ble. As the opposition became more violent, and the very existence of the Shogunate was in jeopardy, it tried to bring the foreigners to a realization of its problems and to an amelioration of some of the treaty terms which aroused most opposition in the country. But it always hoped that better understanding of the problem would convince the hostile imperial court of the wisdom of foreign relations.
With the opening of the new ports under the liberal terms of the commercial treaties, on July 1, 1859, friction at once developed. There were faults on both sides, but unquestionably the most offense was given by some of the pioneers of commerce and the first seamen to visit the ports. Blood was soon shed. In the next few years there were several attacks upon foreigners and two attacks upon the British legation. These outrages fall into two categories, those committed by the Japanese as reprisals for wrongs done, and those committed for political reasons—either to involve the Shogunate in war with the foreigners or else to destroy some of the hated barbarians whose presence in Japan was deemed a pollution. In the first class should be placed the murder of two Russian seamen on August 25, 1859, of two Dutch sea-captains on February 26, 1860, the second attack on the British legation on June 26, 1862, and the murder of Richardson on September 14. In the first two cases the crimes were probably in revenge for offenses committed by other Europeans, and in the last case, although Richardson had given offense, yet his assassination was in harmony with the anti-foreign views of the Satsuma men who committed it. In the second category we note the murder of the American interpreter, Heusken, on January 14, 1861; the first attack on the British legation, July 5, following; the murder of Lieutenant de Camus on October 14, 1863; and of Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird on November 21, 1864. The burning of the unoccupied British legation on February 1, 1863, was certainly a political act, and possibly the burning of the American legation on May 24 was incendiary and not an accident, as the Shogunate always protested.
With the assassination of Lord Ii, the masterful tairo, on March 24, 1860, the Shogunate lost its most virile defender. His successors, unable to carry on his policy of suppression of the opposition, soon reversed it and restored to favor those who had been punished, and turned against many of the pro-foreign leaders. But this volte-face was deemed weakness and failed to strengthen the declining administration. Early in 1861 the government determined to appease the anti-foreign agitators by securing a postponement of the opening of Yedo, Osaka, Hiogo, and Niigata. This matter was placed before the treaty powers and those in Europe assented in
