limited to eleven, these being persons connected with the management of the factory. As no European servants are permitted to land at Dezima, the gentlemen of the factory are waited on after a certain fashion by Japanese attendants. But as these attendants are not allowed to sleep on the island, and must take their departure before sunset, it may be supposed that their masters often suffer much inconvenience. The bridge connecting the island with the shore is closed with a gate, guarded by soldiers, who prevent the ingress or egress of any person, except upon specified business. The restrictions extend so far as to forbid that any Japanese should be born at Dezima; neither is a native allowed to die there. It is said that the Dutch residents at Dezima are not allowed money, all transactions being managed by Japanese agents appointed for the purpose. The Japanese who visit Dezima, or who are officially attached to the factory, are bound on oath never to contract friendship with the Dutch, nor to furnish them any information about the laws, government, language, religion, or history of Japan. A large number of interpreters are appointed to transact business with foreigners. These interpreters are paid by their own government, not by the Dutch. Even the interpreters are not allowed unrestrained communication with the residents of the factory; they must be always accompanied by an officer, who acts the part of spy.. Even the Chinese factory, situated also in the vicinity of Nagasaki, is said to be watched most closely.

As the Japanese have a great contempt for trade, they despise the Dutch so much that even at the annual payment of tribute, which is presented by the president of the factory, the governor of Nagasaki does not condescend to return his salute. As the Japanese are a people ceremoniously polite in their intercourse with each other, this want of courtesy is the more remarkable. A Japanese of high rank will not condescend to hold direct communication with a Netherlander; he always has recourse to an interpreter. And even when a president of the Dutch factory, who was acquainted with the Japanese, addressed the governor of Nagasaki, the latter affected not to hear, and spoke with the interpreter. A merchant is never allowed to wear a sword, but upon special occasions the president of the factory is allowed to gird one on. The trade with Japan must be very profitable to the Dutch, when they submit to so many restrictions and humiliations.

As life at Dezima must be very dull, a Dutchman sometimes takes a stroll into the town of Nagasaki, and through the environs. To accomplish this object he must give twenty-four hours' notice of his intention, and ask the governor's permission. This is seldom refused, but the concession is accompanied with so many restrictions and expenses, that the pleasure is dearly purchased. In the first place, the excursionists must be accompanied by a certain number of interpreters and of municipal officers, besides a purveyor, to defray expenses; for the Dutchman is not allowed to disburse money himself. Each official attendant thinks himself at liberty to bring a friend, and all are attended by their servants, so that the party sometimes amounts to the number of forty. When we consider that the unfortunate European has to pay for the entertainment of all, it will be readily believed that the residents at Dezima seldom ask permission to make country excursions.

After the extirpation of Christianity, the trade with Europeans was exclusively in the hands of the Dutch. They held charters according them this privilege, and it is said that the aid they rendered the Japanese in expelling the Portuguese was one of their chief claims to favour. The Dutch, as we have seen, were cooped up at Dezima when, in the reign of Charles II., the English attempted to open a trade with Japan. The Dutch frustrated their design by telling the Japanese that the English queen was a Portuguese princess. So great was the aversion of the Japanese to the people of Portugal, that this circumstance alone was sufficient to break off all intercourse between the two nations. During the war between Holland and England, the former employed American ships in their traffic with Japan. This gave rise to an attempt on the part of the Americans to establish an intercourse on their own account with the Japanese; but the sharp-sightedness of the Dutch president frustrated the attempt, and the American was defeated. The attempt was renewed in 1807; an American ship in distress appeared off the western coast of Japan, soliciting a supply of wood and water. Both were supplied gratuitously at the solicitation of the Dutch president, who suspected that the distress was feigned, and that the real object was to try to establish commercial relations between America and Japan.

The Russians did not fail to visit Japan, but they were not more successful than others. Their first attempt was during the reign of Catherine II., when a Japanese vessel was wrecked off the coast of Siberia, and the empress ordered such of the crew as survived to be conveyed home. The captain of the vessel that brought the shipwrecked sailors back to their country made overtures to the Japanese authorities respecting commercial negotiations. Under the circumstances, having just restored some of the emperor's subjects to their native land, the Russian captain, as may be supposed, did not get a direct refusal. He was referred to the governor of Nagasaki to make his propositions, and told that Nagasaki was the only port at which foreigners were permitted to land. It was further intimated, that if any Russian ever appeared in any but the one authorized harbour, the whole crew should be made prisoners. No pretext, not even that of bringing back shipwrecked mariners, would be held a sufficient excuse for the intrusion. This was rather unsatisfactory, but the Russians were not deterred from making a further attempt to form a closer acquaintance with their neighbours.

In 1804, a Russian man-of-war entered the bay of Nagasaki, bearing an embassy to the ziogoon. Count Resanoff, the Russian ambassador, was empowered to establish friendly and commercial relations between Japan and Russia. The governor of Nagasaki was not wholly unprepared for the arrival of the ambassador, Herr Doeff, the president of the Dutch factory having apprised him of the intended visit. The Russian court had taken the precaution of communicating with the Dutch government on the subject, and had procured letters of recommendation for the ambassador to the chief of the factory at Dezima. When the Russian ship appeared in the bay, a party of Japanese functionaries went out to visit her, and take possession of the arms and ammunition until her departure. Heer Doeff accompanied the Japanese

deputation. Great difficulties arose on the subject of etiquette. The Japanese officials, regarding themselves as representatives of the ziogoon, claimed the same marks of deference as were due to him. The Russian ambassador, looking upon himself, both individually and officially, as far superior to the Japanese officers, absolutely refused to make the required submission. Count Resanoff also refused to give up his sword, it would be too degrading to appear unarmed: the ammunition he made no objection to confide to their safe keeping.

The good offices of Heer Doeff smoothed down some of the difficul ties. The Russian ship was allowed to enter the harbour. The first evening the Dutch and Russians were permitted to pass together, but Japanese jealousy denied them that gratification afterwards, it being surmised that these foreigners might league against the native authorities. This proves that the real relations between the Russians and Dutch were little understood, their interests being directly opposed. After a delay of some months, the Russian embassy failed in accomplishing its mission and was obliged to leave. Count Resanoff was exceedingly wroth, attributing his want of success to Dutch intrigues, and at the same time vowing to be revenged on the Japanese. Whatever part the Dutch might have taken in Russian affairs, it is pretty clear that the conduct of the Russians themselves was quite sufficient to secure a discomfiture. The Dutch had obtained a fixed footing at Japan by yielding, often perhaps unscrupulously, to the conditions that secured their commercial influence. The Russian ambassador was perseveringly exigeant in exacting compliance in points of etiquette. This, to a people so ceremonious as the Japanese, was particularly repulsive, and quite sufficient to involve a failure of the Russian project. Besides, it must be remembered that the Russians had a few years before possessed themselves of some of the islands of the Kurile archipelago, which had always been considered a dependency of Japan. Count Resanoff, upon his return to Kamtschatka, ordered two Russian officers, then commanding merchant vessels trading between the eastern coast of Russia in Asia and North America, to make a hostile demonstration on the Japanese territory. These orders were obeyed. The Russians landed upon Tagalien, a southern island of the Kurile group, still held by the Japanese. Here they committed great depredations, destroying several villages and carrying off many of the natives. They left on the island papers written in French and Russian, saying that they had acted in this manner to prove the power of Russia, and to show the Japanese the folly they had committed in refusing to accept the friendly propositions of Count Resanoff.

Such proceedings were not calculated to make a favourable impression on the people of Japan, and when in a few years after Captain Golowin appeared in the Japanese seas, whither he was sent to make observations, he, with his officers and crew, was seized. It must be confessed that the conduct of Golowin, as well as that of Count Resanoff, was calculated to provoke the Japanese. In the cruelties experienced by Golowin and his crew during their captivity, we behold the practices of a semi-barbarous people, who inflict severe torment, which they would uncomplainingly bear. On the other hand, the kindness manifested to the prisoners is evidence of the naturally good disposi

tion of the Japanese. The Russians were tightly bound with cords, rendering them so helpless that they could not feed themselves. This office was performed with much care by their guards, who never complained of discharging their duty however onerous. The Russians complained that the cords cut into their flesh; the wounds so caused were dressed every night, but no relaxation afforded, the guards assuring the prisoners that they were not more tightly bound than Japanese of their rank would be. In the long journeys that these prisoners were obliged to make, the guards, with unchanging patience and good temper, were always willing to carry them when they complained of fatigue, and never refused to stop at the villages through which they passed, where the kind-hearted inhabitants were always anxious to offer the best their houses afforded to the Russians. And it was quite touching to see the tenderness with which they fed these poor bondsmen, who were unable to help themselves. Golowin was two years a captive in Japan, and when an arrangement was made between the two governments and he was allowed to take his departure, a written document was delivered to him, warning the Russians against any further attempt at opening a trade with Japan.

The English had already made some unsuccessful efforts to form commercial communications with Japan, but in the year 1811, having made themselves masters of Java, the governor capitulated for that island and all its dependencies. The factory at Dezima was clearly comprised in this latter condition. Sir Stamford Raffles determined to effect the transfer as quietly as possible, not wishing to enter into many explanations with a people so jealous as the Japanese. He accordingly sent two Dutch ships at the usual season, having on board a new Dutch president, who had taken the oath of allegiance to England, and two commissioners, one Dutch, the other English. Under these circumstances, the ships satisfactorily underwent the customary Japanese inspection, and the new president, landing at Dezima, announced to Heer Doeff the changes that had taken place. The intelligence was not agreeable to the ex-president, who refused to believe that such things had occurred, and in the end managed so skilfully that he defeated the object of the new-comers, maintained his position as opperhoofd, and the factory at Dezima was the only real Dutch possession in the world. The ancient jealousy of the Japanese against the English was a powerful weapon in the hands of Herr Doeff, which he knew well how to use. Fresh political changes occurred in Europe, which rendered it probable that Holland would recover her East Indian possessions, and Heer Doeff still opposing the reception of a new president, Sir Stamford Raffles desisted from a project which, under the changed aspect of European politics, could be of no permanent advantage to England. In 1817 affairs resumed their ancient aspect; the two annual Dutch ships departed from Batavia, and the Dutch authorities appointed a new governor at Dezima.

OUR PARISIAN NEIGHBOURS.

BY CHARLES RICKETTS, 7TH ROYAL FUSILIERS.

We were not astonished at the red breeches, the gaiters, the fezes, the turbans, or even the number of the military wearing them that met us at every sixth step in the streets, but we were surprised at their cocked hats, for we had hitherto believed that in France they were only deposited upon the heads of gendarmes and mounted officers, whilst a faint idea lodged in one of the many little corners of our brain whispered that they had disappeared. There is a row in the rue, just beneath our window, and we must look at it, being partial to rows, if it must be owned. Well, outside a wine-shop four rather respectable-looking Frenchmen, decidedly in a state of beer, or rather wine, are grasping each other in their arms in a manner decidedly too affectionate to be pleasant, whilst several energetic-looking females are making violent efforts to separate them; the gendarmes are called for-but gendarmes are like London policemen, and never to be found when wanted. One gentleman in a moustache gets slightly mauled about the face, at which his wrath increases, as well it might; but the crowd prevent much damage being done, excepting to an unfortunate plate, which is broken by a man in a beard, who insists upon throwing it at the head of a man in whiskers, who would have-we do not know what he would have done if two gendarmes had not at this moment arrived; we easily knew the fact, because the crowd dispersed-fled, flew, as if his Satanic majesty had been amongst them, or a donation from Whistling Dick had just alighted in their centre. The gendarmes laid hold of the two most riotous; one insisted upon sitting down in the middle of the road, and the other complained of a pain in his stomach in the most piteous way. But it was of no use; the gendarmes were inexorable, they dragged them off to the nearest bureau de police-and we recommenced our article.

We were going to state that we thought cocked hats had disappeared with the first Napoleon; but we were mistaken, for they have now nearly the monopoly for clothing the heads of the soldiers in Paris, the shako and the kepi being very seldom seen.

Very few of the line were in Paris, but then the strength of the Imperial Guard being so great they were not required. The Voltigeurs wore shakos, and very handsome ones they were, a heavy piece of plaited worsted hanging gracefully down in festoons, much after the fashion of the old shako of our 71st Highland Light Infantry, only being white instead of black, which by the bye made all the difference, and that decidedly in favour of the French, giving it a light instead of a heavy appearance. The Voltigeurs were the only troops of the Emperor's Guard with rifled weapons. We are before them in arming our men at any rate. Armed parties in any number never marched through any part of the city without drums playing, even the Zouaves, whom we had always been accustomed to see in the Crimea march more to the sound of the trumpet, which we have the bad taste to prefer. There were no reviews in Paris at the time, so we will not talk "shop" any more—if we can help it.