Washington sentinel., 1854-02-10

oSt'Oo eiio oihS PSoPAc ioA SehsaAtNo oSP&
rate and distinct in relations so favorable to
their amalgamation with the rest of mankind,
what hopes can be entertained of intercourse
with the Japanese, when one of those sacred
laws is directly opposed to such intercourse?
Theirla laws have emanated from the Divinity
not divinity of whom tradition alone has
made them eognizant, but palpable and visible
in the divine attributes Of their Mikado, who
rules and governs them, who never dies. |
am afraid that the difficulty, like the Gordian
knot must be severed by the strong hand, or
it will remain an enigma until the lapse Of
ages. What hopes can be entertained, when
the same principle Of unity has been maintained
amid all the various vicissitudes of life in a
wandering and cosmopolte people, unarmed,
unprotected, and subject for centuries to bitter
and harassing prosecutions, of this principle
being overcome in powerful, numerous, and
isolated nation, free from such temptations and
inducements to open free and cordial inter-
course with their fellow-creatures2 Happy as
a people in their seclusion, their very natures
are opposed to innovation. They have tried
it, and divine authority, the law, could only re-
establish what they deemed their former secu-
rity and freedom from intestine divisions.
They now consider their seclusion eternal, and
their lively and playful curiosity in relation to
whatever is strange and wonderful, exhibited
openly and without reserve, but indicates that
settled and uncompromising submission to the
law, which forbids further investigation of
the nature of that outer world, and of its deni-
zens, whose peculiarities in customs and sci
ence so sparingly reached them.
Thus we may consider the expedition to Ja-
pan as bent upon an experiment Let us, there
fore, be not too sanguine. There are some
A. L. H. =
between straight line and an are, perpetual
motion, &c. To these let US add free inter-
course with the unsocial Japanese; or, at least
let us accomplish with them as much as we
have done with the above problems -elucidate
their relations near enough for practicable pur-
poses, establish kindly relations, and purchase
from them an island, as an intermediate point
between China and our Pacific possessions,
and leave the great problem Of their seclusion,
as we have been forced to leave those above,
unsolyed.
We may conceive the japanese government
to consist of the Mikado, Tor spiritual EMPEROR
the Tiogoon, Tor executive,) and the council.
Let us now briefly considerthe effects resulting
from the action ofagovernment of such anomal-
Gus construction, and trace the various channels
through which these principles were brought to
bear upon the people, penetrating the sacred
ness OF privacy, and, like the atmosphere, per-
vading every recess Of life. The law Of cere-
monial the Harakiri, and the espial, hampered
the Japanese in on every side with restrictions
which appeared to have no limits. Thus they
became the standard to which every action Of
life was referable; and, as if aware that the
closest circumspection of conduct could not al
ways keep one clear of the dread punishment
which followed its infraction, their very child
rem, before arriving at the age of manhood,
were taught all the mysteries of the Harakiri,
so that they might not be found unprepared
for proper execution of the dread alternative
which they deemed so likely to arise during
their course through life; thus, as it were,
making religious ceremonial of the very pun
ishment following the infraction of laws. They
were taught the laws and the penalties; and, as
necessary consequence of that knowledge,
prepared themselves for the only evasion (selt-
immolation) of their immutable DEGREES.
Thoroughly initiated in all the mysteries of
the Harikir, and taught to consider that
under any circumstances he can by selfimmo-
lation avoid the odium of guilt and leave an
unsulied name, the japanese enters upon the
duties of life with this resource always in view.
If he be public man, magistrate, or holding
any Office OF responsibility or trust, he is sur
servants, his officials, all are ready to forward
to the executive notice of the slightest infrac-
ton of the law. The ceremonial attached to
his Office he is bound to see enforced in all its
minutia, and pay that same Difference to it in
one Of higher authority which he is bound to
exact in his own person. If the orders of the
government be not carried out by him, if sedi-
ton arise within the bounds of his adminstra-
ton, if those under his authority have inter
course with foreigners, if prisoners committed
to his charge escape, if any law or order be
infringed the fact alone is considered ; and no
extenuating circumstances can be pleaded in
palliation, not even that Of impracticability.
The order thus issued, presupposes the
practicabiity of execution, and to impeach it,
would impeach the infallibility of the law-the
divine authority of the Mikado. Thus, when
he becomes aware of such infringement of the
orders he has received his course is at once
taken. Calling around him his relations and
friends, he immolates himself to the law. The
law is now appeased, and no further conse-
quences result from his guilt, if guiltit be, and
his son probably may enter upon the duties of
the Office, while the body of his father is yet
warm with the lingering glow of life; whereas,
had not this prompt and uncompromising sub
mission to the DEGREES Of fate been yielded, the
penalties of the law would have been enforced
in all their rigour, reaching probably to genera
tions in their terrible and searching response
bility.
Can we conceive of men being more com
pletely fettered to the despotism Of the law,
than by these agents, harakiri, espiai, and cere-
nonial, more especially when they are secured
by such dread penalties, and have received the
sanction of divine authority. The lion was
more securely fettered by the hunters net
than he would have been in an iron cage. The
despotism Of DR.. Francia was that of minutie;
not that of the bold usurper, who revels in the
swell Of commotion like wild beast,
but that of a scholastic pedant lettering every
motion of the body, every faculty of the mind
and sense. Blind, deaf, mute, and motionless,
men became at his will yet all these faculties
springing into action at his beck. No hesitation;
spontaneous and uncompromising obedience, or
the knife, the bullet the halter became the
penalty. Like the slow and hardly visible agen-
cy of water in the abrasion Of the globe, acting
everywhere simultaneously and unceasing, this
lettering OF every faculty of the mind and body,
by the sleepless presence ofagents ever at work,
and with one object in view, subdues the most
determined spirit and bends the proudest in |