The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-01-15

Yedo attacked by fever, which after
wards assumed malignant type, and for many days my
life Ia great danger Thanks be to God recovered,
and Ia my usual state OF health. aaf1 80 fH
The Emperor and the Council of State manifested the
greatest anxiety during my illness and showed marked
sollcitude for my His Majesty daily sent
kind messages, with presents of fruit arrow-root, &C.
Nc lac also sent down two OF his best physicians from
Yedo 10 attend The doctors sent daily report OF
my condition the court and the receipt there OF
bulletin to the effect that could not the EN-
peror issued an order to them me and they
at the time informed that the safety of their heads
depended my recovery. cannot sufficiently thank
those doctors for their unweared attentions to Night
and day OF them always at bedside and they
showed all the genteness and tenderness of woman in
| their treatment of la8sts
Shortly after my audience had an interview with the
Prince of Btsu, Minister for Foreign Affairs and tho
members of the Great Council of State when made
important communication To tlem which cannot te
peated here The interview lasted several hours, and
of great interest. marked impression evil
IDENTIFY made and / had only follow 1t up to gvca
hope OF ultimate After this, constantly
occupied in giving instruction TO the Japanese inter
national law, political economy and explaining the ope
ations Of commerce. found them to he profoundly g
norant of the polity of the western world My labor
long. tedious and difficult As the ideas gave them
new they had in their language express them
had therefore, TO illustrate the meaning of many
ions by such illusions to familiar topics would best
convey the ideas. The axiom, that demand and sup.
ply regulate each other took some days to hs under
stood by he for it brought up the whole principle of
entire freedom of action among the producing CLASSES
OF country Now, nothing could possibly be di
recty opposed to Japanese deas and customs than this
very freedom Of action The government intereres IN
everything in affairs so trihng to throw an
air OF ridcuc the whole matter l abored inces.
sanity to show them that the absence protection
interference the part of government the surest
mode of encouraging and developing the industry of
country quoted Adam Smith, and all the maxims
could remember and for examples OF the soundness
my views pointed to the condition of the various States
of the western world and showed them that the relative
prosperity of those States in the exact ratio of the
freedom Of action which was enjoyed by the people
II is impossible to give you idea OF the mental
iety suffered for months without any adviser or
assistant h2d well-sored library to which could
resort, anything to rely but my ,naided
memory. 1t cost many days Of and nights of
wakefuness. At length, began to see that my argu,
ments about TO bear fruit this stimulated me to
make exertions, and al last made converts of the
Emperor, ito whom all my arguments reported y
Of all the members of the Great Council OF State and
many of the Princes This was followed by the ar-
ponnent of my old friend the Prince of Snano and the
FRINGE Of Higo commissioners to negotiate with
At our frst meeting exchanged our powers and
found theirs to be full as words could make them
but, before my second interview with them over
convinced that they We're, In fact only ntermeia-
ries, and that was, in reality, negotiating with the
whole Council of State
cannot give yon detail Of the negotiations for that
would be to divuge the treaty When to the
articles regulating trade had to give them History of
Revenue Laws and 20 enter into very minute details
custom-house regulations and the In which
they executed Nj labor enhanced by the fact
that the arguing OF any given point and getting them
to agree to its decson far from terminating the
question for after matter had been deliberately
tle they would ut subsequent meeting open IL anew
and proceed to argue it gravely though 1t had
been referred to- and there not OF the articles
but what was thus reargcd at least three times and
some of them many ten times. In these negotia
tons found the benefit of my previous commercial cdu
cation and also of the had adopted for my in
tercourse with the Japanese from my first arrival in the
country which was, to be particularly careful to be per-
ectly exact in every statement made to tcm and to
be cautious how took any position but, when was
once taken never to recee from it. AS the negotiations
proceeded annoying and embarrassing they were
many respects} cLcered by seeing that my abors
would ultimately he crowned with far beyond
my most sanguno expectations At length treaty
agreed on, and ordered to be cngroesed. 'tts ssst
You well that ] not permitted TO d
vulge the details Of The treaty until it has been laid be-
fore the President and received his approval still
cannot deny myself the pleasure of communicating
of its provisions to YOU All Americans in Japan
enjoy the free exercise OF religion and they the
right to build churches The practice Of trampng on
tho Crucfx is abolished Whom you remember that
two hundred and twenty years ago Christianity was
extinguished in Japan in the blood quarter Of mil
lion of Japanese converts and when you call to mind the
blasphcmous proclamation Of the then Emperor of Japan
in which he said If the God of the Christians himself
comes to Japan will put him to death T. you will DO
ready to admit that this result is gratifying it is
surprising ! am proud and happy tha. this has been
achieved by our country. 1t will be good answer to
the seer of Burke, which has often been applied
countrymen, Your God is gold your Bible is a
ledger. The pleasure feel in having made the treaty
is enhanced by the reflection that there has been show
oil coercion nor in the least used by inc To
obtain it. There American of-wnr within
ono thousand miles Of for months before and after
the negotiations told the Japanese at the outset that
my mission friendly that not authorized
to any threats that all wished that they would
listen TO the truths that would lay before them.
1t not until my second visit to Yedo that made
any excursions in around the city I visited n any
temples, gardens, &c The temples have nothing that
Arrests the attention in their structure in their ine.
rio being in this respect less costly and ornamental
than the Chinese temples They are, however, kept
much cleaner than the latter They usually placed ia
fine open grounds and surrounded by noble trees The
grounds neatly kept and adorned with lowering
shrubs and trees, among which the plum and cherry
tree are to be remarked they produce enormous bios
SONS, but alas like many showy men, they produce no
fruit rhododendrons OF great beauty and of the follow
ing colors, viz pink, scarlet crimson blue yellow VIC
let and white Inc dwaihng Of trees and dtorng them
into queer shapes Is much pracsed and they cut the
foliage into rounded forms like dishes ! saw number
of cears whose trunks and branches might I've taken as
representing the bronze Of vast eperPnc while the TO
liage looked like emerald dishes
The houses of the japanese are OF wood and never
more than two stories high they covered ihatch
or tiles the front and ends closed by wooden win
dowsashes covered with paper which gives plcasans
light in the interior and wooden shutters enclose tho
windows at night The interior Is divided into rooms by
means of sliding Partitions made of wooden frames COW
cred with paper These partitions be removed in a
few moments and the whole house thrown into one
The floors covered with straw mats some t,so
inches thick they are soft and fine and are kent ~