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 war. Until the conclusion of the eighteenth century the question was left at rest, when a select committee of the East India Company was appointed to inquire into the policy of re-opening 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 own mines?-as though copper were the only article which could be obtained from Japan! In some degree, therefore, we have to thank our own indifference and inaction, if the shores of Japan have been so long closed against us.

But it would now seem as if the term of civilised seclusion is at hand. It was long ago foreseen that the settlement of California by a busy, enterprising population, would sooner or later lead to intercourse with China, Japan, and the other islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The Chinese were, indeed, among the first to participate in the gold discoveries of the western shores of the Pacific. Japan did not require this stimulus, being long renowned for its own gold produce. To counterbalance this inevitable progressive tendency of the Anglo-Americans, Great Britain had nothing to do but to open a new transterrestrial line from the St. Lawrence to the Columbia, to avail herself of the fertile lands and noble streams and inlets in Oregon, to display her gold from the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, her coal from Vancouver Island, her inexhaustible supplies of furs, fowl, fish, and timber, and an English colonisation of the western board of the Pacific would have ensued. A slight attempt was made, but it was so cramped by official formalities, so discouraged by a company whose charter, happily for the civilisation of North America, is about soon to expire, and so burdened with red-tape restrictions, that naturally no one would venture to untried lands and climates, subject to stringent regulations which it might not be in their power to comply with, or, to do which, would be ruinous to the prospects of the adven

turers.

This failing, one or two attempts were made by Lord Palmerstonalways more alive to the interest of his country than the late colonial minister-to induce the Emperor of Japan to enter into neighbourly relations; and the new grounds of argument were possibly not lost sight of-that in so doing the Tenkasama, or "sub-celestial monarch," as the occupant of the throne of Japan delights to call himself, would do that which would most conduce to his own safety and welfare, and that of his dominions.

The argument was, however, lost upon so vain, so obtuse, so arrogant a nation. They no doubt consider their hosts of pike-bearers, umbrella and hat-bearers, chest-bearers and palankin-bearers, grooms and footmen, with their black silk habits tucked up above the waist, exposing their naked backs to the spectators' view, with grave countenances and mimic dances, their foot drawn up and arm outstretched, as if about to swim in the air, as an invincible army. This is a delusion, as great as that of the ugly countenances and painted monsters of the Chinese ; so also will be found to be their palaces and castles of gilded fir and cedar, and walls of dry mud or unhewn stones, hastily put together.

There was a time when Great Britain would not have been in the rear where enterprise, adventure, and profit, were concerned. Those were the days of our Cabots, our Raleighs, our Cooks, and our Drakes. They are now almost gone by, and the spirit of olden time is superseded by a mawkish sentimentality that cherishes a Japanese bikuni (itinerant nun) as a sister to be reclaimed, and an Anthropagous assassin as a benighted brotherly aboriginal. If a Borneo Raleigh does spring up, he is rewarded by all kinds of misrepresentations, calumnies, and obloquies.

Our sons of the New World are neither so punctilious nor so scrupulous. The pathway traced out by Providence for a great nation lies before them. We leave, by our squeamishness, Australia and New Zealand almost at their mercy, and they will one day elbow us in the streets of Calcutta. The Americans have, indeed, a just right to impel a stubborn nation to acts of common humanity. Japan not only refuses to hold commercial intercourse with the rest of the world- -a very ques→ tionable right-but she goes further; and occupying, as she does, an enormous extent of sea-coast, she not only refuses to open her ports to

foreign vessels in distress, but actually opens her batteries (such as they are) upon them when they approach within gunshot of her shores; and when driven upon them by stress of weather, she seizes upon, imprisons, exhibits in cages, and actually murders the crews of such ill-fated vessels.

"This," says a writer in the New York Courier and Inquirer, "has been submitted to too long already; and the constant increase of our whale fleet, and the consequent increase of disasters in this barbarous and inhospitable region, have compelled our government, unprompted except by its wise foresight, to insist upon a reform in the policy and bearing of the Japanese towards the rest of the world. The single fact, that at one time within the last year there were 121 American whalers lying in the harbours of the Sandwich Islands, far away from their cruising-grounds, because they could not enter any harbour on the coast of Japan for repairs, shows not only the extent of our commerce in that region, but the claims of humanity itself for protection against the barbarians who thus cut off, as it were, the commerce of the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Ochotsk." (The Sea of Japan might have been added.)

The means by which the Americans propose to themselves to bring Japan within the pale of humanity and of international courtesy, are, let the Peace and Aboriginal Protection Societies say what they will, the only efficient means with a selfish, barbarous government-the exhibition of a sufficient force, and, if necessary, the positive use of a certain amount of coercion.

To this effect, one of the best officers on the Navy List of the United States has been appointed to the command of a squadron, which 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; and it is probable that Commodore Perry may have left New York already with his squadron for the seas of Japan. The force to be employed is amply sufficient for the purpose. The officers entrusted with the command can have little difficulty in dictating their own terms both at Nangasaki and Yedo, 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 not the Emperor of Japan has as much to dread from his own subjects, in case of reverses, as his Celestial 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 sea-coast. 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 Nifun from Jeso. Whatever else of this kind may be necessary is easily to be accomplished by the armed boats of the expedition.

The more enthusiastic Yankees, besides seeing in this movement a triumph to the Whig party, also imagine a war of aggression and conquest. One of the organs of Mr. Fillmore's party writes:

It is very clear that after we have gone through to the Pacific, and got possession, for all practical purposes, of the continent, our adventurous spirit will wish for some new field for conquest, excitement, and fortune. Editors may write of it as they will, the fact can be read now as clearly as it will be a year or ten years hence-that our aggressions and conquests on the Asiatic coast are beginning. The United States will shortly enact the same gunpowder drama England played in '42 with China, and we shall do it with less moderation. Already the Sandwich Islands, like ripe fruit, are falling into our hands. Other Pacific clusters are ready to be gathered. And then will come Japan, whose brilliant, opulent, and populous capital already glares on the eye of ambition, and inflames the heart of cupidity. We have "finished up" America, as the phrase goes; and as there is nothing to hope for in Europe, the eye of the nation, which has for some years been resting on the glittering quartz mountains of California, is now bent on the ancient shores of Asia ;-there will, doubtless, be opened the next act of the drama of our republican empire. And, after all, is it not inevitable that sooner or later those besotted Oriental nations must come out from their barbarous seclusion, and wheel into the ranks of civilisation? England has been at work for a long time in India, and she has made a beginning in China. Let us take the Pacific Islands, group by group, advance to Japan, and meet in Shanghai. The Anglo-Saxons are the masters of the world; unless the Cossacks (the modern Huns) make another irruption, and carry with them the night of another barbarous age to the shores of the Mediterranean.

This, however, is altogether anticipatory. There can be no doubt that for the present the Americans will content themselves with giving the Japanese a lesson in international policy similar to that which we gave to the Chinese, and which we hope may be productive of more enlarged and more lasting effects. Great additions to science and to commerce may also be anticipated from a thorough hydrographic survey, that is at the same time to be effected, of the innumerable rich islands in the Indian Archipelago, and of the coasts of Northern China; and if the objects of the expedition are carried out in a spirit of humanity and sound policy, without unnecessary waste of life, and under the full impression and understanding that government and its agents, and not the great mass of the population, are in fault, there is no doubt but that Čommodore Perry will carry with him on his expedition the sympathies of all European nations.

YOUNG TOM HALL'S HEART-ACHES AND HORSES.

CHAPTER XXIV.

BUT for Bowman, Woodcock, Ryle, and others, who felt it incumbent on them to make Tom hurt, in order to excuse themselves for pulling up, there is no saying but our hero would have remounted after his fall and attempted to rescue his fair flame from the gallant old Lothario, who was witching her through the country as it were to the music of his hounds. These worthies, however, would not hear of such a thing. They were certain Tom was hurt-couldn't be but hurt. "No bones broken," Woodcock thought, "but tied to be very much shook," he added, as he felt Tom's shoulder, and collar-bone, and arm, and elbow, and dived into his fat sides for his ribs. "No; the best thing he could do was to go home," they all agreed, and after straining their eyes in the direction of the diminishing field till the hounds disappeared, and the horsemen looked like so many dots dribbling along, they turned their pumped and lathered horses to the grateful influence of the westerly breeze. It was a fine run, they all agreed, though if the fox reached Bramblewreck Woods, which seemed his point, they had just seen as much as anybody could-nothing but labour and sorrow, tearing up and down the deep rides, pulling their horses' legs off in the holding clay; and so they re ported to Mr. Jollynoggin, the landlord of the Barley Mow, where they pulled up to have a nip of ale a-piece, and Jollynoggin swallowing the story with great apparent ease, they proceeded to tell subsequent inquirers they met on the road all, how, and about the run.

Bowman, who was rather near the wind in money matters, and not altogether without hopes of making a successful assault on old Hall's coffers, especially if assisted by our enterprising friend, Tom, set to to ply him with what he thought would be most agreeable to his vanity. Alluding to the run, he said, "Tom certainly deserved better luck, for he had ridden most gallantly, and all things considered, he thought he never saw an awkward horse more neatly handled." This pleased Tom, who, so far from being surprised at his fall, was only astonished he had managed to stick on so long; and not being sufficiently initiated in the mysteries of hunting to appreciate the difference between tumbling off and a fall, he began to think he had done something rather clever than otherwise. In this he was a good deal confirmed by the deferential tone in which Bowman addressed him, and the inquiring way he asked his opinion of his lordship's hounds, observing, with a glance at Tom's pink, that doubtless he had seen many packs; Tom didn't care to say that this was his first day out with any-any foxhounds, at least—so he contented himself with saying that he "didn't think they were much amiss." This gave Major Ryle an opportunity of launching out against Dicky Thorndyke, who had incurred the major's serious displeasure by sundry excursions after his pretty parlour-maid, whom Dicky was very anxious to entice away into Lord Heartycheer's establishment. The major now denounced Dicky as a pottering old muff, and declared that Billy Brick, the first whip, was worth a hundred and fifty of him, either as a horseman, a huntsman, or a man. Bowman, on the other hand, was rather a

Thorndyke-ite; for Dicky distinguished him from the ordinary blackcoated herd by something between a cap and a bow, and Bowman's vindication of Dicky brought out much good or bad riding and hunting criticism that served our Tom a good turn. Bowman expatiated on the way Dicky rode to save his horse-how he picked his country, avoiding ridge and furrow, deep ground and turnip-fields, never pressing on his hounds, even in chase. The major retorted, that Dicky was so slow at his fences, that it was better to take a fresh place than wait till he was over; which produced a declaration that it was only certain fences he rode slowly at, bidding Ryle observe how Dicky went at places where he thought there was a broad ditch, above all at brooks with rotten banks-those terrible stoppers in all countries. They then discussed Dicky's prowess at timber jumping, at which even Ryle admitted him to be an adept; but still he came back to the old point, that either as a horseman, a huntsman, or a man, Billy Brick was worth a hundred and fifty of him.

The liberal width of the Mountfield-road now presenting grass on either side, the heretofore silent Mr. Woodcock managed to get our Tom edged off to his side, and pinning him next the fence, essayed to see if he could do anything for himself in a small way. Not that he thought he could accomplish anything at the bank, where it was well known his paper wouldn't fly; but there was no reason why the venerable nag he bestrode might not be advantageously transferred to Tom's stud, either in the way of an out-and-out sale, or in that still more hopeful speculation-because admitting of repetition-a swap, with something to boot. This antediluvian "had-been," was a fine, shapely, racing-like bay, in capital condition; for Woodcock, being a chemist, and a one-horse man to boot, had plenty of time and ingredients for physicing, and nursing, and coddling the old cripples it was his custom to keep-or, rather, not to keep, longer than he could help. He went altogether upon age; nothing that wasn't past mark of mouth would do for him, though somehow, after they got into his stable, they rejuvinated, and horses that went in nineteen or twenty, came out nine or ten. "Seasoned horse-nice season'd horse," Woodcock would say, with a knowing jerk of his head, over the counter, to a nibbling greenhorn sounding him about price: that horse should be in Lord Heartycheer's stud; no business in my stable-rich man's horse. Why Sir-Sir John Green gave two hundred and fifty guineas-two hundred and fifty guineas, sir, for that horse." And so he had, very likely, but a long time since.

Woodcock had an acquaintance among grooms, through the intervention of valets, he having a brother a valet, in a pretty good situation, where he was of course improving his opportunity after the usual manner of the brotherhood, and whenever a good-looking, nearly worn-out horse was about to be cast, he got early intelligence; and competition having about ceased with the extinction of stage-coaches, Woodcock picked up screws very cheap, almost at his own price-ten, fifteen, twenty pounds, perhaps -though this latter price he looked upon as bordering on the fanciful. Twelve or fourteen was about his mark-say three fives and a sov. back. That was the price of the valuable animal he now bestrode, who in turn had been a hunter, a racer, a steeple-chaser, and yet condescended to go in a phaeton. Neither his withers nor his quarters, however, discovered any signs of the degrading occupation. Indeed, his teeth were