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friendship,’ etc., and ostensibly made warlike preparations. Hence, corresponding preparations had also to be made on our side, and for a time all looked very dark.

The Japanese Government appointed Councillor and Home Minister Okubo Minister Plenipotentiary, and sent him to Peking to negotiate on the Formosan affair. The mission arrived in Peking on the 10th of September, and the negotiations lasted from the 14th of the same month until the 30th of October. From the first Okubo assumed the offensive, and demanded of the Yamen Ministers what China had done to govern and educate the Formosan barbarians and on what they based their claim to sovereignty over the portion of the island inherited by them, and, if it were Chinese territory, why she left the depredations of these barbarians unchastised. The Yamen Minister produced as proofs of China’s sovereignty the official geography of Formosa, but even in that geography were found such phrases as ‘the mountain barbarians outside of Chinese territory,’ ‘beyond the reach of Chinese influence and education,’ etc. They also cited the paying of tribute as proof of sovereignty, but these tributes were not paid by the barbarians, being in reality only a price paid by the Chinese merchants for the monopoly of trading with the barbarians. Our mission produced as contrary proofs Chinese histories and European books of geography, and also cited the fact that the Yamen Ministers themselves had repeatedly announced to the United States Consul and to the Soyejima mission that the barbarians were not ‘included in the Chinese territory,’ that they lie ‘outside the civilizing influence of China,’ etc., and argued that, according to international law, a country cannot claim sovereignty in that portion of the territory over which it exercises no administration. To this last they replied that territorial administration was an internal affair, so that to question it was a breach of the third article of the treaty of peace and friendship, assuring mutual non-interference. They also remarked that the so-called ‘international law’ was a law amongst Western nations, which China has had no occasion to study.

In the meanwhile in Tokyo loud cries were heard among the impatient public that the Okubo mission was being played with by the Chinese Government pending the completion of its military preparations. And that once these were ready, they intended to end the negotiations abruptly and declare war. The Tokyo Government considered it necessary to draw Okubo’s attention to this rumour.

At last, on the 10th of October, Okubo sent an ultimatum to the Peking Government, demanding a response within five days as to whether China would relinquish all claim of