A strong digestion must be essential to the comfort of the diplomatist in Japan, for “next month, a few minutes before the dinner-hour, there was a rushing and scuffling of many feet along the passages, the noise of which reached me in my dressing-room, at the extremity of the building, and presently, high above all, came the ominous cry of ‘Cadjee!’ (fire).” The Legation was nearly burnt to the ground, but the Japanese servants behaved well, and ultimately succeeded in extinguishing the flames. We will not recount, in our list of excitements, all the escapes from murderous Yaconins and disagreeable rencontres which are recorded, though they would satisfy any moderate craving for “sensations;” and passing rapidly by, as not worthy of notice, the case of an Englishman who shot a Japanese (and for having punished whom Mr Alcock was afterwards fined at Hong-Kong), come at once to the night of the 14th of January, “when, about ten o’clock, I received a brief note from Mr Harris, asking me to send surgical aid to Mr Heuskin, who had been brought in wounded.”
Mr Heuskin was the secretary of the American Legation—a man universally liked, and a most able public servant. He had received a frightful gash across the abdomen, which proved fatal, besides other thrusts and cuts of less moment. His funeral was attended by all the members of the different Legations, at the risk, however, of their lives. About this time, says our author, “an event occurred calculated to give greater significance to the numerous sinister rumours afloat. Hori Oribeno Kami, the most intelligent, experienced, and respected of the governors of foreign affairs—the one best versed in European business, and the most reasonable and conciliatory of his class—disappeared from the scene.” In other words, he had ripped himself up. The writer of this article, who had formerly been well acquainted with this minister, happening to arrive in Japan shortly after his death, received from the Dutch Consul the following account of the event:—That gentleman had called on Hori Oribeno Kami one day, had found him in rather low spirits, and, on inquiring the cause, was informed by the fated minister that he was about to put an end to himself on the following day; that he had already issued his invitation-cards for the banquet at which the ceremony was to take place; and, further, expressed his regret that the custom of the country limited the invitation to his relations and most intimate friends, and that he was thus deprived of the pleasure of requesting the company of his visitor to partake of the meal which was destined to terminate in so tragic a manner.
The foreign Legations after this come to the conclusion that life at Yedo is attended by too many anxieties, and retire to Yokuhama till the Government should promise to make things safer and more comfortable. This they ultimately pledge themselves to do. Our author has occasion shortly after to make a long overland journey through the country, and on the night of his return to Yedo the Legation is attacked by a band of assassins, who severely wound Messrs Oliphant and Morrison, and very nearly murder everybody. Some idea of the nature of that midnight struggle may be formed from the following list of persons killed and wounded in the passages and garden of the Legation:—
| Killed. | |
|---|---|
| One of the Tycoon’s body-guard, and one groom, | 2 |
| Two of the assailants, | 2 |
| Severely wounded. | |
| Tycoon’s soldier, | 1 |
| Daimio’s soldier, | 1 |
| Porters (one died same day), | 2 |
| Assailant (captured—committed suicide), | 1 |
| Member of Legation, | 1 |
| Servants of Legation, | 2 |
| Slightly wounded. | |
| Tycoon’s guard, | 7 |
| Daimio’s guard, | 2 |
| Priest in temple adjoining, | 1 |
| Member of Legation, | 1 |
| Total killed and wounded on the spot, | 23 |
With reference to the fate of these assailants, the following extract from a letter from Mr Alcock to Earl Russell appears in the papers just laid before Parliament:—
“The Ministers have since informed me that three more of the assailants on the night of the 5th July have been arrested in Prince Mito’s territories, and will be proceeded against; also that the only survivor in the recent attack on the Foreign Minister has confessed that some of the party were men engaged in the attack on the Legation. If so—and only fourteen were actually engaged (which has always seemed to me doubtful)—they will have pretty well accounted for the whole number: Three having been killed on the spot; three taken prisoners and since executed; two committed suicide; three more lately arrested; three supposed to have been killed in the recent attack on the Foreign Minister. Total, fourteen.”
The following paper found on the body of one of the assailants gives the reasons of the band for making the attempt:—
“I, though I am a person of low standing, have not patience to stand by and see the sacred empire defiled by the foreigner. This time I have determined in my heart to undertake to follow out my master’s will. Though, being altogether humble myself, I cannot make the might of the country to shine in foreign nations, yet with a little faith, and a little warrior’s power, I wish in my heart separately (by myself), though I am a person of low degree, to bestow upon my country one out of a great many benefits. If this thing from time to time may cause the foreigner to retire, and partly tranquillise both the minds of the Mikado and the Tycoon (or the manes of departed Mikados and Tycoons), I shall take to myself the highest praise. Regardless of my own life, I am determined to set out.”
[Here follow the fourteen signatures.]
It must be admitted that the Lonins, as the bravos are called, choose their victims with great impartiality as to rank and nationality; they murder servants and ministers, both Japanese and foreign, as the fancy seizes them. A few days after the massacre at the Legation, two of the Japanese Ministers were attacked, but their retinue beat off their assailants: after this nothing particular happened for some time, except that the Governor of Yedo had to rip himself up “for having offended by intruding his opinion at a grand council of the daimios (he not being a daimio).” Meantime the Government offer to build a fortified Legation, and Sir Rutherford moves his habitation temporarily down to Yokuhama: the hostile class seem more determined than ever to carry their point, as we may gather from the following letter left by four of his retainers at the house of their master, the Prince of Mito, whose service they leave to become outlaws:—