We are all very much shocked at such a system, but the people directly interested do not appear to consider it irksome or inconvenient. Indeed, open espionnage, or a system of recording publicly every infringement of the rules of the states, must naturally bring about its own remedy, by people taking very good care not to break those laws and customs. On the other hand, the transmission of a series of reports to the head information office at Yedo, such reports being counter-checked in all directions, must, in the absence of a public press, parliament, or popular meetings, ensure that the abuse of power by an official, or the wrongs of private individuals, be brought to the notice of the Emperor and Council.[1] This system of report and counter-report, together with the careful inculcation of a high tone of honour amongst a proud nobility is the real safeguard of the Japanese people, and the secret of the Taikoon’s power. It is the want of the last of these two elements, perfect and truthful information, and probity in officials, which is the curse of the government of China.
The Japanese Government, such as we have lightly sketched it, has created, apart from a happy and contented people, one which is singularly winning upon the kind estimation of all foreigners who have visited them. Warm-hearted, loving, intelligent, and brave, the European missionary, merchant, and sailor, have all borne testimony to the love and interest they have awakened. “Of white complexion and gentle behaviour,” Marco Polo reported them to be, from Chinese authority, and ancient English writers of Queen Elizabeth’s time, state, “that the inhabitants of Japan show a notable wit, and incredible patience in suffering labour or sorrows. They take diligent care lest, either in word or deed, they should evince fear or dulness of mind, and above all are anxious not to trouble others with their cares or wants. Poverty with them bringeth no damage to the nobility of blood, and they covet, exceedingly, honour and praise. Though generally affable and kind, and in grave courtesy quite a match for a Spaniard, yet they will not allow an injury or insult to pass unpunished. They are very careful,” continues the chronicler, “in the entertainment of strangers, and make the very curious inquiry in even the most trifling affairs of foreign people, as of their customs, manners, and invention. Hospitable and generous, they detest avarice, and forbid gambling. They study martial feats and delight in arms, and the people generally are fair and comely of shape; but being moved to anger, especially in the heat of drink, you may as soon persuade tigers to quietness as them, so obstinate and wilful are they in the fury of their impatience.”
This is truly a high character, but word for word might we again, in our day, sum up the good inhabitants of Nipon as exhibiting the same traits; and we have merely to call attention to the interesting fact then recorded, to which late travellers again bear testimony. And that is the pleasing curiosity of the people, as to all the doings of their brother-dwellers upon earth, a trait quite as remarkable in the nobility as the lower orders, and accompanied by a most laudable desire to imitate and excel Europeans in their products and manufactures.
There is also chivalry—a sense of generous devotion whether it be to duty or to love—which marks them amongst Easterns, and leads us to hope for yet better things of Japan. Indeed their system of suicide, or “the happy dispatch,” as it is called, is merely a high sense of personal honour, misguided through lack of Christian teaching. We there see that a nobleman, or indeed a common Japanese, when he has lost his character, or failed in duty to the state, destroys himself, to save to his children and relatives his property and estates, and to expiate in the eyes of his sovereign the crime of which he may have been guilty. Hereafter we will tell how nobly converted Japanese men and women laid down their lives on behalf of Christianity, but we need only turn over the illustrations of their every-day books to feel more and more assured that the Japanese still hold dear all those attributes for which all writers of the olden time gave them credit, and that bravery, wit, and chivalry will be still found amongst the gallant sons and beautiful daughters of Nipon.
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A Japanese Beauty. (Fac-simile.
One glance at her eye,
And you lose your city;
Another, and you would
Forfeit a kingdom.—Japanese Verse.
- ↑ The Japanese nation is arranged under eight distinct clauses, their privileges, mode of living, dress, and even daily expenditure, being distinctly laid down in severe sumptuary laws. The classes consist of princes, nobles, priests, military men, professional or learned ones, merchants, and, lastly, artisans, or labourers. Occasionally, through wealth or merit, individuals are advanced to the class above that in which they are born; but to descend into an inferior one, is to forfeit claim to respectability.
