Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/187

 character; it did not extend beyond a small coterie of students, and the people in general remained ignorant of such researches. Presently Ono Riushihei, a member of this band of students, compiled a remarkable book. It contained a singularly accurate account of the manners and customs as well as of the military and naval organisations of Occidental States; it warned Japan that the Russians would one day show themselves a formidable enemy on her northern border, and it urged the advisability of building a fleet and constructing coast-defences. The Yedo authorities denounced the work as misleading and injurious, seized all the copies, burned them, and placed the author in confinement. Seldom have events so completely and rapidly vindicated a prediction. Riushihei's punishment had not lasted quite five months when a Russian ship arrived at Yezo, pretexting a desire to restore to their homes some castaway Japanese sailors. Riushihei was at once released from confinement, and the wisdom of his views received general recognition.

It must indeed be recorded, in justice to the perspicacity of the Shōgun's ministers, that from the very beginning of the series of disturbing episodes which thenceforth occurred in connection with foreign policy, they partially appreciated the hopelessness of offering armed opposition to the coming of Western ships. Bound, on the one hand, to respect the traditions of