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Liukiu by the treaty with the United States. To this the Minister replied that Liukiu had always been a dependency of Japan, and the transaction of the last month only meant the transformation of a dependency into a province, and that, as to the treaty in question, Japan would keep it intact and assume itself all the obligations arising therefrom. In March, 1873, the authorities of Liukiu handed over to our Foreign Office all the texts of the treaties concluded with foreign Powers. Shortly afterwards the Ministers of Italy and Germany in Tokyo also sent a note to our Minister of Foreign Affairs asking to share in the benefit of the treaties formerly concluded by the United States, France, and Holland, with Liukiu. This was readily assented to.

All this was very good, but was in itself a one-sided transaction, and nobody could know what would result if China once came to assert her right to Liukiu. Hence, the account had to be settled with China sooner or later, but how?

Though coming last in order of time, this was by far the most important question of all. The treaties signed by the Tokugawa Government, and accepted such as they were by the new Imperial Government, were not even framed by the Japanese officers themselves, who were naturally entirely ignorant of international affairs. It was the United States Consul-General, Mr. Townsend Harris, who did everything for the diplomatic officers of the Tokugawa Government; and judged by what he had done, and by the accounts published by himself in after-years, we cannot but deeply admire the high conscientiousness and the real friendly feeling of this diplomat towards Japan. If he had taken advantage of the rare position in which he was placed, he could have forced upon us almost any treaty that only benefited America and the Americans; and all the other nations would have followed him in the track. But as he was anxious to assist Japan to join the community of nations based upon mutual interest, he never imposed upon us any greater disadvantage than was absolutely necessary, in view of the difference of life and culture. The right of extraterritorial jurisdiction held by the Powers over their subjects in Japan was one disadvantage, and Mr. Townsend Harris taught the Japanese from the very beginning that it was an injustice, inevitable for the time being, but which the Japanese ought to avoid by reforming their laws before the time came for treaty revision. Again, the Customs tariff rates attached to the Japanese-American treaty of 1858 were entirely framed out of the American Consul-General’s own head, with