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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    OUR TllOUBLES IN JAPAN.

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    Untitled Article

    PHILANTHROPISTS sigh in vain for the advent of the time -IT when civilized and Christian nations can manage to come into contact with untutored tribes , or the possessors of different and older forms of political and social existence , without either immediately quarrelling- or laying the foundation-for sanguinary . and aggressive wars . Whenever the news arrives that an untried country is opened to British enterprise , enthusiastic religionists talk of the mission of England to spread the gospel of the Prince of Peace * while at the very moment , mercantile cupidity and the proverbial rapacity of officials are preparing- to propel O ! n" principles with gunpowder and insinuate our faith through the agency of sharpened steel . In old lloman days ambitious generals , or emperors , with

    nothing else to do carried their victorious legions from land to . land ; They professed the business of conquest , and , making allowance for the barbarity of their generation , they managed it well . Their method had at least the inerit of being consistent ; and intelligible . They came with ho hypocritical , pretences or bewildering announcements . They demanded sovereignty , and tribute , and they stole them if their claims were denied . Our way is different , ; and scarcely more commendable . We profess' the u tmost friendship for the objects of our solicitude , and employ somebody who does not ejearly laiow what be is about to negotiate a treaty which the principal parties do not understand . We tell them that our religion and Our calico are much better than theirs r animated by the first , we recognise them as brothers , and love them as ourselves ; accompanied by thesecond ,

    we offer clothing to all the naked who are able and willing to give something more-valuable in return . Xf our new acquaintances could at once give up ¦ ' their , habits , customs , and traditions , and instantly desire to combine missionaries uiid bishops with consuls and factories , "after the British model , all might y go well , but it is not in human nature to iiiake . such abrupt . transitions , and the aristocracy or . ruling powers with whom we have to deal are apt to doubt our motives and despise our ways . Our ' ¦ * free-born Britons " treat their arrangements with disrespect , and neither a chaffering dealer nor an inebriated tar impresses them with a conviction of the superiority of our race . After a little while , some provisions of the treaty are infringed , or somebody gets hustled or pelted in the street . Then our plenipotentiary goes to work . He has acquired

    no intimacy or friendship with the functionaries with whom he has to deal , and can only speak to them through the medium of an interpreter , who is very likely ignorant of the precise meaning of the words either party employs , and after a sufficient quantity of palaver , despatch writing , aiid delay , the quarrel grows as ripe as a pear , and we iighti professing a horror of territorial aggrandizement , and a desire not to overthrow the . government or institutions of the land . The " Correspondence with Heb Majesty ' s Envoy Extraordinary and "Minister / Plenipotentiary in Japan , " recently laid before Parliament , enables us to see the incipient process of this oft-X'epeated game . The first idea of any rational being desiring to open a friendly intercourse with an almost unknown people , would be to learn to talk to them in their own tongue ; and it would not be expecting anything unreasonable if Hup Majest y ' s Groyernment , before acorediting an " Envoy Extraordinary and a Minister plenipotentiary , " should be required to provide a gentleman who could hold a

    conversation with the persons ho was to convince . This would be the way to do it ; but British' statesmen are too Ayell trained in the opposite art , and it might damage the constitution" of a country which boasts of hereditary legislators , and has to provide for their relations and clients , if the principle of securing appropriate aptitude before making appointments , were earned into ottect . Iii the Japan case , our" Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary " is Mr . liuTHEKii-ORP Aix-ook , a gentlomun who , we daro sny , possesses many excellent qualities , and who has shown his good sense in declaring that it nuiat bo laborious and up-hill work to make progress with , a people whom youaro not able to talk- with . "So long as this exists thoro can be nothing very satisfactory oithex ^ in our intercourse or in our relations . It is bad enoug h in discussing a wide range of subjects involving all the technicalities of trade and the provisions of treaties , thut , whatever is said by ouch ot the principals must go-through the process in another tongue . But

    hero the Jast recipient of any ideas sought to be conveyed by us to a Japanese authority offers not the slightest guarantee Jtor / Idelity in rendering even ns much as ho understands of such now mattova , » md that , I believe , is often , very little . " Mr . Aujocjc is not to blaino for this absurd bog-inning j it was the Howe Govorument , which provided a talking apparatus that conUl not talk , and our Mnvoy has a shrewd guoBS that ,. if he learns that art aftei' the fashion or Japan , he shall be sent somewhere else whore it will 1 ) 0 of no uvail . He say $ , " I am so penetrated with this conviction , that no good is to bo done hero until we can ourselves eneak to the authorities , and in their own tongue , thut I ' shall not hesitate to devote ovovy spare hour to the acquisition of their hwp ; qngo . It is quite posaiblo I may not remain long 1 onouerh to turn it much to acoount , but at

    least it will bo a satisfaction to myself , nnd , I trust , may sewo an an encouragement to others who are younger , and have more to look forward to in the scwyico of their country . "

    Untitled Article

    Mameluke , and the f / euclurinerie , oti account of their late . ¦ heroism in the Corso , will have a garland of laurel worked round their left arms ' . . . Of course some snarling-, bitter-tongued Protestants will say that .-the Vove's enthronement in Jerusalem is a fulfilment of Daxijel's prophecy about the " abomination-. of desolations ; ' ' and our Holy well-street Jews will declare that the return of their discounting nation is put off for another score of centuries : but true religion must expect to be railed at . Xor will the Cliurcli in its new seat be divested of its imposing and profitable ceremonies . In the blazing Eastern sun jewelled cope and golden crozier and starry mitre will shine brighter than they ever did in the cold deadly air of the Ti-ainontaim and the steaming balefulness of the Pontiue malaria . Home has been too much lived in ; all the oxygen lias gone from its air—nil the living essences from its sepulchral earth—its soil is a solid paste ; made up of dead Popes and their victims , martyrs and their murderers , relics , " unpleasant bodies "—llomnu emperors and / middle-age bravbes . -.. The last long fallow after its early crops is agaiii lit for the plough , and future harvests lie liid under the bears' ieefc on the little hill of .-Hermb-n , on Sinai , and on Gilboa . The very ' saints' bodies that will be discovered by the ecclesiastical antiquarians will alone turn Palestine . into- a 13 endigo diggings . There- is Moses to look for , mid he can be found " ever so many times , " with considerable . pecuniary advantage to the Papal treasury . As for the Girandole , tliere is no reason tlmt fire-works should not go off as well froua tlie Mosque of Omar as from the Castle of Si . Angelo ( that great stone cheese—rtliat mill-stone round the iieck of Borne ) , and then what an admii-ablc sight ' . might be made by the Pope ouce a year drawing a net of purple silk or gold wire through -the Sea of Galilee , iu veniembraiace of St . Peter and liis early ¦ . avocation ! . . Then again , the scape-goat—there ' s an opportunity ; make it a bull , or even a mule , in allusion to Protestantism ; and what a pretty penny might : be turned by fixing the true sites of miraculous events . These are low grounds , but we select them because , as one of the Fathers says , there . " be people so niggard and naiToWn-itted tliat , ' had they been Lot when his wife turned into a . pillar ' of salt , they had iiathelesse gone back and filled the family salt-box from the saline columna . " For hermits there would be a noble field of enterprise in the desert ; indeed , even martyrs and . confessors , some are of opinion , would find occupation in that unexplored section of the new Papal dominions . It will be the special -object of the Holy Father to obtain Peter ' s' pence from these marauders , to be paid in dates and ostrich-feathers ; and , as soon as possible , that extensive Bedouin country is to be turned into a see for anew bishop not yet . named , though very strongly hinted at . Need we say rumour points to Cardinal W . * * . * * '¦* ' * ' ? With a palace on tlie shores of tlie Lake of Tiberias , and a winter palace near the Via JDolorosa , we see no reason the Pope should not . be soon quite at honie in liis new dominion—with the ' Dead Sea so convenient for bathing , nnd Jericho , witli its plain so admirable i'or liorsc-exercise . The missionary enterprises among the hitherto rather neglected Arabs will agreeably occupy , without straining-, the wind of his Holiness , while lie devotes his moments of solitude to his favourite project for annexing Africa , and settling a Itegent Archbishop at Timbuctoo or Soudan . If all goes well , we see n new career of usefulness open to this ill-xised but excellent man . "We hardly know whether wo can credit a report that tho Holy Father is thinking of'bringing out a popular series of 1 ' apnl Bulls in penn , y numbers for general circulation . This , indeed , shows a detcmiination to meet the wants of tho ngo ; proves what so many people have denied , that Popery is the friend of civilization autl enlightenjnent . The Turks once out of Jerusalem— tho indecent conflicts between tho ( ireeks nnd Latins at Easter put u stop to—the wholo of Palestine mapped out into a now ecclesiastical hierarchical system , wo may expect some good indeed to the world . It will bo n glorious sight to sep tho Porjs , in his simple stato , priding saibly lUong the plains of Armageddon , Vpv being hauled in n . basket up to tho walls of tho rock convenes of Niar Sabn . England must bonoiit by tho inoronsed trade in scratched oystershcils lVoim Bethlehem \ and not a converted Arab will daro appear to kiss the Holy Toe , unless ho be clad in au English shirt . A country with cardinals nnd cotton must be happy . Sinco William o ' t"Tyro , tho Holy City has not smiled tilJL now , and now il is in 0 broad grin at this good news . Happy Pope . I Happy country to hnvo such a Pope ! Home , misornble , ungrntoful ilomo I repent ju suokoloth iuul . ashoa , for thy papa goes to n distant land , and tnkos with him nil tho l'elica tluifc brin ^ visitors ^ His brigands and gondnrmoa nvo ^ oing ovov tho Joftlfiii , mud rotxivn-r-rotuva to Loahober no more ,

    The bloods-red Papal sun sets in the west and dawns iu ' tlie golden east . The dead Popes remain in ]{ omc , because their removal would be expensive . The living incarnation ot Papal wisdom talks of settling at Jerusalem . Lei us breathe a hope that if he does really go to tho other side of Jordan he may not forget to go to Jericho ^— for it is Napoleon's earnrrst ivish ,.

    Untitled Article

    q . iq Tha Trader and Saturdah' Anali / st . TApril 14 , I 860 .

    Our Tlloubles In Japan.

    OUR TUOUBLES IN JAPAN .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1860, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2342/page/8/