Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/69

 of Tycoon. The Mikado then became a mere shadow, retaining the name of emperor, and all the honors and reverence due him in his spiritual capacity, but the Tycoon and his successors, who established their capital at Yeddo, were the actual riders of the empire. Law, however, or custom and usage ratherfor I believe there has been until lately no written law in Japanrequired that all the acts of the Tycoon should be ratified by the Mikado. Many of the Mikados have devoted their lives to literary pursuits, and Miako has been the center of learning for the empire, while the spirit of war and military science has found its home in Yeddo.

In the early part of the seventeenth century the Jesuit missionaries under Xavier, the disciple and friend of Loyola, obtained a foothold in Japan, and made converts by thousands, including some of the princes of high rank. They soon incurred the enmity of the powerful priesthood by their wholesale destruction of the temples of Buddha and Sintoo, which led to an edict of banishment. The Portuguese, who then monopolized the foreign trade with Japan, took sides with the missionaries, and a decree ordered that the whole race of Portuguese should be banished forever. The foreign trade then passed into the hands of the Protestant Dutch, which they retained under the most humiliating restrictions and indignities, being imprisoned on a small island at Decima, and never allowed to penetrate beyond the limits of their own trading post, for over two hundred years, until in 1864 Commodore Perry inaugurated a new era in the history of the country. The Christians were bitterly persecuted, and after a bloody straggle were exterminated. The decree of the Emperor, issued two centuries and a half ago, prohibits any foreigner from setting foot on Japanese soil, and renders it lawful for any subject to kill any one of the hated race. This law is still unrepealed, although if has become a dead letter.

The treaties negotiated by Commodore Perry and his successors were made with the Tycoon, and it was not until several years later that the dual government of Japan was understood, and it was found that none of these treaties had been ratified by the Mikado. In the meantime, the foreigners had obtained a foothold in some places, and could not be dislodged. Many of the most powerful of the Southern