N the 31st of March, 1894, it was just forty years since Commodore Perry signed the first American treaty with the Japanese, and thus "opened" Japan after a period of 250 years of an inclusive and seclusive policy. It was in 1853 that Perry first reached the shores of Japan; and on July 8th of that year, he dropped anchor in Yedo Bay. It was the 14th of the same month when President Fillmore's letter was formally delivered to the representatives of the Shogun ("Tycoon"). At that time Perry declared that he would return for a reply, "probably in April or May;" and a few days later the American fleet weighed anchor and left the waters of Yedo Bay.

The time of waiting was spent by the American squadron in Asiatic waters, chiefly off the coast of the Loo Choo Islands and China. Not long after, occurred the death of the Shogun-a calamity which was made a pretext for delay in the consideration of the President's letter and an excuse for requesting Commodore Perry to postpone his return to a much later date, so as not to create "broil" or "confusion," as the Japanese expressed it. The statement of the Japanese Government in this matter was as follows:

"That this event, according to Japanese laws and customs, makes necessary the performance of many and continuing ceremonies of mourning, and extensive

arrangements with respect to the succession to the throne; that during the period of mourning no business of any importance can be transacted; that the letter of the President of the United States can only be taken into deliberation when the time of mourning is over; that previous thereto the opinions upon the subject have to be obtained from all the governors (lords) in Japan; that for that purpose the governors have to repair to Yedo in succession; that all that will take much time."

Commodore Perry, thinking this a mere ruse to delay negotiations, was not at all deterred from the prosecution of his plans; and, in fact, fearing that the Russians might work in ahead, set out for Japan even earlier than the time he had given. It was thus on Lincoln's birthday that the American fleet of three steam-frigates, four sloops-of-war and two store-ships again entered the Bay of Yedo. Two or three weeks were consumed in fruitless con ference concerning the place of meeting. Commodore Perry insisted that "agreeably to the customs of all countries," he should be received at Yedo, which he supposed was the capital of Japan, while the Japanese, on the other hand, emphatically asserted: "You cannot be received at Yedo." One conference between American officers and Japanese officials took place on February 22d, which the Japanese, "perfectly acquainted with the name of the great

father of our country," desired to "participate in celebrating," when the salute should be fired. Finally, on March 1st a compromise was effected in the choice of Yokohama, just opposite the anchorage of the American fleet, as the place for negotiation.

The first conference concerning a treaty was held on the 8th of March in the so-called "treaty-house," constructed for this very purpose. The Japanese Government was represented by four Commissioners: Hayashi, Daigaku-no-Kami (Prince, or President, of the University); Ido, Prince of Tsu-shima; Izawa, Prince of Mimazaki; and Mr. M. Udono. Of these, the scholarly Hayashi was Chief Commissioner. The American Government was represented by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, attended by officers, interpreters and Secretary.

It is scarcely advisable or profitable to follow out the details of the numerous interviews in which American pertinacity and dignity were arrayed against Japanese slowness and formality; but it may be interesting to note one or two incidents.

The death of one of the mariners of the "Mississippi" necessitated the selection of a place of interment. The Japanese at first insisted that the body must be sent to Nagasaki for burial; but when Commodore Perry objected and threatened to bury the body, without permission, on a neighboring island, they finally consented to allow interment in a spot adjoining one of the temples of Yokohama. Here, on March 9th, the sailor's body was buried, "with all the forms of the English Church service," and also, after the Americans had retired, with the forms of the Buddhist service. Around the grave of this American was constructed, by the native authorities, a neat inclosure of bamboo.

It must have been a very interesting

occasion when the Americans exhibited before the Japanese the presents from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan. These included agricultural implements, firearms, a locomotive, tender and passenger-coach, and a mile of magnetic telegraph. The railroad and telegraph in operation excited the greatest interest. The railway train, one fourth size, was put in motion on a circular track. Perry's account says:

"The Japanese were not to be cheated out of a ride, and as they were unable to reduce themselves to the capacity of the inside of the carriage, they betook themselves to the roof. It was a spectacle not a little ludicrous to behold a dignified mandarin (sic!) whirling around the circular road at the rate of twenty miles an hour, with his loose robes flying in the wind. As he clung with a desperate hold to the edge of the roof, grinning with intense interest, and his huddled-up body shook convulsively with a kind of laughing timidity, while the car spun rapidly around the circle, you might have supposed that the movement somehow or other was dependent rather upon the enormous exertions of the uneasy mandarin than upon the power of the little puffing locomotive, which was so easily performing its work.”

Of the result of the repeated conferences a Japanese uses the following expressions: "After many evasions and equivocations, deliberations and delays, invitations to banquets and exchanges of presents, at last, on Friday, the 31st of March, the formal treaty was signed." Not inappropriately, therefore, was March 31, 1893, chosen as the day for the dedicatory ceremonies of the Ho-o-den, or Phoenix Palace, which Japan presented to Chicago, the Phoenix City, to remain on the Wooded Island.

The following summary of the treaty is

I. Peace and friendship.

II. Ports of Shimoda and Hakodate open to American ships, and necessary provisions to be supplied them.

Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Sweden and Norway, Peru, Hawaii, China, Korea, Siam, and (on terms of equality) with Mexico in 1888.

In 1868 came the Revolution, caused,

thereof not to be refunded.

IV. Americans to be free as in other countries, but amenable to just laws.

V. Americans at Shimoda and Hakodate not to be subject to restrictions; free to go about within defined limits.

VI. Careful deliberation in transacting business which affects the welfare of either party. VII. Trade in open ports subject to local regulations.

VIII. Wood, water, provisions, coal, etc., to be procured through Japanese officers only. IX. Most favored nation clause.

X. United States ships restricted to ports of

forces, but at least accelerated by the contact with foreign nations. This revolution accomplished the overthrow of the military despotism of the usurping Shoguns, and restored the real authority to the hands of the Emperor.

The history of Japan since the Revolution has presented to the looker-on a series of kaleidoscopic views, rapidly changing and eliciting great admiration. The progmade in in mercantile, commercial,

ress

stress of weather.

XII. Ratifications to be exchanged within eighteen months.

When this treaty had been signed, it was at once dispatched, in charge of Commander H. A. Adams, to the United States. It was promptly ratified by the Senate, and then carried back to Japan. The exchange of ratification was accomplished on February 21, 1855, and on the following day, Washington's birthday, Commander Adams, on the "Powhatan," left Shimoda. And thus, as it has been written, "our new and, as we trust, enduring friendly relations with Japan are thus associated, in date at least, with the name of WASHINGTON."

The treaty with the United States was followed in the same year by a convention with the British, with whom the formal treaty was not made till 1858; and similar privileges were gradually granted to other countries, as follows: Russia, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, German Customs

history that it need not even be outlined here. One writer says: "History does not record another instance where changes of such magnitude ever occurred within so short a time." Another writes: "It is too little to say that, during the last half dozen years, Japan has made more history for itself than in the preceding two and a half centuries of its own annals. It has exhibited transformations, the like of which have required ages to accomplish in any other land." In general progress Japan, having left China far behind, has also stepped out ahead of Russia.

It only remains, after having thus reviewed the circumstances of the negotiation of Commodore Perry's treaty, to inquire whether it is just and right that the restrictions of those times should stand now; whether the progress made by Japan during forty years are to count for nothing. It was reasonable then, and even later, when the new nation had only just emerged

from a condition of absolute despotism, that the property and lives of foreigners should not be put in jeopardy before magistrates who knew not the elements even of law according to its modern developments. But in 1894, under a constitutional government with representative institutions; with excellent coinage, postal, telegraph and railroad systems; with the rapid spread and wide diffusion of knowledge through schools and the press; with elaborate laws and codes modeled after Occidental fashion, and lawyers and judges educated in Occidental fashion, and lawyers and judges educated in Occidental methods; with a large measure of freedom of thought, speech and religious belief-foreigners are not amenable to the law of the country in

which they reside. It is "merely justice" that the Japanese laws should have jurisdiction over all persons of whatever nationality residing in Japan, and also that tariff autonomy be given to the Japanese Government. To Japan "let justice be done, though the heavens fall." And, as the United States was the first to open that country; has always shown its sympathy and given its assistance in every possible way; was the only nation that returned to Japan its share of the Shimonoseki Indemnity, and is Japan's near neighbor across the Pacific;-so now it should be first to undo the great wrong, and should render its most powerful assistance in freeing Japan from the thraldom of the treaties.

RAM'S HORN.

remark.

A face that cannot smile is like a lantern without a light.

It is hard to find a man who does not put the blame for his misfortunes upon his wife. The old man is a drunkard because the

A tear in heaven would be as strange as a hosanna in hell.

Knock down a liar and you hit the devil square in the face.

Every man makes the world either richer or poorer by what he gives to it of himself.

Many a man who talks nice in church will go right home and find fault with his wife. Some fiddlers can play a tune on one

of character is woven.

No amount of hair-oil will make ideas

grow in an empty head.

It is much easier to love some people than it is to agree with them.

If the devil had to work without a mask he would never leave the pit.

dance.

If all the devils were cast out of some folks, there wouldn't be hardly enough left to look at.

When we have once tasted the bread of life, the best the world can offer seems to be all crust.

When some men get religion, the very next bone they give to their dogs will have more meat on it.

The reason so many Christians are lean in-soul is, so few of them hunger and thirst after righteousness.

The man who does no good with his money, helps the devil every time he puts a dollar in his pocket.

It often looks as though the devil's first choice of places in the church is to be on the music committee.

HERALD AND PRESBYTER. Persons who are quick to detect fault are generally slow to appreciate merit. It does not require very much heart or brain to criticise. To be appreciative of merit of merit requires both.

Boston tried the experiment of excluding every form of indelicacy from the stage, but the experiment ended in pecuniary fail

ure.

The moral tone of the theater is becoming lower and lower. The playhouse has become the most defiant violator of Sunday laws in our cities, and is the school of bad morals, of lust and of crime. The face of the Christian should be set like flint against it.

We saw the other day an advertisement of a new contrivance for saving the shoes of bar-keepers. It is said that the drippings from the counter and bottles rot the leather so rapidly that the preservation of the shoes becomes a very serious question on the part of these men. And yet this poisonous, fiery, leather-destroying liquor is handed out to men to go into their stomachs, to eat out the life and to start the fires of eternal perdition.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL TIMES. There are two ways of appraising one's self-if such a proceeding were in itself

profitable. One says, "I weep over a drama, music lifts me up, I cannot contemplate the sorrows of my fellows without agony." Another says, "I will act my part now, I will quench this evil passion; with my own hand I will draw out this neighbor from his Slough of Despond; I will do this kind deed to this very enemy." Better do good than feel good.

Character is shown in what one believes, rather than in what one disbelieves. It takes less of a man to sneer than to praise. Trust is a higher attainment than doubt. Even hatred of evil is no credit to a man who does not love goodness, and show his love for it. Yet how often we see a man seeming to pride himself on the number of his disbeliefs, and on his hostility to things which he dislikes! Being positive and earnest in support of something which one deems worth living for, is a surer sign of high manhood than being opposed to forty forms of evil as he sees evil.

To be is more than to know. How to study is of less importance than how to live. The main question with every man is, How can I have within me a life that is worthy of me, and that will enable me to learn and to teach the lessons which need never be unlearned or untaught? That question is answered by the words of our Lord in his prayer to his Father for his loved ones: "This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ." Union with Christ is life and knowledge and influence.

Progressive movements are not led by majorities. The conception, the initiative, the forward lead, must come from an individual, or from a small minority. This is as true in educational matters as in any other sphere of life. As The School Journal well says: "No body of men are so skepti