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marking his presence. A small company of officers and sonal attendants walk in front and round the foremost norimon, while a troop of inferior office-bearers follow,-grooms with led horses, extra norimon-bearers, baggage porters-for no officer, much less a Damio, ever leaves his house without a train of baggage, empty or full, they are essential to his dignity. Then there are umbrella-bearers the servants of servants, along the line. The cortége slowly wound its way down the hill, for the roads were wet and muddy even on this high ground, while the bearers were blinded with the drifting sleet, carefully excluded only from the norimons by closed screens. Thus suspended in a sort of cage just large enough to permit a man to sit cross-legged, the principal personage proceeded on his way to the palace. Little, it would seem, did either he or his men dream of possible danger. How should they, indeed, on such a spot, and for so exalted a personage? No augur or soothsayer gave warning to beware of the Ides of March.' And Iko-mono-no-kami, had he no secret misgiving, no presentiment of impending danger, such as men devoted to destruction are said to have had on so many occasions? He left his own gateway, having scarce 500 yards to traverse-the foremost man in the realm-surrounded by his own people, -nothing doubting, nothing fearing, yet ere his bearers set foot on that bridge, the vengeful steel will be at his throat. Death stands there across the path, a fatal mandate in his grasp; but still the procession moves on in careless ease. The edge of the moat is gained. A still larger cortége of the Prince of Kiusia, one of the royal brothers, was already on the bridge and passing through the gate on the opposite side, while coming up from the causeway at a few paces distant, was the retinue of a second of these brothers, the Prince of Owari. The Gotiro was thus between them at the foot of the bridge, in the open space formed by the making of a broad street, which debouches on the bridge. A few straggling groups, enveloped in their oilpaper cloaks alone were near, when suddenly one of these seeming idlers flung himself across the line of march immediately in front of the Regent's norimon. The officers of his household, whose place is on each side of him, rushed forward at this unprecedented interruption-a fatal move, which had evidently been anticipated, for their place was instantly filled with armed men in coats of mail, who seemed to have sprung from the earth-a compact band of some eighteen or twenty men. With flashing swords and frightful yells, blows were struck at all around, the lightest of which severed men's hands from the poles of the norimon, and cut down those who did not fly.

Deadly and brief was the struggle. The unhappy officers and attendants, thus taken by surprise, were hampered with their rain gear, and many fell before they could draw a sword to defend either themselves or their lord. A few seconds must have done the work, so more than one looker-on declared; and before any thought of rescue seemed to have come to the attendants and escorts of the two other princes, both very near, (if indeed they were total strangers to what was passing) one of the band was seen to dash along the causeway with a gory trophy in his hand. Many had fallen in the melée, on both sides. Two of the assailants who were badly wounded, finding escape impossible, it is said, stopped in their flight, and deliberately performed the Harikari, to the edification of their pursuers for it seems to be the law (so sacred is the rite or right, whichever may be the proper reading), that no one may be interrupted even for the ends of justice. These are held to be sufficiently secured by the self-immolation of the criminal, however heinous the offence, and it is a privilege to be denied to no one entitled to wear two swords. Other accounts say that their companions, as a last act of friendship, despatched them, to prevent their falling into the hands of the torturer. Eight of the assailants were unaccounted for when all was over; and the remnant of the Regent's people, released from their deadly struggle, hurried to the norimon to see how it had fared with their master in the brief interval, to find only a headless trunk. The bleeding trophy carried off had been the head of the Gotiro himself, hacked off on the spot. But strangest of all these startling incidents, it is further related that two heads were found missing, and that which was seen in the fugitive's hand was only a lure to the pursuing party,-while the true trophy had been secreted on the person of another, and was thus successfully carried off. The decoy paid the penalty of his life. After leading the chase through a first gateway down the road, and dashing past the useless guard, he was finally overtaken; the end for which he had devoted himself having, however, as we have seen, been accomplished. Whether this be merely a popular version or the simple truth, it serves to prove what is believed to be a likely course of action; and how ready desperate men are to sacrifice their lives in Japan for an object. The officer in command of the guard who had allowed his post to be forced, was ordered the next day to perform the Harikari on the spot. The rest of the story is soon told. All Yeddo was thrown into commotion. The wardgates were all closed: the whole machinery of the Government in spies, police, and soldiers was put in motion, and in a few days it was generally believed the whole of the eight missing

were arrested, and in the hands of the torturer. What revelations were wrung from them, or whether they were enabled to resist the utmost strain that could be put on quivering flesh and nerve, remains shrouded in mystery. The officers of the government intimated at the Legation that they had revealed all, confessing they were in the service of the Prince of Meto- but the popular version, as shown in an ingenious rebus, was more heroic. The Chinese characters representing the Gorogio (Council of Ministers) was circulated, omitting certain portions -which taken separately signify a mouth, and the whole was made to signify that the answers and heroism of the tortured men had closed the mouths of the Council.

Thus in open day, within sight of his own house, and close to the Tycoon's residence, the next highest personage in the realm by office was slain by a small band of determined men, retainers of a member of the reigning House, who had thus devoted themselves with a kind of chivalry, and certainly with no ordinary courage, to avenge the wrongs of their chief. The Prince himself subsequently, with such followers as he could get together, was reported to have escaped from surveillance, and, raising the standard of revolt within his own territories, which had been transferred to his son, to have seized a castle in a commanding position. This was held by one of the Tycoon's high officers, whom the Prince slew without scruple, and then bid defiance to all enemies and the ruling power. Whether this was the commencement of a civil war, or merely the outbreak of a faction feud between the chiefs of two rival houses, which would end in the destruction of one or both, seemed for some time doubtful; but the danger of any general conflict, whatever it may have been, appeared to have passed away when the latest accounts from Japan were despatched.

It is difficult to determine whether the boldness of the attack, its ruthlessness, or its prompt and sure success, under such circumstances, are most remarkable. They can hardly be regarded as common assassins, for it was an act of self-devotion on their part. They had nothing to gain, and no personal quarrel to avenge. Death on the spot, or a more tardy end, after going through the extremity of torture, was sure, and escape all but an impossibility for any. It carries the mind back to the feudal times of Europe, when the streets and thoroughfares of every capital were scenes of daily bloodshed and murder; when Guelfs and Ghibelines slew each other whenever they met, or an ambuscade could rid them of an enemy.

Certainly this picture is very unlike any we have heretofore been presented with, either by painstaking Kampfer or Thun

At

berg in past generations, or hasty visitors since. Those writers who, on the strength of a very superficial observation or a flying visit to Nagasaki, have led the credulous public in Europe and America to believe that the triumph of European civilisation in Japan is already secure, and that the Japanese Government is promoting it, are strangely deluded. As to progress and advance in the path of civilisation, the papers lately laid before Parliament, in which the British Minister passes in review the progress made in the previous six months, the first after the opening of the ports under treaties in July last, give a very different impression. It is plain the Foreign Ministers in the capital find so little disposition on the part of the ruling Powers to give a liberal interpretation to the treaties, that ever since. their arrival at Yeddo, they have been chiefly occupied in resisting and protesting against continual and systematic violations of all the more essential treaty provisions. As to the eagerness of the Japanese to learn, before schools could benefit them, there must be permission for them to attend. present every European lives in a sort of moral quarantine at the capital more especially and no Japanese above the rank of a servant or a coolie, who is not officially employed about them by the Government, may hold any communication with them. The American Minister was even told so, when expressing a desire to see some officer of rank, whom he had known when the latter had been in office before. At Kanagawa, it is related, some American missionaries having arrived with their families, and desiring to engage one or two female servants, were told without any circumlocution by the officials, that they must send to a huge brothel, erected at the neighbouring settlement of Gokuhama (expressly for foreigners), and pay an exorbitant rate, one half of which goes to the Government, it being the law of Japan that none but this class of females shall serve foreigners! This is not liberal-or very agreeableneither is it according to treaty. As to the railways and steam communication (which have been said to be contemplated), one fact is worth a page of suppositions; a very few months after the ports were opened under treaty, a liberal offer was made by the agent of a fine steamer to keep up a monthly communication between Yeddo, Nagasaki, and Shanghae, carrying freight, treasure, and despatches, if required for the Government, for the mere supply of 300 tons of Japanese coal each voyage, and it was refused, without apparently a second thought as to the advantages of such regular and rapid communication, either between their own ports or with those of China.

Our materials are far from being exhausted; but we must, however reluctantly, leave them, in order to make a few concluding observations on the general bearing of the facts and incidents already placed before our readers. It has been truly said that, as regards Japan, a great experiment is in progress, and with what result time alone perhaps can determine with any certainty; and the problem for solution is this-how far it may be possible for two different races, each at the head of their respective types of civilisation, to maintain amicable relations. In some respects the conditions under which the experiment is taking place are different from any hitherto seen in the history of the world. The two phases of civilisation-the one Oriental and the other European-now suddenly brought in contact, are different, both in kind and degree, from those seen in any previous case. In all preceding instances, when the Western and Eastern races have met, the contrasts and disparities have been greater. Japan, as has been shown, is at the present day very like what Europe was in the middle ages, when the feudal tenure and framework of society still existed; when the barons were powerful and the sovereigns often mere ciphers; when the noble and the military caste represented a nation, and comprised all which had either voice or privileges in the state. That history should present no example of harmonious fusion between two civilisations and races so diverse is not, therefore, quite conclusive, since nowhere has the Oriental or inferior civilisation been so far advanced. The levels are different, and locks are needed to facilitate traffic; but the great waterway exists, by which a free communication may be established to the advantage of both races.

Free from the conceited scorn of all things foreign, and stupid inaptitude for receiving new ideas, which mark the Chinese of every grade, the Japanese is quick to seize tangible evidence of superiority, and marvellous in his ready power of appropriating it to his own use. Many anecdotes and traits illustrating this are before us. No sooner did they anticipate being driven into relations with foreigners, than they sent to Holland for instructors and engineers, and have already so far profited that they navigate their own steamers and work the engines. Latterly they even took a bolder flight, and sent one of their little fleet of three or four steamers across to San Francisco, in company with the Poupatan,' the American frigate which conveyed the diplomatic mission from the Tycoon; and although an American officer was put on board to assist them in going, they ventured back entirely by themselves, and accomplished the passage without accident, and in an unusually short period, thirty days,