from whence an enterprising traveller might contemplate the roofs of two adjoining houses, and the cupola of a Buddhist temple,-each, to use a nautical metaphor, about a biscuit's throw distant! No one but a Japanese gardener could have crammed all these objects together into so small space, and still preserved anything like order and good taste, on neither of which heads could much complaint be made. Many of the trees were of course dwarfed, but the skill exhibited in having everything in just proportion, so as to make size and colour assist in the deception practised upon the eye, was, it appeared to us, most remarkable; and after all, the Embassy garden was but a very inferior specimen of the art of the Japanese gardener.

The entrance-hall of the Embassy was screened off here and there into small apartments for the domestics, and the two extremes of the hall (for it ran along the whole face of the house) terminated in the English kitchen at the one end, and the Japanese police establishment at the other. To us the latter was an endless source of interest, as much as were the wonders of the ambassadorial cuisine to all the Japanese priests, women, porters, and loungers with whom the courtyard in front was generally filled during the day-time. There were cracks in the wooden walls of the kitchen, which rendered it a perfect peep-show, and there, with eyes fixed firmly to the chinks, a curious individual, after a tough battle for the position, would remain until, in the height of his astonishment, he inadvertently turned round to utter some exclamation, or communicate his information to the bystanders; in a moment he was borne away, and another successful sight-seer won his envied peep-hole. The quantity of animal food consumed in the Embassy was a great source of wonderment. Fish, rice, and vegetables, cooked in a thousand different ways, form the food of the many millions inhabiting the Japanese group. They would as soon think of eating animals so valuable as their oxen are, as we should of consuming the flesh of our carriage horses or hunters; a sheep was a beast unknown to them; pigs are a

luxury, reserved for the rich and noble; yet all these, and much more, they saw cooked in marvellous ways, and consumed in fabulous quantities for so thrifty a people. The police court was to us equally novel: through it all intercourse between the subjects of Queen Victoria and those of the Tai-koon was carried on, and through it the native authorities learnt everything that was done within the ambassadorial residence, at least all that they could understand or put an interpretation upon. The leading functionary was a deputy of the Lieutenant-governor of Yedo, and he sat in the farthest part of the apartment, from the hour of six in the morning until all had gone to rest, receiving reports, ordering supplies, directing the shopkeepers of the city to bring the divers manufactures we strangers wished to purchase-running to the entrance to receive his superiors, and they were many, that came to look, hear, or see; and lastly, supervising the close inspection by his subordinates, of every article brought into the Embassy for sale, turning everything upside down, to see that nothing contraband got into our hands-recording its nature, quality, and price in a book, and then tak ing good care that, although we paid for such purchases in Mexican dollars, only their equivalent value in Japanese Itzibus reached the hands of the vendor! That deputy of the Lieutenant-governor, as Yenoske would call him (though we believe his proper title and that of his chief should have been Police Magistrate and Superintendent), was a wonderful man, and still more wonderful when we found that, besides performing his multifarious duties, he found time to discuss with three or four other persons sufficiently exalted in rank, to feed at the same table on a frequent series of meals, and to smoke an unlimited number of pinches of tobacco in exceedingly pretty metal pipes.

The examination of every article before it was exhibited to us, and the record of each purchase, was done with a celerity and precision which spoke well for the business habits of the clerks employed; yet we felt for the poor tradesmen, whose time was

thus wasted, and were not astonished to find that it almost required compulsion to get them to the Embassy, and that they seldom brought their best wares with them. The object of the Japanese government in recording all our purchases, however trifling, was rather difficult to understand-perhaps it was the mere habit of" wanting to know, you know!"

Yenoske the linguist's duty consisted in being the medium of communication between the Europeans in the Embassy and the Japanese, and it required all the temper and patience which we ascribe to an angel, to be able to do this. His labours were incessant. Now there was a message or letter for the Commissioners one minute, and the next a requisition for fish and vegetables. Now, some one wanted musquito curtains for his bed; then another required four of the most valuable dogs in Yedo, at the smallest possible price. An irritable Briton wished to know why they insisted upon unpacking, examining, and recording every separate cup and saucer of a set he had purchased, and vowed he would not submit to it; and next, the little man armed with his two swords, and en grande tenue, had to escort a party from the Embassy to visit the sights in and around the city of Yedo. He was everywhere, and, next to Mr Hewskin, whose duties were equally multifarious, though of a higher order, all who visited Yedo are deeply indebted to Yenoske for his zeal and civility. The Ambassador and the party that went to visit the Secretary for Foreign Affairs returned in due time; and though no very flattering impression was made by the appearance and intelligence of that prince on those who went in his Excellency's suite, the interview was said to have been, on the whole, satisfactory. At any rate a box of sweetmeats, which followed each of the visitors as a present, was unexceptionable especially what was called ribbon sweetmeat; and we can assure the rising generation of Great Britain that Buonaparte's ribs, toffey,

barley-sugar, and such like delicacies, fall far short of it.

We heard that Lord Elgin had been told that the Tai-koon was very ill-indeed, too ill to grant an interview; but that his Excellency might, if he pleased, have an audience of the heir-apparent. The serious sickness of the Tai-koon we had heard of from Mr Harris at Simoda, who informed us that the unfortunate Emperor was in the last stage of epileptic disease, and in July, when he saw him, looked far more dead than alive. Poor Tai-koon, few would willingly change places with him, immured from birth until death within the limited area of his palace garden, seeing nothing even of his own dominions but what his eye could range over from the terraces of his prison; learning nothing but through the verbal reports of his almost equally imprisoned high officers, or the written accounts sent in by the heads of the various departments -one can hardly conceive a situation more sad, or more likely to lead to those habits of intemperance or sensuality which end in epilepsy-idiotcy and an early grave. The high officers about court, we were told, were likewise confined to the palace during their tenure of office. They are able to find relief from such imprisonment by a system of incognito travelling, which, under the term niebon, is the privilege of the upper classes in Japan. In this manner grandees, whom strict etiquette would not have permitted to receive foreigners such as ourselves, or officially to visit the squadron, would very likely niebon have scrutinised us, and walked over the different ships; but we never heard that the Tai-koons had been known to avail themselves of this license. The reception of an ambassador, envoy, or deputation from a foreign state, under these circumstances, must be a great treat to any Tai-koon in possession of his faculties; and we were impressed with this idea from the account given by a gentleman who was present at the reception of a Dutch envoy and his

suite at Yedo, and that not very many years since. The Tai-koon desired the strangers to take off their garments of ceremony, to stand up right, to walk about, to compliment each other, then to dance, to jump, and to play the drunkard! The complaisant suite were desired to speak broken Japanese, to read their own language aloud, to sketch, and lastly, to sing; and a Dutch love-song seems finally to have stayed the Taikoon's inordinate curiosity, and saved the Dutchmen further exertion.

Two excursion-parties were arranged for the 24th August-one to some nursery and tea-gardens on the eastern outskirts of Yedo, involving a very long ride; the other, which we were strongly recommend ed to join (advice which we had reason afterwards to congratulate ourselves on having taken), was to the south-west, to the Temple of Tetstze, which stands about half-way between Kanagawa and Yedo, though not, we think, on the main road. The cortège of Europeans, on horseback, found within the temple enclosure two officers of the police establishment leading, and one bringing up the rear. The array of both man and horse in the case of these functionaries was the acme of Japanese dandyism the switch tails of the steeds they bestrode had been even tied up in long blue bags, and produced a killing effect! The gates were opened at the mandate of the senior functionary, and we sallied forth. Happy those who had provided themselves with English saddles and bridles-we, the unwise ones, will assuredly bear the memory of those brass-bound demi-peak saddles to our graves. There must be a marvellous supply of copper and zinc in Yedo, for everything is bedizened with these metals in some shape or other, and our spirited little ponies carried almost as much of it on their backs as of English flesh and bone. The stirrups alone must have weighed from thirty to forty pounds the pair they were solid masses of bronze, with a place for the foot, formed in the shape of the wooden shoes sometimes seen in use amongst the foreign peasantry, and covered with most beautiful inlaid work, in

white copper or silver. The saddle, shaped like a letter V, was handsomely and tastefully bound with bronze along the entire edge. Its original model may undoubtedly have been European, but (like that vermilion frigate) of those days long gone by, when an ambassador's suite would all have been cased in steel, and rendered thus invulnerable. Mr Hewskin, more wise than the rest, had brought his pillow out to ride upon, a precaution we would recommend to allfuture tourists using Japanese saddles. Our horse's head was rendered perfectly sword and bullet proof, from the quantity of brass and bronze about it; and, apart from the weight of these things, there was no questioning their beauty, and the wonderful skill and taste of the ornamental labour.

The sun was high, and the day as warm a one, we fancy, as is usually experienced at Yedo in the summer yet, thanks to the bracing effects of the climate and to the refreshing seabreeze, we were all able to bear exposure to the heat,-when at Shanghai, coup-de-soleil, cholera, or some other unpleasant concomitant, would assuredly have overtaken most of the party. The streets were somewhat bare, for it was the usual hour for the afternoon siesta, and, moreover, the appearance of the foreigners in this direction had been unlooked for: there were, however, people enough moving about to prove what a line of human beings we were passing through; and on our return in the evening, the throng was very great. The shops we saw were none of them of the first-class- these are only to be found in the heart of the city, and our road led to the suburbs. It appeared as if there were only two classes of dwellings - those of the shopkeeper, and the enclosures, rather than palaces, of the nobles. We had been told that there was an especial quarter set apart for the dwellings of the nobles; but their numbers or property evidently exceeded the prescribed limits, for in our ride we constantly went past a long extent of houses, and then came suddenly upon an interval of paling or wall which enclosed the establishment of some Japanese baron and his many retainers or serfs. Herds of these

fellows would collect, and stare at us, and pass their remarks, all of which we were told were made on the erroneous supposition that we were Chinese traders, people whom the Japanese hold in utter contempt. These serfs or slaves are the property of the noble, much in the same manner as in Russia, and are turned to similar profit. It was strange to find a nobleman living in the heart of a great city, surrounded by these retainers, and recalled to mind the feudal days of our own country, to which age, indeed, much that we saw in Japan carried back our thoughts. At a small bridge thrown over a canal or creek, which we crossed, the suburbs commenced, the boundary being merely conventional, for there was no change in the number of the houses and streets. Instead of shops, every house-and they were quite of the better order was a place of entertainment; tea-house and restaurant succeeded one another in endless numbers; and up the streets which branched off, all seemed of this same character. We were not long in discovering that this was the particular quarter in which all the courtesans of Yedo are by law obliged to reside,-not as a mark of disgrace, or because they are considered outcasts; for, far otherwise, the law acknowledges this course of life as the legitimate resource of the penniless. They are said to be the best educated and most polished women in Japan, and some of them have obtained historical eminence for their beauty and talents. Marriages are constantly made from amongst them, and it is the generally received opinion amongst the Japanese men that they make the best housekeep ers, and their society is not shunned by any one, whether ladies or gentlemen. The social errors of Japan, and elsewhere in the South Seas, it is, however, unadvisable to dilate upon in English publications; but it is unjust to measure their morality by the codes of Christian nations: suffice it that infidelity on the part of married women in Japan is almost unknown; but that polygamy, concubinage, and prostitution are the custom of the people. Those who have any curiosity on such a subject

will find, in the works of Kampfer and Siebold, much that is strange; but they should remark that both these writers relate details of customs which are startling to Europeans, without giving the causes which have brought about such a system; and that, deplorable as the morality of Japan may be, they have travelled to little purpose in the far East who know not of social conditions worse than this.

We now reached that portion of the suburb of Sinagawa where a ridge of hills, enclosed within a nobleman's grounds, pressed so close to the sea that only a single street was left winding by the shore, and at intervals upon the seaward side beautiful views of Yedo Bay and the distant shores of the eastern side of the gulf might be obtained. The tea-houses had turned to account the appearance of foreign ships in the bay, and verandahs commanding views of them had been thrown out, in which the Japanese gentlemen, travellers, or labourers, might rest, drink tea or sakee, and look through huge telescopes of native manufacture fixed upon stands. They were waited upon, not by nasty fusty waiters, redolent of bad cigars and hear's grease, but by brisk damsels, as modestly and quietly dressed and as neat-handed as any English Susan Nipper. The road was quite as broad as any high-road at home, in capital preservation, with on each side a pathway, separated from it by a drain. Here and there we came upon places where the sea at high tide touched one side of the road; wherever this was the case a stone-wall had been built towards the sea so as to keep the road level and prevent inundation. We passed a nobleman's grounds which would have done credit for their neatness and good keeping to any park in Britain; it was just at the junction of the detached suburbs with those directly connected with the city. Here was the position for a European colony; and all we can hope is, that when the time comes, in January 1862, that according to treaty the four Powers will be entitled to residence in Yedo, this nobleman may be induced to let or sell sites

for the houses of the mercantile community.

We met travellers in uncomfortable sedan-chairs, and they nearly all halted and sat staring at us, their knees doubled up to the chin, and looking disagreeably hot and dusty; and among the many pedestrians thronging the road-side, peasants were to be seen hastening back to their homes from market, carrying some purchase from the great city, and it was generally remarked that few of these good fellows were without some child's toy in their hands. We had noticed the number of children's toyshops, and these seemed proofs of how much love is expended upon the younger members of the community by these kind-hearted people. The girls as well as the boys appear to enjoy an equal share of regard. Groups of both sexes ran along the road-side enjoying the rare sight of such wonderful men as we were, while their grown-up countrymen laughed and cheered them on. We did not begrudge them the treat, nor that of shouting out that we were Chinamen; but our gallant police functionaries hurled words of thunder at them now and then, and looked terrible things, which would only for a minute awe the little monkeys into silence.

The day was fine, and naturally we broke into a canter as we came upon the first open piece of road at the southern limit of Yedo. The senior police functionary was got up for a walk, not for galloping! He tried all sorts of means to stop us, but failing, dropped astern in a dignified manner, in the society of our horse-boys, who also duly expostulated with us upon our unseemly conduct, and then burst out laughing at our ridiculous behaviour, and fell behind. For a mile, the immediate road-side was clear of houses; but small farms, and here and there a little hamlet, were seen. The ground was low on either hand, but rose at no great distance on the landward side into hills. The lowland was all under rice cultivation; and much as we had seen of the profusion of labour, the neatness of the fields, hedges, ditches, fences, and palings in China, it bore no comparison with what we now saw; and a point which we all hailed with

VOL. LXXXV-NO. DXXII.

delight was, that the process of fertilising the soil here did not poison the air, as it does everywhere there! The road carried us to another village of considerable extent, where functionary "Number Two" managed to persuade Lord Elgin that his horse required baiting, and that we, although only an hour and a half from lunch, required refreshment in a peach-garden. To the peach-garden we went, though that fruit was no longer procurable; but the place was prettily laid out with trees, grass, artificial lakes, bridges, and pleasant summer-houses, and verandahs. The establishment was under the management of or belonged to a lady, and as soon as "No. 2" functionary had swaggered about, and enlightened them as to the important positions Lord Elgin and he held, arrangements were made for refreshment. There being no chairs in Japan, we threw ourselves at full length upon the nice clean mats. Several low tables, just high enough for people seated cross-legged on the ground, were placed near, and then the hostess upon her knees, commencing with the Ambassador, presented each person with a cup of tea. She was a remarkably good-looking, lady-like woman-nothing could have been more graceful than her manner; and the posture of kneeling, accompanied by a low bow to signify prostration at one's feet, is the custom of the country, where every subordinate prostrates himself in the presence of his superior. This loving cup having been presented, she stood aside and directed her servants to place fruits and other refreshments before us; her teeth were blackened, and consequently she must be a married woman, though no husband appeared. Possibly she was a widow; but if so, she had decidedly reached that stage of widowhood known as that of mitigated woe in the mourning warehouses at home. We are undecided up to this moment whether to ascribe our being attended upon by the ugly handmaidens of the establishment to the matronly prudence of our good hostess alone, or to some villanous reasons of functionary "No. 2;' but there, away in the distance, we saw such pretty girls! The poor

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