THE FAR EAST-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE JAPANESE WILLIAM CURRY, JUN. AND COMPANY. W. S. ORR, AND CO., LONDON. SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. REV. DR. MILLER. [WE have much pleasure in giving insertion to the following letter from Dr. Miller, in correction of some trifling mistakes in the biographical notice which appeared in our number for June.] Armagh, June 5, 1841. SIR, I have perceived in your memoir, of which I am the subject, two or three inaccuracies of statement, which I hope you will permit me to correct. I am aware that in such an article, collected from floating conversation, these may be expected. 1. My father was a general merchant, not merely a wine-merchant, and as I well remember, though then but a child, carried on very various dealings with Russia, Norway, North America, and Jamaica, besides France and Portugal, until the revolutionary war of America, which was commenced in the year 1775, interrupted and disturbed the commercial relations of the country. 2. It is stated that I had, when a scholar, promised my vote to the Hutchinsons, "whenever it might become available at an election." This is expressed too generally. I did promise my vote for an election then approaching, because it was the custom to solicit the votes of minors, though ineffectual, in order to gain a greater appearance of strength. This promise I discharged by a triple tie with two other minor scholars; and it is evident from the offers made by Adair, that no further performance was expected from me. 3. In the account of the occurrences, which led to the suppression of the Historical Society, it is stated that the society "appointed a committee to take into consideration the conduct of the junior dean,” &c. If the society had only appointed a committee, I probably should not have heard of it, and I am certain that I should not have thought it necessary to make any report to the board, because such a proceeding would not have exhibited any offensive publicity. The fact was, that the society adjourned to an extraordinary meeting, to be held the next day at two o'clock, for this express purpose. This I considered, and I still think justly, inconsistent with the necessary discipline of the University. I am, Sir, To the Editor of the "Dublin University Magazine." Your obedient servant, GEORGE MILLER. THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. No. CIII. JULY, 1841. VOL. XVIII. THE FAR EAST.-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE JAPANESE.* "WHOSOEVER shall introduce an improvement in ship-building, shall receive thirty blows of the bamboo." This is among the ordinances of the celestial empire, and it may express its policy, and that of Japan. While we smile at such strange views, there are some things in the governments of these countries which, immediately occurring to us, command our respect. For ages, consistent in their policy, they have maintained it with unfailing effect, and they have all along avowed a preference for peace which may shame the Christian governments and civilized nations of Europe, with their false estimate of glory and barbarian love of military fame. War has proved to all nations a necessary evil, but the passion for it so long prevalent in Europe shows that we share a little in the Chinese defect of over estimating our own civilization. Reflections of this character, suggested to us by a soldier's book, occur, we believe, quite as often to soldiers as to any other class. Duke of Wellington has said that, except a battle lost, nothing is half so The We melancholy as a battle won; and it is impossible to read Lord Jocelyn's description of the affair at Chusan without seeing that he sympathises with the unfortunate Chinese, and feels how humiliating are our triumphs. may further observe, that while China and Japan, the two great communities of the far East, have held for centuries to peace, they exhibit no want of physical courage. The Japanese are remarkable for disregard of life, and the Chinese, on the late occasions, showed as much indifference to danger as could be counted on from the undrilled of Europe. The Japanese have been uniformly represented as a people of more muscular and intellectual vigour than the Chinese. This is the opinion of Klaproth, of the author of the work before us, and of the several Dutch orientalists whom he has made contributary to it; but Lord Jocelyn has taught us to think better of the Chinese, and we are satisfied that in mere courage, or in bodily strength, they are not inferior to their neighbours of Japan. It is true that the Japanese despise them. Ainslie, who * Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century. From recent Dutch visitors of Japan, and the German of Dr. Ph. Fr. von Siebold. London: Murray. 1841. Six Months with the Chinese Expedition; or, Leaves from a Soldier's Note Book. By Lord Jocelyn, Military Secretary to the China Mission. Third edition. London: Murray. 1841. An Examination of the Ancient Orthography of the Jews. Part the Second. On the Propagation of Alphabets and other Phonetic Systems throughout Eastern Asia. By Charles William Wall, D.D., Senior Fellow of Trinity College, and Professor of Hebrew in the University of Dublin. Vol. III. London: Whittaker and Co. 1841. VOL. XVIII. No. 103. B was sent by Raffles as a commissioner to Japan, and lived there for four months, says, that the only occasion on which he saw the habitual politeness of a Japanese surprised into passion was upon the two nations being unguardedly compared, when he put his hand upon his sword. This, we believe, is referrable to the antipathy so often existing between neighbouring nations, always strongest amongst the uncultivated, and naturally found in perfection amidst the two exclusives. The Japanese may not excel the Chinese in courage, but they are a people of a more lofty character, and of greater mental vigour. They are less influenced by prejudice, affect no contempt for Europeans, and appear desirous of availing themselves of superior information. They have some acquaintance with European literature, through the Dutch, a language which is more studied in Yedo, their capital, than in London or Paris; and the Russian and English languages are not unknown to them. They have translations of the works of Laplace and Lalande, are familiar with telescopes and chronometers, and measure their mountains with the barometer. It is said that every man in Japan can read and write. In medicine we have borrowed from them the use of moxa and the practice of acupuncturation; and in horticulture they are known to us by the beautiful camelia, and the pyrus, which bears their name. These indications of advancement in a far-off and separated people are doubly interesting when contrasted with their half-savage habits, their singular institutions, and eccentric condition of society. It is a striking circumstance, that the Japanese, more intelligent and more inquiring than the Chinese, are, at the same time, more rigidly exclusive. The Chinese trade with many Asiatic nations, with Russia, Portugal, England, and with "the English of the second chop-stick," the Americans; but Japan holds intercourse with no nation whatever, European or Asiatic, except only a miserable trade, subject to narrow limitations, with China and Holland, restricted to twelve junks a year from China, and two annual ships from the Dutch settlement of Batavia. Gutzlaff found no great difficulty in landing For any account of L |