Matters were brought to a climax by a rebellion fomented by the Portuguese. This proved the last straw on the back of the long-suffering Japanese. And under the bloody ruins of Simbarra the intriguing Portuguese were destroyed with priests and

converts.

The root cause of all these troubles was the attitude of the Portuguese clergy, who, both at home and abroad, as explained by the author of the Hulsean Prize Essay' (1850),

suffered themselves to be led astray by the attractions of party intrigues and prospects of political power, so as to look upon themselves as members of conflicting earthly kingdoms rather than of the Church universal; while the priesthood, perverted by the fatal temptations of ecclesiastical sway, and the influence of a materialised religion, united itself more and more with the secular spirit, instead of imparting to an erring world the benefits of pure Christianity.

And the author goes on to point out that

It was scarcely to be expected that Japanese officials should bestow any great attention on the exhortations of prelates who devoted all their powers to political intrigue, and did not scruple to assemble and conduct fratricidal armies; or that they should be able to account for the lamentable variance between the precepts and example of their would-be spiritual guides.

The dreadful massacre above mentioned occurred in 1640. By a remarkable coincidence, the same year witnessed one of the most notable events in Portuguese annals-the successful revolution by which the nation threw off the galling and detested yoke of Spain, and placed John, Duke of Braganza, on the long-vacant throne. Many years were destined to elapse, however, before Portugal recovered from the condition of utter impotence to which she had been reduced by the Spanish usurpation. Meanwhile the Dutch seized most of their Far-Eastern possessionsto be wrested from the Hollanders later on by Great Britain— with the result that the only possessions remaining in Portuguese hands at the present time in Eastern seas are the small island of Macao, off Canton, and the derelict city of Goa, with a small tract of territory on the west coast of India.

And what of the English? During the years succeeding the visit of Captain Saris in the Clove their attention was too much engrossed by troubles at home, culminating in the war between King and Parliament, to spare either the time or the means for safeguarding their interests in the Eastern seas; and when, towards the end of the seventeenth century, another vessel of the East India Company sought to reopen the factory at Firando,2

"Hirado, or Firando, a Japanese island in the Strait of Korea. It was the chief Portuguese settlement in the archipelago, and is noted for the missionary labours of Francis Xavier. The Dutch had a trading fort from 1609 to 1640 (Times Gazetteer of the World).

which had been closed during the troubles at home, the agents, though received with civility, were refused all trading facilities, the Japanese giving as the reason that the reigning King of England (Charles II.) was married to a daughter of the King of Portugal (Catherine of Braganza) whose subjects had recently been expelled from Japan.

A handful of Dutch merchants alone remained in Japan, confined under humiliating conditions on the island of Decima, off Nagasaki, where, by an edict of the year 1642, they had been ordered by the Japanese authorities to take up their abode, in succession to the Portuguese who had been recently expelled. On this confined space 'you will cease to observe the Sabbath,' so ran the mandate, and on all points be guided by the instructions you will receive from the lords of Firando.' The poor Dutchmen went tamely enough to their prison, and 'though the most enterprising seamen of that day,' wrote Captain Sherard Osborne, Japanese gold kobangs and copper bars reconciled them to the contumely they must endure, if they desired to share in those good things; and they bore it,' he adds, 'with all the phlegm and patience of their race, for two centuries.' And when later the English tried to reoccupy their factory and resume trade, the selfish Dutchmen, oblivious of their indebtedness to an Englishman (Will Adams) for having obtained first footing in the island kingdom, utilised such little influence as they could now boast of for the purpose of excluding their rivals.

Thus matters remained for nearly 200 years, until the arrival of the American naval mission in Japanese waters, and the resultant treaty of March 1854, followed by one with Great Britain in October, by which certain ports were opened to European commerce, and the hitherto hermetically sealed island kingdom rendered, once again, accessible for purposes of trade or travel.

And what of Portugal, to the domineering conduct and intrigues of whose priests and churchmen Europe was indebted for the isolation of Japan for nearly two centuries? When at length she emerged from the sixty years' captivity' the nation was a mere wreck of its former self. Gone was its fleet, swallowed up in the stormy Atlantic, with that of Spain, in the latter's futile attempt to impose its rule and religion, in the interests of the Papacy, on Great Britain; gone was its treasure, for the Portuguese had been 'bled white' in the promotion of Spanish ambitions. And, worse than all in the eyes of Orientals, gone was its prestige throughout the East. Impotence was to be the lot henceforward of the nation that had shown the way to the

* During the year 1918 a monument was erected by the Japanese Government to the memory of Will Adams, as a token of its appreciation of his services to Japan.

Golden East, and once had exercised lordship over vast territories and peoples, 'from which condition,' as a well-known native writer pathetically remarks,' she has never yet been able to raise herself.'

As an administrator of native races the disappearance of Portugal as a serious competitor for world power is scarcely to be deplored. The simple truth is that, in the endeavour to satisfy the national craving for dominion, she went too far; and when her king, Dom Sebastian (who had been taught by his pastors and masters 'that it was his duty to propagate Christianity by fire and sword, and, inflamed with that belief, invaded Africa, and perished with the flower of his kingdom in the mad crusade,' according to a Portuguese Secretary of State) subjected his kingdom to a greater strain than it could stand, the whole imposing fabric of FarEastern possessions built up by the enterprise, skill, and daring of Portuguese seamen in times past, collapsed. No other result was to be expected when a nation numbering under two millions aspired to rule huge continents.

Nor were the pro-consuls sent out by the mother-country to govern overseas possessions invariably of a type to command the love and esteem of the native races entrusted to their care. It is notorious that many colonial governors and administrators displayed a marked incapacity for moulding and influencing for good, or even civilising, the vast populations committed to their charge. It was the result of wide experience of the methods of Portuguese colonial administrators, and observation of the consequences arising therefrom, in times past, that moved that able officer, the late Captain Sherard Osborne, to wrath :

One can only rejoice in the decay [he wrote indignantly] and pray for the total annihilation of a people who, like the Portuguese, so sadly abused the mission the Almighty called upon them to fulfil, when to them were first given the keys of the Golden East, its docile millions, and untold riches.

The views of European statesmen in regard to their responsibility for the treatment meted out to native races by officials sent to administer colonial possessions have altered widely since the wild, rough times to which Captain Sherard Osborne refers in this crushing indictment; and much greater care is now exercised in the choice of administrators. The Portuguese, for example, in recent years, have entrusted the care of their extensive African possessions to extremely able men, who carry out their duties in a manner that would reflect credit on any parent State. Let it not be supposed that our own colonies were formerly administered in accordance with enlightened modern standards. One has only to dip into Pepys' Tangier Diary at the time when that rough and brutal soldier, Percy Kirke, commanded the ill-fated fortress, to learn something about the iniquities, not

only tolerated, but openly practised, there. We read of an unfortunate Jew and his wife who came from Spain to escape the Inquisition, and had the misfortune to offend the Governor, who sent them back, ' swearing they should be burnt.' On their return they were both taken to the Inquisition and burnt. 'Which shows Kirke to be a very brute,' is the diarist's comment. Macaulay tells us that, though Kirke flogged the soldiers with merciless severity, he indemnified them by permitting them to sleep on watch, reel drunk about the streets, and to rob, beat, and insult the merchants and civilians.' Kirke appointed one Roberts as parish reader, 'who will swear, drink, etc., as freely as any man in the town,' according to Dr. Ken, who accompanied the diarist to Tangier. The reason for this piece of favouritism was because he is brother to Mrs. Collier, Kirke's mistress.' Small wonder that Pepys and Dr. Ken should have a great discourse on the viciousness of the place, and its being time for God Almighty to destroy it,' like another Sodom or Gomorrah. The morality

of the place must have got to a very low ebb when a man of the world like Pepys could write to a friend at home: With sorrow and indignation I speak; it is a place of the world I would last wish to send a young man but to hell.'

International jealousies survived in the Golden East to the very last, and were often fanned into flame on the slightest provocation as means of tripping up a trade rival. Thus we find Lord Macartney, who conducted an embassy from the East India Company to the Emperor of China, in 1792, complaining to the Directors of the hostility of the Portuguese. In a letter, dated 'Canton, Dec. 23rd, 1793,' he wrote:

It was not natural to expect that the Portuguese, whom we take every occasion to assist and protect in Europe, should suffer their religious bigotry and local jealousy to operate upon their conduct to our prejudice.

As it was in the beginning of European intercourse with the once 'Golden' East, so it is at the present time. He would be a bold man, indeed, who-in view of the disgraceful scenes witnessed at the last Olympic Sports-ventured to assert that international jealousies were dead and buried.

So far as Portugal is concerned, the fates have exacted a terrible retribution for her treatment of the docile millions' over whom she once claimed dominion, for the conduct of her representatives towards Will Adams in 1600, and for their behaviour to a British embassy in 1793. Portugal has passed through some bitter trials since those far-distant times. But nations, like individuals, are slow to profit by experience.

TEIGNMOUTH.

THE VIVISECTION OF DOGS

Of all domesticated animals the dog confessedly ranks highest as the special friend of man. First employed for purposes of obvious utility, he took that place in ages long preceding those of which we have historical record, and has filled it ever since. Long before the cat appeared at our firesides, before monkeys, parrots guinea-pigs and their like became familiar objects in our dwellings, man learned to value, to appreciate, and to love the sovereign moral qualities of his fidus Achates, his alter ego, I might almost say his twin soul, the incomparable dog.

That being so, it becomes highly important and even necessary to examine and consider judicially from every point of view the continued use of this noble creature for those numerous laboratory purposes which are covered by the single term ' vivisection': all the more pressingly that we know this practice to have acquired enormous vogue, daily increasing, throughout the whole civilised world. 'Vivisection' is a revolting word, and denotes many diverse practices, associated in the main with unspeakable cruelties. It may be succinctly defined as the exploitation of animals, whether sub-human or human, in the supposed interests of science, whether for the advancement of knowledge or for tests, chemical, physiological, or psychological. In the great majority of cases the sub-human creatures are involved; but it is by no means restricted to these. Experimentation has been extensively resorted to for children, women and men, very largely in Germany, America, France and Italy, to a smaller extent in this country.

I think we shall all agree that, so far as humanity and kindness are concerned, the dog presents an enormously strong claim to entire exemption from vivisectional practices in any of their forms. But science declines to recognise such considerations, however forcible. It-or at least its most accredited devotees and professors-proclaims with no uncertain sound that such a course is quite impossible; that, if this were generally adopted, human progress in the acquisition of knowledge would be entirely barred. I propose now to examine the evidence on which these assertions -which I hold to be altogether erroneous-are based, consider