96 SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY NOTES. 
or the establishment of commercial relations with them, exists throughout a large 
important class in Japan. 
At present, this party is in the minority, but whether it will remain so or not, must 
depend upon the skill and tact with which our political relations are conducted, and 
upon the impression which the foreign mercantile community will create upon the 
people generally. Of a haughty and independent spirit, the Japanese are 
also suspicious and vindictive, and it is possible that, unacustomed to contact with 
Europeans, they may grow restive under the annoyances and evils which follow in 
the wake of civilization, and manifest a temper calculated to irritate the nation 
with which they have so recently entered into a friendly compact. It will be at 
this juncture that we shall be called upon to exercise that forbearance and moder- 
ation which it is ever becoming in the strong to display towards the weak 
It would be well to remember that while we have achieved a great result in 
thus opening to the world this prosperous and happy community, we have also 
incurred serious obligations towards them, and are bound not to take advantage 
of their ignorance and inexperience in their dealings with western nations. We 
can only hope to commend our civilization to them by maintaining a high moral 
standard, both in our commercial and political intercourse. They are sufficiently 
enlightened to appreciate a policy influenced by higher considerations than those 
involved in the accumulation of wealth. Unless we follow such a policy, it 
is not too much to predict that we shall lose alike their confidence and respect, 
and involve ourselves in complications disastrous to our commerce, and discredit- 
able to our national character. Of all the nations of the east, the Japanese are 
the most susceptible to civilizing influences, and I quote the words of an eminent 
Chinese and Japanese scholar in saying that, in one respect, they are far in ad- 
vance of their ancient, neighbours the Chinese, in that their attention is directed 
to obtain a knowledge of other nations. Their own efforts in this way will form 
their greatest security. Their soldiers once formed the bodyguard of the King 
of Siam, their Consuls once examined Spanish ships in Acapulco, their sailors 
once took a Dutch Governor out of his house in Formosa, and carried him prisoner 
to their rulers, their princes once sent an embassy to the Pope, their Emperor once 
defied the vengeance of Portugal, by executing her Ambassadors. The know- 
ledge of these historical events remains among them. We may reasonably hope 
for a great preponderance of good results from an extension of an intercourse 
which has recommenced peacefully. Let us indulge in the expectation that the 
land of the rising sun may not only soon be fitted to take her place among 
nations, but also among Christian nations, with all the institutions, and liberty, and 
purity, of the best of these. 
ERRATUM. 
Vol. IV., page 442, line 10, for “ procis,” read “ proboscis.” 
