Chap. XVII. 
BY THE MIKADO. 
293 
be. It is not pretended that the Tycoon’s Govern- 
ment is implicated in the numerous crimes which 
have marked with tracks of blood the history of our 
three years’ relations with Japan. Doubtless this 
Government deplores those crimes as sincerely as 
any one. But it is powerless to prevent them ; and 
for this plain reason — that it has not yet been 
able to abolish one of the laws of Gongen-Sama, in 
virtue of which licence is given to slay foreigners 
wherever they may be found. It is, then, useless 
for us to wait here with our lives in our hands 
while the Tycoon slowly gathers from our trade, 
and from his own enterprises, the means and the 
power to overcome these laws, and to redeem his 
promises to us. Either we must leave the country, 
or we must obtain from the only ruler who is 
supreme in it the full ratification of the rights and 
privileges we came here to enjoy. There is no 
middle course. Compromises, postponements, con- 
cessions, all half-measures, are of no avail in this 
matter. I repeat, therefore, that the alternative is 
either to have the treaties recognised by the real 
Government of the empire, or to abandon them as 
worthless, and depart from a country where we are 
unwelcome and unsafe.” 
As a place of trade, Japan, with all its advan- 
tages, has been probably overrated, particularly 
as a mart for our manufactures. There is no 
doubt, however, that it can supply us with large 
quantities of silk and tea, and thus render us 
less dependent on China for those articles which 
