251 
Chap. XV. OPINIONS OF JAPANESE MINISTERS. 
private translations lie takes it for granted that, if 
he can massacre the officers of the British Legation, 
“ all foreigners will abandon Japan , or, the land 
of the gods,” and so procure him the favour of 
millions of his countrymen. 
This paper appears to have been considered a 
genuine document by the Japanese authorities, 
and not, as some supposed, put into the man’s 
pocket as a blind to mislead investigation as to 
the instigators of the deed. In one of their letters 
to Mr. Alcock they say— “ Although your Excel- 
lency suggested that the attack was not made 
spontaneously on the part of the assailants, but 
that there was a secret director of it; yet, as we 
have always communicated to you, it was known 
that, in the early period of the opening of the 
ports, there were, among the persons of rank, 
some who disapproved of the conclusion of the 
treaties with foreign powers.” Then they go on 
to state that, owing to the arrangements made 
from time to time by the Government, this preju- 
dice amongst the higher ranks has entirely disap- 
peared— an assertion which, I fear, is not “ founded 
on fact”— and that “the occurrence is only ascrib- 
able to the acts of persons of low standing, who, 
from obstinate adhesion to the old custom of 
excluding foreign powers, persist in their feelings 
of partiality. The alteration in their nature will 
therefore be difficult, without allowing a long 
lapse of months and years.” The Japanese 
Ministers remind Mr. Alcock that they had pro- 
