138 ; REPORT—1862. 
their porcelain, their bronzes, their silk fabrics, their lacquer, and their metallurgy 
generally, including works of art, in design and execution they not only rivalled 
the best artistic works of Europe, but could produce in each of these departments 
some of those of Europe. It was quite true that Europe might also make a similar 
boast with justice, for there was much, especially in the province of art properly 
so called, to which the Japanese could not make the slightest pretensions, They 
could not produce such works of art as might be seen in the International Exhibi- 
tion in repousse from the chisel of a Vechte and a Monti. Neither could they rival 
a Landseer or a Rosa Bonheur. Indeed, they were wholly ignorant of oil paint- 
ing, and no great adepts in water colour. In the outlines of animals, however, 
they had a most facile pencil. In enamels, in the manufacture of steel, and in silk 
fabrics, they could compete with the rest of the world, as also in their finer and 
ego-shell porcelain. The tendency of their government unfortunately, under a 
feudal rule and a feudal aristocracy, was utterly repressive of all free action or 
development of the faculties. Any evidence of individuality and originality would 
be fatal to a Japanese under the worse than Venetian rule of feudal chiefs. This 
was the one great obstacle to the development of commerce and the maintenance 
of peaceable relations; for the privileged classes, composed of some 600 daimios, and 
their feudal retainers, comprising an army of some 200,000 men, sworn and ready 
to obey all the behests of their chiefs, held the whole population in the most abso- 
lute subjection. And the hostility of these armed classes was neither to be softened 
nor conciliated. They foresaw, or thought they did, in the train of foreign trade, 
elements threatening destruction to all the institutions of the country, and fore- 
most of these the feudalism which constituted them lords of all the soil and abso- 
lute rulers, This was the more to be regretted because the Japanese as a people 
had no hostility to foreigners, and were possessed of so many excellent qualities 
and such an aptitude for a higher civilization than they had yet attained, that 
within a very few years not only might we see them make a great and exampled 
advance, but a trade developed to which it was really difficult to fix any limit. 
On the Climate of the Channel Islands*. By Professor Anstep, F.2.S. 
GUERNSEY. 
The climates of the Channel Islands are so essentially different both from those 
of the adjacent lands of France and England and also from each other, and they offer 
so many points of interest connected with the influence of the Atlantic currents 
on climate, that they deserve special attention. Its relative position marks out 
Guernsey as the typical island, and observations justify this conclusion. It is, 
therefore, fortunate that the elements of the climate of Guernsey have been better 
established than those of the other islands. Dr. Hoskins, F.R.S., is the observer 
to whose labours these valuable materials are due. The annexed Table gives these 
results to the end of 1858. Since then the weather has been exceptional. 
Compared with Greenwich, the results are very interesting. 
1. Temperatwre.—The mean annual temperature is 513°, and the annual means 
in sixteen years have at no time exceeded this by 2°, or fallen short of it by 13°. 
At Greenwich the adopted mean temperature being 49°, this shows an increment of 
23°—nearly corresponding with the difference due to latitude. But the real differ- 
ence is not this. It arises from the very much smaller range in the small island. 
Thus the mean autumn temperature is four degrees, and the winter six degrees, 
higher than at Greenwich, while the spring is only one degree warmer, and the 
summer half a degree cooler. The months show this more clearly ; for December 
and January are each seven degrees warmer, and May and June one degree cooler. 
On the whole, the spring in Guernsey is a little warmer, and the summer rather 
cooler, than at Greenwich, while the temperature of July and August continues, 
with little change, into September and October. Winter is therefore absent as a 
season, but spring is cold and late. 
The daily range of the thermometer is also very small. At Greenwich, on an 
* The account from which this memoir was prepared has since been published. It will 
tae a The Channel Islands,’ by Prof. Ansted and Dr. R. G. Latham, 1 vol. 8yo., 
ndon , : é 
