Chap. XVII. FOREIGN TRADERS AND OFFICIALS. 295 
remembers the wrath of Rob Roy when Bailie 
Nicol Jarvie good-naturedly proposes to take bis 
sons “ for prentices at the loom, as I began mysel, 
and my father the deacon before me.” “ 4 Ceade 
mittia diaoul 1 hundred thousand devils ! ’ ex- 
claimed Rob, rising and striding through the hut. 
‘ My sons weavers ! Millia moUigheart l but I 
wad see every loom in Glasgow — beam, treddles, 
and shuttles — burnt in hell-fire sooner ! ’ ” The 
Japanese of the present day resemble, in many 
ways, the Scottish Highlanders in the days before 
the famous ’45. 
It is to be feared that foreign officials, desirous 
of not being confounded with the inferior orders of 
their countrymen, do not contribute in any way to 
lessen this feeling, but, on the contrary, oftentimes 
give it a kind of official sanction. This is unfor- 
tunate, but I fear it is too true. It will scarcely 
be credited in a country like England, where our 
merchants and sons of merchants occupy some of 
the highest positions in the kingdom, and where 
any one who took it into his head to act in 
such a manner would only be laughed at for his 
pains. But things are done in a different way in 
Japan. 
With all our care in opening up this trade, it is 
much to be feared that a time may come, and that 
it is not very distant, when Japan will have to 
pay dearly for her former exclusive policy. As a 
nation we have an abhorrence of war and all its 
attendant horrors, but somehow or other — owing, 
