JAPAN.

Correspondence Respecting Affairs in Japan. IN January, 1865, the French Government intimated to the British that they would prefer the payment of an indemnity by the Japanese Government to the opening of the port of Shimonasaki, the alternative being left to the Tycoon. In February, Earl Russell received from Sir R. Alcock a copy of the proclamations formerly issued in Japan with respect to foreign vessels, commanding the inhabitants to drive away foreign vessels from any seaport, and if they did not go away to pursue them. All this is, however, changed, and the hostile. measures have been altogether repealed. On the 8th April, 1865, Earl Russell gave instructions to Sir H. Parkes as to the course he should pursue on his arrival in Japan. The objects he should look for are the following:

1. The abandonment of any pretence on the part of the Mikado or the Tycoon to violate treaties, and banish foreigners from Japan.

2. The faithful execution of these treaties, with the modifications and delays allowed by the treaty powers when the Japanese envoys came to Europe in 1862.

3. Either the confirmation of the treaties by the Mikado, or the formal admission that the Tycoon having, as the Prince of Satsuma said, the treaty-making power, required no sanction from the Mikado for the conclusion and execution of the treaties with European powers and the United States of America.

4. The trial of all persons accused of murdering British subjects, and their execution if convicted.

5. The assignment of a fit residence, or site for a residence, at Yeddo, for her Majesty's envoy, and fit barracks and hospitals at Yokohama, to be maintained in repair by the Tycoon's Government.

Further correspondence then ensued with the Governments of France, the Netherlands, and America, as regards the question of the indemnity in lieu of the opening of the Shimonasaki, and on the 10th July, Earl Russell wrote to Earl Cowley on the subject as follows:

"Upon full consideration of the questions arising out of the agreement of October, 1864, and of the course taken upon them by the

representatives of the treaty powers in Japan, her Majesty's Government submit for the concurrence of the United States' Government, as they will also submit for the concurrence of the Governments of France and of the Netherlands, that the conduct of the representatives in agreeing to accept, subject to the approval of their respective Governments, payment in the present month of the first instalment of the indemnity, should be approved.

"But, as regards the future, her Majesty's Government are inclined to consider that the general interests of trade and of foreign relations with Japan would be best consulted by an arrangement which should absolve the Government of the Tycoon from two-thirds of the whole sum of 3,000,000 dollars payable under the agreement of 1864 (leaving thus only 500,000 dollars beyond what they will have paid in the present month to be obtained from the Government of the Tycoon, and which balance should be paid before the end of the current year); provided, 1st, that the port of Hiogo and the city of Osaca are opened for the trade and residence of the subjects of the treaty powers on the 1st of January, 1866; 2ndly, that the sanction of the Mikado is formally given to the treaties already concluded by the Tycoon with the treaty powers; and, 3rdly, that the duties on imports into Japan are generally reduced to 5 per cent., and shall in no case exceed 10 per cent.

"If the Government of the Tycoon will not agree to these terms, her Majesty's Government consider that the full and literal execution of the 2nd article of the agreement of October, 1864, should be insisted upon, and that the Government of the Tycoon should be required to pay in quarterly instalments of onesixth, or 500,000 dollars, the whole amount of 3,000,000 dollars payable to the three powers; such further quarterly payments, the first instalment having been already paid, to begin on the 1st of October next, and to be completed by the 1st of October, 1866.

"If the Government of the Tycoon will not adopt either of these alternatives, and comply with their requirements, her Majesty's Government consider that the agreement of 1862, under which the opening of the port of Hiogo and of the city of Osaca was deferred for five

years from the 1st of January, 1863, should be withdrawn, and the strict fulfilment of the 3rd article of the treaty of August 26, 1858, between Great Britain and Japan, in regard to those cities should be insisted on. Having allowed Hiogo and Osaca to be hitherto closed, we should then insist that from the 1st of January, 1866, the port of Hiogo and the city of Osaca should be opened to trade.

"If the Governments of France, of the Netherlands and of the United States agree in the course which is suggested in this despatch, her Majesty's Minister in Japan will receive instructions to act upon it in conjunction with his colleagues."

On the 23rd August, in consequence of numerous despatches from Consul Winchester, announcing grave difficulties and apprehended changes in the internal affairs of Japan, Earl Russell sent the following despatch to Sir H. Parkes :

:

"The reports recently received by her Majesty's Government from Japan, lead to the conclusion that a great social revolution is taking place in that country, and that a civil war may be the consequence.

"It would seem that these internal commotions arise almost exclusively from the relations which have of late years been established between Japan and foreign nations. Whilst the long established policy of the Japanese Government, which rigorously excluded all foreigners from Japan, was maintained, the great feudal lords, or Daimios, and the population at large, seem to have acquiesced in the form of government which had existed for centuries in the country, and which involved the most complicated relations between the Mikado and the Tycoon. But the treaties recently concluded by the Tycoon with foreign powers, and the intercourse between Japan and the outer world, to which these treaties have given rise, have led to fundamental changes in the condition of the country, and, apparently, in the opinions and policy of the Japanese Government, and of the Daimios.

"When Lord Elgin went to Japan he found the Tycoon the de facto sovereign of the country, to whom obedience was generally yielded, and who appeared to possess the power, as representing the Japanese nation, to enter into treaties with foreign States. Accord

ingly the treaty which Lord Elgin concluded was signed and ratified by the Tycoon. It was not until some time later, when the representatives of foreign countries in Japan were brought into more intimate relations with the Japanese Government and the Japanese people, that it was discovered that there was a still higher power than that of the Tycoon, that the authority wielded by that prince was delegated to him by a spiritual emperor, called the Mikado, and that there were great feudal lords who, superior to the Tycoon in rank, only obeyed him when he had the means of enforcing obedience.

"It is held by some of the Japanese that a treaty with the Tycoon in order to be binding must be ratified by the Mikado. Upon this point the most contradictory assertions have been made by the Japanese themselves. Prince Satsuma, however, fully asserted the treatymaking power to reside in the Tycoon.

"Her Majesty's Government have assumed, as they had a right to do, that the Tycoon was in possession of the supreme authority in Japan, that he had the power to enter into the treaty concluded with this country, and they have held him to be bound by it. In carrying out the stipulations of that treaty they have acted in strict good faith towards the Tycoon, and in consenting to a modification of its terms they have accepted the representations, and have taken into consideration the alleged difficulties of his Government. It was in this spirit that they agreed, in conjunction with the Governments of France, the Netherlands, and of the United States, that the opening of the ports of Nee-e-gata and Hiogo and the city of Osaca to foreign trade should be deferred.

"On its part the Government of the Tycoon has from the first expressed its desire to fulfil its treaty engagements, but has declared its inability to do so to the full extent owing to the opposition of the Japanese people, who, it alleges, look with jealousy and aversion upon foreigners, and to the ill-will of some of the most powerful Daimios who, it is declared, are opposed to all intercourse with foreign States, and who are too strong to be coerced by the Tycoon. The murderous attacks upon foreigners, and the aggressions upon foreign shipping in the inland sea, which seemed to

warrant these assertions of the Tycoon's Government, gave rise to the successful expeditions against the strongholds of the Princes of Satsuma and Nagato.

"It was only after the defeat of those two powerful princes that doubts arose as to the truth of the statements put forward by the Tycoon's Government. Both Prince Satsuma and Prince Choshui, immediately after the destruction of Kagosima and Shimonasaki, sent agents with friendly overtures to the European representatives in Japan. They declared that in attacking foreigners and resisting all intercourse with them, they were acting under the orders of the Tycoon, and that they were not opposed to such intercourse; but that, on the contrary, they were ready to open their ports to foreigners, and were only prevented doing so by the Tycoon, who desired to have the monopoly of the foreign trade, and to exclude the rival Daimios from any share in it. These statements receive confirmation from the course recently pursued by the princes of Satsuma and Nagato, who have shown every desire to enter into the most friendly relations with the representatives of foreign powers in Japan, and have sent young men to this country for education, and officers to enter into confidential communication with her Majesty's Government.

"Her Majesty's Government will adhere in good faith to the stipulation of the treaty entered into with the Tycoon. But they cannot forget that, owing to the representations of the Government of the Tycoon, which are now stated to have been unfounded, they have already delayed to claim the rights conferred by that treaty upon British subjects to trade with certain ports in Japan; and that, when the Government of the Tycoon, after the destruction of the forts of Shimonasaki, had the option of either paying an indemnity, or of opening at once the port of Shimonasaki, or some more eligible port in the vicinity of the Straits, to foreign trade, it chose the payment of the indemnity. So long as her Majesty's Government believe that there was danger to the Tycoon's Government, owing either to the jealousy of the Daimios, or to the prejudices of the Japanese people in permitting foreigners to trade with the ports mentioned in the treaty, her Majesty's Government were willing to

allow their treaty rights to remain for a time in abeyance. But it would now appear that there is really no such danger to the Government of the Tycoon, and that the opening of other Japanese ports would be hailed with much satisfaction by several of the most powerful Daimios, and by the Japanese people. Whilst the principal Daimios are ready to open their ports to a lucrative and important British trade, her Majesty's Government are unwilling to submit to the total exclusion of her Majesty's subjects from those ports upon insufficient grounds.

Her Majesty's Government are, however, anxious to know whether the representations thus made to them agree with your own observations made on the spot.

"You are therefore instructed, in conjunction with the representatives of France, the Netherlands, and the United States, and also in communication with the Gorogio, to ascertain the real state of affairs. You will understand, that her Majesty's Government would prefer a large and healthy extension of commerce, as stipulated by treaty, to the payment of money indemnities. But, if the Tycoon prefers the payments, those payments must be made at the times stipulated in the convention. In no case can her Majesty's Government allow that the Tycoon's Government should spend its resources in ships, cannon, and armaments while the payments stipulated by the convention are delayed upon frivolous and dishonest pretexts.

I wait anxiously your reply to this despatch, and shall be ready to place the most entire confidence in your statements as to the real state of affairs."

Consul Winchester brought before the notice of Earl Russell that in the civil hostilities likely to arise between the Daimios and the Tycoon it was important that the British should remain quite neutral, and knowing that one or more English firms in Nagasaki had entered into active trading relations at Shimonasaki, had thought it desirable to issue a printed notification warning her Majesty's subjects of the risk of illegal traffic. Meanwhile representations were made to the Tycoon regarding the payment of the indemnity agreed upon by the treaty of 1864, of which only one instalment had been paid. On the 17th November, 1865,

the representatives of the four allied powers went to Hiogo on the subject, and after conference with the Japanese ministers for foreign affairs, they obtained the sanction of the treaties by the Mikado, the opening of Hiogo and Osaca at a date to be agreed upon, and the revision of the tariff.

On the 5th February, the Earl of Clarendon wrote to Sir H. Parkes as follows:

"Her Majesty's Government have received with great satisfaction the interesting reports contained in your late despatches of the proceedings of the representatives of the four treaty powers during their late visit to Hiogo; and they fully apreciate the importance of the results, and more especially the manner in which they have been brought about.

"Her Majesty's Government would have much regretted the employment of menace, and still more of force, without direct authority from home, to induce the Japanese Government to agree to the representations of the treaty powers; and they are the more gratified that, without having recourse to such measures, you should have succeeded in conjunction with your colleagues in securing the important concessions which you have thus obtained.

"Of your own share in these transactions I cannot speak too highly. By temper and tact, combined with firmness, you have prevailed over the resistance, in whatever cause it may have originated, which has so long been opposed to the formal confirmation by the sovereign of Japan of the engagements entered into by the Tycoon, but hitherto ignored by the Mikado and the Daimios; and you have achieved this success, to all appearance, not only without producing any bitterness of feeling on the part of the Japanese Government, but even with their hearty concurrence.

"The Queen commands me to convey to you her Majesty's entire approval of your conduct in this negotiation.

"Her Majesty's Government, you will take an opportunity of assuring your colleagues, most fully appreciate their zealous co-operation throughout these transactions. The unanimity which has prevailed between the representatives of foreign powers, and their combined action, cannot fail to produce a salutary impression on the Japanese Government and people, and will

doubtless contribute to the development and stability of friendly relations with them.

"Her Majesty's Government are peculiarly struck with the account which you give of the demeanour of the native population, and they derive the greater satisfaction from it, as affording the most convincing proof of the good behaviour of the officers and crews of the combined squadron when brought, for the first time almost, into close contact with the inhabitants of that hitherto but little known portion of the Japanese -empire.

"You will state to Vice-Admiral King that I have had great satisfaction in calling the attention of the Board of Admiralty to your report of the zealous assistance which you received from him during the late negotiations, and of the good conduct of the officers and crews of her Majesty's ships during the stay of the squadron in the Bay of Osaca.

"You will also inform Mr. Macdonald, Mr. Von Siebold, and Mr. Satow, that I highly approve of the manner in which they acquitted themselves of the duties entrusted to them, and of my satisfaction at receiving your testimonial of the zeal and ability of which they have given sufficient proof."

MEDICAL OFFICERS OF THE ARMY
AND NAVY.

Copies of the Report and Evidence of the Committee on the Position, &c. of the Medical Officers of the Army and Navy, presided over by Vice-Admiral Sir A. Milne; of the Order in Council of the 6th day of July, 1866; and of the Circular of the 12th day of July, 1866, issued by the late Board of Admiralty, respect ing the Rank, Pay, and Position of Naval Medical Officers; and Copy of the War Office and Admiralty Letters, dated the 2nd of July, 1866; and of the Treasury Minutes, dated the 4th of July, 1866, on the Position, &c., of Medical Officers in the two Services. (Mr. Nicol and General Peel). 20th and 30th July, 1866. (315).

THE committee appointed by the lords commissioners of the Admiralty, her Majesty's Secretary of State for War, and Field-Marshal his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, commanding-in-chief, to inquire into the whole