London, Jeddo, the real capital, a grand
metropolis, with about one million, six
hundred thousand inhabitants. Of course there
is a wilderness of suburb; there are endless
streets; there is a river through the town
which flows into the bay, from which this
capital is not far distant. There are bridges;
there is a vast multitude of people thronging
to and fro; there are shops, signs, inscriptions.
We will walk into a theatre; for here, as in
the days of Æschylus, performances take place
by day. There is a pit, and there are tiers of
elegant seats, which answer to our boxes; the
scenery and dresses are handsome, only in
scene-painting there is no perspective. As in
the early European, drama, the subjects
illustrated are the deeds of gods and heroes: not
more than two speakers occupy the scene at
once; boys act the female characters. Several
pieces are performed, each piece divided into
acts, and the plan, is to give after Act I. of
the first play, Act I. of the second, and then
to begin the third, before taking the series of
second acts. As each actor in each piece plays
also several parts, one might consider this
arrangement to be rather puzzling. Gentlemen
go out after the act of any piece they
wish to hear, and attend to other matters till
the next act of the same piece shall come
on; but ladies sit with pleasure through the
whole. Dear souls! they steal a march
upon our feminine box ornaments; for they
bring with them a collection of dresses to the
play, slip out during each pause to change their
clothes, and reappear, to catch the admiration
of beholders, every time in a new costume.

The palace of the Ziogoon covers much
ground, being in fact a rural scene—- a palace
and a park, locked up within the town. As
for the Ziogoon, he also is locked up within
his trenches. To understand how he is
fettered, and, at the same time, how all the
people of Japan have come to be locked up,
we must pursue our little thread of history.
Yoritomo established, as we said, the power
of the Ziogoons, which flourished for a long
time. Kublah Khan endeavoured to make
Nippon subject to him; but without success,
winds and waves fighting with the Japanese.
Mongolians were forbidden then to touch
Japanese ground, but a century later friendly
relations were restored with China. In 1543,
two Portuguese, Antonio Mota and Francesco
Zeimoto, landed in Japan, exciting great
interest among a mercantile people, trading at
that time, it is said, with sixteen foreign
nations. The Portuguese taught new arts, they
brought new wares, and they were welcomed
eagerly; some of them settled, and were
married in Japan. The Jesuits came, too,
with Christianity, and their preaching was
abundantly successful. Now, it so happened
that about the same time, when the
Portuguese first arrived, a civil war was waged
between two brothers, for the dignity of Ziogoon.
Both brothers perished in this war, and then
the vassal princes fought over the fallen bone.
Nobunaga, the most powerful of these, was
aided by a person of obscure birth, named
Hide-yosi. Nobunaga became Ziogoon,
favoured the Christians, and invested Hide-yosi
with high military rank. An usurper
murdered Nobunaga, was then himself murdered,
and left vacant a seat which Hide-yosi
was now strong enough to seize. He took
the name of Tayko, and is the great hero of
the annals of Japan. He it was who
continued the robbery of the Mikado's power,
and secured himself against revolt by establishing
a system of check over the princes, which
prevails to this day. He left a son bearing
the name of Hide-yosi, six years old, and to
secure his power, married him to the daughter
of Jyeyas, a strong papa. Jyeyas played the
usurper, of course, and a large faction
supported the young Hide-yosi, whom he had
sworn to guard. The boy was Christian at
heart; his cause, also, was just; the Jesuits,
therefore, and the great body of the Christians
warmly took his part. Had he maintained
his right successfully, Christianity would have
become the state religion in Japan. Jyeyas
conquered, and the Christians, persecuted,
afterwards rebelling, they were rooted out—-
regarded as a sect politically hostile. Their
rebellion broke loose in the principality of
Arima; the Prince of Arima drove the
insurgents, seventy thousand in number, to the
peninsula of Simabara, where they stood at
bay. Since they were not to be dislodged,
the Dutch, then settled at Firato, were desired
to aid the government; accordingly they sent
a man-of-war, which fired upon the Christians
and sealed their fate. To this service the
Dutch were indebted for their permission to
retain one factory. All other Christians were
destroyed or expelled, and since those days
every stranger has been required, exempting
the Dutch factory, to trample on an image of
the Saviour, as an evidence of his not being a
Christian interloper.

To finish our history, we must record that
Jyeyas, having established his own usurpation,
completed the reduction of the Mikado
to a state of helplessness; completed the
fettering of the princes, and the protective
system of espial; and being deified, on death,
under the name of Gongen, was the founder
of the Gongen dynasty of Ziogoons, which still
rules in Japan, and still adheres to the
protective system. But in course of time the
power of the Ziogoons has waned; the
Ziogoon himself is now a puppet to his
council, which is governed by a president,
who by no means is able to do what he likes.

Let us now see how all the Japanese are
tied and bound, and kept in profound peace.
In the first place, nearly half the population
are ofiicials in pay, and the whole empire is
sprinkled thickly with spies, some public and
official, who may intrude where they please,
others concealed and not acknowledged,
although paid, by government. Furthermore,
every householder is required to watch