itician and courtier, and never mindful of
professional etiquette when it stood in the way of his advancement. His
Imperial Majesty the Tycoon, a dissolute youth of nineteen, with three
wives, is subject, of course, to various maladies. The court physician
administered a prescription so nauseous that the royal patient kicked
against the whole materia medica; and great was the consternation of the
court, when Dr. Itowo Gambono, who had been engineering for the office
of surgeon royal, allayed apprehension by making known his
qualifications, and the palatable character of his prescriptions. He was
installed in office; but trusting exclusively to the _vis medicatrix
naturae_, and having been discovered in administering nothing but
sweetened water, he suffered in the general proscription. A medical jury
might render the verdict: Served him right for intriguing against his
_confrere_.

The curious reader will be gratified with learning what some of the
Japanese themselves have to say on the question of the relations betwixt
the foreigner and their own Government, and it is not likely that the
subjoined translation of a document, purporting to be a protest
addressed to the tycoon's ministers, but intended as a complaint against
them to the mikado or spiritual emperor, will be found too long for
perusal:

'When you consulted us about the new relations into which we were
to enter with foreigners, you told us, upon the authority of a
certain Harisoo (Mr. Harris) the American, that the treaty would
give us plenty and abundance. Both you and Harisoo said that cotton
would be sold for a mere nothing, and that silk and manufactured
goods would not cost us anything. The daily necessaries of life
would be brought to our country from all quarters of the globe, and
our farmers would not be required to sow and reap. We anxiously
expect these miracles, and at present we enjoy advantages which you
never mentioned, namely, that those articles which you and Harisoo
promised to give us at very low prices are now three times as
expensive as they formerly were. You told us that our treasuries
would be always open to receive the enormous riches which our
intercourse with foreigners would always give us. It is an
undeniable fact that our treasuries have been always open, but,
instead of receiving money, we have been called upon to sacrifice
the little we posses