Austria has German provinces. There are also good reasons why German policy should incline to a friendly understanding with England, which, since Russia can no longer be depended upon, is the power to which France has of late been clinging. It should be the object of English statesmen, if such exist, to bring about a triple Western alliance between England, France, and Germany in view of the Eastern complications which must inevitably arise again next year.

Unhappily, at the critical moment when the ship of state needs the most skillful steering, she has no pilot upon whom any reliance can be placed. The glamour of the Berlin Congress is fading away, and the public are awaking to the painful consciousness of having celebrated a victory which may yet turn out to have been a defeat, and of having proclaimed the triumph of a statesman whose only merit lies in the fact that he has not plunged the country into so deep an abyss as his great opponent seemed to desire.

This will not prevent a reaction setting in as the clouds gather more thickly on the horizon, and the first notes of war are sounded. It will be all the more intense because it will result from keen disappointment, and a vague sense on the part of the public that they have been taken in. Already, the Liberals are giving tongue in this sense like a pack of hounds opening on a new scent. Though they have been too disunited, ever since they first hounded on Russia to make the war from which all subsequent trouble has arisen, to propose a policy or offer a solution which the country could adopt, they are united enough now in calling attention to the blunders of the Government in grappling with the dangers which they themselves created. However incapable the present cabinet may be of directing the destinies of the country, their opponents have shown themselves infinitely more ignorant of existing conditions in the East, and far more incompetent to deal with them. Nowhere is this shallow appreciation more conspicuously apparent than in the daily papers. With the exception of one evening journal, they have manifested neither independence of party considerations nor an accurate knowledge of the questions with which they have had to deal. It is only now dawning upon them, for instance, that the majority of Mohammedans in Turkey are not Turks, that the power of the Gov

ernment to execute reform is limited, and that concessions wrung from the sultan may be refused altogether by his subjects. It is now apparent that the reforms which Christian Europe proposed to force on Turkey two years ago could only be introduced after wholesale massacres, no matter whether the Porte consented to them or not; but at that time the humanitarian papers were ringing with the assurance that, if England had only put on a little more pressure at the Constantinople conference, the sultan would have given in, and the question would have been solved. They have since then applauded the Treaty of Berlin, which they are now beginning to admit has had the effect of creating new problems, instead of solving old ones; they are panic-stricken by the new phase which the question has assumed in India, and alternate between empty bluster and feeble recrimination. The public, bewildered and misled, is thoroughly disgusted alike with its politicians and their newspaper organs, and feels that the country is drifting into an unknown sea of peril, without either a pilot or a compass. The Liberal leaders, who have shown themselves ignorant, parochial, and insular, desire to draw the country into its shell, and leave India, the colonies, and foreign interests generally, to their fate, while the Government have blundered fatally in their struggles after "imperialization;" they have mixed up questions which might have been kept separated, have imported Asiatic into European politics, have assumed responsibilities which it is impossible they can ever fulfill, have acquired protectorates and territory which are burdensome and valueless, have let loose forces of religious fanaticism, and pitted races against each other which can only exhaust themselves with fire and sword; they have sanctioned a principle of spoliation of territory on religious grounds, and of internal interference in the domestic concerns of other nations which must lead to revolution wherever it is applied; and they have condemned their country to play the most prominent part in the chaos which they have thus evoked, and themselves to a policy which must inevitably lead to their downfall.

AN OLD DIPLOMATIST.

IV.

JAPAN AND THE WESTERN POWERS.

AFTER an extended sojourn as a student, in Europe and America, for nearly eight years, I lately returned home filled with wild expectations in regard to the great improvements now universally acknowledged. I am obliged to say, however, that in the habits of the people and public improvements generally there has been less progress than I expected to see. But that the country has undergone a complete revolution in sentiment, both social and political, is beyond question. In this particular I am agreeably surprised. The numerous journals which have sprung into being since 1872, and whose editorials may fairly be taken as expressing the opinions of that class of people mostly interested in the welfare of the empire, teem with intelligent discussions, both of a social and political nature.

The most prominent and noteworthy questions discussed are those bearing upon the subject of the revision of the existing treaties; and it is evident that both the Government and people are in perfect accord on this subject. It is also evident that they are now wide-awake from the seeming slumber of the years just past; and they are no longer dreaming of the blissfulness of the "Tariff Convention," nor yearning after the blessedness of "extra-territorial jurisdiction."

It was in 1853 that Commodore M. C. Perry arrived in Japanese waters, in command of the United States squadron, bearing a letter from the President of the United States to the Government of Japan.

On the 30th of March, 1854, a "treaty of peace and amity" was signed by Commodore Perry and the commissioners of the Tycoon.

A similar convention, but providing for the opening of Na

gasaki, was signed October 14, 1854, by the commissioners of the Tycoon Government and Sir James S. Knight, H. B. M. rearadmiral in the East Indies. On the 26th of February, 1855, a treaty was made with Russia; and in the spring of 1856 Holland made a somewhat more extended treaty, but no additional privileges were granted by Japan.

In June, 1857, Mr. Townsend Harris, United States consulgeneral, made another convention, more commercial in its character, but this was revoked by the treaty of 1858. This was followed on the 16th of October by the Netherlands, and a convention was made, as a supplementary treaty to the previous one. Russia also followed the same course October 24, 1857.

We now come to the more important treaty of July 29, 1858, with the United States, upon which I must dwell more than on the preceding, for this one served especially as the model of all the other treaties subsequently made, and now existing. On this account I propose to point out such of its provisions as are quite peculiar to itself, and very uncommon in the treaties between sovereign powers. It provides that—

"The President of the United States, at the request of the Japanese Government, will act as a friendly mediator in such matters of difference as may arise between the Government of Japan and any European power. The ships-of-war of the United States shall render friendly aid and assistance to such Japanese vessels as they may meet on the high-seas, so far as can be done without a breach of neutrality, and all American consuls residing at ports visited by Japanese vessels shall also give them such friendly aid as may be permitted by the laws of the respective countries in which they reside."

It is fair and proper to remark that these provisions are absent from all the other treaties, thereby showing that the United States was most forward to treat with Japan in a friendly spirit. Again:

"The place which the Americans shall occupy for their buildings, and the harbor regulations, shall be arranged by the American consul and the authorities of each place; and, if they cannot agree, the matter shall be referred to and settled by the American diplomatic agent and the Japanese Government."

VOL. CXXVII.-NO. 265.

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Here appears the first "cloven-foot," as this article strips the Japanese Government of its absolute and sovereign power to establish harbor and municipal regulations. Imagine England dictating the municipal laws or harbor regulations of an American city!

But to continue:

"Duties shall be paid to the Government of Japan on all goods landed in the country, and on all articles of Japanese production that are exported as cargo, according to the tariff hereunto appended:" also "all goods which are imported into Japan, and which have paid the duty fixed by this treaty, may be transported by the Japanese into any part of the empire, without the payment of any tax, excise, or transit duty whatever."

Here Japan is again strangled; her hands and feet are alike tied. Nor are these all the odious provisions; additional and more onerous burdens are placed upon her shoulders by the "Tariff Convention" of 1866, but these will be discussed in their proper place.

And again:

"All foreign coin shall be current in Japan, and pass for its corresponding weight of Japanese coin of the same description; and Americans and Japanese may freely use foreign or Japanese coin in making payments to each other."

Owing to the greater intrinsic value of Japanese coin, the practical effect of this clause was to deplete the country of its treasure; and while Japan was flooded with unnecessary merchandise at extravagant prices from European countries, the old coins-gold and silver-of the empire were recoined in remote capitals, and then beautified with the visages of civilized potentates. It was subsequently found, however, that this monetary arrangement was not without some alloy, and so it was practically nullified by the "Tariff Convention" of 1866.

Furthermore :

"Americans committing offenses against Japanese shall be tried in American consular courts, and when found guilty shall be punished according to American law. Japanese committing offenses against Americans shall be tried by the Japanese authorities, and punished according to Japanese law."