549th OEDIXAEY GENERAL MEETIXG. 



HELD IN THE EOOMS OF THE INSTITUTE, ON MONDAY, 

 JANUARY 19th, 1914, at 4.30 p.m. 



Professoe H. Laxghorne Orchard, M.A., took the Chair. 



The Minutes of the preceding Meeting were read and confirmed, and 

 the election was announced of Mr. W H. Baxter and Mr. David A. F. 

 Wetherfield as Members, and of Mr. John Sterry and the Rev. James 

 Gossett-Tanner as Associates. 



JAPAN, AND SOME OF ITS PROBLEMS, RELIGIOUS 

 AND SOCIAL. By the Rev. Prebendary H. E. Fox, 

 M.A. 



ANY attempt to construct a theory of racial evolution from 

 apparent resemblances between the inhabitants of the 

 British and Japanese Islands, arising from similar conditions, 

 would at once be defeated by the evidences of larger and more 

 numerous contrasts. Each nation represents a mixture of several 

 races, each is protected by sea girdling barriers, each has long 

 had a high civilization, each has maintained a strong patriotic 

 spirit, and for many generations no hostile force has been 

 allowed to set foot on the shores of either. But in religion and 

 in art, and, till quite lately, in intellectual and scientific develop- 

 ment, Great Britain and Japan lie far apart. Englishmen, 

 though they have been leaders in world enterprise, and the dis- 

 covery of new lands, are by nature cautious and not easily 

 moved. The Japanese is emotional, and recently has shown 

 himself quick to learn, and ready to absorb and assimilate 

 everything that is new. Yet while Britain was sending her 

 navies into every sea, and her travellers and traders into every 

 land, and planting her flag in all parts of the world, Japan had 

 shut herself up, and held no intercourse, except in some rare 



