THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 88, 11 September 1852, Page 8

THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN.

(From the Times.) The empire of Japan has long remained a sealed book to the various nations of the civilized world. The rulers of that rich and populous country have for a long period continued to act on maxims of exclusiveness so complete as to put even the policy of the Court of Pekin to shame. There is but one European people —the Dutch—with whom they have consented to hold the most modified intercourse ; and that intercourse has been limited to the admission of two ships annually from Batavia into the port of Nangasaki. The value of both cargoes is said to amount to about 300,000 dollars. We have lying before us an account current of the Dutch consignments and returns for a particular year. We find the imports into Japan consist of sugar, tin, cotton thread, black pepper, cloves, seed cloves, lead, sapanwood, Patna chintz, cloths, woollens, camlets, and a few minor articles of the like description. The return cargo is in the main made up of copper and camphor. In former days Japanese exports included timber, wheat, rice, cotton, silk, ambergris, &c. Nor has the rigid policy of exclusion been applied only to the nations of the western world. All eastern people, with the single exception of the Chinese, have been put under the ban of the Japanese empire. Ten Chinese junks are annually admitted into the port of Nangasaki, as a set-off against the two Dutch ships from Batavia. But for these trifling exceptions, as far as the rest.of the world is concerned, the empire of Japan might as well have no existence. It is a fair question how far any tribe or race of human beings possesses the right of excluding the rest of mankind from all participation in the benefits to be derived from an extensive and beautiful region. That it abounds with mineral and vegetable productions, and is admirably adapted for carrying on commercial intercourse with advantage to the inhabitants and profit to the rest of mankind, may not affect the properties of the problem, but at least it quickens our desire for a solution. Is this right of exclusion founded on reason or on force ? If on reason, we should be curious to see the arguments by wdiich it can be maintained. If the right of exclusion is simply the right of force, why, let those who appeal to such a principle, be prepared at all times to make it good. They may feel well assured that, some time or other, their pretensions will be put to the test. In any case, they can lay little claim to sympathy. They have, by their own acts, put themselves out of the pale of the great brotherhood of nations. They have refused all aid to others ; how can they ask it for themselves.

The Tartar dynasty had long contrived to exclude the world from any but the most humiliating intercourse with China. That pretension has been set at rest for ever by the operations of the British forces. Now it would seem the term of civilized exclusion from Japan is at hand, although, happily, we are not in this instance to be the executioners. The expedition is to be undertaken by the United States. If carried out in a spirit of humanity and sound policy, without any unnecessary waste of life, and under the full impression that the agents of the Government, and not the great mass of the population are in fault, Commodore Perry will be backed with the sympathies of all European nations. The enterprise is undertaken by the Government at Washington, and one of the best officers on the Navy List of the United States has been appointed to the command. The squadron will consist of the Susquehannah steam frigate, which is- now cruising in the eastern waters, and of the steam frigates Mississippi and Princeton; a frigate, a sloop of war, and a store ship. It is stated that the greatest efforts are being made in the New York navy yard to get the expedition ready for instant service; indeed, by a comparison of dates, it is probable that Commodore Perry may have left New York already with his squadron for the seas of Japan. The force to he employed is amply sufficient for the purpose. The officers intrusted with the command can have little difficulty in dictating their own terms both at Nangasaki and Jeddo, with such a power at their disposal. An expedition against Japan is a much simpler affair than our own operations in China. We are not indeed, sufficiently aware of the internal politics of the country to know whether or net the Emperor of Japan has so much to dread from his own subjects, in case ot reverses, as his Celes-

tial cousin at Pekin. The Japanese are undoubtedly a more military nation than the Chinamen ; but it is not likely they can offer any effective resistance against the howitzers and rocket-tubes of the United States'squadron. Above all, the operations can be mainly conducted without quitting the seacoast. The surveys of the Nangasaki waters have been very carefully made. The United States whaling ships are intimately acquainted with the navigation along the eastern shore of Japan, and so through the Straits of Sangara, which divide Niphon from Jeso. Whatever else of this kind may be necessary is easily to be accomplished by the armed boats of the expedition. Of Japan we ourselves know little or nothing. Our ignorance is in some measure attributable to our own neglect. The last English ship that visited Nangasaki was the " Samarang," on which occasion, if the testimony of Mr. Midshipman Marryat, is to be credited, the Japanese instantly ran up a number of chintz and coloured cotton forts, in the old Chinese style. Well nigh forty years had elapsed since an English ship-of-war—the " Phaeton" —had last appeared in that port, Time was when the English might have turned their intercourse with Japan to good account. In the year 1616 the Emperor of Japan had granted to our people the privileges of commerce, with permission to erect a factory. Seven years afterwards, in 1623, the East India Company abandoned the settlement because their commerce with Japan had not at the outset yielded them such profitable returns as they had expected. In 1672 the Company attempted to renew their intercourse with Japan, but the attempt proved ineffectual. Our King had married a Portuguese princess, and the Portuguese at that period were regarded by the Court of Japan with much the same feeling as the French by the Spaniards during the Peninsular Avar. Until the conclusion of the eighteenth century the question was left at rest, Avhen a select committee of the East India Company Avas appointed to inquire into the policy of reopening the trade. Will it be believed that half-a-dozen English men of business were found who reported against the policy of making such an attempt, mainly because the consignments of Japanese copper might interfere with the products of our mines, —as though copper were the only article Avhich could be obtained from Japan? In some degree, therefore, Aye have to thank our own indifference and inaction, if the shores of Japan have been so loug closed against us ; but if Aye mistake not the officers of the Dutch factory at Nangasaki have been still more to blame. It has been the traditional policy of that nation in the Eastern Avaters to maintain the monopolies at all hazards, and by all means. At the end of the seventeenth century, Avhen Christianity Avas extirpated from the islands, and Europeans banished from their limits, an exception Avas made in favour of the Dutch. Their trade Avas at one time of enormous value, but has dwindled doAvn to its present comparatively insignificant amount through their own mismanagement and indiscretion. There was a period in the history of their commercial intercourse with the Japanese Avhen they drained the islands of the precious metals to an incredible amount. This excited the apprehensions of the Court much in the same way as the exchange of silver, and nothing but silver, for opium lately brought matters to a crisis in China. The value of the currency Avas tampered with in all transactions betAA reen the Dutch and the Japanese; and, to such an extent, writes Mr. Imhoff, " that our commerce Avas carried on as by people groping in the dark, neither knoAving the actual price of purchase or sale. Since 1710 all articles of trade not disposed of at a profit of 63 per cent, rendered a loss." The same Avriter tells us that his countrymen have over and over again declined to receive many valuable articles of commerce which Avere from time to time tendered by the Japanese,. The conduct of the, Company's servants at Japan, besides, appears, as is ueual in such cases, to have been infamous. The Dutch, in place of a dignified but firm resistance to all the encroachments and insults of the Japanese, gave Avay in every instance. "Stivers if you please, and blow if you will," appears to have been their motto ; and certainly they ao.'e not very favourable instances of the success of such a policy in the intercourse between European and Asiatic nations. Enough has been said to show that public opinion in England will run in favour of the

expedition which is about to sail from New York. It should not, however be forgotton that both humanity and policy recommend moderation in the midst of success. Wiser maxims than of old are now beginning to prevail among civilised nations; mere territorial acquisitions are known to yield but slender gains. If only we can establish a free commercial intercourse with Asiatic nations, conquests must be regarded as mere burdens. We,can have little doubt that the United States' expedition against Japan Avill prove the counter-part of our own late operations in China. May Commodore Perry and his forces meet with the like success, and use it to as good a purpose.