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world goes on just as safely as though the brewer's widow had never stirred from Streatham. So the little tempest in that little lake of society, which imagines itself the ocean, goes off in harmless thunder, and all the dreadful prognostications explode like squibs, leaving only a little smoke and smell of gunpowder; and there are as few irremediable blunders as there are infinite joys in this strange, self-important, self-conscious existence, which can scarcely with its biggest agonies disturb the common composure of nature for one day.

After this mighty matter is completed, however, the special interest departs out of the life of Mrs Piozzi. Happiness and content reduce her to the level of other ordinary people, and there is no second Dr Johnson to illuminate the scene and circumstances of her after life. At eighty, long after good Piozzi has followed Thrale to the grave, the vivacious old woman lives, as generous, as rash, as imprudent, as ever; getting in debt herself, but settling her little paternal estate, with the Italian villa which her Lombard husband had built, and which the two had christened, with an affectionate jumble of her Welsh and his Italian, Brynbella, upon her husband's nephew and adopted son, that the young man might be able to marry without waiting for her death; and rushing into correspondence full of the affectionate superlatives permitted by her age, becoming sufficiently fantastic now and then almost to warrant the silly imputation of renewed love-making, with the handsome young actor Conway, Her latest freak was a public ball given to celebrate her eightieth birthday, which she herself opened; and died not long thereafter, not without a cheerful seriousness and composure, having re-conquered a great part of the love and interest

which attended her early years, as perhaps indeed most people do who, with any genial spark in them at all, live till eighty, an age which at once disarms criticism, and leaves few contemporaries able to criticise.

To this great pre-eminence of years lived both these women, so strangely unlike each other, yet living in the same century, to a certain extent contemporaries, and belonging to phases of society which, though most distinct, touched each other. These outside circumstances are all that Mary Granville and Hester Thrale have in common. The one is the spotless princess of English domestic life, a woman whom we could scarcely believe to do wrong even if our eyes saw her do it; the other all imperfect and reprehensible, naturally to be found in all kinds of mistakes and mishaps, a universal woman of every country, possessing no such exemption. Neither of them have done anything worth preserving for half a century, for Mrs Piozzi's publications count for little more than Mrs Delany's wonderful embroideries and shell decorations; but their names and characters, their fresh and distinct individuality, are likely to exist until the eighteenth century is too far sunk in the mists of ages to leave any intelligence in its obsolete traditions. As yet they are only of the age of our grandmothers; and few of us know the venerable progenitrixes of our own blood half as well. We can produce no rule of fame as that which has sufficed to raise to this elevation these two characteristic women; yet there they shine, bright non-productives, possessors of a celebrity which neither genius nor labour has purchased. We do not venture to explain, but only to point out this female pre-eminence, which is in its way something more ethereal than actual fame.

VOL. XCI.-NO. DLVIII.

2 F

POLITICAL TRAGEDIES IN JAPAN.

THE accounts that more than three years ago reached England, describing the first experiences of the European missions which visited Japan, took the public completely by surprise. They would not have done so had the world generally been addicted to antiquarian research; for any one curious in early geographical discovery might have found every feature described by recent visitors accurately portrayed in the pages of Kampfer, Siebold, Thunberg, and many other Dutch writers, to say nothing of a whole library of Jesuit fathers. Since Lord Elgin's visit to Yeddo we have had a fair sprinkling of works on Japan; almost everybody who goes there writes a book: but as these travellers' observations are necessarily confined within the same limited range, and their experiences are almost identical, there is a monotony in their productions which is apt to become wearisome; and we are almost inclined to turn with relief to writers of the Kinahan Cornwallis school, whose minute accounts of their adventures in Japan are more likely to be amusing, as they are drawn from their own fertile imaginations, and a study of the old writers on Japan prosecuted in the British Museum. But even the old writers, though they tell us far more than the new, and their information is more to be relied upon, describe comparatively little of the singular country in which some of them have spent the best years of their lives; and no sooner do they get beyond the superficial features of the social and political system of Japan than their accounts begin to differ, and the more we compare and endeavour to reason out the theories they propound, the more mystified do we become. Everybody who has visited Japan since Xavier first set his foot upon it agrees up to a certain point, and then all becomes vague

and obscure. There is no doubt that there exists a spiritual and a temporal emperor-that the population are addicted rather to cleanliness than to clothes-that the country is pretty, the tea-houses seductive, the arts and sciences advanced, and that the jugglers can do the butterfly trick-that the women blacken their teeth and pull out their eyebrows, and that the men rip themselves up; these and other glaring characteristics, which it would be impossible to overlook, are descanted upon by every successive traveller; and excepting in the case of Mr Hodgson, whose facts are more interesting than his style, and whose actual experiences are more worthy of attention than his political opinions, we have not read a book in which the author did not, either consciously or unconsciously, repeat what had been published somewhere or other before.

We except Mr Hodgson, because he has had an opportunity of spending a year in the almost unknown northern island of Yesso, and has, moreover, picked up some information upon the state of political parties in Japan, which, if not absolutely correct, is at all events new; and which, considering the extreme difficulty of obtaining information, contains, probably, as large an admixture of truth as could reasonably be expected.

As the object of this paper is to afford some still fuller insight into the same subject, and as the writer has personally experienced the almost insurmountable obstacles which attend the pursuit of truth in Japan, it is not with any hostile spirit that these remarks are made, but rather to warn the reader against a too implicit credence in what is only given here under reserve. It is the result of much anxious investigation on the spot-the residue of a most extensive winnowing of lies

the best product that could be arrived at from a variety of conflicting information derived from different sources.

To know how heartbreaking is the attempt to arrive at any trustworthy account of the state of politics in Japan, it is necessary to have made the attempt in the country itself. Those from whom the following information was derived had devoted upwards of two years to acquiring it; and although the writer's own residence in the island, on two separate occasions, was limited to a few months, it may help to throw some light upon the singular and complicated events which have led to the late tragical episode at Yeddo. At the same time, so much is yet wanting to enable us to fill up the lacunæ which still exist, in order to a complete knowledge of the political system under which Japan is governed, that this sketch of it must be considered as imperfect, and still open to correction and amplification.

Perhaps as the English reader proceeds with this article, he will be disposed to consider any such caution as that hinted at above quite unnecessary, and point to the improbability of the facts narrated as the best reason why they should not be true. In this, however, he would be quite mistaken. All our experience in Japan hitherto has led us to believe that we have only succeeded in penetrating superficially into the mysteries of its form of government; and that, as we become better acquainted with the workings of its hidden springs, we shall discover a system of statecraft and political intrigue far more incredible than anything with which we have as yet been brought into contact either here or elsewhere.

When Lord Elgin went to Japan, now nearly four years ago, he was informed that the chief power of executive government was vested in the person of the Tycoon, or Temporal Emperor; and it was not until after he had concluded his treaty

with that august personage, that he learned that the Tycoon had died prior to the date of his visit, and that his successor had not been appointed. Still it was generally understood that, had his Majesty not been dead, he would have been perfectly competent to make a treaty, and that his Government were equally bound, as though he had been alive. His rank was stated to be second only to that of the Mikado or Spiritual Emperor, and his power absolute. Subsequent investigation has, however, cast considerable doubt upon this assumption. Not only is it now stated that the Temporal Emperor ranks fourth in the empire, but there seems to be a question as to how far some of the greater nobles are bound by his acts.

In order to understand the complex theory of Japanese government, we must revert to that period in the history of the country when its disorganised condition rendered it necessary for the reigning Mikado, who then combined in himself the offices of Spiritual and Temporal Emperor, to appoint a generalissimo, who was intrusted with the task of restoring order in the Japanese empire. This generalissimo was the celebrated Taiko Sama, who not only succeeded in reducing the rebellious nobles to obedience, but in installing himself in an office which was henceforth known as that of Siogoon or Tycoon-in other words, Temporal Emperor. This work he accomplished with the assistance of twenty-four of the princes who remained loyal to the Mikado. Those who were conquered were deprived of their territories, which were subdivided into upwards of three hundred smaller principalities, and held by feudal tenure, not from the Mikado, as of old, but from the Tycoon. In the course of time these increased and multiplied, and the landed aristocracy of Japan now number over six hundred, all holding of the Temporal Emperor as their superior. In addition to these are the titular nobility, all rejoicing

in the honorific Kami, and descending in a sliding scale to the holders of small offices about the court either of the Tycoon or of the greater nobles. The crême de la crême, then, of the Japanese aristocracy, is limited to the Tycoon himself and those twenty-four princes, who consider themselves his equals, who receive as he does the investiture of their rank from the Mikado, and who, as a general rule, govern their principalities with very little reference to the policy which may influence the Government at Yeddo. Of these princes the wealthiest and most powerful is the Prince of Kanga. His annual revenue is upwards of £700,000 a-year. He can bring into the field an army of 30,000 fighting men, and has a spiritual office which entitles him to rank next to the Mikado. Taiko Sama, on dying, left three sons, who are the founders of the families of Owari, Kewsew, and Mito. Out of these families the Temporal Emperor must always be chosen. Hitherto, except upon one occasion when a member of the house of Owari held the Tycoonship, the office has remained permanently vested in the family of Kewsew. It is said that, upon the death of a Tycoon, his successor is chosen by the twentyfour great families; their nomination is confirmed by the Mikado, from whom he receives his investiture. It will be observed that up to this period the family of Mito has been excluded from the office; and it was understood that it was in consequence of this, and with the view of propitiating the late head of the family, that the Mikado gave him a titular rank, which, while it carried with it no executive power, placed him next to the Prince of Kanga. It would appear from this that the Tycoon is really only the fourth man in the empire, though his government exercises some semblance of authority over every one in it except the Mikado himself. The allegiance of the highest in the land to the rule

of the Temporal Emperor seems to be partly for the sake of convenience, and partly because the skilfully devised constitution which Taiko Sama grafted upon the original institutions of the country, renders it almost impossible for them to emancipate themselves from its limited authority without a civil war, which would involve the whole nobility. The government of the Tycoon at Yeddo is in fact a piece of complicated machinery, constructed for the purpose of keeping a large and powerful aristocracy upon good terms with each other, as well as with the supreme Government; and, while it administers the internal affairs of the Imperial provinces, exercises a supervision over the rulers of those which are independent, and makes use of the powers vested in it to check any aggressive designs they might entertain towards one another. Theoretically an instrument in the hands of the Mikado, it is nominally swayed by the Tycoon, while it actually derives its existence and support from those whom it is devised to control. Thus, as we have already said, the Tycoon is chosen by the twenty-four grandees, but the Gorojio, or Council of State, is chosen by an assembly of 180 nobles, whose qualification consists in the enjoyment of a revenue of 500,000 kokous of rice, or about £35,000 a-year, or any income exceeding that amount. By this body are selected thirteen second, third, or fourth class Daimios or nobles, five of whom compose the first Council, and eight the second Council of State. No first-class Daimio would condescend to take an active part in the administration of affairs; and the highest offices of the State of Japan, as in America, are left to be filled by men of the lower orders. What other function the assembly of nobles may perform beyond choosing the men who shall govern the country-how far they discuss its internal policy-to what extent they guide or direct the action of the Gorojio,-we have not

yet been able to discover. The theory is, that every noble of Japan shall visit the Tycoon's palace daily, for the purpose of giving his advice if it should be required; but this is only a theory. Many of the nobles remain for years in their principalities, merely leaving the eldest son, who may be a child, or the wife, in Yeddo in hostage. The Prince of Satsuma is in the habit of manifesting his displeasure with the Government by remaining away from the capital; and so important are the countenance and influence of this powerful prince considered, that there is a Japanese proverb signifying that affairs are looking badly for the Tycoon, when two years pass without a visit from Satsuma. This family, with many others, is connected with that of the Tycoon by marriage. As a general rule, it may be assumed that the action of the great princes upon the Government at Yeddo is not necessary. Except on the occasion of the death of a Tycoon, everything goes smoothly enough. Each prince governs his own territory without interference, and lets the Tycoon govern his. There is, in fact, nothing to quarrel about; nor can any one individual entertain views dangerous to the others without risk of immediate discovery. In order to enlist the interest of this ultra-haughty aristocracy in the proceedings of the Imperial Government, it is necessary that the latter should transgress some fundamental law of the constitution, or outrage some traditional prejudice. This has been done by the treaty admitting foreigners into Japan; and hence it arises, that, for the first time within the last two centuries, the principal nobles have become involved in political intrigues at Yeddo of so serious a character as almost to threaten the country with a civil war; and that, since Commodore Perry's treaty of 1852, a series of tragedies has occurred in Japan unparalleled in these later days in the political history of the

Western world. It is due to the majority of those nobles who take a prominent part in politics, to remember that office is not their object. We have already shown that "place" is not the ambition of a Japanese Daimio, whose almost absolute position as the ruler of his own principality is greater and more independent than any that could be offered him at Yeddo. When these grandees condescend to meddle with politics, it is because some great principle is at stake, which, upon patriotic grounds, seems to justify an extraordinary interference with the machinery of government. It remains still to see how this abnormal action on the part of one section of the aristocracy will ultimately develop itself. In the mean time it is worthy of note that the only member of the nobility who has come forward as the leader of the hostile opposition is the only one who has a definite personal object to gain, and who is the solitary exception to that disinterestedness of purpose for which we have given credit to the rest of his class. The late Prince of Mito was, as we have said, a member of the Gosanghè-in other words, he was eligible to be elected Tycoon, as being the head of one of the three royal families. The fact that none of his ancestors had ever enjoyed this distinction doubtless contributed to his natural desire for so high a dignity; and he saw in the unpopular act of the Tycoon, who had violated the most sacred law of the great founder of the dynasty by admitting the foreigner into Japan, an opportunity of appealing to the patriotic sentiment of the nobility, and of enlisting their good offices in the event of a vacancy occurring on the temporal throne. Having, we are bound to suppose, found a propitious disposition to exist among the more exalted of his order, and especially supported by the powerful Shendai, he determined on creating the muchdesired vacancy; and the Tycoon, who had become odious in conse

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