400 APPENDIX 



"Herewith, with these ohservations, I beg to return to you your documents, and wait upon 

 you with my desires for your happiness." 

 To this letter I returned the following reply : 



" Now it is drawing towards the third month of spring, and the landscape is assuming aspects 

 of beauty. I have received your admirable letter, and my poor mind has been not a little 

 enlarged by it. We have come together like the leaves of plants floating on the water, and on 

 me has fallen the light of your instructions. When you say that all in the world are the chil- 

 dren of heaven and earth, and that they should treat each other according to the principles of 

 propriety, complaisance, good faith, and righteousness, your words are great and correct, and 

 are sufficient to show the generous spirit of universal and equal benevolence which belongs to 

 the school of our sages. For every word in your letter I shall ever be grateful. I shall wear it 

 at my girdle, and always keep it in remembrance. 



" The present age is very different from the times of antiquity ; but who, with a conscience, 

 can altogether disregard it ? Notwithstanding my want of talent, for years I gave myself to 

 the business of the world. During the war with the English, I led a body of braves, and put 

 forth all my strength in the service of my country. Yet, afterwards, the officers of the govern- 

 ment, bent on nothing but gain, made no account of my devotion and efforts. It was this 

 neglect which set my mind on travelling abroad, and led me to my present position on board 

 this steamer. Kevolution is impending. Mere ordinary men, whose objects are power and 

 profit, get into the possession of authority, and men of spirit and generous aim are likely to be 

 pushed by them into calamity and driven to ruin. The maxim of the sage must be observed: 

 ' When the empire is well governed, you may show yourself; when it is ill-governed, live in 

 obscurity.' Yet, I have been unable to banish from my mind all interest in the condition of 

 affairs, and, therefore, drew up the two works which you have read, hoping that some man will 

 arise who, by his deeds and principles, shall promote the good of the people, and establish the 

 prosperity of the country on a permanent basis. This is what I deeply desire ; would, for the 

 good of my country, that this end were gained ! 



"As to making compositions, jingling sentences, and seeking poetic inspiration from the 

 moon and from flowers, this sort of thing I have long given up ; yet, to dissipate my melan- 

 choly and moodiness, I have made a couple of odes, to which I beg you to apply the axe of your 

 correction, and herewith I wait upon you with my desires for your happiness." 



In the first decade of the third month (March or April) the commodore had a conference on 

 shore with the Japanese commissioners, on which occasion rows of japonicas, in full flower, 

 were arranged outside the building. Lin, the chief commissioner, had several hundred bags of 

 grain, each weighing more than two hundred catties, set down close by, and, soon after, there 

 appeared eighty or ninety burly fellows, naked, excepting a cummerbund, though the weather 

 was extremely cold, and taking up the bags, one man two or three sacks at a time, they 

 removed them, in a twinkling, to the shore. These men were not of uncommon height, but very 

 stout, and immensely muscular. After they had removed the sacks of grain, they were made 

 to exhibit their strength in wrestling and fighting, in an open space in front of the reception 

 hall — the victor being rewarded with three cups of wine. 



At that time I talked with an officer of the district of Poo-ho, by the name of Hop-yuen- 

 tsaon-chwang, and asked how they proceeded in Japan in the appointment of men to official 

 situations. He told me that both in the civil and military departments, officers were appointed 

 after examination, only importance was not attached, as in China, to the making of verses; 



