ntually led to Japan
entirely closing her ports to foreign traffic, was, it would seem, due
partly to the attitude of harsh intolerance and general interference
adopted by certain of the Roman Catholic missionaries, who by this time
had arrived in the country: and partly to the insinuations made by the
Dutch that the Portuguese were aiming at territorial aggrandizement.
Anyhow, in 1624, Japan was entirely closed to foreign trade, save for some
concessions,--accompanied by the severest restrictions,--permitted to the
Dutch; no foreigners were allowed to enter, and no natives to leave, the
empire; the missionaries were expelled, and Christianity was prohibited
under pain of death. The Japanese, as has been said, "suspected everybody
and shut out the world." Previous to this crisis the English had retired;
but when, in 1673, our country sought to resume friendly relations, the
connexion existing between the English and Portuguese courts proved an
insuperable obstacle.(2) Subsequent overtures made in 1849, were
courteously but firmly rejected; though the period of Japan's isolation
was, as later events proved, almost at an end. In 1853, the Government of
the United States despatched a fleet across the Pacific, under the command
of Commodore Perry, to insist upon the surrender of a policy which, it was
urged, no one nation of the world had a right to adopt towards the rest.
Whether the arguments with which this position was advanced would of
themselves have prevailed, is impossible to say; but since it was evident
that should words fail, sterner measures would be resorted to, Japan had
no choice but to submit. Treaties were accordingly concluded, first with
the United States, and subsequently with England and other European
powers; by virtue of which a few ports were grudgingly opened, and
Japanese subjects permitted to engage in commercial transactions with the
outside world. For the first few years, it is certain that a strong
feeling of suspicion and dislike towards foreigners was rife; but in 1868
events occurred which brought about a complete change in the whole
situation. For some six hundred years a dual system of government had
existed in Japan. On the one hand, was the Mikado, supposed to trace a
lineage of unbroken descent from the gods, and accorded a veneration
semi-divine, but living in seclusion at the city of Kyoto, with such
powers of administration as he still retained confined to matters of
religion and educa