We copy the printing of the official document. If the copy is correct, the figures were not even added correctly.

The Japanese could do nothing with importunities, even insults, like this, and a stoppage in the trade of the port was the result. When the balderdash was referred to Lord John Russell, he had it communicated to the East India and China Association, with the desire that "the whole weight of the commercial influence in the country may be brought to bear upon a state of things which is at once discreditable to the British name, and incompatible with the prosecution of trade in Japan." The Secretary of the Company was instructed (February 16, 1860) to acknowledge the receipt of the communication, and gave in behalf of the Association a very calm concurrence with Lord John Russell's views of the case, in expressions like this: "There can be no doubt that all associations in England, and houses of business, will impress upon their correspondents that a satisfactory commerce can only be carried on by mutual good-will and forbearance." How much Messrs. Telge and Eskrigge are likely to be improved by such advice, the reader can judge; but we trust that the rebuke afforded by the publication of the transaction may make all parties more careful and more gentlemanly.

On Commodore Perry's second visit to Japan, one of the interpreters was accompanied by a Chinese assistant, from Hong Kong, whose journal of the trip was afterwards translated and published in the Hong Kong "Overland Register and Price Current." The document is considered authentic, and is reprinted in the appendix to the official account of the Japan Expedition. In the course of this journal the Chinese describes his intimacy with a Japanese gentleman "of an ingenious nature and much learning," to whom he had lent some treatises of his own upon subjects connected with the existing Chinese insurrection. The Japanese returned these papers with some remarks of his own, in which, after saying that his ancestors had cut off Japan from foreign intercourse "because the ignorant were led astray by the desire for gain," he gives his views as follows on the subject of international inter

course:

"The ways of Heaven are great. It nourisheth all things in the

universe. Even among the dark countries by the icy sea, there is not an individual who is not a child of heaven and earth, not one who is not made to love his fellows and be friendly with them. On this account the sages embraced all men with a common benevolence, without distinction of one from another. The principles for mutual intercourse all over the globe are the same; propriety, complaisance, good faith, and righteousness. By the observance of these a noble harmony is diffused, and the heart of heaven and earth is abundantly displayed.

"If on the contrary commerce is conducted merely with a view to gain, quarrels and litigations will spring from it, and it will prove a curse instead of a blessing. Against such a result my ancestors were profoundly anxious. Looking thus at the subject, the one topic of intercourse, it is the means by which people exchange the commodities which they have abundantly for those which they have not, and one nation succors the distresses of another; its propriety is plainly indicated by Providence, and peace, harmony, and good feeling are its true results. Yet if gain-gain-be what is sought for by it, it will only develop the lusts and angry passions of men, and there will be a melancholy termination to what may have been begun under good auspices. It is but a hair's breadth which separates those different results; for give selfishness the reins, and righteousness is instantly merged in the desire of gain..

"From ancient times till now, for hundreds and thousands of years, confusion and disorder, the rise and fall of states, recourse to arms and words of peace, all have been determined by this. Whenever nations agree to carry on intercourse together, they should speak clearly on this point of righteousness, and then let them exercise their soldiers and discuss the subject of war, that they may be prepared to inflict any punishment which Heaven demands. No sovereign of any kingdom should be unprovided for this.

"It happens, however, that when peace has long prevailed, these important matters are slighted, and thence comes the decay of states. But in our country the due precautions for safety have been well attended to. Our soldiers have been trained; the art of war has been discussed; guns have been cast; ships have been built day after day, and month after month, for many years, and now our troops are like those of the ancient heroes T'ang and Woo. It is in this way that we have secured the continuance of our peace. If we had not done so, some nefarious ministers or powerful thieves might have arisen to excite confusion and to begin to plunder, and we should be unable to punish them. All over the globe the strong destroy the weak, and the great swallow VOL. LXIX. 5TH S. VOL. VII. NO. I. 11

the small, as if societies of men were like collections of tigers and wolves. God, by his spiritual pervasion, however, sees with a parent's heart how his children impose and strive with one another. Must he not be grieved? must he not be moved to pity?"

With the opening remarks of this sensible, if not very epigrammatic, Japanese gentleman on the true ends of international intercourse, we so fully concur, that we should be willing to leave the subject without another word, if we supposed that either our own countrymen or his would act upon the principles he lays down. His military views we give, that the reader may see how Japanese statesmen regard their own position. It is of course not yet time to expect a really disinterested commerce; but in the dealings of races as well as men it is already admitted that honesty is the best policy, and we trust that as high a character as possible may be impressed upon this trade in its commencement.

Had we space remaining, we should like to enter into a brief examination of the actual relations of our commerce with Japan, and the articles which are now its food and basis. We must now content ourselves with saying, that although the materials of trade are as yet few, and for a time American capital in this trade will be employed rather in exchanging Japanese products for those of China and Batavia, and supplying the wants of our own whalers and other vessels in those seas, than in any very large direct interchange of our productions for those of Japan, yet there are indications that this may be brought about. Such an interchange is to be developed, and not forced. It will be produced by a gradual inroad upon the habits of the people, rather than by any material alteration in the constitution of the empire, which if suddenly made would be little to be depended upon. It was the people, and not the princes at Loo Choo and Formosa, who were willing to indicate the coal regions, and interest themselves in making them available; and it will be the prospect of comfort, or elegance, of greater cheapness, or of greater splendor, which will introduce our fabrics into Japan, and not the decrees of a Tycoon, or the salutes of a Commodore. We trust that the recent Embassy will carry home tidings of our good-will, if not of our good taste, which will hasten and perhaps help the establishment of a truer and more useful intercourse.

Is it asked what we want, practically, for these results? We want young men who are willing to emulate the merchant princes of the flowery time of New England enterprise. We want rivals for the fame of Thomas Handasyd Perkins among those who are gone, and William Sturgis, and others who might be named, among the living, who found a romance in commerce, when it could be carried into new fields, which required no excitement from duplicity or concealment. The pride of a new enterprise is, that it is open to the world, but that we have ourselves undertaken it. If there is to be any gratification to American pride to follow from the very successful American treaty with Japan, it must come from the fact, that, opening this new mart to all nations, we know best how to avail ourselves of the new road to wealth, to influence, to human improvement, that we have made. That we really achieve this can only come from a frank, high-toned, open commerce with our few friends. Commerce in goods, commerce in ideas, and, most of all, commerce in good purposes and wishes, it must be, but it must be frank, open, and mutual, or it will certainly amount to nothing. The trade was stopped, -is substantially closed now,- because a few traders saw that gold coin was the cheapest commodity to buy and ship, although the sale of it and the exportation of it were prohibited by Japanese law. Like children who do not understand the game that they are playing, those who represent our merchants have snatched at the counters with which the game was to be played, and, so far as their power lies, have put an end to the game itself. But it is not so that the end is to be made to the matter. If high-minded men, in a high-minded way, men with young hearts and old heads, will take charge of the undertaking, it cannot be that a sympathy has been awakened for nothing between the thirty millions of Japan and the thirty millions of this country. Our only advice is, Be true, be liberal, and remember that it is only from small beginnings we have ever found large results.

*

REVIEW OF CURRENT LITERATURE.

THEOLOGY.

THIS journal has already borne its testimony in relation to the new interest in the Unitarian Controversy, which has given fame and tone to so much of our later theological literature. Without going into this controversy now at greater length, we simply refer in passing to a few of the recent publications bearing upon it. Dr. Lamson's able and scholarly résumé of the early Church testimony on the subject of the Trinity we have already noticed (from advanced sheets), though less fully than its value and merit might justify; and we have now simply to chronicle the fact of its publication. The most interesting record of the controversy, still recent, is in the neat and compact volume † which records the varied and personal phases of the debate, -a volume which will always be interesting, from its variety of style, its general ability, and the fresh and lively tone given by the sudden revival of popular attraction in a familiar theme. And, unpretending as it is in appearance, and popular or even temporary in the aim of its publication, it will be found to have permanent value, from its clear and authentic restatement in its critical portions of sundry controverted facts, as well as for the literary and rhetorical merit of other portions. Its chief interest, however, is as a chapter, brief, unique, and complete, in the theological history of New England.

To this record we add two small volumes of Sermons or Lectures, prepared to meet the special demand upon the Unitarian pulpit for a distinct statement of the points at issue. That of Dr. Farley is a pretty full course of discussion upon the field of controversy in general, open between the Unitarians and their opponents. The substance of it was given, in the main, extemporaneously,—an argument from a written brief, — and has been written out and printed to meet the wish of the congregation that listened to it. Its value is necessarily that of clear, distinct, and forcible statement, rather than of critical research and original lines of philosophy or argument. Its point of view is substantially that of "Old School" or Scriptural Unitarianism; its spirit, reverent and devout; and its argument, addressed to those who will welcome a statement of positive Christian belief, disengaged from the perplexities of the traditionary creeds. Mr. Hale's § is a brief course of five short Sermons, of which the purpose is to set forth as many points of Christian doctrine, in connection with the existence and sphere of a positive, instituted Church. Its spirit and doctrine are summed up in the following statement (p. 68): —

*The Church of the First Three Centuries. By ALVAN LAMSON, D. D. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.

†The New Discussion of the Trinity, containing Notices of Prof. Huntington's recent Defence of that Doctrine. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.

Unitarianism Defined. A Course of Lectures by F. A. FARLEY, D. D. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.

The Elements of Christian Doctrine and its Development. Five Sermons by EDWARD E. HALE. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.