of which, a prince, if he meet them on the road, must give way. By land, merchandise is transported on horses and oxen, but the rivers and lakes afford the principal medium of transit. The vessels are never more than sixty tons burthen; and by way of rendering it impossible for them to break through the rule of national seclusion, their construction is ordered by law in such a manner, that any other than a coasting voyage would be fatal to them.

The Chinese trade, to the small extent to which it is limited, may be considered necessary to a luxurious people like the Japanese; but it is obvious that that of the Dutch can be esteemed by them of no commercial importance whatever. The truth, we believe is, that the latter are, however unconsciously, a part of the spy system; that they are merely retained as agents through whom notice may be received of any movements in the outer world; and that the restricted trade accorded to them is the price of such services. Even setting aside their treatment of their co-religionists, there was nothing in the Dutch mode of doing business to bespeak the favour of a high-spirited people. The insolent extravagance of their demands for their own goods, together with their extreme parsimony in purchasing, at a time when they supposed themselves permanently established in the trade, gave great umbrage to the Japanese government; while the detection of their captains in petty smuggling, excited the contempt and derision of the people. A coat and a pair of breeches of enormous stowage were a part of the standing furniture of the cabin; and when the captain went on shore-the only Dutchman allowed by law to pass without personal search-he was often so heavily laden as to be obliged to lean for support upon two sailors, one at each side. The breeches were first suspected by the government, and abolished, and then the

coat was declared contraband.

"It was droll enough,"

says Thunberg, "to see the astonishment which the sudden reduction in the size of our bulky captain excited in the major part of the ignorant Japanese, who before had always imagined that all our captains were actually as fat and lusty as they appeared to be."

So long as the existing constitution of Japan endures, there appears to be no probability of her being drawn into the common circle of nations; but it is evident enough that the country resembles a charged mine, which a single spark may explode. That spark will perhaps come, if come it will, from some external quarter. The English, from being masters of India, advanced into Malaya, and striding thence towards the east, have now planted a territorial settlement in China. The same nation is founding empires on a continent nearly as large as Europe, not a month's sail by common ships, from Japan. The Russians are the near neighbours of her northern islands in Kamchatka. A great movement is taking place among the Anglo-American race towards their western shores, which are distant only a few weeks' sail, in a direct, uninterrupted line. How many changes have taken place since the Japanese first severed the ties which bound them to the social system of the world! and how many greater changes are in progress!

BOOK IX.

AUSTRALIA, AND THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

CHAPTER I.

THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.

BETWEEN Australia, the Indian Archipelago, and the eastern shores of continental Asia on one hand, and the two Americas on the other, there lie a multitude of islands which are all of more or less importance to the commercial fortunes of Great Britain, and some of which are possessions of the British crown.

These chains usually stretch from north to south, with an inclination in the middle of their course from east to west, thus seeming to indicate a regular system of partially submerged mountains; and the loftier islands present indubitable tokens of that volcanic agency which at some early epoch of the globe so utterly changed the face of nature. These vary from two thousand to fifteen thousand feet in elevation, and exhibit traits of mingled beauty and sublimity rarely seen elsewhere in union;

while the lower isles, some only a hundred feet above the water, realize our dreams of paradise, and would really have deserved from the ancient world the name of Islands of the Blest. The sea even in storms, before approaching these ocean-gardens, hushes its roar and glides, as if with calm and fond delight, round their base, exhibiting distinctly through its transparent bosom the most delicate hues of the coral flowers beneath. A girdle of rock, varying in distance, sometimes to the extent of a mile from the sloping beach, explains this seeming miracle, by receiving the shock of the long huge waves of the ocean, which rise up in crests of foam without entering the charmed circle.

The appearance of human beings, growing like animals and plants on groups of islands that are often many hundred miles apart from each other, and several thousand miles from any continent, is perplexing to the imagination. The question as to whether the insular population of the Pacific came from Asia or America has excited much discussion; but the opinion which appears to be best supported by argument is, that both the latter continent and the intermediate islands were peopled from the former. The difficulty, however, as to the prevalence of easterly tradewinds is not well surmounted, by supposing the ancestral navigators to have taken advantage of the brief westerly gales to proceed from group to group. This is to conclude that they were acquainted with the position of the land they sought; for it is obvious that a thousand canoes might have drifted by chance from one fixed point in this vast ocean without hitting precisely another. It is enough for us, however, that we here find two races, the Brown and the Black, similar to those we have met with in the Indian Archipelago; and we venture to suggest that the cradle of the latter must be looked for in the Australian continent, the Africa of the eastern world.

There is a sufficient similarity in the character of the different groups inhabited by the brown race to admit of a general sketch. The people were found by the Europeans living in a state of great simplicity, and yet many of their institutions giving token of a much further advanced condition of society. The king in some of the islands was also the pontiff, and resembled closely in his sanctity the emperor of Japan-converting whatever he touched into a thing too sacred for common use.

The Japanese system of abdication, likewise, prevailed; although it took place not at the will of the monarch but by prescription, on the birth of his first-born son, who forthwith became the sovereign, his father sinking into the position of minister. The people were divided into classes: first, the aristocracy or large proprietors; second, the smaller proprietors or middle classes; and third, the common people including the retainers, servants, and slaves of the others. Women were eligible to the throne, and in one respect enjoyed great liberty. Among a simple people, enjoying a heavenly climate, and a soil that yielded almost spontaneously, not only the necessaries but many of the luxuries of life, there were few questions of property to embitter the intercourse of the sexes. Polygamy to any convenient extent was permitted; and the husbands were only offended by what in another state of society would be called the profligacy of their wives when it was practised without their sanction. Thefts were a mere exercise of the ingenuity, only fit to be laughed at or applauded, except by the losers; who were at liberty to recover their property as they could. Public opinion and oral traditions were the only laws, and the latter were handed down in songs which described the manners of their ancestors. In religion they believed in a supreme and eternal Deity who