whilst the Chinese have jealously excluded strangers from entrance into their country, and confined trade to a few ports, the Japanese, with greater wisdom and enlightenment, are fostering commerce with

us,

and encouraging the adoption of goods of English manufacture. Indeed, so great an admiration have they acquired for the English, that some of the rulers wish the nation to adopt the English language, and schoolmasters to teach English, as well as missionaries to instruct them in the Christian religion, who are gladly welcomed.

Not one of the least of the acts by which they show their confidence in the English, is their sending many young men of noble birth to be instructed in our English universities. From these facts it will be readily surmised that the Japanese are no rude, barbarous nation, such as are the native tribes of Africa and America. Descendants, most probably, of the Chinese, they have retained the mechanical skill, industry and civilization of that nation, whilst they have far outstepped them in the perfection of their laws. Of course intercourse with the English will be of inestimable benefit to the Japanese as a nation, for by it they will reap the fruit of many ages of toil and thought. The seed we may cast will fall on well-prepared ground, for the Japanese are willing to learn, which the Chinese are not. As the consequence of this, we may expect that the Japanese will be travelling in trains when the Chinese are still droning along in their palanquins, and that the Japanese will be studying the philosophy of Bacon and Locke and the systems of Newton when the Chinese are still lazily discussing the comparative merits of Chinese and English surgery, and sententiously repeating the proverbs of Confucius.

The accompanying engravings give two views of Yeddo, the capital of Japan. From the place south of the first porch, to the northern extremity of the enclosure of the great temple, all is overrun by the multitude, whose eager crowds form two regular currents, circulating in contrary directions under the skilful and silent direction of the police. Order so perfect, in the midst of such a mob, is impossible, except in such a town as Yeddo, where not only are there no carriages, but where the word of a magistrate suffices to shut out entirely from an extensive radius, and for a fortnight at a time, the use of horses and palanquins. Just fancy for a moment the commotion which would be caused if the Lord Mayor of London were to issue an order that no vehicle, except such as conveyed his guests, should approach within a radius of three miles from the Mansion House.

We fancy Englishmen would not submit to such a decree so readily as the Japanese do, but that a loud and general expression of feeling would be heard, and that his lordship would be speedily called upon to render an account of his stewardship.

But besides this general submission to law, no obstruction is seen. Repes limit the space reserved for each trader. Everywhere we find, at the appointed time, places for stopping and resting. The fair of Asaksa is quite a crowd, but it is interesting, inasmuch as it is a perfect microcosm of Japan. Here all classes meet on a perfect equality; here all special distinctions totally disappear. Gentlemen and officers walk indiscriminately among the lowest servants. Professional mendicants stand aside, each occupying the place assigned him by the pol.ce. Unfortunates covered with ulcers, poor wretches deprived of their legs, present themselves under the most pitiable aspects, some of them wearing no other garments than shreds of old mats. Disgust rather than pity is apparently excited in the breasts of the passers-by by these miserable objects, and few in number and small in amount are the alms bestowed.

We see here, too, the Yamabos, a race of mountain priests, who go from town to town carrying a portable chapel, selling rosaries, retailing charms, and giving medicinal recipes. They are fine stalwart men, dressed in a white tunic, and carrying a long, bent sabre and a copperknobbed walking-stick. Their daughters travel about with their fathers, begging for alms after the religious services, whilst their sons stop at home and keep house or serve as guides for travellers over the mountains.

There is very little variety in the meals of the common class of Japanese; rice and tea form their staple food. The Japanese equivalent for the London coffee-stall is found here, dealing out the neverfailing rice and tea to such as are obliged to take their meals away from home.

Stationery and booksellers' shops are those which draw the greatest number of purchasers. All the country people, of both sexes, like to supply themselves at the better paper envelopes and carte-de-visite manufacturers of the capital.

Pictures also are largely sold in the fair at Asaksa, and the picture trade generally deserves some notice. There are few countries where instruction is propagated so largely among the people by means of intuitive teaching as in Japan. Prints on various subjects are posted

on long strips of strong paper, which are preserved in rolls. They embrace every province of national activity, as anyone may judge from the following titles, taken at random from a library of rolls:'The Cultivation of Rice,' 'The Cultivation and Use of Cotton,' 'Mines and their Works,' 'The Mint at Yeddo,'' Fire Brigades in the Japanese Cities,' 'Arts and Trades,' each treated separately, and scores of other similar ones. And here we might learn a valuable lesson from the Japanese. We cannot praise too highly a system which tends to produce a general knowledge of the various arts and mɑnufactures amongst the people. Many thousands of English mechanics are entirely ignorant of every branch of labour except that which they themselves perform.

And how much better would it be if instead of regaling children on such absurd picture-books as the Ten Little Niggers,' &c., we provided them entertainment and instruction at the same time by means

of such prints as the Japanese use. A people who have created for themselves a source of such powerful and wholesome intuitive instruction will not stop at the surface, nor at certain deceptive appearances of our civilisation. What permits us to hope that they will learn, sooner or later, to know it in its essence is the fact that they have been able hitherto to resist the deleterious action of a vicious religion, which has no other part to play than to become the sordid accomplice of brutal passions. There are, indeed, some symptoms rife among the people which are of a serious, nay fatal, character. There is an abandoning of the primordial conditions of human existence-a seeking after the fantastic and the impossible and eager devouring of grotesque legends. Were these symptoms generalised they would cause us to fear for the future of the people of Japan. But, happily, there are also healthy tendencies, instinctive principles of resistance, social protective influences, and wholesome aspirations, which, whilst waiting for some more effective assistance, considerably limit the effects of the scourge.

We must not forget that Japan is still the slave of that mighty giant Budhism. This grotesque religion, delighting in mystery and horrors, throwing its protection over polygamy and slavery, and commending infanticide, is the greatest system on the face of the earth. It must number far over 480 millions of its votaries. Let us hope that ere long the barriers of prejudice may be altogether broken down in China and in Japan, and the true religion rapidly replace one so cruel and irrational.