UNITED STATES AND JAPAN,

Otago Witness, Issue 74, 16 October 1852, Page 4

UNITED STATES AND JAPAN,

The United States Government h,ue despatched an expedition, consisting of a steam frigate and four ships, to be joined by four more ships in fhe Pacific, to proceed to Japan, for the purpose of opening commercial jelations with that exclusive country. Tne negotiation is said to be of a peaceful nature, but as the ships are all -well aimed, it is fair to suppose that the treaty is nqt to beioluntarv on the pa. tof t\s Japanese. It is given out that the object of the c.^ediiion is to make a liydrographic suney of the coa«t. The I\'aw YorJc Tribune of the 2-lth March makes Ili3 following comment? on the presumed purposes of the expedition. It would, we think, be diJicult to in\ent a more unblushing mixture of hyp'jciisy and c:mt than the cuticle conveys, and the idea of ir.noculating tlie Japanese with iiiirality thiough the medium, of cannon balls and bombs, while meicanrile gain is the real and professed object, is something quite unique in its way. The following is the articb : — " We arc to send a fleet to Japan, and to enter the capital city at all hazards. The interests of A merican trade require that commercial communications be opened with, that recluse region, and a numerous airay of armed vessels will proceed to state that fact to the Japanese Go\ eminent, and to open the gates of its ports. It i? a fair suspicion in the prfm'^s th '/ fV greatness of America is better understood at Wellington than at Jeddo, and that the Japanese will be unable immediately to discern the great advantage of trading with a nation which makes the overture from the cannon's mouth. It may be also presumed that they will decline to accede to such propositions so made, until they lm\e learned, as they infallibly will learn, by much bombarding and batteiing, that we are determined to give them the benefits of commercial communication with us.

"In this state of things, going thus into pagan realms, it behoves us not to lose the opportunity of labouring for the spiritual benefit of the benighted Japanese. Let not these misguided men, fighting for their own, perish without benefit of clergy. "Why should we not combine instruction with mercantile benefit, and while we get from the Japanese such. articles as we wish, lea% c some of our morality in exchange ? We might he gainers in that bargain. To this end, and to impart a moral lustre to the expedition, -we suggest that some of the many chap, lams of the United States now unemployed be despatched to Japan with the fleet, and while the ships lie before Jeddo, bombarding the city, and stray boatsful of obstinate Japanese are captured and brought on board our ships, the reverend gentlemen might exert all their genius in the conversion of the nam es, while each cannon peal and roar of bursting bomb would lend cinjifiasis to their words .

" We should, indeed, be truly sorry to see the American Government engaged in any undertaking of this magnitude to which it would be unwilling to give the ameliorating aspect of a solicitude for the moral welfare of the people concerned. And the extreme nervousness which so many journals have already manifested to preach lo the unhappy oppressed of Europe the immorality of dissatisfaction with tyranny, and the high, morality which consists in honouring the king and submitting to the powers that be, will, we are confident, lead those said journals to second our efforts to make the Japan expedition a moral enterprise.''