of Japan, in the idea of fixed immemorial usage. Conservatism need not look further for its paradise than Japan. Progress has no name in that language. The manifest destiny" principle, probably was never heard of there. The Emperor has never yet been persuaded to accept a labor-saving machine. An oil-mill was once shown him. He said it was very ingenious, but it would injure manual labor, and disturb the Empire. We shall see what the American expedition will effect. It has carried out a steam engine, a locomotive, with a few miles of railroad, and a magnetic telegraph. It has, likewise, taken specimens of our manufactures. Cotton and woollen goods, from the mills of America, are on their way to Japan. Perhaps the Yankees will introduce a new idea, and ingraft a new word on the vocabulary of a Japanese dictionary. And perhaps not. For we are assured, that it would be woe to the Japanese who even proposes such an enormity. He must disembowel himself if he does, and die the death. Anterior to the year of our Lord 1615, the Japanese drove a brisk commerce with China and the Islands, and with Asia. Japanese soldiers served as soldiers of fortune in foreign countries.

But now, the stern of a Japanese junk is open to the waves, and the prow, likewise, in some instances is open. This is an order of Government, to prevent, it is said, the possibility of long voyages. The extent of the foreign commerce of Japan is the Loo-Choo islands: no Japanese going further than these islands is permitted to return, no, though he were driven by stress of weather. Let us inquire into the origin and cause of the present seclusion of this singular country, and learn why the Japan Government is so hostile and inveterate against foreign influence.

When Japan was first discovered (as some say, by the old Venetian, Marco Polo; others say by a Portuguese bound for Macao in 1542), the inhabitants were hospitable and friendly. In 1549, a Japanese fled to Goa, a Portuguese settlement on the coast of Malabar. He was there converted to the Roman Catholic faith, and sent back to his native country with goods and merchandise. The celebrated Francis Xavier (joint founder of the order of Jesuits, with Ignatius Loyola) went to Japan in the same vessel. The voyage was 1300 leagues from Goa. In vain were all the dissuasions of the friends of Xavier. He nobly said, that, where merchants ventured life for perishable riches, he might go to gain immortal souls. Xavier found the religion of the Japanese to be the Sintoo, Buddhist, and Suto supersti

tions, more or less mixed; supported by large detachments of heathen priests. Toleration, however, was conceded in the widest liberality to all. Xavier was received most kindly. The people were intelligent, courteous and grateful. The art of printing (on blocks of wood) had furnished books for ages in Japan. The people were educated in free schools, nobility and commons together, until the time came for the boys to separate for their distinct professional studies. Colleges was flourishing at Miaco, Jeddo, and other parts of the Empire. Mathematics was studied; astronomy was understood. There were almanacs in which eclipses were duly calculated, barometers, thermometers, the mariner's compass; in short, a high degree of intelligence and refinement, in science, the arts, in literature and in manners. Xavier quitted Japan after a residence of three years, and sailed for China, where he died, in the Canton River, A. D. 1551. He made many converts and established several churches. In a letter, he speaks of the Japanese thus: "I know not when to have done when I speak of the Japanese. They are truly the delight of my heart." In 1566, the Portuguese advised the opening of the excellent harbor of Nangasaki, and trade flourished. The successor of Xavier baptized thirty thousand Japanese and founded fifty churches. And in 1591-92, the missionaries baptized twelve thousand converts. This large accession to the Roman Catholic faith, excited the jealousy of the heathen priests. This was the first symptom of uneasiness. The priests besought the Emperor to banish the Christians. To whom the Emperor replied: "How many sects are there in Japan?" They rejoined, Thirty-five. "Then," said he, "one more will do no harm."

This

Affairs remained in this posture with foreigners until 1597. In the year 1600, William Adams, an Englishman (a memorable name in the Japanese annals), arrived in a Dutch ship as pilot. was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the English and Dutch were beginning their enterprises after the commerce of India. The Portuguese vilified Adams and the Dutch to the Emperor, as Protestant heretics, infidels, pirates, and many other hard names. They advised that they be crucified forthwith. But the good Emperor, Minna Motono, was more merciful. He commanded Adams to be brought before him, and sent his own galley to fetch him. Adams became a favorite; lived at court; made the king two ships; advised him prudently; and in four or five years, became influential as the Grand

marbles; agates and cornelians, are plentiful. Silver mines are rich in ore. Copper, lead, quicksilver, and tin, of remarkable quality, are among the mineral productions. Their steel is so fine, that the temper and keenness of their cattans rival the famous Damascus blades. Besides these gifts of Providence, are many beautiful manufactures, celebrated throughout the world. All articles of Japanese workmanship, are covered with the famous varnish procured from the "URUSI" or varnish tree, which yields a rich, milky glutinous juice. Other trees, as camphor, bamboo, mulberry, are indigenous. Flowers are beautiful, and universally cultivated. The cherry is grown for its blossom, which is exquisite. The Camellia Japonica is familiar to all who cherish exotics among us.

But doubtless it was not so much the productions of Japan as the vast market of twenty-five millions of people, for the sale and consumption of woollen and cotton goods, and other commodities of Europe, that the Dutch coveted. For the monopoly of this trade, they have submitted to insult, and dishonored the Christian

name.

But a new era has dawned on the world, and the youngest of the nations of the earth is sent on a mission to Japan, to bring that self-banished Empire into the fellowship of sister kingdoms. In this age of steam power, commerce will be driven by a motive which the ancients never knew; the very source of which lies buried in the coal mines of Japan. From America to England, thence through the Mediterranean; across the desert; down the Red Sea, to the Indian ocean, the chain is now completing, which shall encompass the round world. Westward the chain is forging that connects the Atlantic with the Pacific ocean, across the Isthmus of Panama. There is but one single link wanting to complete the circuit between California and Japan. When this last link shall be supplied, the power of steam will move the traveller from ocean to

ocean, and from land to land; creating intercourse between nations that differ in government, religion, customs and modes of thought; causing trade in the exchange of manufactures and productions of the soil; producing a feeling of fellowship among mankind; and opening a highway for the chariot of the Lord Jesus Christ to pass through all the nations of the earth; diffusing the knowledge of the pure gospel for the civilization, the happiness, the salvation of the poor heathen.

We cannot doubt, for a moment, that such is the mission of the American expedition to Japan. God has not wrought

the wonders of our age and generation, that they be foiled in their grandest end, and be brought to nought by the haughtiness and conceit of a secluded potentate. The Joshua for this duty of conquering the tribes of the East for Emanuel, is plainly pointed out in that country whose shores are washed by the two great oceans. It is pointed out in that banner of freedom on which the eagle spreads his wings; on which confederation and union is inscribed; whose stars and stripes, as the symbols of hope and of protection to the friendless, panting for liberty and guardianship, float over the heads of all men who flee, from want or from tyranny, beneath its ample folds. But not by war; not by conquest; not by blood is the victory to be gained. The expedition to Japan is peaceful. It carries the olive branch on the prow of its men-of-war. The arrogant sea-king must be shown both the emblem of peace and the cannon's mouth. As our friend Mr. Punch has said, "The ports must be opened in Japan, even if the Americans have to open their ports." At any rate, all past experience shows that the Japanese Court will not feel the arguments of humanity unless stirred up by the wholesome spur of arguments, plunged into them from the heel of dreaded war. To prove this assertion, it is necessary to review only the attempts of our own government with Japan.

In 1837 the American ship Morrison arrived at Japan from Macao, having

on

board Japanese sailors who had drifted in a storm, and had been cast away near the mouth of the Columbia River, in Oregon, and had been taken thence to Macao. The Morrison had taken out her armament to indicate her peaceful and benevolent mission. But all this was of no avail. The Japanese dragged their cannon (which are said to be very good) and placed them in battery on the shores; the striped calico or canvas was stretched in front in token of war (which the sailors call "putting the battery in petticoats"), and the Morrison was fired at and driven off the Japanese coast. This happened in the bay of Jeddo. The edict of 1637 was put in force, which runs thus: "All Japanese who return from abroad shall be put to death." That protection which every government owes to its faithful subjects was refused by Japan to its own. Calamity was accounted crime; and the kindness of benevolent Christians was punished as conspiracy! In 1845 three Japanese were carried to Ningpo, in China, by the United States frigate St. Louis. These men had been blown across the ocean five

thousand miles, all the way to Mexico. The poor fellows dared not go home to their wives and children for fear of the inhuman edict of 1637! In 1846 the government of the United States sent the Columbus, of ninety guns, and the sloop-of-war Vincennes, to attempt to open navigation and to secure protection to our merchantmen and whalers. The ships were immediately surrounded by a triple cordon of guard-boats; no one went on board; water and food could not be bought. And after waiting a tedious interval the reply was brought from Jeddo, "No trade can be allowed with foreign nations except Holland!"

In 1849 American seamen were wrecked on the stormy coast of Japan, from the American whaler Lagoda. The United

States ship Preble was dispatched for their rescue. After many pretexts and delays, the American Captain (Geisenger) limited a day when the seamen must be brought on board. The Japanese authorities understood the threat, and the shipwrecked mariners were promptly restored to their country's flag. McFarlane states that since 1849, it is reported that some other American whalers have been wrecked on that coast, and are confined in bamboo cages, suffering captivity like the Russian captain of the imperial navy, Golownin, a few years ago. Some English and American sailors have been put to death for simply landing on the coast. It is but just to say, that those sailors are accused of crime. We know that lawless men may violate the laws and deserve a doom. But while humanity has a tear to shed, or a voice to articulate, or an arm to wield, she will protest against a nation claiming neutrality for her harbors, and yet refusing all intercourse with other nations; cutting herself off from the charities of national fellowship, and yet insisting on rights founded in the laws of nations; shutting her ports against shipwrecked sailors, whether her own people or foreigners; refusing ships supplies, for money, after long voyages of danger and privation; and driving from her shores, with gunpowder and ball, the weary navigators of God's seas who would seek repose and shelter from the storms and waves. Japan demands distinguished consideration and civilized dealing from the nations whom, by her barbarity, she insults! This dog in the manger" policy, which Japan practises, the world will not now submit to. Japan lies on the high road of nations. She must not make herself a barrier there. She must sell her coal; she must evince towards us, at least, the old Suto morality of Confucius, and live virtuously: do right: be

civil: be prudent: preserve a good conscience. And may we practise the same, and better virtues, under the benign Christian maxim that comprehends all virtues, "Do you as you would be done by."

The fleet, under Commodore Perry, consists of nine ships, of which seven are ships and steamers of war, from the largest size to a sloop. The excellent letter of the President of the United States has won the admiration of Europe. The expedition is commended by Europeans as worthy of the American name.

Lon

From California to China is become a voyage of twenty days. Commerce which forsook the Mediterranean on the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, is preparing to desert the stormy Cape for a better route to India. Fleets will soon steam through the Pacific ocean. And as Venice and Alexandria decayed after the Indian commerce left their ports, so must St. Helena and Madagascar cease to be of value; Cape Town will not be worth an occupying, much less a Kaffir war. The Marquesas Islands will be reckoned among the most important maritime ports in the world. The Sandwich Islands and the Society Islands will enhance in their value to all nations. don and Liverpool, Brest and Havre, must yield the prize of Indian trade to New Orleans and New-York. India is now opened to American enterprise, to American commerce, to American religion. God grant that our country may not fail to make good use of her high endownments, and scatter blessings, broadcast, on the earth. We doubt not such beneficent. issues will come to pass. And as classic story has immortalized the fable of the expedition of Jason and his Argonautæ, in search of the Golden Fleece, so shall there be Christian poets and historians, more eloquent than Homer and Hesiod, to sing of the exploits and to narrate the achievements of Protestant missionaries, and godly seamen, seeking the worthier object of saving the dying souls of living men; winning, for themselves and them, a nobler, a truer immortality, in the approving smile of God and the perpetual blessedness of heaven.

The coarse senses of the unbelieving citizen may see, in the march of our American republic, only the fortuitous course of Empire. But the spiritual senses of the Christian believer, perceives the presiding presence of Him who "is the Head over all things to the church;" whose wisdom designed that the "gospel shall be preached as a witness unto all nations;" whose Word both prophesies and proclaims His will; and whose power procures the

fulfilment of His wise, His gracious purposes.

Commerce and Christianity may, by man's avarice and sin, be separated, and unnaturally opposed to one another. Those things that God has joined together in holy matrimony, man, wickedly, can put asunder. That divorce has been decreed for more than two centuries in Japan. That divorce has been countenanced and encouraged by other nations since early times. Commerce has not gone forth in alliance with religion. Religion has been left behind to journey alone from her birth-place in Bethlehem of Judea; not as a conqueror, but as a pilgrim ; not with a paid army of retainers, but with a few loving followers; not in pomp and pride, but in lowliness and humility. The cross was laid upon her by the Divine hand, first at Jerusalem, and afterwards every where. Nevertheless. she has borne the cross, lovingly and willingly, and she has conquered by bearing it. She endured it in Asia Minor in her infancy. And thence travelling westward into Africa and into Europe, she has knocked at the heart's door of peasants and of fishermen ; of merchants and of scholars; of nobles and of kings; of low and high; of rich and poor; and has summoned Cæsar's household" to open unto her the imperial gates. They who have entertained her as a guest, "have entertained angels unawares." They who have admitted her into their bosoms have felt her as "a LIFE."

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She has gone, untiring, with the sun westward; lighting up the dreary and dark souls of barbarous heathen; warming them with a diviner sunshine that was spreading over luxuriant nature, and causing to spring forth, and bud, and bear, seeds of better fruit than ever earth had

and found in this, our land, a home. And now, unwearied, she is travelling after the pioneers of civilization, and voyaging in the wake of ships; sanctifying commercial intercourse and claiming commerce as her partner. She has taken refuge under the flag of these United States to pass over the Pacific to the East again, persevering in her circuit round the world, until she shall reach her birth-place in Asia, and shall welcome back her Lord from heaven at his second coming, "conquering and to conquer." The one vast Empire of Japan, wherein the Protestant English in Queen Elizabeth's reign, two centuries ago, had gained a foothold, Englishmen deserted; and have endeavored since, repeatedly, in vain, to occupy and recover.

Who can tell whether (had England been patient and faithful to herself and God) there might not now have been Christianity in Japan, shining with a pure flame out of a holy lamp: not emitting smoke from the foul oil of Romish superstition; not clouding the souls of men with dogmas as corrupting as the Buddhist and Sintoo doctrines; but irradiating the Eastern Archipelago with the sanctified light of the pure Gospel from a Protestant Japanese church of Christ!

But religion was banished from that Empire. Yet let man do what he will to defeat or to retard the pilgrimage of primitive Christianity, he cannot vanquish the will of God. God makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain. The witness of the church shall resound throughout the nations of the earth; "then cometh the end." The earth shall be girt about with prayer. From the earth, praises to God and to his Christ shall ascend on high in every tongue. Man's heart shall beat against the heart of his brother man, in the sympathy of mutual love; in the communion of a common worship; in all the fellowship of Christianized nations, embraced in the ample and expanding charity of the one Catholic Church of Jesus Christ.

For it is written and it shall come to pass, "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, MY NAME shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto MY NAME, and a pure offering; for my NAME shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD OF HOSTS."