Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/192

 ing foreign aggression could be entertained; it probably helped to inspire the radical reforms, both economical and military, that were then undertaken, and it may have had much to do with the minister's subsequent revocation of his anti-foreign order. For the order was actually revoked within a few years of its issue; not, indeed, because the Shōgun's Government had become reconciled to foreign intercourse, but because they recognised the advisability of avoiding war with such formidable enemies as the men from the Occident were now seen to be.

It is not to be supposed that in this matter of renewing her relations with the outer world, Japan was required to make any sudden decision under stress of visible menace. She had ample notice of the course events were taking.

A French ship, coming to the Riukiu Islands in 1846, pretexted the probable advent of the English as an argument to induce the islanders to place themselves under French protection. In the same year the King of Holland sent to the Yedo Court some scientific books and a map of the world, with a covering letter advising that the country should at once abandon its policy of isolation. It is related that this map of the world produced a profound impression in the Shōgun's capital, but as the Japanese had become acquainted with the terrestrial globe in 1631, they must have already known something of their country's comparative insignificance.