and Musicians, Part I., 298. 218; Another some years later, 219; Claim of | Grove, G., Edited by, A Dictionary of Music Crutwell, C. T., A History of Roman Literature, Culross, J., D.D., "Thy First Love." Christ's DALE, R. W., Nine Lectures on Preaching, 156. Dawson, J. W., The Origin of the World accord- Dixon, R. W., History of the Church of England, W. H., Ruby Grey, 304. Drew, F., The Northern Barrier of India, 200. Duncan, F. M., M.D., Edited by, Cassell's Natu- Furnivall, F. J., Re-edited by, The History of HAMLEY, Gen., Voltaire, 138. Holland, J. G., Nicholas Maturin, 148. INDIA, The Northwest Frontier of, 200; Pre- Innes, A. T., The Church of Scotland Crisis, Laun, H. Van, History of French Literature, GALLENGA, A., Two years of the Eastern Ques- Law, Dean, Christ is All, 320. Gilbert, W., Them Boots, 146. Giles, Rev. Dr., Hebrew and Christian Records, Goldsmid, General, Edited by, Eastern Persia, Goodell, W., D.D., A Memoir of, 15. Leckey, W. E. H., A History of England, 275. L'Estrange, Rev. A. G., History of English Levi, L., Work and Play, 61. Lloyd Jones and T. Paterson, Lectures, 61. Grant, J., Cassell's History of India, Vol. II., Lynn Linton, Mrs., The World Well Lost, 303. Gray, J. H., China, 291. Green, J. H., History of the English People, Gregory, Rev. A., The Patriarch Jacob, 319. MACKAY, A. B., The Glory of the Cross as mani- Maine, E. G., Angus Gray, 307. Manning, Rev. S., and Rev. S. G. Green, D.D., Martin, T., The Life of H.R.H. the Prince Con- Mason, T. M., New Lights upon Old Lines, 156. and V., 281. Matheson, Rev. G., Growth of the Spirit of Mayor, J. E. B., Collected by, The English Mycenae, 167; The first report of Dr. Schlie- NOEL, Hon. R., The House of Ravensburg, 302. OLIPHANT, Mrs., Dante, 138. Ollier, E., Cassell's History of the United PAGE, H. A., Thoreau, 136. Palgrave, W. G., Hermann Agha, 306. Parker, J. H., The Catacombs of Rome, 131. Tombs in and near Rome, 132. Payne, E. 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O., The Cross of Christ, 318. THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW. FOR JANUARY, 1878. In spite of the many causes that may be adduced in explanation, it is still surprising that the amount of attention which Western nations have bestowed on Japan should be comparatively so small. Without doubt, since the opening of the country to foreigners events of vast importance have occupied the attention of the West in quick succession; and the minds of men in Europe and America have been too intent upon the mighty occurrences taking place around them, to devote much thought to the proceedings of a distant nation, however strange and interesting. From the year 1853 dates the beginning of modern intercourse with Japan. In that year Commodore Perry, at the head of a squadron of United States' ships, arrived in the bay of Yedo. The treaty between the government which he represented and that ostensibly in possession of the dominion of Japan was not ratified till a year afterwards. Since than a quarter of a century has not elapsed, but how great and how frequent have been the revolutions in Western history within that time! The signature of Perry's treaty is of nearly the same date as the outbreak of the Crimean War. The opening of the principal ports to foreign trade was contemporary with the Italian campaign of Napoleon III. The sending abroad of Japanese embassies to foreign courts coincided chronologically very nearly with the secession contest in America and the Austro-Prussian invasion of the Duchies.' Western diplomatists were negotiating for a recognition of their position by the Mikado, the true sovereign of Japan, and for increased facilities of intercourse with his people, when the Seven Weeks' War' wrought its immense changes in the relative positions of European states. The abolition of feudalism and the extinction of the powerful baronage, which ruled the provinces with the semi-independent rank of Daimio, followed within a few months the capitulation of Paris and the new German Empire. The direct representation abroad of the Mikado, the former claimant of mysterious sanctity and divine origin, was instituted whilst the governments of this country and of America were still discussing the Alabama question. Thus the inhabitants of those countries most interested in the progress of Japan have, since their intercourse with her first began, bad too much to think about at home to be able to spare much thought for matters of such indirect concern as the condition and history of this remarkable nation. Yet important as the great events alluded to have undoubtedly been, it is difficult to repress some feeling of surprise when we realize the fact that the unrestricted intercourse of late years has not resulted in greatly extending our knowledge of a people whose history-as far as we know itoffers so many points of interest to ourselves and of parallelism to our own. The stream of travellers which flows in annual course round the world has brought home to Europe so many indications of the romantic beauty of the country, of the serenity of the climate, of the charming manners of the people, of the treasures of native art, that the desire to know more about them all is natural and reasonable. A few writers have let us somewhat into the secret of the national history. We have heard the story of a feudal system, as elaborate and as definite | most of his successors is considerable, and as that of Western Europe, told in part by it must be admitted that the advantage men of our own race, who were eye-wit- rests with the older writer. Considering nesses of its processes and effects in our own the facilities of intercourse enjoyed by our time. Legends and Tales of old Japan' contemporaries, and the great difficulties have been presented to us in an English under which he laboured, it is somewhat dress so bright and so beautiful, that we humiliating that but so little should have may well doubt as to how much we owe to been done. But until some person possessthe genius of our countryman and how ing his qualifications shall be induced to atmuch to the native grace of the original tack the subject, it is not likely that any narrator; but of neither have we had modern author will rival Kaempfer. enough to make us cease to wish for more. Drawing-rooms and boudoirs are now adorned with lustrous lacquer-ware and gracefully painted faïence, which serve as specimens of a highly-advanced style of art flourishing beneath the rising sun. Shopwindows are crowded with the porcelain that bears the blue of Iizen and the scarlet and gold of Kaga, and shows us at once what the Japanese artists can execute in fictile material and in colour. A few scholars have unlocked for us some rare treasures of Japanese literature, and have shown us samples, only too few, of the lyric dramas and miniature odes of the classic writers. But, on the whole, our information concerning the country and the people is very deficient; and we can scarcely understand the recent extraordinary revolution, or rather series of revolutions, until we possess a more intimate knowledge of the events which since the beginning of our era make up the history of Japan. It is not to be denied that within the last few years several books about the country have appeared both in England and elsewhere. But any person who has proposed to himself the study of Japan and the Japanese, will readily bear witness to the scantiness of the literature on the subject. The English edition of Kaempfer, translated by Scheuchzer and published in 1727, still remains the most valuable of all the works in which foreigners have described Japan as it existed till within the last six or seven years. The unchanging character of Eastern civilization will account for much of the durability in accuracy and importance of the information imparted to us by the learned German doctor. But to the author's qualifications only can we attribute the value of those most interesting portions of his book which depend upon minute and careful observation, and patient habits of investigation. Kaempfer was a man of science, a scholar, and a traveller; and he brought to the consideration of his subject the love of learning, the method of study, and the breadth of view which distinguish such characters. The difference in the result of his labours and that of the sum of those of These remarks will not, it is hoped, be understood as containing any disparagement of the labours of Satow and Aston in their study of the Japanese language, nor of such interesting works as those which we owe to the pens of Dixon and Adams. More than one resident and traveller have sketched for us fascinating pictures of the life of the people and the scenery of the country, and occasional contributions to our many monthly and quarterly journals have from time to time given us a glimpse of that strangely romantic and distant world. But most of these books are of too light and thin a texture for their perusal to be regarded as more than an agreeable amusement, and we cannot often feel confident of the rigid accuracy of many of the statements which they contain. A personal acquaintance with the country, extending over many months, enables us to do justice to the generally faithful nature of the accounts which these books offer to us, whilst at the same time it has made us alive to their many deficiencies. The work of Mr. W. E. Griffis, The Mikado's Empire,' which we intend to notice in this article, proposes to do that which no one--at least since Kaempfer's day-has attempted to do in English; viz., to give the political history of Japan from the earliest ages to the present time, and a descriptive account of the people, the land, and the natural productions, besides a record of personal experiences and observations. This is certainly an ambitions programme, and it must be admitted that he has carried it out with a fair amount of success. Throughout the book we can discover no traces of anything like a scholarly knowledge of the Japanese tongue; nor-teacher of physical science though he was-much proof of high scientific attainments. But the writer is evidently a man of reading and culture, full of sympathy with his subject, and possess. ing exceptional advantages as an observer and recipient of information; and we may at once say that we hold his book to be the most important work on Japan which has appeared since Scheuchzer's translation' of Kaempfer, at least in our own language. The great political struggle in Japan |