196 A DEPUTY’S NOTION OF HIS DUTY. Chap. XII. 
the subject, but this you had not the common 
courtesy to do ; and you actually came up to Yedo 
without even my knowledge. I think I have said 
enough to show you that you have acted in an 
improper manner. Whether it would be a matter 
of public regret or not your being unable to ac- 
complish your private ends, is not a question for 
me to consider. I am only performing my public 
duty when I call upon you a second time to quit 
Yedo at once. To allow you to remain would be 
to establish a dangerous precedent. 
“ I have, &c., 
“ F. G. Myburgh.” 
This communication did not take away my breath 
or my appetite for dinner, as, perhaps, it ought to 
have done. On the following morning (for I pre- 
fer to sleep upon anything disagreeable) I sent 
the following reply to the insulting letter I had 
received — a reply which I trust will show that, 
although only a “ private individual,” I was inca- 
pable of doing anything rude or uncourteous : — 
“As I am unwilling to do anything that 
may have the slightest appearance of disrespect 
to Her Majesty’s Legation in Yedo, I shall leave 
the city at once — probably this evening, or, at 
latest, to-morrow morning. I may have been 
wrong in accepting the invitation of His Excel- 
lency the American Minister without first obtain- 
ing permission from yourself (although, I believe, 
