The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

7TIMES.—For the people of the last generation
the world still contained a wonder. In the remote
East, beyond even the unknown regions of China,
there existed an Empire enveloped in impenetrable
mystery. It was an organised State of high antiquity,
vast wealth, and advanced civilisation. It was in-
habited by a numerous population more than
usually intelligent, and yet not a living soul from
any foreign country was allowed to set foot on its
shores. This immense community was absolutely
secluded from the rest of the world like a huge
monastery. Nobody could gain admission to it, or
escape with his life if accident threw him near its
people. The Dutch alone of all the nations in
the world were permitted to enjoy a species of indi-
rect and distant intercourse with it, and this inter-
course was so strangely regulated as to leave the
mystery more profound than before. Once in a
year two Dutch ships proceeded to a certain rendez
vows, where they were met by two ships of this
marvellous Empire. The cargoes of the vessels
were then exchanged, and the squadrons returned
to their respective ports. This was all that could
be known of Japan, end yet such was the in-
genuity of its inhabitants that their manufac-
tures found their way to our firesides, and lett
a mark on our household vocabularies. The two
great Empires of the East gave names to our
commonest chattels, and we spoke of our lackered
wares as " Japanned," while we called our crockery
" China." Curious writers used to speculate on the
possible institutions or customs of this wonderful
State, and those who believed that the world held
no regions yet to be discovered amused themselves
by remarking that there was still a country to be
unveiled. The veil has now been lifted, and to
very strange purpose indeed. We have found out
what kind of an empire Japan is, and we fear it is
almost a natural consequence that we are at war
with it. Japan is more like China than any other
country, and yet very different from China. In China
the polity is absolutely monarchical, and there pro-
bably never was a State in which the monopoly of
power was more complete. But in Japan this result
has not been yet attained. There feudalism is do-
minant, and the distribution of power resembles that
prevailing in European kingdoms four or five cen-
turies ago. The singularity, however, of the case
consists in this—that a succession of institutions
can be traced, one over another, still preserved.
There are two Sovereigns in Japan, just as in
Merovingian France there was a King, and under
him a Minister who was more King than his master.
There is also a very powerful aristocracy, and the
Princes of Japan are as rich and as formidable as
the old Dukes of Normandy or Burgundy. But
this aristocracy and this double monarchy all exist
together, so that to get anything like a parallel
from European history we should have to compound
the France of the Childeberts with the France of
Charles VII. At the very time that a British
Minister is bewildered in his negotiations by " the
anomalous state of political rule in Japan," our
Admiral finds a Japanese nobleman enthroned in
an opulent principality, with a strong seaport, a
fleet of steamers, fortifications mounting the most
approved modern ordnance, and a luxurious palace
about 50 miles inland. The whole case of the war
between England and Japan turns upon the pre-
tensions of the class to which this nobleman belongs,
The " Ramie's," as they are called, or the great
feudal nobles of Japan, claim, it is said, the privilege
of having even a public road to themselves when
they choose to travel upon it. On the 14th of
September last year Mr. Richardson, an English
man who happened to be in Japan, was riding on
one of the high roads in company with two or three
friends when they encountered a Daimio and his
retinue. The retainers of the Prince fell upon the
party immediately, and Mr. Richardson was killed.
It was for this murder that Prince Satsuma, was
called to account in the recent operations of our
fleet, and the case lies in en unusually small com
pass. The Japanese Government not only acknow-
ledged the justice of oar demands when redress was
claimed, but proceeded to satisfy them so far as it
could. The apology which we required was
given, and the fine which we asked was paid.
But when we came to deal with the offending
Daimio our claims were eluded. The Prince's
Ministers argued that, though the Supreme Go•
vernment of the Empire might have given us
by treaty certain rights of travelling on the high
roads, these rights ought to have been subordinated
to the inalienable privileges of the nobles of the land,
and that though the casualty in question might be
deplorable in itself, it was but a natural incident of
he mistake made by the English party in confront.
tug a Daimio on progress. This view of the case has
actually found acceptance among. the English in
China, for we read in one of their journals a serious
lamentation over the folly or perverseness by which
so atal a risk was incurred. It is not alleged that
Mr. Richardson and his friends were doing anything
but whet they had a right to do by treaty, or
that they conducted themselves in any way pro
vokingly or offensively, except by meeting a
nobleman on the road. The only prerogative
which they infringed was the Daimios' preroga-
tive of monopolising a highway to the exclu-
sion of all impertinent intruders. When a
Daimio rides abroad other people should stay at
home, just as the " Arabian Nights " tell us that all
the inhabitants of Bagdad were ordered to confine
themselves to their houses when the Sultan's daugh-
ter was going to the baths. That is the claim ad-
vanced on behalf of the Daimios. Mr. Richardson,
it is said, was unfortunate in paying the penalty
with his life, but his own ignorance or hardihood
led him into the danger. It might very well be a
question whether the recognition of such extrava-
gant privileges as these could consist with that right
of residence in Japan which British subjects have
now acquired, but to say the truth we do not believe
a word of the argument. We do not believe either
that the Daimios could establish their title to such
privileges, or that as a matter of fact Mr. Richardson
was killed for infringing them. The Japanese Govern-
ment itself put in no such plea for its feudatory.
The Ministers of Prince Satsuma do not venture to
advance it so nakedly as it has been advanced for
them. They merely remark that the Daimio found
his path impeded, and that his retainers accidentally
killed a person in clearing the way somewhat rudely
of the intruders, This defence would liken the affair
to an affray between Leslies and Seytons in the
High-street of Edinburgh or a faction fight in Ire-
land brought on by a fortuitous eollision. Isis need-
less, however, to observe that no such account can
hold good of an onslaught made by a retinue of 200
' ruffians on three gentlemen and a lady. We have
no doubt that a Daimio expects people to get out of
his way; but the true offence of this unfortunate
party was that they were foreigners. That spirit
which for two centuries kept all the world out of
Japan still survives, as it would naturally survive
longest, in the aristocracy of the Empire. The fear
or hatred or jealousy of strangers which is found in
every barbarous race lives in the breast of the Japa-
nese Princes, and the detested spectacle of a party
of foreigners induced the Daimio and his retainers
to seize what they thought a colourable opportu-
nity of committing murder. They did simply what
the villagers of every Chinese hamlet used to do to
every foreigner they caught, what the tribes of
Central Africa do to all travellers, what the savages
of Hawaii did to Captain Cook. They set upon
' the objects of their abomination to kill them, and
then, when they found themselves called to ac-
count, they invented the best excuses they could.
The Japanese Government is probably innocent.
The guilt was that of a noble far exalted above the
Sovereign's displeasure. We have reached this
Prince through the accident of his residence on the
sea? and we have punished him as far as we could.
It is to be hoped that the example will deter others
from offending, but the obligation resting upon us
is none other than that which follows us to every
settlement made in a barbarous country. We exact
busty concessions from the Government, but the
Government cannot control the people, and offences
are given which leave us with the alternative of
cp,•itting the place altogether or fighting for our
safeti•
post..—As the crew of a ship that is sinking within
sight of lainj watch the lights on shore, so is Poland
now looking Wwards Paris. The Poles have, we
fear, been led to eel tortain expectations which ethane;
not be immediately reStised,
is always strongest when despair
. is its
are alternative,
and,. with. thehope
‘
toThey an-
they are waiting for the wu d
nounce their salvation or signr S
,
r r of the French
have, in fact, assigned to the Burge lee alone. If, as
theirw doom.
a mission he is not called to underta
la. w of
if the
the three great Powers of Europuee
thuetl4°,eoattivelirtels,
Russia has forgotten the respect d
unaottiefoura oanteiotef
owntho
to interfere for the
tt oh e enforce
sam e
time,th
p;11,
secoPsto.weArst
Emperor had determined
observance of treaties whici;
he is, perhaps, of al
pose of compelling the
I the Sovereigns of Europe, the
least concerned in upholding, no other Power would
have been entitled to throw any impediment in his
way. As the polish question now stands, France,
;Fe take it, is free to act upon her own inspirations.
But, desirous as the Emperor may be, and no doubt
is, to cairy out the enlightened policy he developed
in the liberation of Italy, he could not fail to recog-
nise, and to take into his most serious consideration,
the magnitude and the difficulty of the problem that
has to be resolved in Poland. For our own part we
cannot help thinking that many of the difficultirs
which now beset this question might have been got
rid of by a more earnest representation of the prin-
ciples on which the three Powers based their protest.
We cannot accept the rule which has been laid down,
that, unless a Power is prepared to enforce its pro-
test by a declaration of war, it ought to bate its
breath and moderate or supprPß9 its honest
On the contrary, we have always understood

that it was the office of diplomacy to exhaust the re-
sources of remonstrance before war was resorted to ;
and, in the present instance, if the conduct of Russia
called for reprobation at all, it invited the sternest
and most uncompromising animadversion. The
wrong complained of was no common wrong; the
breach of faith was flagrant and audacious; the law
of humanity and the law of nations were alike de-
fiantly violated. Such crimes were not to be washed
out with rose-water. Their enormity demanded the
application of language which could leave no doubt
of the disgust their perpetration had inspired, Un-
happily, however, truth and vigour were sacrificed
to procure an identity of expression, and the six
points were put with all the formality, but with
none of the force, of an ultimatum. Earl Russell
and Count Rechberg stood in the position of sure-
ties to RUssia that the Conqueror of Solferino
should not break the peace of Europe, and their
identical action was rather a source of embarrass-
ment than an element of strength. If, indeed, the
tnree Powers had resolved to enforce their remon-
strance, the combination would have been formid-
able; but, as a friendly intervention, it failed to
convey to Russia in plain terms what—as we can
only answer for ourselves—the English Goveru-
ment, iuterpreing the public opinion of England,
mhought of her treatment of Poland. Tne national
indignation wus watered down into courteous ex-
pressions of regret ; what was written in Paris was
rewritten in London, and revised at Vienna; and,
as was inevitab:e in such a process, the truth grew
fine by degrees and wretchedly less. Of course it
was proper to observe the forms of diplomatic cor-
respondence ; and when Lord Palmerston was at
the Foreign-office he found it possible, in writing
on this same question, to express the sentiments of
the country he represented with farce and elo-
quence, without deviating from the established
rules of official politeness. But, except for the warn-
ing the failure embalms for the benefit of vosteritY,
this citicism comes too late. France and England,
we make sure, have had enough of these political
partnerships with limited liability for some time to
come. It is far more important now to look the re-
sults fairly and boldly in the face. The three Powers
have met with an exceedingly disagreeable check ;
Poland, hoping against hope, will in a few more
hours learn that, for all save the moral support which
cannot help her in her actual strait, she has only to
trust in the God of battles and to her own despair-
ing courage. As regards the repulse, or the insult,
or whatever else it can be called, all we have to
say is, that, as far as it affects England, we
must bear it as well and as patiently as we are
able. It is, let us try to suppose, one of the una-
voidable accidents which happen every now and
then. But the less that is said about it the better.
To talk of our good intentions is only rubbing salt
upon our sores. As respects Poland, however, we
must own to a feeling in which shame partakes
largely of indignation. We will not go so far as to
affirm that the intervention of the three Powers
has, ny protracting the insurrection, aggravated the
suferings of the Poles and exasperated their op-
pressors; for though Russia is now defying the
opinion of the civilised world, she cannot for long
be indifferent to its distinctly-pronounced sentence.
Nor can we take it upon ourselves to advise the in-
surgents to lay down their arms and appeal to the
mercy of their conqueror. Far rather would we
remind them of that inheritance which no despot
can confiscate, that honour which is the soul and
spirit of patriotism. While they guard that, though
they may be defeated, they can never be destroyed.
The winter that has set in will no doubt test their
endurance, and try their heroism to the quick, but
as far as we can see they have to choose between
cold and snow and the dungeon or the gallows, and
in such a position brave men do not hesitate. God
_ _

forbid that we say one word to encourage a useless,
and therefore a wasteful, resistance; but Russia
has, by the wanton barbarities she is practising,
made submission to her power a species of suicide.
Besides, is it for us to say that the Poles are not the
best judges of their own situation ? Is it for us to
deny that to the eye of faith even the dark cloud
that overspreads their devoted land may have its
silver lining ; or, when the winter is past, and the
grass is again growing green upon the graves of her
martyrs, Poland, if she can hold her ark together so
lona, may not send her eagle once more westward
with another result ?