The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-21 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21, 1863.

Another " little war" in Japan—and another
"little war" in New Zealand ! The two localities
being as far removed from each other as they are
both of them from ourselves. England is certainly,
so far, getting her hands full of those minor warlike
difficulties which were regarded with more repug-
nance by the Duke of WELLINGTON than the
grander contests, such as these in which he himself
had, during the earlier part of his life, been so
conspicuously engaged. These little wars are
certainly more insidious in their evil influences than
the great wars. They frequently last much longer,
and are more often renewed. They eat away time
and money, as perniciously as gangrene exhausts the
vital energies. Or to speak with more exactitude,
though still by metaphor, the little wars are
like the opening of issues in various parts
of the body, as compared with a bold applica-
tion of the lancet. The only course in reason to
be pursued in regard to these little wars, we take it,
is to enter upon them, if they must needs be entered
upon at all, as promptly and vigorously as may be
in any way practicable. Instead of grumbling over
the evil necessity of another little war in Japan,
and another little war, just exactly at the same time,
in New Zealand—what we have to de now, in each
instance, in obedience to the dictates of sheer com-
mon sense, is to " go in" at both, determinedly and
with a will. It is interesting to note in reference
to this compulsory revival by the English of war-
like proceedings against the Japanese—compulsory
We say advisedly, for the English had really no
alternative whatever before them under the cir-

cuoastances—it is interesting at this moment to
recall to mind the fact that it is now upwards
of two hundred years since communications be-
tween England and Japan were first of all for-
mally negotiated and opened up by anything
like an interchange of commercial privileges. It
wju'n''lnint of fact, as far back as the 11th of
June,
1613, that this occurred. A letter from King
JAMES T. Of England, VI. of Scotland, was presented
at the Court of Jeddo by Captain Sams, of the
Clone, in the following July, in the name of his
Britannic MAJESTY and as a token of amity. Up-
wards of two centuries after that incident,another
English sea-captain, the Skip
entering the ba Per of a small brig,
yof Jeddo in 18i8, enAdeavoureld,
but ineffectually, to obtain a car
go•as 1831 an American vessel was then 'andreeethnere
actually fired upon, under similar circumstances.
Yet it was with the Americans that the Japanese
first of all entered into the formalities of a regular
commercial treaty namely, ou the gth of
March, 1851' And it was but a little more
years afterwards, that th
than four e com-
mercial treaty
between the English and the
Japanese was successfully negotiated on the 26th
of August', 1858, at Jeddo, by Lord Elgin—the
treaty opening uP
the Ports of Hakodadi, Kane-
to British subjects on and
gowa, and Nagasaki
from Ist July, 189 ;
the port of Nee-e-gata on and
from Ist January, 1860 ;
ad the port of Hiogo on
and from the Ist January, 1862. British subjects
being allowed, for thCpUrPOge of trade under this new
treaty, to reside after the Ist uary,lB62, at Jeddo,
and after the Ist January, 1863, at Osacea. It is for
the violation of more than the rights and privileges
guaranteed by treaty, however, it is
for the perpe-
tration of various outrages against the commonest
dictates of humanity upon inoffensive British sub-
some of them invested with authority by the
English Government, that the S word of EnglaD
it
has once more been drawn against Japan.

It is smistactoryto find that great questions
which have engaged attention and excited interest
during the Parliamentary session are not cast aside
nor forgotten when. the turmoil of business
and the strife of discussion is at an
end.Peisrhoavpesr
nothing of a domestic charecter possessed more im-
portance last ses.aion than the attempt made by
some energetic members to institute a reform into
the discipline and to amend the management of our
prisons and gaols. It had become a scandal among
us that these thirigs were fast merging into a
mockery, and that so lax was the routine, so ineffi-
cient the laws, and so mistaxen the motives that
guided and governed the establishments set apart
for criminals, that crime seemed encouraged rather