The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-02 00:00:00

LORD .ELGIN IN JAPAN;

(14'ioth afi Occasional*Coiyespow76nt of the limes.)
SHANGHAI, SEPT. 3.
Lord Elgin has returned to Shanghai after an
absence of exactly one month. This short interval,
however, has sufficed to enable him to conclude a
treaty with Japan, which, if it does not equal in
commercial importance the one recently signed at
Tien-tsin, is invested with even a higher character
of historical interest and political significance.
After the complicated and harassing work in
which the allies have been engaged in China for the
last year, it is matter of congratulation to them
that a political revolution as startling to the
Japanese themselves as it was unexpected by
the world at large should have been wrought by
the application of moral force alone in this singular
and hitherto jealously exclusive empire. Various
causes have conspired to produce this result. The
contact into which they were constantly brought
with both English and Russians during the late
war, the expedition of Commodore Perry, and the
establishment at Simoda of an American Consul,
together with the indefatigable exertions of Mr.
Harris, the gentleman who filled this post, doubt-
less operated largely in preparing the Japanese
mind for the change which their own sound com-
mon sense and quickness of observation showed
them was inevitable. It was not, however, until
the intelligence reached Jeddo of the treaty of
Tien-sin, accompanied by an exaggerated report
of the naval force with which the allies intended
visiting Japan, and the uncompromising attitude
they would assume when they arrived there, that
theTlenipotentiaries appointed to treat with Mr.
Harris put their signature to the treaty, which had
already been for some months before them. The
arrival almost immediately afterwards of both the
Russians and ourselves confirmed to some extent
the rumours they heard, and Plenipotentiaries were
without delay appointed to treat upon the same
base as that which had already been adopted in the
American treaty. It is not to be supposed, how-
ever, that the Japanese Government succumbed
feebly to the pressure from without, as though re-
signing itself in despair to., an inevitable destiny.
So far from such being the ease, Lord Elgin upon
his arrival at Jeddo found the late Liberal Go-
vernment, with whom the Americans had treated,
had been turned out of office only two or three
days previously. The Conservative or aristocratic
party had replaced the enlightened Prime Minister
with whom we expected to treat by men of anti-
progressive tendencies, and it was evident that, so
far from yielding to further pressure, there was a
strong disposition manifested on the part of the
hereditary nobility to break rather than bend fur-
ther. This was the public opinion which the six
Plenipotentiaries appointed to treat with Lord
Elgin, though of sufficiently enlightened views
themselves, were compelled constantly to consider
in their discussion of those points in which any
advance was desired upon the treaty already
signed. So determined, indeed, was the resistance
made to any further innovation, and so keen
their investigation of our demands, that the work
of negotiation, though it proceeded rapidly, was
not unattended with difficulty, and afforded no
prospect of a more liberal tendency than that
already manifested.
Having thus briefly adverted to the peculiar
conditions under which the treaty of Jeddo was
negotiated, I shall proceed to a general narrative of
the principal events which marked this most in-
teresting episode in the diplomacy of Great Britain
in the far East.
On the 3d of August Her Majesty's ships Furious,
Retribution, Lee (gunboat), and steam-yacht
Emperor, destined as a present for his Majesty
the Tycoon of Japan, entered the port of Nagasaki,
and steaming past the point at which a line ofjunks
have heretofore been moored to bar the ingress of
foreign ships, cast anchor immediately off the city
and Dutch factory of Decima. On the following
day the Calcutta, having on board the Admiral,
accompanied by the Inflexible, joined the squadron.
Nothing can exceed in picturesque beauty the
bay of Nagasaki and the situation of the city at
its extremity : swelling hills covered with the
most luxuriant verdure rise from the water's
edge. The steep thatched roofs of snug cot-
tages peep from out the dense foliage amid
which they are nestled; white temples perched
upon overhanging points contrast brilliantly
with their dark green setting. In some places
precipitous walls of rock arc mirrored in the azure
blue of the water at their base ; in others, drooping
branches kiss its calm surface. Green batteries
guard projecting points, and rock-cut steps ascend
the steep hill sides, clothed with heavy forest or
terraced with rice fields. Boats of quaint construc-
tion, with sharp-pointed prows and broad sterns,
above which flutter two black and white flags—the
Imperial colours—glance across the harbour, pro-
. pelled by stalwart naked figures, who scull to the
tune of a measured chant. The fore part of the boat
is covered by a roof, and contains a posse of two-
sworded officials, who incontinently board each
ship as it anchors, speak very fair Dutch, are ex-
tremely inquisitive but very gentlemanlike and
goodnatured, and who, after official curiosity has
been satisfied, proceed to make their reports, and
return, in all probability, to circumnavigate the
ship as a guardboat during the rest of its stay in
the harbour. A Dutch merchant ship and a Japanese
man-of-war screw steamer were the only vessels in
harbour when we arrived and anchored about half a
mile from the shore. The city of Nagasaki covers a
plain at the end of the harbour, but it has outgrown
its area, and the houses cluster up the spurs of the
hills that sink into it, and the streets are in places
so steep as to render steps necessary. Formerly
foreigners were not allowed to enter the town, and
the Dutch were only permitted to leave their prison
of Decima under a strong escort of officials, and
when permission had been formally asked and ob-
tained. Now the barriers had been so far broken
down that we explored at pleasure the shops and
streets of the town—not, as in China, an offensive
and disgusting operation, but a charming and agree-
able amusement. The streets are broad, clean, and
free from foul odours ; the people civil and cour-
teous, and if the shops in the town do not afford
many interesting objects of speculation, the bazaars,
which are stocked with lacquer, china, &c., for the
express benefit of foreigners, are so tempting that
few can leave them without experiencing a consider-
able drain upon their resources. Fortunately this
was a temptation to which we were not exposed
for any great length of time. Immediately on the
Admiral's arrival it became necessary to decide upon
the steps which should be taken for the presenta-
tion of the yacht. The distance of Nagasaki from
the capital of the empire, and the comparative in-
significance of the principal authority, rendered it
very undesirable that so important an act should be
performed there. As Mr. Ward, who commanded
the yacht, had been instructed to deliver it over if
possible at Jeddo, it was therefore determined that
he should proceed at once to that place. Lord Elgin
pr himselfedeterminedenpresented
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auassv avail
these means additional facilities would doubtless
be afforded for carrying out the object he had in
view. _ _ _

No sooner was it decided that the presentation of
the yacht should take place at Jeddo than the
Furious, Retribution, Lee, and Emperor started for
Simoda. Heavy gales obliged all four ships to run
in for shelter at the bay of Nagasaki, and it was
not until the morning of the 10th that they sighted
the lofty volcanic mountain of Fusiyama. Towering
like Etna to a perfect cone, with an elevation of
about 11,000 feet above the level..of the sea, it was
first visible at a distance of upwards of 100 miles
its beautiful outline defined sharp and clear, with
the first grey tints of morning. This celebrated
mountain, so dear to the Japanese, has been created
by him into a household god. Fusiyama is painted
at the bottom of the delicate china cup from which
he sips his tea ; it is represented on the lacquer
bowl from which he eats his rice. He fans himself
with Fusiyama—he hands things to you on
Fusiyama. It is on the back of his looking-glass,
it is embroidered on the skirts of his garments, and
is the background of every Japanese work of art
or imagination. Simoda is a lovely but dangerous
harbour. Its apparently sheltered nooks and se-
cluded coves woo you into their embraces, and when
the south wind blows fiercely you are dashed to
atoms upon their ribs of iron. The earthquake
which wrecked the Russian frigate Diana changed
the surface of the bottom, and there is now no good
holding ground, but it is a fairy land to look upon,
and in calm weather the picture of repose and se-
curity. Here, too, there is a Goyoshi or Bazaar,
and a better display of lacquer and china than at
Nagasaki, but it is a town of no local importance,
containing some 3,000 or 4,000 inhabitants, ai:1(1,
-when under the new treaty the port is shut up will
sink into its normal condition of a fishing Tillage.
flaunts
At the head of the bay the American
flag
solitar
proudly ; for two years it has waved
inperiod
magnificence over the exiles who durin. g
that
have represented American interests in this remote
communion
corner of the globe. Cut off from all
from their fellow-men, and sacrificingt in the inte-
rests of civilisation and commerce he blessings of
all social intercourse, their efforts had at last beeny
on his treaty,
who had
proceeded
o
crowned with success, and the Ambassador heard
haefaerl
days from Jeddo where he had concludedd
from Mr. Harris that he hadv
and where Count Putiatine, w
at Jeddo, but had left be-
fore also been for some time
direct from the Gulf of
tPehechneleis,iwdeanstatatthatmoment
negotiating. The D Nagasaki,
Mr. Donker Curtius, had a
feonig-eatgleiedinintelnlieggeonteia.ethinaa arrived there of the treaty
of Tien-sin, and had consequently failed altogetherg

iirsigning any, treaty at all. He was at that time
on his return journey overland to Nagasaki. Had
any doubts existed as to the propriety of proceed-
ing without delay to negotiate at Jeddo, they-
were at once solved by this intelligence, for it
becameincumbent on the Ambassador to lose no
time in securing for Great Brtain those advantages
and privileges which other nations either had
acquired or were acquiring, and in placing her,
without delay, in the position of the other Euro-
pean Powers at that time represented in Japan.
As, unfortunately, all the efforts made at Nagasaki
to procure a Dutch interpreter had proved unavail-
ing, an insuperable difficulty seemed to present
itself on learning that the only language in which
the Japanese could communicate at Jeddo was
Dutch. This obstacle was, however, removed by
the friendly act of Mr. Harris, who, with great
liberality and courtesy, placed his own interpreter,
Mr Huesken, at Lord Elgin's disposal. During the
fortnight's stay of the squadron at Jeddo the ser-
vices of this gentleman were in constant request,
and his readiness to oblige rendered him univer-
sally popular, while in his official capacity his
knowledge of the people and familiarity with their
habits, acquired during a residence among them of
two years, must have rendered him invaluable.
Simoda is about 80 miles from the city of Jeddo,
situate at the extreme point of the promontory
which forms one side of the capacious bay, or rather
gulf, at the head of which the capital is placed.
Up this bay the squadron proceeded, with a fair
wind, on the morning of the 12th, and passing
through the Straits of Uraga, the left shore of
which is feathered with rich verdure and indented
with little bays, reached a point opposite the
Port of Kanagawa, beyond which no foreign ships
had ever ventured, and where the Russian
squadron could then be discerned at anchor.
Captain Osborn, however, professing his readi-
ness to explore the unknown waters at the
head of the bay, and to approach as near the city
as possible, Lord Elgin seemed determined not to
lose an opportunity of establishing a precedent
likely to be so important in our future intercourse
with Japan, and, to the astonishment of both Rus-
sians and Japanese, the British ships deliberately
passed the sacred limit without communicating
with the shore, and a few minutes after were
cautiously feeling their way round a long spit of
land which runs far out into the bay and offers
some danger to the navigator. An instinct for
deep water must have guided the ships along the
channel, which was afterwards found to besuffi-
ciently narrow and tortuous, but at last all doubts
as to the feasibility of the enterprise were removed
by the appearance of several large, square-rigged,
Japanese vessels at anchor, the draught of water of
which was a guarantee for our own. Behind these
rose gradually out of the waters of the bay a line
of insulated forts, which marked the defences of
Jeddo, while an extensive suburb, running along
the western shore, formed a continuous street as
far as the eye could reach. The ships ultimately
anchored in three fathoms of water, about a mile
and a half from this suburb, and the same distance
from the fine island forts abovementioned, which
are situated on a sandbank, the intervening channels
being always covered with water. About a mile
beyond these forts, and parallel to them, lay the
main body, of the city ; the wooded height, on
which is situated the Castle of the Tycoon, forming
a conspicuous object. The arrival of the British
squadron in waters which the Japanese had sedu-
lously represented as being too shallow to admit of
the approach of large ships filled them wth dismay
and astonishment ; boats followed each other, with
officials of ascending degrees of rank, to beg them
to return to Kanagawa ; and finally urgent repre-
sentations were made to the Ambassador on the
subject. The pleas generally put forward were
amusing and characteristic ;—first, it was said the
anchorage was dangerous, but the presence of their
own squadron was referred to as an evidence to the
contrary ; then that it would be impossible to pro-
cure and send off supplies, but it was protested
that if necessary we could do without these. The
merits and comforts of Kanagawa were expatiated
on in vain ; the paramount duty was the delivery of
the yacht at Jeddo, and to deliver the yacht there
it was necesspry to remain atthe present anchorage.
No sooner was this settlod than the Japanese in
their usual way became perfectly, reconciled to the
arrangement, sent off supplies with great willing-
ness, and began to prepare a residence on shore for
Lord Elgin and his Staff. It appeared that Count
Putiatine had been delayed for 10 days negotiating
on this subject at Kanagawa, and only succeeded in
taking up his residence at Jeddo on the same day
that we cast anchor before the town. He had
made the journey overland from Kanaga, a dis-
tance of 18 miles.

The landing of a British Ambassador in state at
the capital of the empire of Japan was only in keep-
ing with the act of unparalleled audacity which had
already been committed in anchoring British ships
within the sacred limits of its harbour. Japanese
officials were sent off to superintend the operation,
but they little expected to make the return voyage
in ode of her Majesty's; gunboats, with 13 ships'
boats in tow, amid the thunder of salutes, the in-
spiring strains of a naval band, and the flutter of
hundreds of flags with which the ships were dressed.
Close under the green batteries, threading its way
amid hosts of huge masted broad-sterned junks, the
little Lee, surrounded by her gay flotilla, steamed
steadily, and not until the water had shoaled to
seven feet, and the Japanese had ceased to remon-
strate, or even to wonder, from sheer, despair, did
she drop anchor, and the procession of boats was
formed, the four paddle-box boats, each with a
24-pound howitzer in her bows, enclosing between
them the Ambassador's barge, the remainder of the
ships' boats, with captains and officers all in full
dress, leading the way. The band struck up " God
Save the Queen " as Lord Elgin ascended the steps
of the official landing-place near the centre of the
city, and was received and put into his chair by
sundry two-sworded personages, the rest of the
mission, together with some officers of the squa-
dron, following on horseback. The crowd which
for upwards of a mile lined the streets leading
to the building fixed on as the residence of the
Embassy was dense in the extreme ; the
procession was
.preceded by policemen in harle-
quin costume, jingling huge iron rods of office,
hung with heavy changing rings, to warn the
crowd away. Ropes were stretched across the
cross streets, down which masses of the people
rushed, attracted by the novel sight; while every
few hundred yards were gates partitioning off the
different wards, which were severally closed imme-
diately on the passing of the procession, thus
hopelessly barring the further progress of the old
crowd, which strained anxiously through the bars
and envied the persons composing the rapidly-
forming nucleus. During Lord Elgin's stay of
eight clays on shore nearly all the officers of the
squadron had an opportunity of paying him a
visit. His residence was a portion of a templ e
situated upon the outskirts of what was known as
the Princes' Quarter—in other words, it was the
Knightsbridge of Jeddo. In front of it was a street
which continued for 10 miles, as closely packed
with houses and as densely crowded with people as
it is from Hyde-park-corner to Mile-end. At the
back of it stretched a wide and somewhat dreary
aristocratic quarter, containing the residences of
260 hereditary Princes, each a petty Sovereign in
his own right, many of them with half-a-dozen
town-houses, and some of them able to accommo-
date in these same mansions 10,000 retainers. Pass-
ing through the spacious and silent (except where
a party of English were traversing them) streets
we arrive at the outer moat of the castle ; crossing
it we are still in the Princes' Quarter, but are
astounded as we reach its further limit a tthe
scene which now bursts upon us—a magnificent
moat, 70 or 80 yards broad, faced with a smooth
green escarpment as many feet in height, above
which runs a massive wall composed of stones
Cyclopian in their dimensions. This is crowned, in
its turn, by a lofty palisade. Towering above all,
the spreading arms of giant cedars proudly dis-
denote that within thelm-
pfrial precincts
play themselves,
the
picturesque is not forgotten.
From the highest point of the fortifications in rear
of the castle a
panoramic view is obtained of the
vast city with its two million and a half inhabi-
tants, and
an area equal to, if not greater than,
that of London.
The castle alone is computed to
be capable of containing 40,000 souls.
But the party on shore
did not confine itself to
exploring the city alone ; excursions of 10 miles into
the country were made in two different directions,
and but one opinion prevailed with respect
to the extraordinary evidences of civilisation
which met the eye In every direction. Every
cottage, temple, and tea-house was surrounded by
gardens laid out with exquisite taste, and the
most elaborate neatness was skilfully blended with
grandeur of design. The natural features of the
country were admirably taken advantage of, and a
long ride was certain to be rewarded by a romantic
Beene, where a tea-house was picturesquely perched
over a waterfall, or a temple reared its carved
gables amid groves of ancient cedars. The tea-
house is a national characteristic of Japan.
The traveller, wearied with the noonday heat,
need never be at a loss to find rest and refresh-
ment ; stretched upon the softest and cleanest
of matting, imbibing the most delicately flavoured
tea, inhaling through a short pipe the fragrant
tobacco of Japan, he resigns himself to the minis-
trations of a bevy of fair damsels, who glide rapidly
and noiselessly about, the most zealous and skilful of
attendants.
In their personal cleanliness the Japanese present
a marked contrast to the Chinese : no deformed
objects meet the eye in the crowded streets ;
cutaneous diseases seem almost unknown. In
Nagasaki towards evening a large portion of the

male and female population might be seen innocently
" tubbing" at the coroners of the streets. In
Jeddo they frequent large lbathing establishments,
the doors of which are open to the passer-by, and pre-
sent a curious spectacle, more especially if the in-
mates of both sexes ingenuously rush to it to gaze
at. him as he rides blushingly past. But it would
not be possible to condense within the limits of a
letter the experiences and observations of a resi-
dence in the capital of an empire about which
the information at home is so very scanty, and
which presents probably a greater variety of
interesting and curious matter to the stranger
than any other part of the world. Suffice it to be
recorded as our general impression that, in its
climate, its fertility, and its picturesque beauty,
Japan is not equalled by any country on the face of
the globe; while, as if to harmonise with its sur-
passing natural endowments, it is peopled by a race
whose qualities are of the most amiable and winning
description, and whose material prosperity has been
so equalised as to insure happiness and content-
ment to all classes. We never saw two Japanese
quarrel, and beggars have yet to be introduced
with other luxuries of western civilisation. It is
not to be wondered at that a people rendered it-I'de-
pendent_by the resources of their country and the
frugality and absence of luxury which so strikingly'
characterise them should not have experienced any
great desire to establish an intercourse with other
nations, which, in all probabity, would carry in its
train greater evils than could be compensated for
its incidental advantages. Their exclusiveness
has arisen, not, as in China, from an assumption
of superiority. over the rest of the world, but
from a conviction that the wellbeing and hap-
pine.sss of the community would not be increased
by the introduction of foreign tastes and luxuries ;
and that very propensity to imitate and adopt the
appliances of civilisation, so foreign to the China-
man, is so strongly developed in Japan that their
rulers foresee that the changes now being effected
will, in all probability, some day or other revolu-
tionise the country—an apprehension which need.
'cause the Emperor but little alarm; no one can
doubt who has visited the two countries that the
Chinaman will still be navigating the canals of his
country in the crazy old junks of his ancestors
when the Japanese is skimming along his rivers in
high-pressure steamers, or flying across the country
behind a locomotive. We have yet to discover what
the exports of Japan may be beyond camphor, wax,
and copper; but, from a consideration'of the natural
tendencies and "go ahead" disposition of the peo-
ple, there can be little doubt that a market will at
some future day exist in these islands for the pro-
duce and manufactures of the West of sufficient
magnitude and importance to secure for them a high
place in the list of Great Britain's customers.