an arrangement with the government for the
payment of an indemnity(282) of $10,000 to the mother of Mr. Heusken, who
was then living at Amsterdam in Holland.

The next circumstance which awakened universal attention was an attack
made on the British legation, on the night of the 5th of July, 1861. At
this time the British minister occupied as a legation the buildings of the
temple Tozenji, situated at Takanawa in the city of Yedo. It was guarded
by a company of Japanese troops, to whom the government had entrusted its
protection. Mr. Alcock had just returned by an overland journey from
Nagasaki, and with a number of other Englishmen was domiciled in the
legation. The attacking party consisted of fourteen _ronins_ belonging to
the Mito clan, who had banded themselves together to take vengeance on the
"accursed foreigners." Several of the guards were killed, and Mr.
Oliphant,(283) the secretary of legation, and Mr. Morrison, H. B. M's
consul at Nagasaki, were severely wounded. On one of the party who was
captured was found a paper,(284) which set forth the object of the attack
and the names of the fourteen _ronins_ who had conspired for its
accomplishment.

That the government regarded such outrages with alarm is certain. They
took the earliest opportunity to express their distress that the legation
under their protection had thus been invaded. They assured Mr. Alcock with
the most pitiable sincerity that "they had no power of preventing such
attacks upon the legation, nor of providing against a renewal of the same
with a greater certainty of success." "They could not," they said,
"guarantee any of the representatives against these attempts at
assassination, to which all foreigners in Japan were liable, whether in
their houses or in the public thoroughfares."(285) They pretended to
punish, and yet were afraid openly to punish the persons engaged in this
attack.(286) They promised to do what they could for the protection of the
foreign representatives; but their measures necessarily consisted in
making the legations a kind of prison where the occupants were confined
and protected.

And yet, with all these assurances of danger, the foreign representatives
seem to have been singularly ignorant of the real difficulties with which
the government had to deal. This was due, no doubt, to the want of candor
on the part of the Japanese officials in not explaining frankly and fully
to them the political complications which existe