of the Harris treaty. It provided that the ratifications should be exchanged in Washington, and the faithful representative brought about a proposition from the Japanese government to make the exchange the occasion of a special embassy to Washington. As the United States had been the first nation with which Japan had made a treaty, so, said the ministers of state, "the first mission ever sent abroad by our nation" should be to that country. The suggestion was cheerfully accepted by the government at Washington, and it was determined to bring the embassy in naval vessels of the United States. Some delay was occasioned, however, by the necessity of securing an exception to the law inflicting the penalty of death upon any one leaving the empire. The embassy consisting, officials and attendants, of seventy-one persons, sailed from Japan in February, 1860, the thoughtful Harris having planned the journey so that his Japanese friends might see his capital in the genial month of May.
The embassy was received in San Francisco with cordial welcome, transferred at Panama to another man-of-war, and brought direct to Washington. Here they were made the guests of the nation, received in state by the President, and entertained by the Secretary of State. The cities of the Atlantic seaboard vied with each other in extending hospitalities and honors. They attracted universal attention and friendly and favorable comment, their dignified deportment especially being noticed, the general newspaper remark being that "they were quite as dignified, intelligent, and well bred as any gentlemen in any country or time." On the other
