JAPAN.
Lord Elgin resolved to proceed to Japan, and endeavour to open that jealously guarded country to foreign intercourse. He made for his excuse to enter the Japanese waters, that his queen authorized him to bear from her a present of a beautiful steam-yacht to the Emperor of Japan. It was on the 3rd of August, 1858, that Lord Elgin reached the capital of the Japanese empire; but the circumstance is related in this chapter to preserve a continuous account of his excellency’s important mission to the Eastern Seas. Lord Elgin’s mission was successful. A treaty substantially the same as that with China was formed, and the trade of that country opened to Europe. As in China, so in Japan, American and Russian jealousy played an unworthy and not altogether ineffectual part.