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sightseer on the one hand or the needy owner of the soil on the other. The first assumes that they belong to no one; the second, while insisting upon his rights of property, forgets that to such proprietary rights there are limits. Neither seems to dream of the duty of protecting a heritage which belongs to the nation, and which in equity no individual should be allowed to claim as his own.

For some years past the Society of Antiquaries has taken the lead in moving for some legislation to protect what remains of our unwritten records. Indeed the Society has done more, or at least attempted to do more. As early as 1872 a memorial was addressed to the Government of the day advocating an examination of the tumuli in the Troad, a proposal which might have been easily carried out at a very trifling cost to the country. It was coldly received, and nothing was done. In little more than a year from that time Dr. Schliemann had begun his excavations, and the splendid results which rewarded his enterprise passed from us. Since then the Society has been busy in attempting to obtain some adequate custody for our own archaic treasures. The suggestion has been made that all important ancient monuments should be placed without delay under the protection of the State, and, as a preliminary to such legislation as was contemplated, the Society was ready to undertake the responsibility of drawing up a comprehensive list of such monuments. These views have been supported by the Bills introduced into Parliament by Sir John Lubbock, and by a resolution of the House of Commons carried in the present Session. Under the immediate patronage of the Society Mr. Lukis has recently completed his admirable surveys of the pre-historic monuments of Cornwall and Devon; encouragement has been given to the efforts of the citizens of Bath to unearth the splendid remains of Roman baths recently discovered by Mr. Davis in that city, and we hope that, acting in conjunction with the Wiltshire Archæological Society, means will be found to retain the colossal pillars of Stonehenge in their vertical position. We trust the Society of Antiquaries will persevere in these meritorious pursuits, for we are persuaded that there never was a time when archæological researches excited a more general interest in the country.

ART. V.-1. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. An Account of Travels in the Interior, including Visits to the Aborigines of Yezo and the Shrines of Nikko and Isé. By ISABELLA L. BIRD. 2 vols., illustrated. London: 1880.

2. Japan: its History, Traditions, and Religions; with the Narrative of a Visit in 1879. By Sir E. J. REED. 2 vols., illustrated. London: 1880.

THE

HE last twelve years have witnessed one of the most extraordinary revolutions recorded in the history of the world. The scene is the island, or rather the group of islands, known to us by the name of Japan. And the magic of the change which has been wrought is the more startling to us from the profound ignorance in which, down to comparatively recent times, Western Europe was plunged as regards a country which, for more than 200 years, had jealously excluded the foreigner from its soil.

There have been, we all know, instances of the obliteration of ancient civilisation by the wave of foreign conquest, as when the Gothic tribes replaced the mouldering Latin rule by the sway of their vigorous chieftains. There have been cases, notably in the great outbreak of 1789, when alternations of victory and defeat in the long-smouldering contest of class against class have changed for a time the aspect and the manners of a people. But neither the fate of the Roman Empire nor that of the French monarchy affords a parallel to the Japanese revolution. Foreign influence, no doubt, ranks among the causes of, or it may be more correct to say furnished the occasion for, the political part of the changes. But the re-establishment of the administrative power of the Mikado, the prince who for 2,500 years has been theoretically the supreme ruler of Japan, though in itself a matter well worthy of study, is, from the point of view taken by the historian, one of the least interesting features of the revolution. That which is, so far as we are aware, unique in the recent history of Japan is that as soon as the fence was broken down, and the persistent claims of Europe and of the United States to make good the outposts of a commercial invasion were perforce admitted, the entire habit, spirit, and polity of the empire were suddenly transformed. The first notable use to which this renewal of tranquillity' (in 1868; we quote Sir E. J. Reed, who gives the day of the month, but omits the month itself)

was put by his Majesty the present Emperor was that of assem

bling the court nobles and territorial princes, and making oath before them that a deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures decided on by public opinion; that impartiality and justice should form the basis of his action; and that intellect and learning should be sought for thoughout the world, in order to establish the foundations of the Empire.' (Japan, vol. i. p. 280.)

It is not for the first time, either before or since the signature of Magna Charta, that brilliant promises of this kind have been made by a newly enthroned king. But it is, we think, for the first time in history that the resolve to acquire a full knowledge of the science of the unknown parts of the world has been not only formed, but expressed, and not only expressed, but carried out. From the date of this declaration Japan has steadfastly set herself to learn what the most enlightened nations had to teach. Japanese youths have been sent to study in foreign universities, camps, navies, cities, and rural districts. English, American, French, and German professors have been tempted by large salaries to reside for a while in Japan, and to give to attentive scholars the full benefit of their best abilities. But under all this extraordinary activity has lain concealed the fixed determination to throw away the orange as soon as it was squeezed. The moment the foreign teacher has done his work, and trained native pupils to take his place, he is politely shown the door. No more convincing proof of the sturdy nationality that underlies the Japanese cosmopolitanism can be offered than we cite in the words of Mr. W. F. Potter, C.E., who resided for three years in Japan, as an assistant of Mr. Cargill, the Director of Railways and Telegraphs in that empire. In a paper on railway work in Japan, which was read before the Institution of Civil Engineers on January 14, 1879, Mr. Potter says:—

'It is impossible to give any reliable information as to the cost of the railways already constructed in Japan, owing to the system adopted by the Government of not allowing foreign engineers to interfere in, or have any control over, money matters. On each engineer's district a large staff of Japanese officials was appointed, who made all payments and arranged all contracts. Whenever an engineer required materials or labour, he had to indent on these officials, who furnished them without giving information as to their cost. . . . The author, however, must not be understood to make any complaint against the Japanese officials. Nothing could be more kind and courteous than their general bearing towards the members of the foreign staff.' (Min. of Proc. of Inst. of Civil Engineers, vol. lvi. p. 2.)

And Miss Bird informs us that

it is no part of the plan of the able men who lead the new

Japanese movement to keep up a permanent foreign staff. To get all they can out of foreigners, and then dispense with their services, is their idea. The telegraph department was passed out of leading strings this week (May, 1878), and other departments will follow as soon as possible. The Naval College has English instructors, the Medical College is under the charge of Germans, the Imperial University has English-speaking teachers, the Engineering College has a British principal, assisted by a large British staff, and a French military commission teaches European drill and tactics to the army. The changes in the teaching staff are frequent, and people talk not only of actual but of possible changes, whose engagement expires next month or next year, the probabilities of its renewal, the reduced salary on which Mr. remaining, the certainty that Mr. -'s engagement will not be renewed, and guess what he will do with himself, and what sum he has saved.' (Unbeaten Tracks, vol. i. p. 40.)

- is

The contributions to our knowledge of Japan which are now before us are the notes of Miss Isabella L. Bird of her solitary journeys of more than 1,400 miles through northern Japan, including a visit to the almost wholly unknown island of Yezo, and the narrative of Sir E. J. Reed of a month spent in Tokio, the eastern capital (better known by its former name of Yedo), and a trip to the inland sea, the western capital of Kioto, the sacred shrines of Isé, and Fuji-Yama, and the Hakoné mountains. Bright and graphic as are many of the sketches of these unknown regions given, especially by the former writer, it is obvious that the opportunities afforded to the hasty tourist are not such as to enable him to form more than fleeting and inadequate ideas of the regions and the people through the midst of which he hurries. Nothing like a philosophical appreciation of the import and the controlling features of so remarkable a national revolution as that to which we have referred is to be expected from the brief notes of a tourist. Neither is it within the competence of the reviewer to test the accuracy or fidelity of such notes as come before him. Except in those few cases where accounts are contradictory, it is only possible to lay before the reader some account of the most striking features described in the volumes in question, leaving on the authors the whole responsibility of the statements which they have made to the public.

The history of Japan possesses the special characteristic of bringing down that mythical era which is common to all ancient legendary histories to comparatively recent times. The first human Emperor of Japan, Sannoo or Zinmou, a descendant of the sun-goddess, acceded to the throne in the year 660 B.C., at a time when the third hereditary dynasty was reigning in China, the eighth in Assyria, and the twenty-sixth in Egypt.

From this personage the present Mi-kado (Mi being an honorary prefix) is said to be the 123rd in direct descent, which would give to the sovereigns of the dynasty the unusually long average reign of twenty years. In A.D. 1185 Minamoto no Yoritomo, a son of the Mikado Yo-toba, established a power which may be compared to that of the mayor of the palace under the later Merovingian kings, or to that which the Dukes of Burgundy strove to attain under Louis XI. Originally only the first of the great provincial peers of Japan, the Sioguns or Taicoons, as this line of princes was called, became the virtual rulers of the country, the nominal supremacy of the Mikado still being maintained. Forty-six Sioguns are enumerated from 1185 to 1868, when Hi Stotsbashi, Prince Gosankio, abdicated his power into the hands of the Mikado, and the history of feudal Japan closes after a duration of 683

years.

An abstract of the history of this period, and an account of the events which immediately led to the revolution, occupy the first of Sir E. Reed's two volumes, being taken from sources indicated in the preface. The account, however, is so far from being readable, even as condensed by this writer, that no end could be attained by now giving more than the one or two facts that we have stated. An abbreviated history of an unknown land, of which the recurrence of names utterly barbarous to the English ear is the chief feature, requires to be sketched by the hand of a master of the literary art to make it anything but intolerably tedious. The great point at which to aim in such abstracts of history is the adoption of a scale of detail proportionate to the size of the volumes to be written; and the omission of names that are little more than shadowy, and of incidents that have no essential bearing on the march of events, is demanded for the sake of historic perspective. The reader who wishes to acquaint himself with what is known of Japan before her last revolution cannot do better than study the superbly illustrated work of M. Aimé Humbert, called Le Japon illustré,' which was published by Messrs. Hachette in 1870.

While many of the illustrations of that beautiful book might be transferred with great fitness to the pages of Miss Bird, there are some of them that are now almost as much out of date as if they referred to the time when the Crusaders brought back mail from the Holy Land. We refer to the state and circumstance of the two-sworded nobles of Japan and their feudal retinue. They are gone, like the snow of the winter; replaced, if we may trust our latest informants,

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