on Japan to refer to
the foreign community in that Empire as if it were a community bound
together by some particular principle and working in unison for some
definite object. Of course such a view is nonsensical. The foreign
community in Japan, in which for the purpose of my remarks I do not
include the Chinese, is one composed of a large number of
nationalities which have very little in common, and amongst whom a
good deal of rivalry prevails. It may have been that when the question
of revising the treaties was being keenly agitated, self-interest, or
what was deemed to be self-interest, occasioned a sort of fictitious
unity among foreigners, but at the present time, so far as my
observation has gone, there is very little real unity among the
foreigners in Japan. The English, of course, predominate in numbers,
and they have also the major portion of the trade in their hands.
Whether such a condition of things will much longer obtain is a moot
question. I am of opinion, as I have elsewhere indicated, that the
trade of Japan will very largely pass into the hands of the Japanese
themselves, and that the foreign element in Japan is accordingly not
only unlikely to increase in number but is almost certain to diminish.

In the early days when Japan was first opened to the Western world and
English traders went there to push their commodities, we heard a good
deal about the peculiar ethics of Japanese commercial morality. The
European merchant either was, or affected to be, shocked at the loose
commercial code of honour of those with whom he was brought into
contact in Japan, and he expressed himself accordingly. However much
or little ground there may have been for these accusations many years
ago I am not in a position to judge. In forming any opinion in this
matter, if that opinion is to be correct, it is, I think, essential to
remember the conditions of society in Japan when it was first opened
to European trade. In old Japan there were four recognised classes of
society--the Samurai, the farmers, the artisans, and the merchants.
The last two were somewhat looked down upon by the others. It is,
accordingly, hardly to be wondered at that the condition of industry
and commerce was the least satisfactory feature in the initial stages
of national development. Despised alike by the gentry and the
peasantry, the traders were in a somewhat sorry plight when Japan was
thrown open. The low social status of the trading class in Ja