280 JOSHUA RUTLAND, ESQ., ON 
have not been subjugated by foreigners; they may therefore 
be regarded as a people who have evolved their own civiliza- 
tion. Without the stubborn conservatism of the Chinese, 
they still display many of their ancient characteristics. In 
a report furnished by Dr. H. Maron to the Prussian Minister 
of Agriculture the following highly descriptive passage 
occurs :—“ Among the great questions which still remain in 
dispute with us, whilst in Japan they have long since been 
settled in the laboratory of an experience extending over 
thousands of years, | must mention, as the most important of 
all, that of manuring. The educated sensible farmer of the 
Old World, who has insensibly come to look upon England, 
with its meadows, its enormous fodder production, and 
immense herds of cattle (and in spite of these with the 
great consumption of guano, ground bones, and rape cake), 
as the beau ideal and the only possible type of a truly 
rational system of husbandry, would certainly think it a 
most surprising circumstance to see a country even much 
better cultivated, without meadows, without fodder produc- 
tion, and even without a single head of cattle, either for 
draught or for fattening, and without the least supply of 
guano, ground bones, saltpetre, or rape-cake. ‘his is 
Japan.” 
In its general features the history of Oceania during the 
same epoch is the reverse of Japanese history. In the Malay 
Archipelago, the most important portion of the region, 
Hindoos, Arabs and Europeans, Buddhists, Brahmins, 
Mahomedans, and Christians have alternately forced their 
arts and institutions upon the inhabitants. Though these 
compulsory changes did not extend beyond the western 
boundary of Polynesia, the destruction of the old society 
explains how that portion of Oceania became isolated. From 
the uniform social conditions of the Eastern Polynesian 
peoples it is evident that, like the Japanese, they had not 
been disturbed by foreigners during a long period previous 
to the advent of Europeans. Instead of steady progress, the 
isolation of the Polynesians owing to their surroundings was 
a cause of decay. We can therefore only obtain from them an 
imperfect knowledge of the ancient Oceanian civilization. 
Previous to these disturbances, while the continental civiliza- 
tion was developing and spreading inland, the insular 
civilization, of which the extraordinary development of navi- 
gation was the most important feature, was also progressing. 
Its diffusion through Oceania has already been noticed. 
