wer.

In fact, history has preserved only one unequivocal expression of
consent. It was formulated by Matsudaira Yoshinaga, baron of Echizen.
He had been among the most ardent exclusionists in the first council
of feudatories; but his views had subsequently undergone a radical
change, owing to the arguments of one of his vassals, Hashimoto
Sanae--elder brother of Viscount Hashimoto Tsunatsune, president of
the Red Cross Hospital, who died in 1909. "Not only did this
remarkable man frankly advocate foreign trade for its own sake and as
a means of enriching the nation, thus developing its capacity for
independence, but he also recommended the fostering of industries,
the purchase of ships and firearms, the study of foreign arts and
sciences, and the despatch of students and publicists to Western
countries for purposes of instruction. Finally, he laid down the
principle that probity is essential to commercial success." Such
doctrines were then much in advance of the time. Nevertheless, Harris
achieved his purpose. He had audience of the shogun in November,
1857, and, on the 29th of the following July, a treaty was concluded
opening Yokohama, from the 1st of July, 1858, to commerce between the
United States and Japan.

This treaty was concluded in spite of the failure of two attempts to
obtain the sanction of the Throne. Plainly the Bakufu shrank from
openly adopting a policy which, while recognizing its necessity, they
distrusted their own ability to force upon the nation. They had,
however, promised Mr. Harris that the treaty should be signed, and
they kept their word at a risk, of whose magnitude the American
consul-general had no conception. Mr. Harris had brought to this
conference exceptional diplomatic skill and winning tact, but it
cannot be denied that he derived assistance from contemporaneous
events in China, where the Peiho forts had just been captured and the
Chinese forced to sign a treaty. He was thus able to warn the
Japanese that the British and the French fleets might be expected at
any moment to enter Yedo Bay, and that the best way to avert irksome
demands at the hands of the British was to establish a comparatively
moderate precedent by yielding to the American proposals.

THE THIRTEENTH SHOGUN, IESADA (1853-1858)

Between the conclusion of the Harris commercial treaty and its
signature, the Bakufu prime minister visited Kyoto, for the purpose
of persuading the Imperial Court to abandon its anti-fo