The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-07-29


18th contains an extended account
Of a dinner rendered DR.. B. G..
Northrup, who recently passed
through this country Oh his way to
Japan, at the Tokyo Club. Those
present included some of the high
est dignitaries of the nation. Mr.
Kanda, speaking in behalf of the
Japanese students in America said {:
at is with feelings of great pleas
ure that 1 rise to propose a toast in
honor of our much esteemed guest,
the Hon. y. @. Northrup, and to say
a few words in grateful remembrance
OF his many personal kindnesses to
them during the years of their study,
and of his great services to Japan in
the cause of her education and her
friendly relations with the United
States.
'Tt gives us peculiar pleasure at
this season of great national rejoicing
to welcome amongst us so distin-
guished a veteran from a field I'M
stained by any bloodshed.
'That he, in his great age, should
have travelled over half the earth in
the cause of education, is feat at
which we simply gaze with wonder
and admiration. 1t is a lesson which
impresses itself indelibly on our
hearts. From another point of view,
however, nothing is more natural
than that he, like a good husband
man, should pay US visit now, to see
how the crops have prOspered, the
seeds of which he helped to plant so
has accomplished both materially and
intellectually in SO short time, she
owes to the generous services of those
friends of hers of whom he is a distin-
guished representative. When, how
ever, her great aspirations and the
part she is destined to play in the flu
ture history of the Orient are consid-
cred she has achieved but little. The
harvest is not yet at hand. 1t is for
us, actors on the present stage, to fol-
low his admirable example of untir-
cause, and to consecrate ourselves to
the one great object of making Japan
q truly enlightened nation.
''Nor must L omit to mention his
generous efforts and powerful inf1u-
ence to awaken the conscience of the
American people to a deep sense of the
international justice with reference
to the ShimonOseki indemnity. With
the people in general of the United
Iu0 ludl vi Iuc Jill was
made matter Of conscieDce-an act
which has enhanced their character
in the eyes of this people, as nation
pre- eminently distinguished for JUS
tice.
"With him, however, his untiripg
efforts through ten long years were
actIated by sincere desire to help on
a newly awakened nation struggling
under the weight of burdens conse-
quent upon the sudden adoption of
advanced ideas in almost every sphere
name will be forever associated in the
grateful remembrance of this people
with whatever is of the best in the
character of his countrymen.
In bis reply DR.. Northrup drew
striking comparisons between the
attitude Of China and japan toward
the education of the young men of
the country.
"The world over this is an age of
transition, most hopeful to the phi
lanthropist. / can now name but two |
causes tending to this result; one is |
the great acceleration in the working |
of material, intellectual and religious !
fofces, so that in decade-sometimes |
in a single year-are accomplished |
broader results than formerly in a |
century. Another cause is the grow |
ing assimilation and power of public !
sentiment. Kings may reign, but far |
above all earthly potentates the prin- |
ciples of justice and right rule alike |
over kings and peoples, and are be- |
ginning to WELD a power which no |
schemes of Diplomacy and no combi- |
nations of human forces can resist, |
and which is stronger even than !
armies and navies. Russia will yet |
rue the day when, without u shadow
of Justice and in violation of interna- |
tional law, she interfered so grossly |
with the rights of Japan.
"More than in any other country |
this is an age of transition in Japan,
for this empire has jumped at one big
bound out of the fifteenth century
into the nineteenth. When the gates
of isolation were first opened, your
people learned that notification was
the watchword of Europe, as there
fifty-six petty principalities were in
process of being merged into the ten
strong centralized governments of
that continent. Hence uDificatiOn be-
what rapid succession have followed
the great events of your re-
cent history OF the Restoration,
the overthrow of the feudal
system, and the announcement of a
parliament, that voluntary,
yes, uneXampled surreu-
der of power to the people-one only
of the noble acts that have so endeared
the Emperor to this nation OF course
an elective parliament implies parties
and earnest discussion, but / am glad
to learn that never has the authority
of your Emperor been once menaced
or assaulted The Imperial throne
rests securely on the firm foundation |
of the affection and reverence of the
entire Japanese people. 1 was in
kyoto on April 9th, when the En-
peror arrived and the grand triumphal
arch near the depot, and the universal
decorations of the streets, testified to
the enthusiastic devotion of the people,