Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE ENGLISH.

IN America we have seen the struggle of the dear races against the cheap-the endeavours of the English to hold their own against the Irish and Chinese. In New Zealand, we found the stronger and more energetic race pushing from the earth the shrewd and laborious descendants of the Asian Malays; in Australia, the English triumphant, and the cheaper races excluded from the soil not by distance merely, but by arbitrary legislation; in India, we saw the solution of the problem of the officering of the cheaper by the dearer race. Everywhere we have found that the difficulties which impede the progress to universal dominion of the English people lie in the conflict with the cheaper races. The result of our survey is such as to give us reason for the belief that race distinctions will long continue, that miscegenation will go but little way towards blending races; that the dearer are, on the whole, likely to destroy the cheaper peoples, and that Saxondom will rise triumphant from the doubtful struggle.

The countries ruled by a race whose very scum and outcasts have founded empires in every portion of the globe, even now consist of 94 millions of square miles, and contain a population of 300 millions of people. Their surface is five times as great as that of the empire of Darius, and four and a half times as large as the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. It is no exaggeration to say that in power the English countries would be more than a match for the remaining nations of the world, whom in the intelligence of their people and the extent and wealth of their dominions they already considerably surpass. Russia gains ground steadily, we are told, but so do we. If we take maps of the English-governed countries and of the Russian countries of fifty years ago, and compare them with the English

and Russian countries of to-day, we find that the Saxon has outstripped the Muscovite in conquest and in colonization. The extensions of the United States alone are equal to all those of Russia. Chili, La Plata, and Peru must eventually become English: the Red Indian race that now occupies those countries cannot stand against our colonists; and the future of the table lands of Africa and that of Japan and of China is as clear. Even in the tropical plains, the negroes alone seem able to withstand us. No possible series of events can prevent the English race itself in 1970 numbering 300 millions of beings—of one national character and one tongue. Italy, Spain, France, Russia become pigmies by the side of such a people.

Many who are well aware of the power of the English nations are nevertheless disposed to believe that our own is morally, as well as physically, the least powerful of the sections of the race, or, in other words, that we are overshadowed by America and Australia. The rise to power of our southern colonies is, however distant, and an alliance between ourselves and America is still one to be made on equal terms. Although we are forced to contemplate the speedy loss of our manufacturing supremacy as coal becomes cheaper in America and dearer in Old England, we have nevertheless as much to bestow on America as she has to confer on us. The possession of India offers to ourselves that element of vastness of dominion which, in this age, is needed to secure width of thought and nobility of purpose; but to the English race our possession of India, of the coasts of Africa, and of the ports of China offers the possibility of planting free institutions among the dark-skinned races of the world.

The ultimate future of any one section of our race, however, is of little moment by the side of its triumph as a whole, but the power of English laws and English principles of government is not merely an English question-its continuance is essential to the freedom of mankind.

Steaming up from Alexandria along the coasts of Crete and Arcadia, and through the Ionian Archipelago, I reached Brindisi, and thence passed on through Milan towards home. This is the route that our Indian mails should take until the Euphrates road is made.*

They now do take it.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ENGLISH INFLUENCE IN JAPAN.

WHO are the men who made the Japanese revolution, and who now maintain and defend its principles ?

What are the chances of the popularity of the Japanese revolution continuing?

What, then, will be the duration of the present settled order of things; and, will English ideas continue for an indefinite period to gain ground in the country of the Rising Sun ?

These are questions much oftener asked than answered, although the actual history of the Japanese Revolution is to be found recorded in a great number of books.

The first question-like many questions about Japan-can be more easily answered negatively than positively. The revolution was not made by any one man, nor by any very small group of men. The Emperor, formerly known as the Mikado, in whose name it was made, and by the influence of the authority of whose name its principles are still protected, had no share whatever in its conception or execution. That which was nominally a revolution of the Daimios, was in fact a revolution of their councillors. Each Daimio was assisted-or, rather, controlled, in the government of his feudal province by a small council chosen from among his retainers. The members of these councils were, as a rule, selected for ability by the council itself. They drew but little pay, and in their manner of life were not to be distinguished from the other retainers of the feudal prince. It is but little known that Daimios and their councillors alike hated the Tycoons. I will assume that my readers understand the position which had been held for five hundred years by these mayors of the palace, who supported the Mikado, in whose name they ruled, by a

* Published in the Fortnightly Review as an "Additional Chapter for Greater Britain."

dole of twenty thousand pounds a year for the maintenance of the court at the ancient capital. The revolution had, of course, to be made in the Mikado's name; but it was not to be expected that a god-king, who had never been outside his palace, and who had never, according to many, set foot to earth even within his palace walls, would have the energy or develop the power to take a leading part in the revolutionary movement. During the revolution the Mikado, gifted as he is with a gentle and fair disposition, acted as he has acted since, namely by approving without hesitation, although with actual knowledge, of everything done in his name. His present position as Emperor was expressed to me by a Japanese gentleman in these words—" He never says 'No,' only 'Yes,

-a sentence which would doubtless gratify the heart of Earl Russell. Made in this man's name, the revolution was carried through by the councillors of the Daimios, with the approval of their patrons. The Tycoon's Government had never been popular with the Daimios. All Japanese history is a record of their partial rebellions. Since Commodore Perry's landing on the coast of Japan, the Tycoons had happened to be haughty men, who had given more than usual offence to the feudal princes, while the presence of the foreigner had caused the war exactions to press more heavily upon them, and at the same time had excited the agricultural population. All these facts told one way, and behind the Daimios were the ablest of their councillors, who saw in revolution not only a great career for themselves, but also a chance of a brilliant future for that country which almost every Japanese loves more than he loves life. The Satsuma and Choshiu clans were the strongest that took part in the revolution; but that it was the councillors, and not the prince who really led, is clear when we remember that the reigning prince of Satsuma was a child, and the reigning prince of Choshiu a fool.

The revolution is sometimes said to have been directed against foreign influence. Foreign influence was a pretext. Some of the murders of foreigners by armed retainers of the feudal nobles were caused by a breach of Japanese etiquette by the victims, but most of the attacks are now known to have been made out of a fixed purpose of embroiling the Tycoon

with his foreign friends. The revolutionary leaders knew, as well as the Tycoon knew, that the foreign influence was certain to endure; and on the other hand, in spite of the Queen's presents to the Tycoon, Sir Harry Parkes was more friendly to the revolution than he was to the government at the capital. Okubo, the present prime minister, and his leading colleagues were councillors of Daimios. Contrary to the prevailing English belief, there has been no change of government in Japan since the revolution, although there has been a certain shifting of persons. The men who had made the armed revolution still direct that strange, peaceful revolutionary government, which quietly rules Japan on revolutionary principles through despotic forms, and in the name of a heaven-descended Mikado encircled by a halo of all but actual divinity.

"But Iwakura," say some, who have heard or read a little of Japanese politics, "Iwakura, the foreign minister, who for a time was here, and Shimadzu Saburo, the great conservative chief-have not they held power, or rather fallen from it?" No. Iwakura was a courtier. A "courtier" in Japan meant one of the poetic, highly cultured, but un-energetic men, who surrounded the Mikado in his seclusion in the ancient capital. He was the ablest of the courtiers, and was valuable to the revolution through his station; but the courtiers, so far as they have been used, have been the instruments of those able, pushing democrats, the former councillors of the feudal barons. What energy can be hoped for in men, however talented and however learned, who were the courtiers of a godking, immured in that cathedral city of the East, the ancient capital, formerly Miako, and now Kiyoto-for even capitals change their names every few years in the revolutionary land of Japan? As for Shimadzu Saburo, on the other hand, he is the uncle of the young prince of Satsuma, who is at the head of the most powerful of the clans. That is to say, he is the foremost man among the Scotchmen of Japan. It happens that he is a Scotch Tory, while most of his clan are Radicals—still, he is the first man of that people who fill every office, military or civil, for which they have a candidate ready. There are not very many of them, but their numbers seem to be the only limit to the places which they hold. Shimadzu's brother, the

« AnteriorContinuar »