient. We were requested to say to our government that Japan, China, and Corea looked to the United States for more enlarged and liberal commercial intercourse. The Chinese Minister wished the United States to know that he spoke by authority of Li Hung Chang for his people, in declaring that the then recent act of Congress in preventing further immigration of his countrymen to the United States made no difference in the friendly 248 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. commercial relations of China with our country. These leading diplomats at various times ex- pressed with earnestness their hope for the earliest construction and completion of an ocean transit across the isthmus of Nica- raueua. They said to the author that Japan, China, and Corea had jointly a population of five hun- dred millions or more of people. At that time, and for many years previously, they had been at the mercy of England and Continental Europe commercially, as well as in the money exchanges. They wanted to cut loose from their financial bondage to Europe. The " Suez canal," owned then by the Bank of England and the Rothschilds, furnished no relief to the growing volume of the European and Oriental trade. It was a calamity, if not a curse to them, in that the charges for tonnage and dues and tariffs through that ocean canal absorbed nearly His Excellency Li Hung Tsee, Chinese Minister to Japan 1885 to 1888. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 249 if not all the profits of the export trade of China and Japan to Europe. The exports of Europe, in exchange for their teas and silks and precious wares, to Japan and China by the same route, left no margin of profit, save to the European merchants. They begged the American Minister to assure his government that more than anything on earth, except the liberal revision of the treaties, the Orient wanted a freer and cheaper and quicker transit from sea to sea with the United States ; that while the United States was a country of vast resources and fabulous wealth, then having surplus millions in the treasury ; and while acknowledging their inferiority in wealth and power, they authorized us to say to our government (as we did to Mr. Secretary Blaine on our return) that if the United States would build this ship canal, these designated nations would cash the bonds of our govern- 250 THE VNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. ment for one hundred and fifty millions of gold at par, charging only two per cent, annually for fifty or a hundred years, payable at Washing- ton or the Bank of England. Of course this conference was intended only as a "memorandum" for future diplomatic action of the Oriental Powers of Japan and China, and was so conveyed to Mr. Secretary Blaine in 1890. It was with absorbing interest and pride as an American citizen that we listened to the grievances of these old nations, laid at the feet of the Republic of the West. They saw, even then, the currents of the Occidental and Oriental trade changing their course across the seas. Not only were they compelled, like "dumb driven cattle," to submit to the tolls and exactions of the "Suez canal," but being then silver countries, they were compelled to pay exorbitant rates of exchange between Japan's and China's silver and Europe's gold. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 251 Thus spoke Minister Okuma, Japan's great financier, one day at the Japanese Foreign Office, to the American Minister : " We must have this ocean transit at Nicaraugua. Japan and China and Corea must have Amer- ican raw cotton and American iron and oils and other products in exchange for our teas and silks and coffee and sulphur and bronze and precious wares. Our people are adepts at manufacturing. In the great silk factories and in the delicate hand- work, whether with the spindle or the loom, or in tapestry or weaving, they have been schooled for centuries, and their ' skilled labor ' is ready for your cotton. If this canal is built by your government, we will buy three millions of bales of your best American cotton the first year after it is completed, paying two cents per pound in gold more than Eng- land or Europe pays for the same grade, and for every third year thereafter, will double that demand until a decade has passed. These two nations alone, Japan and China, not to speak of India and Corea, for the consumption by their five hundred million of people in twenty years, on these condi- tions, can use thirty million bales of American cot- ton. There is no staple in all the world like your staple. But few beds of iron ore exist in China or 252 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. Japan or Corea. We want American iron to com. pete with English iron and the iron of north Eu- rope. The people of the East intend some day to build more railroads through all their countries. Japan now has 5,000 miles and wants 15,000; and China must have many thousand miles where she has not one to-day. With a salvage of twelve thou- sand or more miles in the ' round haul ' — ocean transit via Nicaraugua, they could buy your Amer- ican cotton and wool and iron and grain at higher prices than they pay to Europe or the Continent, and the Orient would still reap larger returns and profits in the exchange trade." What a splendid future opens up to the South and West especially ; and to the entire Republic generally in thus securing the " lion's share " of the vast trade of the Orient. It has not been a year since Li Hung Chang (now with his " peacock feathers " removed in dis- grace ; but then the great Chinese " power be- hind the throne," as he will be again) stated on his visit to the United States that the war with Japan had opened the eyes as well as MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 253 the exchequer of the " Middle Kingdom," that China must awake from the sleep of ages ; that Japan had already awakened her ; that China's only hope was to adopt western civilization in peace and her terrible enginery in war, and con- nect all portions of her great Empire by rail- way. With a ship canal at Nicaraugua, China would come to America, to Pittsburg and Vir- ginia and Tennessee and Alabama and Geor- gia and to Texas for the iron to build three hundred and fifty thousand miles of railway, which China intends to build in the coming decade. Japan built her first railways in Yesso, of American iron, and by American engineers. To-day our locomotives and stationary engines, and railway coaches are the best that can be bought, and in construction the United States leads England, Germany, and all continental Europe. These are from the official reports of our merchants and of our consuls at foreign 21 254 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. ports. We are no dreamers. All the world knows that commerce is as cold and greedy as Shylock on the Rialto. Commerce goes by sea and land to where its wants and necessities are supplied at the lowest figures, and where it sells its goods and wares to the highest bidder. With the building of this great work, there will come a day when the mine and the mill and the factory in America will never close from strikes for higher waees, or be shut down by owners for want of a profitable market. It will bring China and Japan face to face with America in the future exchange of a rich and almost fabulous commerce. When the ships of 500 millions of Oriental people can cross from Shanghai and Hong Kong and Kobe and Yokohama, without change of bulk to San Francisco and Galveston, and New Orleans and Mobile, and Savannah and Charleston, and Baltimore and Boston, and Philadelphia and Pagoda. Tennonji Osaka. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 255 New York, seeking our cotton and iron and grains and all other products in exchange for their wares and silks and teas, then, indeed, a golden millennium will have dawned on the commercial life of this country and of the Orient. We speak whereof we know, when we say that it is cheaper this day for the poor native Japanese or Chinese to wear silk than American or European cotton or woolen goods ; and hence they wear it. When a reciprocity of trade shall have been inaugu- rated between these lands and our own, as it will be some day, then the exchange, the barter and trade between their silks and teas and copper and sulphur and precious wares, and our cotton (then to be increased to a crop of thirty million bales instead of ten), and our inexhaustible iron mines and the golden grain and the meat stuffs of the mighty West, will mark a new era of prosperity to the United 256 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. States. We shall, even in our day, see the manufactured silks of Japan and China, and their teas and wares, within the reach of the poorest of our people, and the peasant girl able to wear a silken gown on her wedding day. Our cotton, in exchange for their silks, our iron for their wares, our grains for their copper and sulphur and curios, will fix the reciprocal exchange without duty imposed to either land. This was the dream of that typical and great American Secretary, James G. Blaine. He was for reciprocal treaties with all countries, where the conditions authorized them. It would build up the volume of our trade and bring prosperity alike to the American producer, consumer, and manufac- turer. It would restore the equilibrium of trade, and cover the Pacific ocean with the white sails of our merchant marine. It would give us the long-sought supremacy on the Atlantic also, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 257 where two-thirds of our products are now carried in foreign ships. Our " mother country," of whose ancestral blood and traditions all Americans are proud, and whose exhibition of sympathy and love has in the late war with Spain received knightly response from the people on this side of the Atlantic, is nevertheless our rival in the marts of the world's trade. In their ships floats the major part of America's commerce to Liverpool and London and continental ports, and nearly all the carriers of the Pacific are British ships bearing the "lion's flag." This must not be ! This ship canal is the key to the situation ; the solution of the problem of America's success- ful recovery of her lost carrying trade lies in the completion of this ocean transit at Nica- raugua. This transit will regulate the prices of all our products, at home and abroad. England, every night in the exchanges of Lon- 258 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. don and in the Bank of England, fixes the prices of cotton and silver and gold and grain and iron all around the globe. When the Nicaraugua canal's ship transit is com- pleted, England will, as heretofore, flash her cablegrams, saying to New York and New Orleans and Galveston and Savannah and Charleston, " Give to-morrow six cents per pound for the best grades of American cot- ton." From Yokohama and Kobe and Shang- hai will come back the response, " We will pay eight cents per pound for the best grades of American cotton." The sportsman of the West who sang of "The Heathen Chinee" in his own provincial and " professional " par- lance, would say, " Japan 'sees' England's bid, and ' goes two cents better ' and calls her hand." In our voyage across the Pacific, in 1885, to Japan, we saw but one four-masted schooner MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 259 bearing the Stars and Stripes (we met no other) during that tedious ocean transit of nearly six thousand miles. We received salutes, and re- turned them, from numbers of the merchant marine ships of Great Britain, and from Spain and France and Germany. That solitary American vessel we met on the highway looked like an orphan exile wandering over the seas. This * lost supremacy we will restore when this great ship channel shall unite the oceans, and enable the Far East to shake hands face to face with the Great West, free from the dominations of the " middle men " of European nations. The tridents of the middle men have ruled the waves and the ships that float on them, and their magic wands have transformed all the wage-workers of the sun- rise nations into "hewers of wood and drawers of water " for the European Powers and for the banks and the bourses and exchanges from the 260 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Thames to the Bosphorus, and from Berlin to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The United States half a century ago was the mis- tress of the world's commercial marine, led by our then great " clipper" ships. This transit will bring back the lost prosperity of long ago. The patriotic but mistaken laws for pro- tecting and fostering a navy and merchant ships, making American ship-yards the fruitful nurseries of fighting tars and peaceful sailors, enacted that no American flag should float over any ship (it mattered not whose money built it), unless every part of the vessel was built in American ship-yards and by American labor. The practical result was that American gold and shipping interests went to the Mersey or the Clyde and had their ships built for about half the money that it would cost them at home. All right in theory, but bad and alarm- ing in practice. It lost us the supremacy of MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 261 the seas in peaceful commerce. England this day carries in her bottoms, as noted heretofore, two-thirds of our exports and imports to and from foreign lands. As a military desideratum, no statesman can hesitate since the object-lesson was given of the world's greatest battleship, our own "Oregon," sailing over 15,000 miles around the "Horn" to reach Cuban waters, in time of war. With that ocean ship transit, that splendid war ship could have made the passage from the " Golden Gate," via the canal to the West Indian waters, in less than twenty days. In all these achievements, Japan and the Orient are far more deeply interested than any European Power. The author does not mean to indulge in invidious comparisons, much less impugn the motives of the friendly nations of Europe, but we may venture the opinion and the prediction that should, by untoward fate, 262 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. this great canal and transit fail to be con- structed, we would listen in vain for any notes of grief or lamentations from England or the Continent. They would possibly not "mock at our calamity," but would be serenely recon- ciled to America's misfortune. CHAPTER XXIII. THE SHIP TRANSIT IN ITS RELATIONS TO SOUTH AMERICAN AS WELL AS JAPANESE TRADE. .SIDE from the magnificent Ori- ental commerce, which the ocean transit will pour into our deep sea harbors on the Pacific, the Gulf, and the Atlantic, the influence will be ever widening, bearing on its changed currents a vast volume of the trade of South as well as North America, and particularly from its western coasts. The opportunity of the closing century is at our doors. The United States has too long folded its tents, and like the Arabs, laid down to pleasant dreams, in fancied commercial security. With catholic and commercial amity with all nations, our country should remember the [263] 264 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. legend of the " Trojan Horse " in classic story. We have, by relying on and boasting of our natural advantages, imagined that we- were masters of the situation for all time to come. We have supinely allowed Europe and the " mother country," leading their merchant marine, to come to our very doors and bear away the traffic of half a continent on our southward and of our sister republics. The 36,000,000 of people of South America buy an- nually, from foreign countries, goods to the value in gold of $376,000,000, while the United States (the treasury department is our authority for the humiliating confession) sells to South America only $33,000,000. The five Central American States have a population of only 35,000,000, yet they buy foreign goods valued at $23,000,000 annually, while of that amount the United States furnishes only $5,320,000. The West Indies, outside of Porto Rico and MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 265 Cuba, purchase about $45,000,000 worth of goods, of which this country furnishes only $15,000,000. A ship transit across Nicaraugua will make our Republic the common carrier of that portion of the South American trade (of its western ports) that must and will seek transit through this ship channel to the " Far East." In all this great revolution that is to be, Japan and China, and other Oriental nations are greatly interested. In connection with the future development of our trade with Japan, recent events have tended to bind that island Empire and our Republic with yet stronger cords of friendship, that will not be broken in peace or in war. CHAPTER XXIV. THE CHINESE WAR. N the war with China, if never before, Japan learned how earn- Wrliife?! estiy to appreciate the fidelity and the unselfish devotion of the United States to promise and principle, as compared with European diplomacy. We have never de- ceived Japan, never played the role of Talley- rand in her courts. That war with China was a just war, waged not for conquest, as the sequel showed, but honor, and because of violated treaties. We have heretofore adverted to Japan's quarrels with China and Corea, and to the late troubles over Loo Choo and Formosa, which General Grant settled as an umpire. In the [266] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 267 seventies (1876) the " Treaty of Tintsen " was negotiated between China and Japan. For centuries China had claimed to exercise what publicists called "suzerainty" over Corea to the exclusion of all other Powers. Annually the tribute of Corea to China was borne to Pekin. Japan protested against the exercise of this unlawful power. She reminded China that centuries past she had, with her legions following her Joan of Arc of the East, con- quered Corea, and even in that "darker age" showed mercy to the vanquished. Corea had also protested against the hectoring domination of China. Strained diplomatic relations arose with the passing of the years, until the great " Middle Kingdom" began to threaten Corea with in- vasion unless she diverted her trade from Japan. Out of these quarrels came the Treaty of Tintsen. Among other provisions of that 268 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. convention, negotiated by two of the most eminent statesmen of both Empires (Marquis Ito for Japan, and Li Hung Chang for China), was a provision that the " favored-nation clause " should be enforced as to commerce, and that in enforcing it, or for any political cause, neither China nor Japan should send armed troops to Corea without due notice to and consent of the other Power. To this Convention all three of the nations interested became parties in solemn form. It may be remarked, in passing, that China, seeing that Japan was obtaining most of the trade of Corea, became jealous of her island neighbor, on whom that Power of 500,000,000 looked down with contempt, supposing that, before her armies and navy, Japan would be swept into the sea. China made up a diplo- matic "man of straw" as an excuse for in- vading Corea and " regulating" her trade and MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 269 custom duties. Japan remonstrated against this violation of her treaties, and informed China that a repetition of this outrage would be a cause of war, and demanded apology for the recent demonstration. Without deigning to make reply, China sent ships with soldiers, under convoy, bound for Corea. The world now knows the result. Japanese war ships fired upon these transports and convoys, and sank them, men and ships, to the bottom of the sea. Thus it was that the recent memorable war began between China and Japan. It was then that Japan's education in the arts of peace and war, drawn from the Occident, bore fruit. Her army and navy was fully panoplied for war, and Japan was ready for the conflict. Thus armed, and having her " quarrel just," Japan was even eager, because ready, for the conflict at the very hour of the declaration of war. Her mobilization of soldiers and sailors ; her com- 270 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. missary well supplied ; her quartermaster s department moving like clock work, Japan's infantry and artillery and cavalry were convoyed to ports of Corea. Corea was silenced and made the base of land operations by the Japanese "army of occupation." Thence her army moved, crossing the border line of China and Corea, and entered the territory of the enemy. Reckoning from the beginning that Japan would never dare to invade that mighty kingdom, this old dynasty slept while the enemy was compassing her destruction by land and sea. American and German officers, who by courtesy were the guests of both armies, have described to us, in serious humor, the army and navy of China. Her soldiers were vivid repro- ductions of Falstaft's "ragged regiments " on the stage ; and their native officers burlesques on soldierly bearing as much as was Shake- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 271 speare's obese commander of " King Henry." China, therefore, at the first thunder of the guns of Japan fled, their officers leading in the flight In this triumphal invasion by an enemy who had come over the ocean for 1500 miles and hundreds of leagues of land via Corea, there was no really great engagement in the open field, and but two assaults on forts on the sea (Port Arthur and Yalu) which were resisted by the Chinese. Yet while these battles lasted, they were bloody ; the losses of China in killed and wounded exceeding, by seventy-five per cent., those of the Japanese armies of invasion. Not one instance of cowardly or unsoldierly conduct in battle was reported of an officer or soldier of Japan. The Chinese army, if such it may be called, fled by battalions and regi- ments, scattered all the way from the coast to Peking. The triumph of the army of Japan 272 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. astonished the nations of the earth, but none more than England, whose proud boast for centuries had been, that : " Her march was on the mountain wave, Her home was on the deep." Great warships like the " Nanniwa Kan " were handled as if American sailors or British tars were behind the guns. Those swift and terrible conflicts sent to the bottom of the sea the mightiest ships of China's navy (and they were the equals of those of Japan), and com- pelled the unconditional surrender of nearly all the remainder of a once splendid squadron, and all of the destroyed forts became the lawful prizes of Japan. Japan waged a humane and civilized war. On the fields of battle her humanity hovered like an angel of mercy over the enemies and around the dying, and gave burial to the dead. CHAPTER XXV. JAPAN WAGES A HUMANE WAR. \?NCE on a time, and only once, * i the rear guards of the Japanese &&&±4&£' armies discovered that some hun- dreds of their wounded countrymen had been butchered and mutilated by the brutal Chinese soldiers. The famous war correspondents of the Asso- ciated Press of that time, record the fact " that in an instant, at the sight of those inhuman murders, Japan's soldiers inflicted the lex tal- ionis — an eye for an eye, life for life — on the first Chinese soldiers they met." But it was a moment's bloody work. The officers of the line arrested and punished those Japanese sol- diers and had read on all parades a general £273] 274 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. order reciting the disgrace they thus put upon the fame of Japan in civilized warfare. Never- theless, there was no blot on the fair military escutcheon of Japan in that war. Such is the record. China surrenders at discretion. Li Hung Chang was sent to Nagoshimo, as Envoy Extraordinary, to treat and sue for peace. Marquis Ito, the Japanese Premier, represented his Empire. We need not enter into the details of that memorable meeting. A treaty of peace was consummated. After acknowledg- ing their utter defeat, and that their surrender in time saved the ancient capital of Peking, they promised, among other stipulations, substan- tially as follows : 1st. That in consideration of indemnity for ex- penses incurred in the war and security against its recurrence in the future, China should cede uncon- ditionally all her right, title, and domain to Port Arthur and the Yalu, and such inland boundaries as Japan should elect. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 275 2nd. That the island of Formosa should likewise be ceded unconditionally to Japan. 3rd. That the sum of $250,000,000 in gold should be paid in installments by China to Japan, limiting the last payment to the year 1 897, as money indem- nity for the war. Other provisions were re-enacted of old trea- ties exacting the "favored nation clause" in all their future commercial and tariff relations. The announcement of these conditions to Li Hung Chang made a thrilling scene, as recited to us by those who had access to the court. That now temporarily deposed prince, Li Hung Chang, whom General Grant said was "one of the three great men whom he met in the Old World," on rising, with hands uplifted, thanked Japan for her mercy and gentleness and for- bearance to a conquered power. The treaty was signed by Li Hung Chang and by the Emperor of Japan and Marquis Ito, the then great Premier of the conquering power. CHAPTER XXVI. INTERVENTION. ©'""NO W^TT* VfHERE then stalk upon the stage — & J not the mimic, but the real and &^±&£&) tragic stage of nations — other actors in the after-play. It was Russia, with France on one side and Germany (a strange alliance) on the other side, as seconds and sponsors. Japan was told, plainly but diplo- matically, by Russia, that she should yield back to China Port Arthur and the mouth of the Yalu ; that Formosa and the 250,000,000 of money demanded and conceded in the treaty was low and liberal to China, but that Russia had but one outlet port on the Chinese seas (Vlavidivostoc), and that was closed by ice one- half of the year ; that the three great Powers, [276] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 277 Russia taking the lead, must request, peace- fully if she could, that Japan should renounce the possession of the recent cession to her of Port Arthur and Yalu by China ; that the de- mands of Russia's commerce and self-existence in the East demanded this renouncement. The dramatic scene, as related to the author, which followed this demand by these great Christian Powers, was worthy of the days of knighthood. The Premier Ito, of Japan, speak- ing for his Emperor and for the forty millions of his subjects, and for the sailors and soldiers who had won in a civilized war one of the greatest triumphs of the century, asked the Russian Plenipotentiary, in substance, as fol- lows : 1st. If Japan had not fairly waged and won the victory over vast odds? 2d. If Japan had not made terms more humane and liberal than ever before characterized any con- quering nation in all the annals of war? 278 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. 3d. If all the Treaty Powers did not stand aloof and promise non-interference and neutrality be- tween China and Japan during that war? In further response, Japan arraigned Russia and her allies by asking other questions : Did not Russia, in her dismemberment of Poland, and in her conquest of Siberia without just cause, in the name of " indemnity," appropriate every foot of that vast region stretching across Asia to Vlavidivostoc on the Sea of China? Did not Russia's ally, Germany, in the Franco-Prussian war, for " indemnity " charge the conquered nations a billion of dollars and seize the fairest of her possessions, Alsace and Lorraine? Did not France seize Annam of this same old China and exact money and concessions? And has not England, who is our friend in this contention, encircled the globe with islands and semi-continents as the trophies of conquest? And did she not, in the "Opium War" forced on China, charge her a billion of thalers, and seize Hongkong and all the island and the free navigation of the greatest in- land river connecting Canton with the sea, and all for " indemnity ? " And yet your so-called " Chris- tian " Powers deny to Japan a triumph and treaty concession justly earned by her unstained sword! MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 279 A half century ago you sent missionaries bearing a new and to us strange religion of peace and good- will to men, teaching us to " do unto others as ye would they should do unto you ! " Japan, though not Christian, welcomed them in tolerant spirit as well as in treaties by which they were directly pro- tected. And yet the very first opportunity your Powers have had to verify in act, instead of words, this Christian rule, you crucify it, and Japan is the victim. Nevertheless, the reply (we give the sub- stance only of that eventful meeting as ob- tained from authentic sources) of Russia to to Japan was, "You have our ultimatum." No more ungracious and coldly selfish treat- ment ever marred the councils of diplomacy; much less the intercourse of friendly Treaty Powers. It is unwritten history that Japan offered the "wager of battle " with Russia alone, if her powerful allies would only stand aside from this single contest. 280 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. The sequel beholds Japan yielding to superior force, ''might making right" as of old, in the eternal struggle of the strong against the weak. She gave back Port Arthur and the Yalu to China, and to-day Russia is virtually the pos- sessor of both these former justly won trophies of Japan's conquest of China. Into this con- spiracy the United States, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Spain did not enter, be it said to their everlasting credit as Christian nations. Japan might have invoked American history in the war with our neighboring Republic of Mexico, in that unequal contest, about whose justice great political parties differed at the time. Mexico, of course, went down, crushed in defeat. The doctrine of " indemnity for the past and security for the future " was applied to Mexico, and the result was that we took in compensation every foot of land which was MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 281 owned by Mexico, between the Rio Grande and the sunset, out of which the territories of Arizona, New Mexico and golden California have been carved, and now form a part of the American Union. No more cruel blow could have been given to Christian missions and western influence in the Far East, than the hectoring and bullying by mighty Christian nations over weaker Japan. But for the refusal of England and the United States and the other Powers mentioned, to join in this " stand and deliver" demand, Christi- anity would have retrograded half a century in the lost confidence of the pagans in the profes- sions of the Christian. Japan yielded and renounced Port Arthur and the Yalu ; but spurned the unthanked suggestion of Russia to claim of China other equivalent in gold in place of Port Arthur and the Yalu. 23 CHAPTER XXVII. THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. HE author does not propose to discuss the Hispano-American war, except in its relations to the possible aftermath with Japan and the Orient and the United States. Adopting the senti- ment now historic, " our country, may it always be in the right ; but, right or wrong, our coun- try," we have no apologies or defenses to make about the "casus belli" on the trophies of victory on sea and shore, over the ancient and weaker power of Spain. It is past ! We listen to the thunder of Dewey's guns in the East and the echo of Schley's and Sampson's battle- ships in the West; squadrons sunk into the seas, and fair islands stained with the blood of the [282] MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 283 Spanish soldiers and of our own, as we shall read the record over again and again in story and song. Whether the great Republic shall " expand " till Manila and Porto Rico and Cuba are ours in fact, and not in name, is not the main ques- tion we propose to discuss in this closing recital of eventful scenes in our recent history. We cannot close our eyes nor our ears, how- ever, to the fact that the war with Spain furnished the glad opportunity to two great Powers, one of the East and one of the West — England and Japan — to manifest their unselfish friendship for our country, at a time when Russia and Germany and France and Austria were seemingly seeking to form an alliance, offensive and defensive, against the United States, to demand that the war with Spain should cease. Our kindred of Albion, in press and pulpit, 284 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. in the Houses of Lords and Commons, in the army and navy, in distant lands and on distant seas, gave the United States to understand that England was ours to command, in our day of trial, if unfriendly alliances should bear down against us. Thus were our ancestral kith and kin forgetting the troubles of the past. But Japan was not our kindred save in the kinship of the brotherhood of man, and that responsive "touch of human kindness that makes the whole world kin." We had been her friend for fifty years ; and when the nations who had threatened and robbed her of the fruits of honest war with China were seemingly allying against her ancient and trusted friend of the West, then it was that Japan was our friend, both in the secret sessions of her own cabinet and in the cabinet at Washington. The world believes that, in the event of an alliance of Powers against the United States, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 285 England and Japan would have come to our aid. Dewey's immortal victory at Manila, and Schley's equally splendid victory at Santiago, and the triumph of Miles and Wheeler and Shafter and Roosevelt and Brooke and Wil- son and Merritt and Lawton and Otis, and others equally as brave and heroic on land, dazed all envious nations, and they cried "Halt!" along the lines, and the world was saved from the bloodiest war of the age. We should be ingrates, indeed, were we not, in council, in the forum, and in high places, in press and pulpit, and, above all, in truthful history, to make grateful acknowledgment of the generous friendship that, despising the "white lies " of diplomacy, was ready to prove the sincerity of proffered succor in our appeal to arms, and if need be, by the thunder of their guns on land and sea. The traditions of our Republic do not favor " entangling alliances " 286 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. with foreign Powers ; but we are a century removed from the natal day of our country. In great struggles for the right, forced on us in behalf of humanity, whether in the West or in the East, this country of seventy millions of people is no longer a "pent-up Utica," and must signalize her victories by giving better governments and more enlightened constitu- tional liberties where despotism and political in- quisitions have cursed the people for centuries. For mere conquest or for booty, never, but for liberty and humanity — when we are forced to war with the oppressor anywhere and every- where under the sun — our country should pro- tect the fruits' of victory from the greedy lust of other nations for empire, as we have de- livered these oppressed subjects from merciless despotism. A territorial or colonial watchcare should be afforded, at least till their capacity for self-government has been demonstrated, and then MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 287 separate and independent free republican gov- ernments for themselves, or annexation, as they may give their " consent" or request to the great emancipating Republic. The Rubicon was passed, and the bridges burned behind us, when, by the solemn act of Congress, war was declared against Spain. In the declaration there was no offensive partisan- ship exhibited and no faltering in the quick- step of the legions of armed men from all the States rallying to the call of their country. Henceforth, till the short, sharp, and decisive conflict forced the old Dynasty of the Dons to sue for peace, there was no bickering in the National Legislature about the righteousness of the declaration of war, albeit against a nation as weak as she was vain and haughty, and whose tottering throne had in the recent centuries lost nearly all its possessions around the globe. The Treaty of Paris confirmed the 288 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. absolute title of the United States, given with- out condition by Spain, surrendering, as she did, without discretion. This title gave to the United States Cuba, the "gem of the Antilles," Porto Rico of the West, and the Philippine Islands of the Far East, as "indemnity for the past and security for the future." Though these diplomatic words were not written in the cartels of the surrender, the responsibilities of the after-math rested upon the victor. These re- sponsibilities invoked the spirit and principles of the great mission of republican self-govern- ment on this continent as the guiding-star of our American government. That mission was consecrated for more than a century by the blood of our fathers and by their stateship in counsel and valor in battle, and proclaimed to all the world the right of free self-govern- ment under written laws and constitutions. In the " Golden Rule," which has illustrated our MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 289 country's history to this time, we have, as a Republic, never sought territorial possessions by bloody conquests. We have " done unto others as we would they should do unto us." It was thus in the Louisiana and Florida pur- chases, out of which great States have been carved, and in that mighty area of territory which we acquired from a sister Republic in 1846. This territory, composed of Spanish- speaking people, stretched from the Rio Grande to the far Pacific, and from the Gulf to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and made us in deed and in truth an ocean-bound Republic. To this grand expanse, either as States or terri- tories, we gave the same free government as blessed the conquering Republic. The United States is responsible for her own acts in peace and for her own victories in war. This re- sponsibility, though not in the written treaties defined, or in the acts of Congress, binds us by 290 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. an unwritten law to give autonomy to Cuba, and stable constitutional governments to Porto Rico and to the Philippines, when in the judg- ment of this country those islands shall become capable of self-government, and not till then. We should count it a sad day in our history if Cuba and Porto Rico and, most of all, the Philippines, though possessing vast and rich resources, should in a half century to come, be admitted as States into this Union ! The people are heterogeneous, and largely ignorant and barbarian in the interior, as the author has witnessed in person. Their idea of lib- erty — I speak of the masses — is license, not regu- lated by law. Annexation would bring into our Congress seventy representatives and a corres- ponding number of senators ! What, then, shall we do about it ? Turn them loose ? That would be to invite the vindictive malice and revenge of Spain towards the rebel insurgents. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 291 Shall we sell them to Europe or to the Orient ? That would be receiving "blood-money," and shock the spirit of humanity and Christian civilization of all the nations of the earth. We cannot hold them as colonies, as other nations in their lust and greed of conquest are wont to do, imposing an iron rule over their peoples as slaves ! We are not imperialists — have no princes nor dukes nor lords nor royal succession of the blood to place over them ; but we should be to them as a great Protectorate, keeping other nations at bay and leading them into higher walks of free government. This should be done until they are capable of self-govern- ment, and then, and not till then, could we, in common humanity, consent to their becoming independent Republics in the family of nations. If we would have avoided this fearful responsi- bility then the declaration of war should never have been made, to begin with, and Spain should 292 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. have been allowed- to continue her rule, giving autonomy to Cuba under a treaty which she was on the eve of signing. The conditions are now different, and these helpless people can look to us alone of all the nations of the earth for friendly guidance. £■ * o -* CHAPTER XXVIII. JAPAN S MILITARY AND NAVAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE CHINESE WAR. HE latest official reports of the Minister for War show that on a peace footing, the army of Japan consists of 61,976 men, and its war footing of 2 45>3 IC> men, which the war office declares can be raised in emergencies to over one million of men in the field. The Emperor has an ''Imperial Guard," of 5,000 carefully selected troops, outside of the standing army, who, because of their statue and drill and military bearing, constitute the esprit du corps of the army of the capital. The navy of Japan, in 1894, consisted of three coast defense vessels of 4,277 tons displacement each; [293] 294 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST two armored cruisers of 3, 700 and 2,450 tons dis- placement, respectively ; six protected cruisers, whose average displacement was 3,183 tons each ; ten second-class cruisers with average dis- placement of 1,547 tons ; hve gun vessels of 614 tons displacement each ; and one first-class gun vessel of 1,350 tons displacement. The speed of the coast defense boats and cruisers aver- aged seventeen knots per hour, going to nine- teen miles and down to fourteen per hour, and the vessels were built in England and France and Japan. It will be observed that no " bat- tleships," or cruisers of great tonnage or dis- placement are found in this list. This naval armament confronted that of China, and sank or captured it in the most remarkable naval victory of half a century pre- ceding that event. China had two formidable battleships of 7,430 tons displacement each ; but her navy was inferior to Japan's in aggre- gate tonnage and displacement by 13,000 tons. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 295 As recited in a preceding chapter, without entering into details, China, while notifying Japan that she intended sending troops to Corea to suppress a rebellion at the latter' s request, as a matter of fact, had already sent over two thousand troops in violation of the Treaty of Tintsen. Japan, on the 7th of June, 1894, formally notified China that she would immediately send a portion of her army to protect Japanese subjects resident in Corea. Japan later on sent five hundred troops from her war ships at Chemulio, post-haste to the Corean capital at Souel. Afterwards she sent 5,000 more. China then demanded the " instant withdrawal " of Japanese troops. The demand was peremptorily refused. China again sent transports of troops, convoyed by war ships, which Japan attacked with her ships, destroy- ing most of the transports and war ships of China. And thus the war was inaugurated. 24 296 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. The fleet of Japan consisted of five squadrons, and the army of six divisions, of 9,000 each ; and besides these were three divisions of the "Imperial Guard," increased to 6,000 men in each division, making a total of 72,000 men. The so-called army of China, which we have heretofore appropriately, but kindly compared to Falstaft's ragged soldiery, was composed of one million men. Only about 180,000 of this million had arms of modern type ; while the other 820,000 had arms of various styles, some of them more than a century old ; and their equipment, of all sorts and sizes, had been discarded for generations by the great military powers of the world. Under such conditions, though a nation of 500,000,000 confronted one of 40,000,000, it is not marvelous that by land and sea the "Great Middle Kingdom" was crushed in ignoble defeat. It was the sword- fish battling with the whale ; the alertness, MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 297 activity, courage, and drill of Japan, against the unwieldy stupidity of the army of China. The treaty of Peace was duly negotiated and signed on April 17, 1895, and ratifications exchanged on May 8, 1895. The protests of Russia, France, and Germany, already referred to, against the retention of Tieng-tsen and Port Arthur had a first and an after part to the play. It was the sensational diplomatic gossip of the time in all the Foreign Legations .of China and Japan, that the demand of the three great west- ern Powers, and the response of Japan were characterized by high and heated discussions. The author has given the substance of these purported contentions as received from sources which he regards as of unquestionable and emi- nent authority. The official imperial rescript, however, of June 10, 1895, by the Japanese Government, while reciting the cold facts, glosses over that surrender to Russia in the 298 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. following extract from an official State paper, to-wit : " Since then, the governments of their Majesties, the Emperors of Russia and Germany, and of the Republic of France, have united in a recommenda- tion to our government not to permanently possess the peninsula of Tieng-tsen, our duly acquired ter- ritory, on the ground that such permanent posses- sion would be detrimental to the lasting peace of the Orient. Devoted as we unalterably are, and ever have been, to the principles of peace, we were con- strained to take up arms against China for no other reason than our desire to secure for the Orient an enduring peace. Now, the friendly recommenda- tion of the three great Powers was equally promo- ted by the same desire. Consulting, therefore, the best interests of peace, and animated by a desire not to bring upon our people added hardship or to impede the progress of national destiny by creating new complications, and thereby making the situa- tion difficult, and retarding the restoration of peace, we do not hesitate to accept such recommendation." Thus ended the play in two acts ; the first a tragedy, and the last a comedy. The treaty of peace had been ratified by both China and MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 299 Japan thirty days before this so-called friendly (?) recommendation had been accepted. It was "right" yielding to "might." The grace- ful submission to the inevitable was what Japanese diplomats for ages have called "jieu- jet-su," or "yielding to conquer." This act of Japan won the sympathy of the civilized world, outside of the three great powers designated ; and thus the loss of that day may give victories in the future far more valued than the possession of a peninsula or a port which had been fairly won in a just, humane, and civilized war. Our design is not to write a history of the China-Japanese war, and we have only touched the headlands of that conflict. We cannot close this chapter, however, without paying tribute to the gallant officers and men of the army and navy of Japan, most of whom we knew in person, who crowned their soldierly qualities 300 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. with fadeless laurels. Yamagata and Oyama and Oshima and Nodzu, were the leaders on land, and Ito and Tsuboi, with others, were the great admirals of the warships on the sea. Their trophies in war, and the no less brilliant civic triumphs of Ito and Inouye, and Okuma and Mutsu, and Aoki, and Kurodo and Saigo, and Yamada and Matsukata in the cabinet, from this time forth advanced Japan to the front and abreast with the great military powers of the earth. CHAPTER XXIX. THE HOME LIFE OF JAPAN THE MARRIED RELA- TIONS DOOM OF POLYGAMY. HE author's good fortune has led him into many countries of the Orient and of the Occident. His present unbiased, though at first prejudiced, judgment of the home life of Japan, compels him to acknowledge, that for the great car- dinal virtues of loyalty and paternal and maternal and filial devotion, no homes on this earth surpass the Japanese. We mean that love of the child for the parent, which coupled with obedience and gratitude, never grows cold from childhood to age. The converse is equally as true in the love of the parent for the child. The married life is not hedged in, it is [3011 302 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. true, by the same vows and divine and human laws that guard that most sacred of all domestic relations in Christian lands. While that is acknowledged, yet, by the fruits borne of their domestic relations, we know, amid pagan idolatries even, that they have made their homes, from the prince to the coolie, united and happy. From the day when the little ones leave their " armah " (or nurse), every artifice that genius or love can devise is directed to the diversions and amusement and happiness of the children. The countless toys which to-day, and for years, make joyous the holidays of our loved ones of the West and especially in times of the "Christmas carols," and of "Santa Claus," come mostly from Japan. It must be stated that for ages, not as preached by Buddha or by Confucius, but as permitted by a sort of unwritten law, polygamy has been allowed by l A7irnohs ' ' (or Nurses) carrying Children. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 303 r the State ; yet it is doomed. To the revolu- tions which western Christian civilization has wrought by statesmen, as well as by the heralds of the cross, this fast approaching dissolution of polygamy may be largely attributed. Even now, there can be but one wife in Japan through whom the legal inheritance of titles and property and name can descend, and only when this legal wife is childless, can the right descend to the children of the next-, or addi- tional, wife of the lord of the household. Polygamy, as it exists in Japan to-day, is more nominal than real. No subject can marry more than one wife, unless he offers to the State absolute proof of his financial ability to main- tain the added wife and her children in a sepa- rate home (a promise well timed in any land, pagan or Christian), and to educate the chil- dren in the same degree as those of the first wife. The result is there is but little ille^iti- 304 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. macy as compared with many, even Christian countries. The punishments for the violation of the Christian's "Seventh Commandment" not only is swift and sharp, but it carries dis- grace for all after generations. Centuries ago infidelity of the wife was punished by death. The following utterances from a recent speech of the most eminent philosopher and editor of Japan — Fuji Sawa — delivered before the great school which he founded, sounds the death- knell of polygamy: "All the human family came from one pair, a man and a woman, who were created by heaven ; then came the conditions of parents and children ; of brothers and sisters, which are to continue through all time. Heaven made no difference be- tween man and woman in regard to freedom, but intended them to be equal. In looking at the history of China and Japan from the earliest times, we find that men often had several wives, whom they treated like slaves or criminals, and the husbands were not ashamed of their conduct. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 305 Was not this wicked on the part of the man and most pitiable for the women ? When men thus treat their wives, the example has an evil effect on their children, and they do not treat their mothers with respect nor listen to their instructions. When this is the case with the mother, the children are no better off than orphans. The famous Confucius, in his analects, says that there should be one husband and one wife ; and, while the modern Chinese and Japanese believe this to be right, they do not always act upon his advice. Most certainly there should be one pair only, and between the husband and wife there should always be true friendship, love, and courtesy. When men have a plurality of wives, the children, as a whole, have one father and several mothers; and the laws of Confucius, as well as of nature, are disobeyed. If it is right for one man to have several wives, then why not allow one woman to have several husbands ? As to our chil- dren they are the gifts of heaven, and should be loved and valued for that reason alone. They should be good and beautiful to their parents. The government is always ready to help those who treat their parents kindly, but the children must never do this from interested or sinister mo- tives. When old enough to attend schools they should be sent to those appropriate to their station, 306 TEE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST and they should strive to become useful members of society. All these, things should be done by parents as a return to heaven for blessing them with children." CHAPTER XXX. JAPAN, AND COLONIZATION BY THE UNITED STATES IN THE EAST. JNCE our return to America, and even while we write, our country is involved in war with the ancient dynasty of Spain. "The argument being ex- hausted " which sought for humane and honor- able solution of the problems, the appeal to arms, the last and final arbiter of nations, was made. Of its perils and privations, its death- less laurels won by land and by sea, we need not write. The first and grandest result of that conflict — now and ever more till the judg- ment-day may our countrymen point to it with pride and gratitude beyond human utterance — has been the complete reunion of the North L307] 808 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. and South, the East and West, in the fraternal love of our fathers. Differ we will, and ought, on questions of civil policies that divide great and friendly political parties ; but when, if ever again, this country shall be compelled in the future, as in the past, to engage in war against foreign powers, it will be by an undivided and indissoluble union of all the States and peoples of the great Republic, in ''letter and in spirit," as at Bunker Hill and Yorktown, in the times of the old " Continentals," who fought and fell for the Union of our fathers. The author speaks advisedly, though not offi- cially, in stating that Japan is " heart and soul " in favor of the United States keeping the whole of our recently acquired possessions in the Far East, as the fruit of the conflict with an enemy whose history for centuries has been stained with cruelties and inquisitorial oppressions, all around the globe. Japan does not want any Sisters. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 309 European country, not even England, to have and to hold these islands, by purchase or by conquest. As events are now shaping in Asia, Japan stands forth as the pre-destined ally of the United States, with England, possibly (and we may add, probably), as the advocate of un- restricted commerce. She wishes, not "free trade" as defined in political lexicons of this day, hut freedom of trade with all the nations of the earth. The importation of raw American cotton alone during this year, from 1897 to 1898 up to June 1 st, increased over nine mil- lions of dollars, and the present total value of 640,000 bales of our cotton, sent to Japan, is $27,000,000. Other purchases from the country have increased in the same ratio, and those products she has been accustomed to buy from other nations have diminished in cor- responding degree. In addition to the fore- going wonderful increase in American exports 310 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. of raw cotton to Japan, we subjoin the following gratifying facts, received and officially pub- lished by the United States Treasury Bureau of Statistics. After stating that the imports from the United States to Japan were more than trebled, the report further shows that : Our manufactures of iron and steel are es- pecially satisfactory to the Japanese, the in- crease in nearly all articles of this class being strongly marked. Imports of locomotive en- gines from the United States increased from 824,080 yen in the last half of last year to 1,443,240 yen in the first half of the present year. Of nails the imports into Japan from the United States increased from 3,260,858 catties in the first half of last year to 7,494,197 catties in the first half of the present year, the cattie being one and three-tenths pounds, the total importation of nails having fallen mean- time from 10,394,717 catties in the first half of MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 311 the present year. The imports of bar and rod iron from the United States increased from 168,085 catties in the first half of 1897 to 1,071,430 in the first half of 1898, while under the head of " other iron and steel " the imports from the United States increased from 9,410 yen in the first half of 1897 to 197,475 in the first half of 1898, the value of the gold yen being 49.8 cents. Importations of alcohol from the United States increased from 10,283 yen in value to 165,254; those of cigarettes from 284,091 yen to 35 1 '57° J °f beans and peas from 414 yen to 16,566, while other articles of this class also showed marked increase. The finer grades of American manufacture, also, seem to be finding special favor among the Japanese, imports of American watches having increased from 95,511 yen in the first half of last year to 165,690 yen in the first half 312 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. of the present year, while our own records of exportations show an increase in exports of typewriters, sewing machines, and other articles of this class to Japan in the fiscal year just ended as compared with those of the preceed- ing year. Returning to our own statements of exports to Japan, it is found that in the first seven months of 1898 our exports to Japan increased over 57 per cent, as compared with the corres- ponding months of 1897. This increase was in a large number of articles. Exports of books, maps, and engravings increased from $12,329 to $14,081 ; those of wheat-flour from 90,153 barrels to 96,886 barrels; cycles, from $41,909 to $59,171 ; clocks and watches, from $98,834 to $105,094 ; raw cotton, from $1,490,- 157 to $5,063,775 ; hides and skins, from 4,008 pounds to 20,200 pounds ; instruments and apparatus for scientific purposes, including tele- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 313 graph and telephone, from $101,901 to $111,- 258; steel rails, from $595,853 to $910,117; sewing machines, from $3,276 to $4,062 ; sole leather, from 653,153 pounds to 876,949 pounds ; kerosene oil, from 24,970,088 gallons to 37,210,494 gallons ; paraffine, from 2,509,638 pounds to 3,906,713 pounds; butter, from 47,170 pounds to 58,580 pounds ; cheese, from 14,556 pounds to 19,935 pounds, with a cor- responding growth in many other articles. From these facts and figures — as a vantage ground and stand-point of the present — the picture cast upon the canvas of the future, will disclose a commerce increased to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Japan and her new tariff, treaties, and rela- tions to foreigners is the subject of a monograph just prepared by the United States Treasury Bureau of Statistics. With a new currency, a new tariff, new treaties, and new relations with 314 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. the large foreign element which has played so great a part in the development of Japan, condi- tions in that Empire are a subject of especial interest, present and prospective, while the rapid development of American commerce with Japan and the market there opening for American goods add greatly to the interest of this study. No other nation has experienced such a re- markable growth in its commerce with Japan as has the United States. Japanese official fig- ures give the importations from the United States, in 1893 at 6,090,408 yen, and in 1898 at 40,001,097 yen. Meantime her importations from England increased from 27,929,628 yen to 62,707,572 yen; those from Germany, from 7,318,134 yen to 25,610,961 yen; those from France, from 3,305,277 yen to 6,979,982 yen; China, from 17,095,975 yen to 30,523,860 yen ; while the only part of the world which has ex- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 315 perienced an increase at all to be compared with that of the United States is British East Indies, in which the increase has been from 8,679,029 yen in 1893 to 40,764,244 yen in 1898. Japan's importations have grown enormously in the past five years. In 1893 they amounted to 88,257,172 yen, and in 1898 to 277,502,166 yen, being thus in 1898 more than three times as much as in 1893. Meantime her exports have grown from 89,712,864 yen in 1893 to 165,753,752 yen in 1898. Thus the exports have doubled and the imports have trebled during the period under consideration — 1893 and 1898. With a yearly consuming power of 277,000,- 000 yen or $138,000,000, the commercial wants of Japan are worthy of careful consideration. This is especially the case when, as shown by the above statements, the disposition is to look 316 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. to the United States for a constantly increasing proportion of its supplies. In 1893, as already indicated, the United States furnished less than 7 per cent, of the imports into Japan, and in 1898 14.4 per cent., while England, our prin- cipal competitor in the markets of the East, which in 1893 furnished 32 per cent, of Japan's importations, in 1898 furnished 22.6 per cent. Not only have the producers and exporters of the United States developed in the past few years a disposition to push their sales in that particular country, but Japan herself is show- ing a disposition to make her purchases from the nearest markets, those of the United States, and has recently established steamship lines connecting with United States ports. The following table shows the imports into Japan from the United States, in 1898, of all articles whose value exceed 100,000 yen. It is taken from the official returns of the Jap- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 317 anese Government, and stated in yen, whose value is 49.3 cents : Articles imported into Japan 1898. from United States — Ten. Cotton, raw 14,751,199 Kerosene oil 5,910,774 Locomotive engines 1,999,091 Flour .... 1,979,359 Rails for railways 1,609,731 Tobacco, leaf 1,598,235 Cigarettes 1,203,283 Nails 977,815 Printing paper 886,007 Structural iron, bridges and buildings 781,198 Sole leather 514,431 Electric-light apparatus ... 407,328 Alcohol • 397«838 Lubricating oil 380,122 Railway material, other than rails 339,195 Watches, silver 251,356 Iron pipe and tubes 238,838 Paraffine wax 228,767 Pig-iron 226,915 Carriages, bicyles, etc 205,089 Condensed milk 174,562 Electric-light wire 151,170 Watches, gold 145,844 Leather, other than sole 140,942 Tobacco, cut 138,982 Cotton duck 121,930 Timber, lumber, etc 116,716 Lead 116,416 Steam boilers and engines 104,877 318 THE VNITEB STATES IN THE FAR EAST. The following table shows the imports from the United States, those from the United Kingdom and the total imports from all coun- tries into Japan in each year from 1888 to 1898 : Imports Imports Imports from from from all U. S. U'td K'dm. countries. Year. Yen. Yen. Yen. 1888 5,648,734 28,693,567 65,549,200 1889 6,143,171 26,007,935 66,236,019 1890 6,874,532 26,619,102 81,836,575 1891 6,840,048 19,993,061 63,851,132 1892 5,988,054 20,739,332 75,952,344 1893 6,090,408 27,929,628 88,257,172 1894 10,982,558 42,189,874 117,481,955 1895 9,276,360 45,172,111 129,260,578 1896 16,373,420 59,251,780 171,574,474 1897 27,030,538 65,406,266 319,300,772 1868 40,001,097 62,707,572 277,502,158 Note. — Value of yen on January 1, 1888, 75.3 cents; 1889, 73.4 cents; 1S90, 75.2 cents; 1891, 83.1 cents; 1892, 74.5 cents; 1893, 66.1 cents; 1894, 55.6 cents; 1895, 49.1 cents; 1896, 52.9 cents; 1897, 51.1 cents; 1898, 49.8 cents. Japan is, by reason of recent events, the nearest neighbor to the United States aside from those whose territory is actually con- tiguous, Canada and Mexico. Her compar- MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 319 atively recent exchange of mainland territory to Russia for the line of islands stretching northwardly from her central group, brings her territory within about 500 miles of that of the United States in the Aleutian chain of islands, while at the south her newly-acquired island of Formosa lies within less than 200 miles of our own newly-acquired territory, the Philippines. Thus not only are the United States and Japan " neighbors " territorially, but their insular possessions combined stretch along the entire Pacific coast of Asia from arctic to equatorial waters. CHAPTER XXXI. THE RELATION OF THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN TO THE PROPOSED "PEACE CONGRESS OF THE WORLD," CALLED TO ASSEMBLE AT ST. PETERS- BURG IN 1899. \(HE smoke of conflict between Spain and the United States had ® scarcely passed away from sea and land — Protocols and Commissions of the victor and of the vanquished were forming and convening to formulate a final " Treaty of Peace" under the terms of the surrender — when there comes upon the stage a new unlooked for messenger accredited to all the nations. That messenger comes bearing a "white flag," sounds a "parley" along the lines of hostile armies and a grounding of arms [320] MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 321 of all the great Powers ! It may never attain its ostensible object, but when Russia, the mightiest in territory and armies of all the Powers of the globe, and with a record stretch- ing far back through the centuries, of alleged absolutisms in Church and State, and marked by political death-penalties, often without trials, or by living matyrdoms in the mines and dun- geons from Poland to Siberia — when such a Power calls for peace, it is high time to ask the watchman on the walls, "what of the night?" Is it after all only the play of diplomacy a la- Talleyrand, or is it a sincere and courageous conversion, like that of Saul of Tarsus, who ceased his persecutions of the saints while on his memorable journey to Damascus and be- came the world's greatest Christian hero and disciple, echoing " peace on earth and good will to men ? " To such an invitation of this old and mighty 322 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. Empire, even as we write, all the Powers have signified an acceptance. That such a movement should begin and be adopted within ninety days from its initial date, may well challenge the earnest thought of popes and priests of Rome, and of all Protest- ant Christendom, as well as of emperors and kings and presidents of republics, and parlia- ments and congresses around the world. It is a forerunner and a harbinger of the better times coming, at least, whether from its convo- cation peace universal will result or not during this generation. The United States has been forced by the fortunes of war with Spain, to discuss her relations, political and commercial, in the Far East — the possible colonial or terri- torial policy of the future, growing out of her recent foreign war, and the acquisition of terri- tory from the conquered Power in Manilan waters. In that proposed and august assem- MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 323 bly, our country with Japan, our best and most faithful friend in the Orient, will meet together, and by their side, around the council board, will be that other great English-speaking people, whose " drum beat echoes 'round the globe." In all the record of the eventful past, the United States can challenge, without vain boasting, all other nations to point to a single acquisition of territory, by purchase or by war, where our " quarrel" was not always "just," and, therefore, "thrice-armed" in the conflict; where, in the new political and social life vouch safed to those acquisitions, liberty, and just government and protection and peace did not in the transition take place of despotism, cruel, and oppressive laws, and domestic strife. America wants peace, and goes to war only in " wisdom, justice, and moderation " to preserve it. In our retrospect of Japan, though an im- perial Power for ages, we have seen that she 28 324 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST has never waged war without good cause, and after her victories (as with China), she could challenge the nations to show a grander his- tory of toleration, of humanity, generosity, and a desire for peace, than she has exhibited, even when threatened and hectored over by the great European Empire now posing for peace and disarmament. England and the United States and Japan, henceforth in the alliance of national friendship and of mutual security ; an alliance stronger than the cartels of the " Drei Bund" — can preserve the world's peace among the nations. Their armies and navies and resources and wealth and infinite credit combined can defy the world. It is no wonder, therefore, that Russia should take the initiative in this strange and unlooked for movement. She is in no condition for present war. Her great Military Railway, now MODERN' JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 325 building, five thousand miles in length, stretch- ing across Siberia to Vlavidivostac, and her equally wonderful project to dig an ocean ship channel over one thousand miles, connecting the Black and the Baltic seas, is straining every nerve of her national credit, and is consuming — with her vast army and navy — thousands of millions of dollars annually. Her diplomacy, far-reaching and artful, as the writer can testify from personal and official association with her Ambassadors in eastern courts, has just about obtained all she wants in territory and open ports, and coaling stations, and subsidize, and concessions from China. Germany, France, and England and Russia, have about settled their eastern contentions with booty instead of blood. Japan patiently awaits the hour when she may avenge against Russia the rape of Port Arthur, which had been won in a just and civilized war, and sealed by Treaty. Europe, 326 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. . France bides her time to avenge Sedan and Alsace and Loraine, and watches alike Ger- many at home and Great Britain in her con- quest of Egypt and Africa. England, land of liberty and law, a kingdom only in name — it must be written — has not one loving or devoted friend or ally among all the nations of Europe, not even in the Empire of the Kaisers where kindred blood flows in the veins of the princes and scions of the royal House of the Hohen- zollerns. Fortunately, our country is three thousand miles of stormy sea away from the old dynasties of Europe, and Japan is three thousand miles on the other side toward the rising sun. That mighty kingdom of the Briton midway between the two, holds the balance of power among the nations of Europe. Hence, in these latter days, the ancestral blood and the ''mother tongue " warms toward her kith and kin, across MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 327 the sea ; while both of them have long em- braced in amity and commerce, that wonderful ''Land of the Morning" in the possible con- flicts of the future. Therefore the Czar of Russia has set his heart on the coming World's Congress of Peace. There may be now and then a snarling of the " Lion " and a growling of the " Bear" and "rumors of war" on the Nile and the Soudan and Fashoda, and gossip of war cor- respondents, and at foreign ports, of a yet possible intervention by Russia and other powers in behalf of ruined and defeated Spain ; but we dismiss the idle and sensational para- graphs. Even if true, the United States, while deploring war, harbors no fear of the future — at home or abroad, whether her flag floats over Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico, or the Philip- pines — in the " Far East." P. S. — Since the foregoing was placed in the publishers' hands, the author has received the fol- 328 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. lowing summary of the closing work of the Peace Conference at the Hague. The author of this sum- mary is no other than the great British editor and journalist, Mr. W. T. Stead, who is deservedly recognized in Europe and America, as alike emi- nent in the field of letters and in the role of diplomat. He writes on the 29th of July, 1899, from the Hague that — " The work of the Conference is now virtually finished. Let us glance at the harvest that has been reaped. 1. "The unanimous declaration by representa- tives of all the governments of the world that an arrest in the increase in armaments is to be desired for the moral and material welfare of humanity. The question, therefore, is remitted to each gov- ernment as how best to effect this much to be desired object. 2. " Convention No. 1, forbidding {a) the use of balloons to drop explosives from the sky to injure combatants on the earth, (b) forbidding the use of asphyxiating shells, and (c) forbidding the use of bullets which expand or flatten, the Convention being signed by all the Powers, England and America making reserves on the last two points. 3. " Convention No. 2, applying the provision of the Geneva Red Cross Society to naval warfare. This was recommended in 1868, but never carried out until to-day. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 329 4. " Convention No. 3, embodying the perfected code of rules of war based upon the Brussels rules. Russia pressed for this in 1874, but never suc- ceeded in carrying it out until now. 5. " Convention No. 4 (on mediation and arbitra- tion) was the greatest achievement of the Conference. It consists of precise and clear arrangements for (a) good offices and mediation when desired by disputants, (d) acceptance of an obligation to offer mediation when it is not sought, (c) special mediation by which a neutral power becomes charged with the duty of mediation as the second of a belligerent, (d) appointment of international commissions for clearing up disputed questions by local investigation, (e) establishment of a per- manent court of arbitrage with a permanent bureau at the Hague. 6. "Acceptance by all governments of the duty of representing to governments in dispute the im- portance of referring their quarrel to a court and the elaboration of a complete code of arbitration procedure. 7. " Powers se reservent de conclure, new treaties extending obligatory arbitration to all cases which they deem suitable. 8. " Definite resolutions have been passed de- claring that new conferences should be held on the following subjects : (a) Revision of the Geneva 330 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. Convention, (b) rights and dues of neutrals, (c) right of capture of private property at sea, and (d) the question of bombarding coast towns." Such are some of the gains garnered for hu- manity. What a conclusive answer is this to those fears and misgivings which filled the air all last autumn ! " The indirect results have been hardly less important. The Conference has brought together men of all nations, from the uttermost ends of the earth, and set them to work together to devise means to promote peace and humanize war. Never before have men of such diverse nationalties been brought into such close companionship for so noble an end, and never have members of any Conference been so fraternal, so friendly, so heartily at one among themselves. " The Conference itself as a factor in the evolu- tion of human society is greater than all its works. It was a difficult question and gave rise to great searching of heart, even among the delegation." MET FOR FINAL SITTING. The Hague, 3 P. M., July 29. — The International Peace Conference met for its final sitting to-day, when it was announced that sixteen States had signed the arbitration convention, fifteen the other two, seventeen the declaration prohibiting throwing MODERN JAPAN AND TEE ORIENT. 331 of projectiles or explosives from balloons, sixteen the declaration prohibiting use of expansive bullets. A letter was read from the Queen of Holland to the Pope, asking his moral support of the Con- ference. The Pope's reply, which was read, promised co-operation, recalled the fact that he had many times performed the function of arbitra- tor, and assured Her Majesty that in spite of his present abnormal position, the Pope would continue to seek the advancement of civilization. The three conventions regarding the laws and adoption of the Geneva Convention to naval war- fare were not signed by Germany, Austro-Hun- gary, China, England, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Servia, Switzerland, or Turkey. The United States signed only the arbitration convention. Roumania was also out. The three declarations prohibiting the throwing of explosives from balloons, the use of asphyxiating projectiles and the use of dumdum bullets were not signed by Germany, Austro-Hungary, China, England, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Servia, or Switzerland, and the United States signed the declaration regarding the throwing of explosives from balloons. Baron de Staal delivered the farewell address, thanking the representatives of Foreign States. He said that the work accomplished, while not so com- 332 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAB EAST. plete as might be desired, was sincere, wise, and practical. The great principal of the sovereignty of individual States and international solidarity, apparently so opposing, had been reconciled by what they had accomplished. He affirmed that in time to come institutions which had their origin in the need of concord would be the dominating in- fluence, and that thus the work of the Conference was truly meritorious. Minister Esteurnelles and Dr. Beaufort followed, the latter saying that if the Conference had not realized Utopian dreams, nevertheless it had dis- proved pessimistic forebodings, and the moral effect would more and more influence public opinion and aid governments to solve the question of the limitation of armaments, which still remain a source of grave consideration for statesmen of all countries. Baron de Staal then declared the Conference closed. Hamburg, August 7. — (Correspondence of the Associated Press.) — At the request of the corres- pondent here of the Associated Press, Andrew D. White, United States Ambassador to Germany, who was President of the American Peace Commission at The Hague, has written the following in regard to the result of the Conference : " In my opinion a great good was accomplished, far more, in fact, than any of us dared expect or even hope when we came together. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 333 "As to the disarmament, everybody really think- ing upon the subject must see that a good system of arbitration must come first, and that then, when arbitration has diminished the likelihood of war, the argument for cutting down forces and arma- ments is greatly strengthened. The logical order then is, first, arbitration and next disarmament. As to the plan of arbitration, any compulsory system is at present utterly out of the question. There are so many international differences, in- volving questions of race, religion, security and even national existence, and the difficulty of draw- ing a line between these and questions which might properly be arbitrated is so insurmountable, that there is not a nation on the face of the earth willing to risk an obligatory system. Far better, then, than any compulsion arbitration, which probably, even if it had been adopted by the Conference, not one of the Powers would have ratified, is a thoroughly good system of voluntary arbitration, recourse to which public opinion will enforce more and more, and this I earnestly believe the Confer- ence has presented to the world. " The present plan is the result of most careful thought by the most foremost international lawyers, statesmen, and diplomatists of Europe, to say nothing of other parts of the world." 334 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. THE RETIRING UNITED STATES MINISTER'S REMARKS ON PRESENTING HIS LETTER OF RECALL TO THE EMPEROR. Your Imperial Majesty : I have the honor to present to your Majesty my formal letter of recall — from my government — as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- tiary to your Majesty's Government since 1885 until the present day. In discharging this duty I cannot forego the opportunity, now presented, of expressing my earnest gratification for the gracious reception and the cordial friendship extended to me on all occa- sions heretofore as the official representative of the United States of America. My government and my country will not forget this friendly disposition of your Majesty and of your Majesty's Government, and I extend the assurance of the most complete reciprocity by my country of the long continued and undiminished friendship existing between your Majesty's Government and that of the United States. In taking my final leave of Japan, permit me to express the earnest wish of myself and of my countrymen for the future peace and prosperity of this Empire, and a long life and happy reign of Power to your Majesty. MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 335 I now have the honor to present to your Majesty my successor, Hon. John F. Swift, an eminent citizen of the United States, who will submit in person his letter from the President accrediting him as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo- tentiary. To his care the interests of my country have been safely entrusted. For him, and his administration, I confidently invoke the same cor- dial friendship which has always heretofore been extended to myself and my predecessors as the representatives of my Government of the United States of America. REPLY OF HIS MAJESTY, THE EMPEROR, TO THE AMERICAN MINISTER. This government receives your letter of recall, owing to the end of your term, with sincere regret. Our wish, expressed over four years ago, that your administration might add another link to the chain of friendship which binds our countries together for nearly half a century, has been gratified. The events of your official sojourn with us have been made most memorable by the negotiation of the first Extradition Treaty between our nations, and by the negotiation of an Independent Treaty of Amnity and Commerce which has received the ap- proval of ourself and the President of the United S36 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. States. These, and your constant recognition of our honest endeavors for progress in civilization, and your renewed evidences of our right to self- government, will make the memories of your mission to the court as lasting as it will be happy to Japan. CHAPTER XXXII. LAST DAYS IN JAPAN HOMEWARD BOUND. N the good year of our Lord, 1 890, we are gladly, yet sadly, taking leave of beautiful and hospitable Japan. No American Minister since the days of Townsend Harris, our first great — and per- haps the greatest — representative, ever entered upon his mission at that court who did not re- ceive joyful welcome, and did not receive upon his return to his native land, cheerful "bon voyage," with blessings and benedictions. It is a happy memory that shall abide with us until the end of life, that our sojourn in Japan constituted no exception to the grateful ex- periences of our predecessors. During the decade since our humble services were rendered [337] 338 THE UNITED STATES IN TEE FAR EAST. to our country and to Japan, and in the event- ful period of the national life of the latter Power, Japan's progress has been without a single backward step, ever onward to the front. In her recent military triumphs over the greatest of Eastern Powers, she has been just, forbearing, and generous to a fault. Her sub- sequent victories of peace have been more renowned than those of war. The fruition of her well-grounded hopes for a long deferred and deserved autonomy is near at hand. Even now the day is breaking on the night. The fact that our country has unselfishly contributed to this noble achievement has received long ago the grateful acknowledgment of Japan, de- clared alike from cabinet, parliament, and the throne. In no selfish spirit of personal ambi- tion, but for the love we cherish with all of our countrymen for our native land, we make record now and here of the highest recognition MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 339 and appreciation of all the kindly acts of friendship and courtesy always thus bestowed upon the great Republic. We have watched with pride how steadily Japan has overcome the prejudices of the West ; how polygamy, for ages permitted, is hastening to its doom, existing now only in name ; how the noblest of the attributes of national and industrial life, fidelity, gratitude, and honor, have been kept faithfully and even more constantly than by many of the Christian Powers of the earth ; how the sanctity of her homes of love and chastity, and how devotion to the vows of the marriage altar, have come in the latter days to bless and elevate her people. We rejoice that toleration in Church and State still stands at her gates, giving welcome to all classes and all creeds under the sun ; and that she has grandly continued to progress in all the higher paths of civilization. Our country, for all these 27 340 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. triumphs, sends across the sea to Japan alike our greetings and our blessings and our prayers for her future. She has been the "Ben-Hur" of the Orient in the contest for nobler prizes and on a greater arena than was ever offered by the Roman Circus. Despised in the beginning of the national contest by rival political charioteers, she has, with steady hand and clear eye and brave heart, grasped the reins and distanced her competitors in the race for national independence and power. We are now homeward bound, and nearing the " Golden Gate." That happy circle to whom we introduced our readers years ago, who came with us across the Pacific, has been broken. The noble and Christian woman who represented the glorious womanhood of Amer- ica in that distant land, had been transferred by the Master to a higher than any earthly court. She was borne with us, homeward MODERN JAPAN AND THE ORIENT. 341 bound, the loved and lost, to rest in the bosom of our native land. A holy memory is linked forever with the great sympathy which Japan then and there extended to our common coun- try and to her stricken Minister. It was, we repeat, a tribute to the womanhood of America, whom she so faithfully represented in that bright "Land of the Morning." God of our fathers, bless our country, and the restored union of the States never to be broken more. In a circuit around the globe, we have found it to be the noblest, the truest, the freest, and the wisest of all the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. " Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, ' This is my own, my native land ? ' Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand." 342 THE UNITED STATES IN THE FAR EAST. The prayer of Grant in his first and last message to his countrymen, " Let us have peace," has at last been answered, in a fruition which shall not perish from the earth. Thus, in all coming time, in peace or war, may our countrymen, while differing in political faiths, be forever "one, as the sea," though " distinct as the billows." And thus may the defenders of the Republic, in counsel, in field, on land or sea, when their sunset of life hath come, leave behind them priceless legacies and halos of patriotic service to their country and posterity, which shall linger long after their spirits have soared beyond the shadow and the cloud to the Better Land. APPENDIX ^\(*>; [343] APPENDIX "B." Present Treaty of Commerce and Navigation BETWEEN Japan and the United States of America. Signed at Washington, 22nd day of the nth month, 27th year of Meiji. GOING INTO EFFECT JULY 17, 1899. His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, and the President of the United States of America, being equally desirous of maintaining the relations of good understanding which happily exist between them, by extending and increasing the intercourse between their respective States, and being convinced that this object cannot better be accomplished than by revising the treaties hitherto existing between the two countries, have resolved to complete such a revision, based upon principles of equity and mutual benefit, and, for that purpose, have named as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say: His [345] 346 APPENDIX. Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, Jushii Shinichiro Kurino, of the Order of the Sacred Treasure and of the Fourth Class, and the President of the United States of America, Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State of the United States ; who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles : ARTICLE I. The subjects or citizens of each of the two high contracting parties shall have full liberty to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the territories of the other contracting party, and shall enjoy full and perfect protection for their persons and property. They shall have free access to the courts of justice in pur- suit and defense of their rights ; they shall be at liberty equally with native subjects or citizens to choose and employ lawyers, advocates and representatives to pursue and defend their rights before such courts, and in all other matters connected with the administration of justice they shall enjoy all the rights and privileges enjoyed by native subjects or citizens. In whatever relates to rights of residence and travel ; to the possession of goods and effects of any kind ; to the succession to personal estate, by will or otherwise, and the disposal of property of any sort, and in any manner whatsoever which they may lawfully acquire, the subjects or citizens of each contracting party shall enjoy in the territories of the other, APPENDIX. 347 the same privileges, liberties, and rights, and shall be subject to no higher imposts or charges in these respects, than native subjects or citizens, or subjects or citizens of the most favored nation. The subjects or citizens of each contracting party shall enjoy in the territories of the other, entire liberty of conscience, and, subject to the laws, ordinances and regu- lations, shall enjoy the right of private or public exercise of their worship, and also the right of burying their respective countrymen according to their religious customs, in such suit- able and convenient places as may be established and main- tained for that purpose. They shall not be compelled, under any pretext whatsoever, to pay any charges or taxes other or higher than those that are, or may be paid by native subjects or citizens of the most favored nation. The subjects or citizens of either of the contracting parties residing in the territories of the other, shall be exempted from all compulsory military service whatsoever, whether in the army, navy, national guard, or militia; from all contributions imposed in lieu of personal service, and from all forced loans or military exactions or contributions. ARTICLE II. There shall be reciprocal freedom of commerce and naviga- tion between the territories of the two high contracting parties. The subjects or citizens of each of the contracting parties may trade in any part of the territories of the other by whole- sale or retail in all kinds of produce, manufactures, and mer- chandise of lawful commerce, either in person or by agents, 348 APPENDIX. singly or in partnerships with foreigners or native subjects or citizens ; and they may there own or hire and occup}' houses, manufactories, warehouses, shops, and premises which may be necessary for them, and lease land for residential and com- mercial purposes, conforming themselves to the laws and police and customs regulations of the country like native subjects or citizens. They shall have liberty freely to come with their ships and cargoes, to all places, ports, and rivers in the territories of the other, which are or may be opened to foreign commerce, and shall enjoy, respectively, the same treatment in matters of commerce and navigation as native subjects or citizens, or subjects or citizens of the most favored nation, without hav- ing to pay taxes, imports, or duties, of whatever nature or under whatever denomination levied in the name or for the profit of the government, public functionaries, private indi- viduals, corporations, or establishments of any kind, other or greater than those paid by native subjects or citizens, or the subjects or citizens of the most favored nation. It is, however, understood that the stipulations contained in this and the preceding Article do not in any way effect the laws, ordinances, and regulations with regard to trade, the immigration of laborers, police, and public security which are in force or which may hereafter be enacted in either of the two countries. ARTICLE III. The dwellings, manufactories, warehouses, and shops of the subjects or citizens of each of the high contracting parties in the territories of the other, and all premises appertaining APPENDIX. 349 thereto destined for purposes of residence or commerce, shall be respected. It shall not be allowable to proceed to make a search of, or a domiciliary visit to such dwellings and premises, or to ex- amine and inspect books, papers, or accounts, except under the conditions and with the forms prescribed by the laws, ordinances and regulations for subjects or citizens of the country. ARTICLE IV. No other or higher duties shall be imposed on the importa- tion into the territories of the United States of any article, the produce or manufacture of the territories of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, from whatever place arriving; and no other or higher duties shall be imposed on the importation into the territories of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, of any arti- cle, the produce or manufacture of the territories of the United States, from whatever place arriving, than on the like article produced or manufactured in any other foreign country; nor shall any prohibition be maintained or imposed on the importation of any article, the produce or manufacture of the territories of either of the high contracting parties, into the territories of the other, from whatever place arriving, which shall not equally extend to the importation of the like article, being the produce or manufacture of any other coun- try. This last provision is not applicable to the sanitary and other prohibitions occasioned by the necessity of protecting the safety of persons, or of cattle, or of plants useful to agri- culture. 350 APPENDIX. ARTICLE V. No other higher duties or charges shall be imposed in the territories of either of the high contracting parties on the ex- portation of any article to the territories of the other than such as are, or may be, payable on the exportation of the like article to any other foreign country; nor shall any prohibition be imposed on the exportation of any article from the territo- ries of either of the two high contracting parties to the terri- tories of the other, which shall not equally extend to the exportation of the like articles to any other country. ARTICLE VI. The subjects or citizens of each of the high contracting parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other, exemption from all transit duties, and a perfect equality of treatment with native subjects or citizens in all that relates to warehous- ing, bounties, facilities, and drawbacks. ARTICLE VII. All -articles which are, or may be, legally imported into the ports of the territories of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, in Japanese vessels may likewise be imported into these ports in vessels of the United States, without being liable to any other or higher duties or charges of whatever denomination than if such articles were imported in Japanese vessels; and, reciprocally, all articles which are, or maybe, legally imported into the ports of the territories of the United States in vessels of the United States, may likewise be imported into these ports in Japanese vessels, without being liable to any other or APPENDIX. 351 higher duties or charges of whatever denomination, than if such articles were imported in vessels of the United States. Such reciprocal equality of treatment shall take effect without distinction, whether such articles come directly from the place of origin or from any other place. In the same manner, there shall be perfect equality of treat- ment in regard to exportation, so that the same export duties shall be paid, and the same bounties and drawbacks allowed, in the territories of either of the high contracting parties on the exportation of any article which is, or may be, legally ex- ported therefrom, whether such exportation shall take place in Japanese vessels or in vessels of the United States, and whatever may be the place of destination, whether a port of either of the high contracting parties or of any third power. ARTICLE VIII. No duties of tonnage, harbor, pilotage, lighthouse, quaran- tine, or other similar or corresponding duties of whatever na- ture, or under whatever denomination levied in the name or for the profit of government, public functionaries, private in- dividuals, corporations, or establishments of any kind, shall be imposed in the ports of the territories of either country upon the vessels of the other country which shall not equally and under the same conditions, be imposed in the like cases on national vessels in general or vessels of the most favored nation. Such equality of treatment shall apply reciprocally to the respective vessels, from whatever port or place they may arrive, and whatever may be their place of destina- tion. 352 APPENDIX. ARTICLE IX. In all that regards the stationing, loading and unloading of vessels in the ports, basins, docks, roadsteads, harbors, or rivers of the territories of the two countries, no privilege shall be granted to national vessels which shall not be equally granted to the vessels of the other country; the intention of the high contracting parties being that in this respect also the respective vessels shall be treated on the footing of perfect equality. ARTICLE X. The coasting trade of both the high contracting parties is excepted from the provisions of the present treaty, and shall be regulated according to the laws, ordinances, and regula- tions of Japan and of the United States, respectively. It is, however, understood that Japanese subjects in the territories of the United States and citizens of the United States in the territories of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, shall enjoy, in this respect, the rights which are, or may be, granted under such laws, ordinances, and regulations to the subjects or citi- zens of any other country. A Japanese vessel laden in a foreign country with cargo destined for two or more ports in the territories of the United States and a vessel of the United States laden in a foreign country with cargo destined for two or more ports in the ter- ritories of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, may discharge a portion of her cargo at one port, and continue her voyage to the other port or ports of destination where foreign trade is permitted, for the purpose of landing the remainder of her APPENDIX. 353 original cargo there, subject always to the laws and custom- house regulations of the two countries. The Japanese Government, however, agrees to allow vessels of the United States to continue, as heretofore, for the period of the duration of this treaty, to carry cargo between the existing open ports of the Empire, excepting to or from the ports of Osaka, Niigata, and Ebisuminato. ARTICLE XI. Any ship-of-war or merchant vessel of either of the high contracting parties which may be compelled by stress of weather, or by reason of any other distress, to take shelter in a port of the other, shall be at liberty to refit therein, to pro- cure all necessary supplies, and to put to sea again, without paying any dues other than such as would be payable by na- tional vessels. In case, however, the master of a merchant- vessel should be under the necessity of disposing of a part of his cargo in order to defray the expenses, he shall be bound to conform to the regulations and tariffs of the place to which he may have come. If any ship-of-war or merchant vessel of one of the high contract parties should run aground, or be wrecked upon the coasts of the other, the local authorities shall inform the Con- sul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, or Consular Agent of the district of occurrence, or, if there be no such Consular officers, they shall inform the Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, or Consular Agent of the nearest district. All proceedings relative to the salvage of Japanese vessels wrecked or cast on shore in the territorial water of the United 354 APPENDIX. States, shall take place in accordance with the laws of the United States ; and, reciprocally, all measures of salvage rela- tive to vessels of the United States, wrecked or cast on shore in the territorial waters of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, shall take place in accordance with the laws, ordinances and regulations of Japan. Such stranded or wrecked ship or vessel, and all parts there- of, and all furnitures and appurtenances belonging thereunto, and all goods and merchandise saved therefrom, including those which may have been cast into the sea, or the proceeds thereof, if sold, as well as all papers found on board such stranded or wrecked ship or vessel, shall be given up to the owners or their agents, when claimed by them. If such owners or agents are not on the spot, the same shall be deliv- ered to the respective Consul-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents, upon being claimed by them within the period fixed by the laws, ordinances and regulations of the country, and such Consular officers, owners or agents shall pay only the expenses incurred in the preservation of the prop- erty, together with the salvage or other expenses which would have been payable in the case of a wreck of a national vessel. The goods and merchandise saved from the wreck shall be exempt from all the duties of the customs unless cleared for consumption, in which case they shall pay the ordinary duties. When a ship or vessel belonging to the subjects or citizens of one of the high contracting parties is stranded or wrecked in the territories of the other, the respective Consul-General, Consuls, Yice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall be author- ized, in case the owner or master, or other agent of the owner, is not present, to lend their official assistance in order to afford APPENDIX. 355 the necessary assistance to the subjects or citizens of the re- spective States. The same rule shall apply in case the owner, master, or other agent is present, but requires such assistance to be given. ARTICLE XII. All vessels which, according to Japanese law, are to be deemed Japanese vessels, and all vessels which, according to United States law, are to be deemed vessels of the United States, shall, for the purposes of this treaty, be deemed Jap- anese vessels, and vessels of the United States, respectively. ARTICLE XIII. The Consul-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents of each of the high contracting parties residing in the territories of the other, shall receive from the local authorities such assistance as can by law be given to them for the recovery of deserters from the vessels of their respective countries. It is understood that this stipulation shall not apply to the subjects or citizens of the country where the desertion takes place. ARTICLE XIV. The high contracting parties agree that, in all that concerns commerce and navigation, any privilege, favor or immunity which either high contracting party has actually granted, or may hereafter grant, to the government, ships, subjects or citizens of any other State, shall be extended to the govern- ment, ships, subjects or citizens of the other high contracting party, gratuitously, if the concession in favor of that other 356 APPENDIX. State shall have been gratuitous, and on tne same equivalent conditions if the concession shall have been conditional; it being their intention that the trade and navigation of each country shall be placed in all respects by the other on the footing of the most favored nation. ARTICLE XV. Each of the high contracting parties may appoint Consul- General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Pro-Consuls, and Consular Agents, in all the ports, cities, and places of the other except in those where it may not be convenient to recognize such officers. This exception, however, shall not be made in regard to one of the high contracting parties without being made likewise in regard to every other Power. The Consul-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Pro-Consuls, and Consular Agents may exercise all functions, and shall enjoy all privileges, exemptions, and immunities which are, or may be hereafter granted to Consular officers of the most favored nation. ARTICLE XVI. The subjects or citizens of each of the high contracting parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other, the same protection as native subjects or citizens in regard to patents, trademarks, and designs, upon fulfillment of the formalities prescribed by law. ARTICLE XVII. The high contracting parties agree to the following arrange- ment: APPENDIX. 357 The several foreign settlements in Japan shall, from the day this treaty comes into force, be incorporated with the re- spective Japanese communes, and shall thenceforth form par- of the general municipal system of Japan. The competent Japanese authorities shall thereupon assume all municipal ob- ligations and duties in respect thereof, and the common funds and property, if any, belonging to such settlements shall at the same time be transferred to the said Japanese authorities. When such incorporation takes place existing leases in per- petuity upon which property is now held in the said settle- ments shall be confirmed, and no conditions whatever, other than those contained in such existing leases, shall be imposed in respect of such property. It is, however, understood that the Consular authorities mentioned in the same are in all cases to be replaced by the Japanese authorities. All lands which may previously have been granted by the Japanese Govern- ment free of rent for the public purposes of the said settle- ments shall, subject to the right of eminent domain, be permanently reserved free of all taxes and charges for the public purposes for which they were originally set apart. ARTICLE XVIII. The present treaty shall, from the date it comes into force, be substituted in place of the Treaty of Peace and Amity con- cluded on the 3d day of the 3d month of the 7th year of Kayei, corresponding to the 31st day of March, 1854; the Treaty of Amity and Commerce concluded on the 19th day of the 6th month of the 5th year of Ansei, corresponding to the 29th day of July, 1858; the Tariff Convention concluded 358 APPENDIX. on the 13th day of the 5th month of the 2d year of Keio, cor- responding to the 25th day of June, 1866; the Convention con- cluded on the 25th day of the 7th month of the 11th year of Meiji, corresponding to the 25th day of July, 1878, and all arrangements and agreements subsidiary thereto concluded or existing between the high contracting parties, and from the same date such treaties, conventions, arrangements, and agreements shall cease to be binding, and in consequence, the jurisdiction then exercised by courts of the United States in Japan and all the exceptional privileges, exemptions, and im- munities then enjoyed by citizens of the United States as a part of, or appurtenant to such jurisdiction shall absolutely and without notice cease and determine, and thereafter all such jurisdiction shall be assumed and exercised by Japanese courts. ARTICLE XIX. This treaty shall go into operation on the 17th day of July, 1899, and shall remain in force for the period of twelve years from that date. Either high contracting party shall have the right, at any time thereafter, to give notice to the other of its intention to terminate the same, and at the expiration of twelve months after such notice is given, this treaty shall wholly cease and determine. ARTICLE XX. This treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at Tokio or Washington as soon as possible, and not later than six months after its signature. APPENDIX. 359 In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty in duplicate, and have thereunto affixed their seals. Done at the city of Washington, the 22d day of the eleventh month of the 27th year of Meiji, corresponding to the 22d day of November, in the eighteen hundred and ninety-fourth year of the Christian era. (Signed) SCHINICHIRO KURINO, (l. s.) (Signed) WALTER Q. GRESHAM. (l. s ) Amendment to the Foregoing Treaty, PROPOSED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Article 19, Clause 2, after the word "time " insert the word ^thereafter," and strike out all after the word "time" down to and including the word "operation," so that the clause will read : "Either high contractin party shall have the right, at any time thereafter, to give notice to the other of its intension to terminate the same, and at the expiration of twelve months after such notice is given, this treaty shall wholly cease and determine." As we go to press, the following official dispatch reaches the author from Washington, under date of 17th July, 1899. It is the treaty, in substance, which the author negotiated for his government after the Treaty-Conference of 1885-6 and 7, ad- journed without the concurrence of any other Treaty Power. It was re-enacted formally, June 20, 1894. The " beginning of the end" of exterritori- alism in Japan, was the memorable day when the Independent Treaty between the United States was [360] APPENDIX. 361 made, duly offered by President Cleveland and the Emperor of Japan in 1888, and only failed to be ratified, because of a change of the political admin- istration and the inauguration of President Harri- son. The good seed sown a decade ago, has at last, preserved in a generous soil for all these years by the Empire and the Republic, germinated, and reaching the maturity of its growth, yields the rich harvest of absolute autonomy and freedom to Japan: JAPAN'S FORWARD STEP. WITH TO-DAY HER RELATIONS WITH THE ENTIRE WORLD UN- DERGO A RADICAL CHANGE — NEW TREATIES EFFECTIVE — THE DOCUMENTS EXECUTED FORM NEW COMPACTS WITH GREAT POWERS OF THE EARTH — FRIENDLY TOWARD UNITED STATES — AMERICA HAS ALWAYS STRONGLY SUPPORTED THE EMPIRE IN ITS MODERN MOVEMENTS. Washington, July 16. — The new treaty between the United States and Japan goes into effect tomorrow, at which time also new treaties between Japan and nearly all of the countries of Europe and some of the South American Republics also go into effect. 362 APPENDIX. It is an event of far-reaching importance in the relations between Japan and the United States, as it does away with the treaty methods which have been in vogue for nearly fifty years, and substitutes an entirely new method of procedure. The same is true in the relations of Japan with other coun- tries. Taken as a whole the many new treaties which go into effect to-morrow place Japan on an entirely new footing with the world at large, as she is recognized, for the first time, as an equal in every respect. The treaty with this country was made June 20, 1894, in Washington, between Secretary Gresham and Minister Kureno, who then represented Japan here. The changes it made were so far-reaching that it was de- termined the treaty should not go into operation until July 17, 1899. In an interview to-day Mr. Jutaro Komura, the present Japanese minister in Washington, said : " The 17th of July marks the turning-point in the diplomatic history not only of Japan, but of the oriental countries in general. It will be the first instance in which the western Powers have recognized the full sovereignty of an oriental State. "This action of the enlightened nations of Europe and America shows that if any country is ready to assume a full share in the responsibility and affairs of the world at large these old and enlightened Powers are ready to admit such a country to full power among nations. So we regard this treaty as a very important step, not only for Japan, but for all the nations of the East. "The countries with which Japan has made new treaties are the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Rus- sia, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Den- APPENDIX, 363 mark, Sweden, and Norway, Switzerland and Peru. All of these go into effect to-morrow, except those with France and Austria, which are deferred until August 4. With most of these countries Japan had treaty relations before, but they were crude and unsatisfactory. "In bringing about the new system of treaties Japan natur- ally feels most friendly toward the United States, because she always has shown a most sympathetic interest in Japan's de- sire to adopt modern methods and to deal on even terms with the rest of the world." PROTOCOL. The Government of His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, and the Government of the United States of America, deem- ing it advisable in the interests of both countries to regulate certain special matters of mutual concern, apart from the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation signed this day, have, through their respective Plenipotentiaries, agreed upon the following stipulations: 1. It is agreed by the contracting parties that one month after the exchange of the ratifications of the Treaty of Com- merce and Navigation signed this day, the Import Tariff now in operation in Japan in respect of goods and merchandise imported into Japan by the citizens of the United States shall cease to be binding. From the same date the General Statul ory Tariff of Japan shall, subject to the provisions of Article IX. of the treaty of March 31, 1854, at present subsist- ing between the contracting parties, so long as said treaty remains in force, and thereafter, subject to the provisions of Article IV. and Article XIV. of the treaty signed this day, be applicable to goods and merchandise, being the growth, pro- duce or manufacture of the territories of the United States upon importation into Japan. But nothing contained in this Protocol shall be held to limit or qualify the right of the Japanese Government to restrict or to prohibit the importation of adulterated drugs, medicines, food or beverages; indecent or obscene prints, paintings, books, cards, lithographic or other engravings, photographs or any other indecent or obscene articles, articles in violation of patent, trade-mark, or copyright laws of Japan; or any other article which, for sanitary reasons, or in view of public safety or morals, might offer any danger. [364] APPENDIX. 365 2. The Japanese Government, pending the opening of the country to citizens of the United States, agrees to extend the existing passport system in such a manner as to allow citizens of the United States, on the production of a certificate of recommendation from the Representative of the United States at Tokio, or from any of the Consuls of the United States at the open ports in Japan, to obtain, upon application, passports available for any part of the country and for any period not exceeding twelve months, from the Imperial Japanese foreign office in Tokio, or from the chief authorities in the prefecture in which an open port is situated, it being understood that the existing rules and regulations governing citizens of the United States who visit the interior of the Empire are to be maintained. 3. The undersigned Plenipotentiaries have agreed that this Protocol shall be submitted to the two high contracting parties at the same time as the Treaty of Commerce and Navi- gation signed this day, and that when the said treaty is ratified, the agreements contained in the Protocol shall also equally be considered as approved, without the necessity of a further formal ratification. It is agreed that this Protocol shall terminate at the same time the said treaty ceases to be binding. In witness whereof the representative Plenipotentiaries have signed the same and have affixed thereto their seals. Done at Washington, the 22d day of the eleventh month of the twenty-seventh year of Meiji, corresponding to the 22d November, in the eighteen hundred and ninety-fourth year of the Christian era. (Signed) SHINICHIRO KURINO, (l. s.) WALTER Q. GRESHAM. (l. s.) Speech of the United States Minister ON THE USE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN JAPAN, In the Conference of all Nations. "Mr. Hubbard, in reply to the delegate of France, observed that he did not propose to occupy the time of the Conference with an elaborate discussion of the various points involved in the important question under discussion. There was one point, however, which was beyond dispute, namely, that the official language of the courts, which it was proposed to insti- tute would of course be Japanese. The other point of next importance to this was the proposal that English, as the lan- guage of most general use in Japan, should be the foreign language adopted by those courts. His honorable colleagues, the delegates of Great Britian and Russia had already called attention to the wide diffusion of the use of the English lan- guage in Japan, and the practical arguments thus brought forward for the adoption of English as the language of the courts were strengthened by reference to the statistics of foreign population in Japan. The number of British subjects resident in Japan in 1885 was 1,124, and of American citizens, 475. Later estimates placed the number of the latter at not less than 600; but, taking the statistics of 1885 as a guide, it was clear that there were at least 1,599 English-speaking people in Japan, while the total resident population of Euro- pean nationality, other than English, amounted to only 789. If [366] APPENDIX. 367 the floating population of each nationality, in the shape of annual visitors, were taken into account, it would be found that the proportion of foreigners of American and British nationality to that of foreigners of all other European nation- alities was more than two to one. Moreover, the statistics of the year 1885 showed that during that year 27,996 British, and 5,206 American merchant seaman had visited Japan; while the total number of merchant seamen of other European nationality who had visited Japan during the same year was only 8,466. These were striking facts which spoke for them- selves "His honorable colleague, the delegate of France, had laid stress on the argument that it would be difficult for English- speaking judges to administer laws based upon European models. There was, Mr. Hubbard thought, a practical answer which disposed of this argument. One of the most important States of the American Union, Louisiana, was for years a por- tion of the French dominions, and was French in population, in laws, and in feeling. Since its incorporation into the Union, although French had not ceased to be the language of a large number of the people, and although its laws were based on the Code Napoleon, those laws had been administered by English-speaking judges, and English had been the language of the courts and of the State administration. The case of Texas, another of the United States, furnished a like illustra- tion. While under the government of Mexico, Spanish was the language of the people of that State, and the whole legis- lative system was based on the Spanish model. But in spite of the fact that Spanish was still widely spoken, and that the system of laws was Spanish, especially those relating to landed 368 APPENDIX. property, English was the official and judical tongue of the political administrations and courts of Texas as a Republic and as a State. In neither of these two cases had any difficul- ties, such as those apprehended by the delegate of France, been found to arise in regard to executive or judicial admin- istration. These facts, it seemed to Mr. Hubbard, disposed at once of the argument regarding the impossibility of a system of laws, based on French and German models, being adminis- tered through the medium of the English language by judges of other nationalities. "The argument for the adoption of English being based purely on the practical grounds of expediency, there could, he thought, be no question of invidious discrimination against Germany, France, or any other of the fifteen powers represen- ted at the Conference. No such intention could be imputed to the Government of Japan. By the appointment of transla- tors and interpreters for these courts, all needful assistance would be rendered to foreign suitors, while the selection of judges from different nationalities would be a guarantee for the rights of every Power, and an assurance that justice would be meted out to all their subjects and citizens. During the period for which these courts would be instituted, each of the Powers would obtain, if not equal recognition, at least that just proportion of recognition which was its due, until the time when Japan would assume a position of complete juris- dictional independence, which would be the logical result of the present arrangement. The delegate of the United States proceeded to remark that this was no question of selfish policy or of advantage to be gained by one Power over another. The point at issue was APPENDIX. 369 how to do justice to Japan, and at the same time to safeguard the interests of foreigners. It was the recognition of this fact which alone influenced him in giving his cordial support to the proposal of his honorable colleague, the delegate of Russia. In no sense whatever was he actuated by the con- sideration that the adoption of this proposal would secure to England and America all that they might want, without regard to the interests of the other Powers concerned. Mr. Hubbard regretted to be obliged to differ from his honorable colleague, the delegate of Prance, more especially because there were reasons, which he would not then enumerate, why they should act in unison upon the subject under discussion. Both his colleague and himself were proud to represent Re- publics, and on the principle that minorities should preserve a compact unity, no less than because both their countries believed in the great doctrines of self-government and popular sovereignty, he had hoped, and would still continue to hope, that France and the United States, even if all other Powers consented, would not hesitate to extend a helping hand to Japan in her struggle to attain national independence; or that they would at least be the last to defeat the attainment of that end, even if they were required to make partial 'sacrifices of opinion or of interest. He must, therefore, appeal to his honorable colleague, the delegate of France, to accept the proposal of the delegate of Russia, which furnished, in his opinion, in its reconciliation of all the interests involved, the most satisfactory solution of the question. Speech of the United States Minister ON THE AUTONOMY OF JAPAN, In the International Conference. Mr. Hubbard made the following speech : Mr. President and Colleagues : On the occasion of the last session of this Conference it was my misfortune to be unavoidably absent from your councils. I exercised, however, the privilege of transmitting a note conveying a request to my colleague, the delegate for Great Britain, asking him to express my approval of the Re- vised Convention Project, jointly offered by himself and my German colleague. I now formally express my thanks to my British colleague for his cordial compliance with my said request on that occasion. To the President and to all my colleagues I am indebted for the suggestion that the observations intended by me for that day might be offered on this occasion. In performing this duty I could not proceed without first making due acknowledgment for this act of the Conference. The attitude of the Government of the United States hitherto towards that of Japan, in respect of the assertion and preservation of the autonomy of that State in its treaty relations with others, has been often and consistently made [370] APPENDIX. 371 known. The documentary history of the relations of the United States with Japan, which appears in enduring form in the published as well as the unpublished records of our " For- eign Relations, " assigns to my country no doubtful position on this subject. The United States consider it but just that Japan, in view of her steady progress toward sound principles of self-govern- ment, should be allowed to make separate terminable treaties, on a footing of sovereign equality with other nations, and with like freedom. This is the first principle heretofore borne in mind in our diplomacy with this Empire, and it has been abundantly recognized and proclaimed by my government in the conclusion of the Commercial Treaty of 1878 with Japan. Although obvious reasons constrained the negotiators to pro- vide that the engagements of the treaty should not become effective until Japan should have like engagements with the other Treaty Powers, the distinct enunciation of the principles at issue is not thereby affected. Thus, nearly a decade ago, without menace and certainty in the absence of any induce- ments of a selfish significance in the way of currying commer- cial favor as a quid pro quo for such recognition, the United States, by the said treaty of 1878, invited aJl the Treaty Powers to join her in the declaration of the autonomy of Japan in all her commercial relations with friendly nations. The second principle guiding my predecessors, and still ad hered to by the present Government of the United States, is that Japan should not be coerced by the United States, or by any other government, into signing or revising treaties which impose upon her unequal or harsh conditions, inconsistent 29 372 APPENDIX. with the autonomous position she has justly won among the nations. So far as the United States are concerned, it has been our aim to obtain reasonable concessions for the frank recognition we were the first to profess of Japan's sovereign rights as a Treaty Power, to ensure that there shall be no distinction against American exports, and to secure generally as favorable an arrangement as any other of the great Powers. We have only invoked in our diplomacy with Japan the "Golden Rule" which should preside in the councils of na- tions as potently as in the councils of individuals. Not one of the great Treaty Powers represented in this Conference would ask less for itself. I have no hesitancy in expressing the belief (and at least the hope) that the Republic I represent does not stand alone, but in union with all the Western nations, in the denunciation of the exploded dogma of ancient despots that 'might makes right.' We have believed and acted on the conviction that Japan should autonomically live, not as a dependent, by the sufferance of other nations, but as an independent and friendly Power, making alliance separately with each member of the family of nations. While the terms of negotiations which may hereafter be acceptable as between Japan and the other Powers may not entirely correspond to the views of the United States hereto- fore expressed in detailed consideration of the projects dis- cussed, we do not hesitate to declare that it would be entirely inconsistent with our friendly attitude towards Japan, to insist upon any propositions to an extent which might hamper her freedom of action in dealing with other Powers APPENDIX. 373 A just and equitable spirit of compromise will govern the course of my country no less in the interests of Japan than in her own. It is a subject of congratulation to-day that negotia- tions for treaty revision hitherto have undoubtedly developed a spirit of accommodation on all sides An example of this is seen in the question of the common right to terminate future treaties upon stipulated notice, after a given time. Con- tested and denied at the outset by some of the Powers, whose high motives we do not question, although consistently upheld by the United States, the right to so terminate the treaties is apparently now conceded as a basis of future negotiations, and the residual proposal to make such right conditional upon the prior opening of the whole territory of Japan to the trade and residence of subjects or citizens of the Treaty Powers does not materially affect the value of the vital principle of the independence thus claimed and admitted. By the Convention of 1866 the United States connected them- selves in joint action with Great Britain, France, and The Netherlands in Japan, in relation to the tariff, and, as to all other matters, remained as they were before. In respect to the rights of American citizens, the jurisdiction of our Consu- lar courts, and all other questions not especially treated in the Convention of 1866, the United States retained entire independence of action. In pursuing what to my government appeared a just policy towards securing, as far as practicable, the complete autonomy of Japan, the United States have voluntarily co-operated with all the Treaty Powers, at the same time taking care not to depart from our settled policy of avoiding all "entangling alliances" with other nations. It is to be observed in this 374 APPENDIX. connection that the most important and essential subject to Japan is to obtain control of her own revenues. The arrange- ment of 1866 had the disadvantage of being made jointly with other Powers and of not being terminable on notice given. The only remedy left to Japan for this unsatisfactory condi- tion of things is revision. Although provision therefor is not made in the Convention of 1866, yet Japan, in the exercise of her unquestionable right as a sovereign Power, has demanded such revision, and in this request the United States, as a con- tracting party, have considered it advisable to join. The United States are not disposed to accept any result of the pending revision which does not embrace the terminability of the treaties within a reasonable period, and the exercise of corresponding power of denunciation. This autonomy begins to have recognition in the light of this day's work. This conceded, then regulation by Japan of her commerce and of her domestic affairs follows as an attitude of sovereignty, to be restrained only so far as she may deem it expedient by independent treaties. Every step in this direction is a step towards the position long ago and to-day earnestly advocated by my country. These observations, my colleagues, are apropos of the last proposal for a "Revised Jurisdictional Convention," now before this Conference, submitted by the British and German delegates in concert, and accepted by the representatives of Japan as a substitute for the proposed "Revised Convention," submitted by the Japanese delegates at the beginning of this Conference. In the very explicit and unambiguous report made by the British and German delegates, they speak of this new proposition as follows: APPENDIX. 375 "It is based upon the Japanese proposal of 1882; but, in many points, note has been taken of the observations made at the time the scheme was brought forward, and attention has been paid to other matters which subsequent consideration has shown to be of practical importance. " Our idea is that there should be two Conventions: one on commercial, and one on jurisdictional matters; both these Conventions to be signed at the same time and to be dependent one on the other, the most favored nation clause and the termination clause to be equally applicable to both! " The separate report of the first delegate for Germany makes mention that he has recommended the adoption of the English language as the official language of the courts, and gives his reasons therefor. At the time I took occasion to say that the new project seemed to promise a just and equitable solution of the vexed question; I reiterate my adhesion to that opinion to-day. The new proposition avoids the questionable and doubtful policy of a probationary and complex system of transition from consular and extra-territorial to purely independent Japanese jurisdiction. It has advantages thus over the Memorandum of 1884 and over the recent "Revised Conven- tion " scheme submitted by the Japanese delegates, and fixes a day certain for resumption of complete national autonomy, judicial as well as commercial. The conditions subsequent involved in this last project will constitute the subject of our future deliberations in this Con- ference, and Japan will be fortunate if harmony and com- promise in our councils shall avoid the rocks on which her hopes were wrecked in 1882. 376 APPENDIX. Briefly, in this connection, allow me to say (as a distant reference has been made by my colleagues of Great Britain and Germany in their report to the " most-favored nation " treatment) that the Japanese Government has respectfully expressed to the United States the earnest hope that the " most- favored nation " clause would not be insisted upon by my government in any future convention. I know not, nor is it my concern, whether a similar request has been made of the other Powers. My government holds, and has uniformly held, that in its commercial aspects the "expediency of an unqualified favored-nation clause is unquestionable. The tendency is towards its formal qualification by recognizing in terms (what most nations hold in fact and in practice, whether the conditions be expressed in the clause or not) that propin- quity and neighborliness may create special and peculiar terms of intercourse not equally open to all the world, by pro- viding that the most-favored nation treatment, when based on special and reciprocal concessions, is only to be extended to other Powers on like conditions." The terms "qualified" and "unqualified," as understood by my government, when applied to the most-favored nation treatment, are used merely as a convenient distinction be- tween the two forms, such a clause generally insuring in treaties, when containing a proviso, that any favor granted by one of the contracting parties to a third party shall likewise accrue to the other contracting party, freely if freely given, or for an equivalent if conditional; the other not so amplified. This proviso, even if omitted, does not impair the rule of in- ternational law, as interpretated by the State and Law Depart- ments of my government, that such concessions are only APPENDIX. 377 gratuitous as to third parties when not based on reciprocity or mutually- reserved interests between the contracting par- ties. This ground has been long and consistently maintained by the United States — that a covenant to extend to third par- ties privileges granted to a most-favored nation only refers to "gratuitous privileges," and does not cover privileges granted "on the condition of a reciprocal advantage," that is, for a consideration expressed. Such a declaration was made by the United States as early as half a century ago, and has been repeatedly affirmed since that day by all administrations of my government. I need not say, what is known to this body, that this doctrine is now accepted by learned publicists with general if not entire unanimity. I speak with certainty as to the texts of standard English and American writers on inter- national law. I have thus taxed your time — I hope not your patience, my colleagues — because separate and independent treaties will hereafter be concluded, and the unfortunate possibility might stare Japan in the face of a failure to complete successfully the work so long delayed and now auspiciously foreshadowed by this new revised "Jurisdictional Convention." In view of these facts, my government has indicated its de- sire to its representative in this Conference and at this court, that he should give unequivocal expression on this and cognate subjects connected with treaty revision, to the end that there shall be no ground for misapprehension of the attitude of the United States in the premises. In uttering these frank declarations of the course heretofore and hereafter to be pursued by my government, I do so fully recognizing the fact that, so long as all the Treaty Powers co- 378 APPENDIX. operate in this Conference, each of them is entitled to the same consideration as any of the others, and that entire con- cert of action must be invoked in the matter of successful revision. Until Japan has been loosed from the moorings of extra-territorial jurisdiction, and become in fact an Indepen- dent Power, my government, in the revision of the tariff or in jurisdictional revision, will respectfully claim (what it will doubtless receive) only fair and impartial treatment, in the same manner as if concluding a separate Convention with an Independent Power. Much yet remains to be done in infusing healthy, vigorous life into the body of this proposed Convention project, as well as in the future building by Japan of enduring foundations underneath that Temple of Law and Order, such as her ad- vanced civilization and the Imperial Promise have vouchsafed shall be erected for the Empire. The march of Japan towards this fruition has been, and is being, made with steady steps. When by our united aid her final triumph comes, all the Treaty Powers, I am sure, will join in welcoming Japan as a co-equal and independent member of the family of nations; and that, too, without invidious references as to who did the most or did the least to assist her in the day of her trials. All of our respective governments will share alike in the honor and glory of that achievement." The President stated that, owing to the length and impor- tant character of the declaration of the delegate of the United States, he would require time to study it; he must, therefore, reserve the right of replying to it, if necessary, on a future occasion. Speech of the United States Minister ON JAPANESE JURISDICTION Mr. Hubbard said that he wished to make a few observa* tions in regard to the stipulations proposed by Sir Francis Plunkett, some of which had been suggested to him by the able speeches to which he had listened. In the speech in which his honorable colleague, the delegate of Great Britain, had introduced his stipulations at the last meeting, Sir Francis Plunkett, speaking of the enforcement of Japanese regulations by foreign Consular Courts, said that in the case of the British Consular Courts it was necessary that the British Minister should give the force of British law to such Japanese regulations, because the Consular Courts of Great Britain could not, as the law now stood, enforce foreign law as such. The principles followed by the United States Government in regard to such matters in Japan was that the American Courts should administer in the open ports and within treaty limits all such Japanese laws and regulations as as were analogous to the laws of the United States, the idea being that American law held good in all extra-territorial countries. Mr. Bingham, his distinguished predecessor had laid down the principle that Japanese laws of whatever kind, so long as they were not contrary to the spirit or intent of Western leg- islation, and did not infringe upon the rights guaranteed to [379] 380 APPENDIX citizens of the United States by treaty with Japan, were en- forceable, as Japanese law, by American Consular Courts. The United States Government, however, had not thought fit to issue any enactment confirming the views entertained by Mr. Bingham, and, consequently, such matters remained still un- regulated by any fixed law. The quarantine regulations might be taken as as an illustration of existing arrangements. Although, strictly speaking, not enforceable as law by Amer- ican Consular Courts, they were made binding on American citizens by diplomatic intervention. In the same way the Japanese Regulations which it was proposed, under the present scheme of treaty revision, to make applicable by Foreign Con- sular Courts would have to be referred, so far as he was con- cerned, to Washington, such reference being accompanied by a recommendation from himself as United States Minister: but unless those regulations, which were a part of the treaty, were approved by the Senate of the United States, they could not become binding upon American citizens in Japan. In the speech of the honorable delegate for Great Britain, to which he has already referred, Mr. Hubbard added, Sir Francis Plunkett also stated that the words "policy of public security " had been employed by him in the sense in which they were used by the Japanese delegates in the draft stipula- tions of Mr. Aoki, but that he had been given to understand that the Japanese Government had not claimed to include, under this heading, the laws concerning, the press. Although the delegate of the United States had no reason to believe that the press laws of Japan were more severe than those of many countries of America and Europe, and although he was prepared to vote for the stipulations as they stood, he desired APPENDIX. 381 to suggest to the delegates of Japan the advisability of making more explicit statement of the intended policy of this govern- ment in regard to press restrictions. It was desirable, he thought, that they should announce that it was not the inten- tion of Japan to enforce press laws of a more stringent charac- ter than similar laws in Western countries. Mr. Hubbard went on to say that he approved of th«3 maximum fixed for penalties in Article I , and would take the opportunity of repeating, with reference to the general question of the enforcement of Japanese regulations by Foreign Consular Courts, the observations which he had felt bound to make at the meeting of the 29th ultimo, namely, that matters within treaty limits should, as far as possible, be allowed to remain as they were; and would simply add that after the communication of the codes to Foreign Govern- ments, provided for in Article IV. of the Convention, had taken place, and those codes had been studied, Consular Courts would be in a better position than they now were to enforce Japanese regulations. Another point in the stipulations to which Mr. Hubbard desired to call attention was the question of notice. It was necessary before Japanese regulations could be enforced that they should have been previously published in the official Ga- zette. This question was one of vital importance; American law recognized two kinds of notice, namely, "constructive" and " actual." It must always be one or theother, and, except in cases of sudden emergency, the limit of time in all cases of notice was fixed at not less than ninety days in the case of acts passed by Congress or by the State Legislatures, before such acts could take effect as law. According to the present word- 382 APPENDIX. ing of the stipulations it would be sufficient for an interval of a moment of time only to elapse between the publication of a law and its enforcement, which would practically amount to no notice. Mr. Hubbard, therefore, begged to suggest for the consideration of the Conference that the length of notice should be specified. With regard to the publication referred to being made in the English language, it was unnecessary for him to state that this arrangement was very acceptable to him as the representative of an English-speaking country. With reference to the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 relat- ing to the summoning of witnesses, and the mutual assistance to be rendered by Japanese and Consular Courts, the delegate of the United States felt bound to observe that, according to the American Constitution and procedure, citizens of the United States could not be compelled to give evidence in a foreign court in extra-territorial countries. The provisions of the stipulations in regard to real property and taxation recommend themselves, Mr. Hubbard said, to his approval; and, in conclusion, he observed that he offered the above remarks rather as suggestions than as criticisms, and with the sincere desire of furthering a settlement of the complicated questions involved. Even if those suggestions were not adopted, he was quite ready, as he had already stated, to accept the stipulations on behalf of his government in their present form. It might be necessary for him later on to offer some remarks upon the tariff, and he trusted that he would then find the Japanese delegates animated by the same spirit of concesssion as he had shown on this question of juris- diction. Sir Francis Plunkett said that he wished to make a short APPENDIX. 383 observation on the speech of his honorable colleague, the delegate of the United States. His honorable colleague ap- peared to think that, under the powers conferred upon the British Minister in Japan by the present Order in Council, it was necessary that he should refer home before enforcing any new regulations upon British subjects in this country. He begged to explain that this was not the case. The British Minister had, within certain limits, power to enforce such regulations at once if he thought it necessary. All that was required was that he should report the circumstances to his government as soon as possible, in order that his action might subsequently be confirmed. Mr. Hubbard said that he had always understood the powers of the British Minister in Japan to be such as his honorable colleague of Great Britain had explained. These powers were practically identical with those possessed by the American Minister in Japan, who could possibly make certain Japanese police regulations binding on American citizens within treaty limits. In order to state the matter more pre- cisely, he might add that the power of the United States Minister in Japan was defined in Article 4086 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which read as follows: "Jurisdiction in both criminal and civil matters shall in all cases be exercised and enforced in conformity with the laws of the United States, which are hereby, so far as is necessary to execute such treaties respectively, and so far as they are suitable to carry the same into effect, extended over all citi- zens of the United States in those countries and over all others to the extent that the terms of the treaties respectively justify or require. But in all cases where such laws are not adapted 384 APPENDIX. to the object, or are deficient in the provisions necessary to furnish suitable remedies, the common law and the law of equity or admiralty shall be extended in like manner over such citizens and others in those countries; and if neither the co 11- mon law nor the law of equity or admiralty nor the statutes of the United States furnish appropriate and sufficient remedies, the Ministers in those countries, respectively, shall, by de- crees and regulations which shall have the force of law, sup- ply such defects and deficiencies." The delegate of the United States added that the point he wished to make was that his own acceptance and enforcement of such regulations did not necessarily bind his government. H 103 79 > ,-t°-* p •%. . ^9 ^ X > s ° • » * v -v 4*^ J - <\ 4 o^ v 5 ^ ; W ^0< I*' FEB 79 ^=£T N - MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962 A V f o- iV \ X/* £ 'V