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544 more difficulties than it settled. The British and American ministers hoped that the Shogun would open a new port in lieu of paying the heavy indemnity, for they were more interested in the development of commerce than in the exaction of a money fine. The Dutch consul-general agreed with them in part but the French minister and his government believed that the money was more to be desired than a prospective improvement in trade. However, as the plans for confiscating some or all of the Choshiu territory had fallen through, because of the opposition of other western lords, the Shogunate decided that it would be better to pay the indemnity than to open a port in territory which it did not own. In announcing this decision, on April 5, 1865, it requested the postponement of the second installment of the indemnity. This request left the door open for argument. The British chargé suggested that a proposal be made to reduce the indemnity in return for opening Hiogo at once, instead of in 1868, and a downward revision of the tariff. On April 25, he developed this idea in a despatch to Earl Russell, this time suggesting that, in addition to the two concessions already mentioned, the written adhesion of the Mikado to the treaties be included, and the three be accepted as equivalent to one-half or two-thirds of the indemnity. This proposal won the approval of Earl Russell and he at once undertook to gain the consent of the other treaty powers.

With the United States he had no difficulty; Holland, while preferring the indemnity, was ready to agree to the British proposal if the other powers would do so; but France flatly refused, asserting "that money was a substantial penalty which once received could not be recalled, whereas permission to trade at Shimonasaki might be rescinded at any moment", and later that the powers had no choice in the matter so long as Japan was willing to pay the indemnity.

But the joint action which Lord Russell could not bring about was finally accomplished by the forceful British representative in Japan. On July 18 arrived in Yokohama, as the successor of Sir Rutherford Alcock, who had been recalled actually but not ostensibly for violation of instructions in the Shimonoseki