Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-01
nom TIE srAR,s Travelling Commissioner.

TIE OUTSIDE WORLD.
ysuzn TIE STARS Travelling Commissioner.
TOKYO, August 81, 1888.
There Is one great question IN Japan-one
question which oyershadows for the moment
every Japanese art, every phase of Japanese
commerce, every japanese aspiration. 1 am
speaking, Of course, of the abolition of the
treaties by which Japan is ranked with semi
barbarous races, Of the opening Of Japan to the
enterprise of the worlds capitalists, of the ad-
mission of Japan to the modern comfy of ma
tons. At the present moment this question is
on the point Of again attracting universal at
tention- For nearly a year neither side has
made a move, but now the situation is big with
developments.
THE FIRST TO CONE.
The first foreigners to break down the Asia
tic isolation of old Japan were those most en-
tsrprising of early colonists, the Dutch. and for
many years before another European foot had
trod japanese soil the Dutch resident accord
ing to the account of his own physician had
been accustomed on formal occasions to crawl
in and out Of the presence Of the Shotgun and
on informal ones ito dance, to jump, to play
the drunkard' for the courts diversion. with
numerous other such apish tricks" In 1854
Commodore Perry, with his great sagacity and
his American men-of-war, concluded the first
treaty on Japanese soil. Other nations fol-
lowed suit racidly. At last in 1858 came Lord
Elgin in the Furious, fresh from the storm
ing Of Canton, the occupation of Tientsn.
and the forcing upon China Of the epoch
making treaty of that place, and being
thus able to fling his sail to a favoring breeze,
to the gates Of Tokyo (it was Yedo in those days)
and soon concluded full treaty upon his own
terms. which, to his credit be il said followed
closely the reasonable and generous ones Of
the treaty which Mr.. Townsend Harris. the
American diplomatist, had concluded exactly a
month before. By this document import duties
were reduced from IS per cent to about 20 per
cent nd rotoren, and export duties were fixed
at per cent. With one exception, this treaty
OF Lord Elgin's Of 1858 regulates the relations
moment, for by that insinuating engine of dip
lomstists, the ''most favored nation"
clause, all the European governments
we're placed on the same footing as
Great Britain. The exception is in this
very matter of the tariff. Article XIII of Mr.
Harris treaty declares the whole of it revisa-
BILE after the lapse of fourteen years and one
years notice, upon the desire Of either the Aneri
car or japanese goreTnDaents; and regulation
VII adds these plain words: Five years after
the opening of Kanagawa (Kanagawa is practi-
caily Yokohama, the former name being still
used only IN diplomatic and consular docu-
ments), the import and export duties shall be
subject to revision If the Japanese goueJ1sn,eTt
desvesI" In Lord Elgin's treaty, however, the
corresponding passage in regulation VII reads,
IF either ae British or Japanese government de-
sres a. Thus what Mr. Harris, ON the part of the
United States. regarded a Just privilege or
concession to Japan, in return for what Japan
conceded by treaty. Lord Elgin claimed and
secured for Great Britain as right
THE CHANGES OF THIRTY YEARS.
The outside world has stood still for Japan
it has shown her a face as changeless as a
statue's-for thirty years. What has Japan
done in the meantime? When these treaties
we're made her people had not learned to dis
tmgulsh between Jesuit and layman. and there
fore hated them alike, for it is not sufficiently
appreciated that the cry of 'Fo-f'-.'Kill the
foreigner'-was aimed at the church of Rome
She was then perhaps the most feudal country
history records; two hundred and fifty great
mobiles, the Daimios, with enormous incomes
and two millions of retainers ruled the land
from Oshiu to Satsuma; when they moved
abroad the shout of ..!Shitd-ai-iro''-..Bo
down"-preceded them, and to remain stand
ing was instant death; each of their retain
ers, fed and clothed by his lord and ready
TO give his life in return, had no
other occupation than first to study
swordsmanship and afterward to exercise it:
ne could cut a mans head off by the simple act
Of drawing his blade from its scabbard: if he
struck down a merchant, He insulted me-
was sufficient excuse and explanations: and
any crime that he committed as well as the
least insraetion of a code of honor without
parallel for punctihousness. could be expiated
BY formally dlsembowelling himself. the hdra-
kars or ssPpsotu. an act for which he was ALWAYS
prepared Then the Mikado was personally a
prisoner, with the functions Of dummy; since
the middle ages" said Okubo in his historic
memorandum, 'our emperor has lived behind
screen and has never set foot upon the ground.
Nothing that has happened outside has
ever reached his sacred ears" Then there
was standing prohibition of 1.-The wicked sect.
called Christian" and offer of rewards for the
denunciation of persons suspected of belong
ing 70 IT. Then Russians and Dutchmen had
been murdered in the streets of Yokohama. the
interpreter to the British legation mustered in
Tokyo. the legation itself twice attacked Mr..
richardson murdered. then Major Baldwin and
Lieut. Bird butchered- sleeping British sailors
kiileo IN the street at Nagasaki, a body of for
eigners hred upon at Hiogo. eleven French
sailors shot at Sakai. and the escort of the
British minister himself attacked as he was ON
his way to visit the Mikado. All of these muir
ders that were premeditated. it must
pc remembered, were committed from
the most patriotic motives by men who
were prepared, to sacrifice their lives rather
than So what they regarded as the Dissertation
OF Japan and the outrage of the Mikado.
Gould but tranquilize the imperial mind"
s.id the testament Of one of the last of them,
At would rebound to my greatest honor
though am but a person of the very lowest
degree" Then the merchant was two in the
social scale above the man who carried off the
oodles OF decapitated criminals. and one degree
ABOVE the common coolie. Then. finally. law
was the will of the Daimio finance was his
ability to squeeze the agricultural class and
politics was his intrigue Such was the japan
Of the foreign treaties.
TIE PRESENT JAPAN.
what, now, Is the Japan of to-day? Readers
my previous letters will not expect me to ex-
patiate again upon her marvellous progress.
She has at her command an army of 50. 900
highly trained and perfectly equipped men in
peace and 100, 600 IN war. Her feet numbers
some OF the finest and fastest vessels afloat
ner educationai system is an ascending scale
rom public schools and technical schools and
normal schools to q university which has
trained men to go out and teach the Chinese
engineering at Shanghai. to fill many import
ant wel-paid engineering posts on the Ameri-
can railways, TO take sole responsibility of
several great chemical Establishments in
Europe. and one Of her graduates has
been for several years the salaried pri-
vate experimental assistant of DIR. Hoff-
man In Berlin, the greatest chemist in the
world. a post which hundreds Of the best Euro
Rean chemists would gladly fill for nothing. but
the honor and the opportunity Her police
system Is, II anything too complete and too
wen informed, her new criminal code has been
pronounced BY more than one great jurist TO
De without superior. and the civil code. which
wiii De promulgated within the next few
months, Is not likely to fall behind it, while I
nave nowhere seen or heard Of prisons so adj
mraoiy conducted as the two great ones have