JAPAN
the Japanese. Nor was the case of the trader much better. Testimony upon this point is furnished by a despatch of the British Representative, written to his Government at the close of 1859:—
Looking at the indiscreet conduct, to use the mildest term, of many, if not all the foreign residents, the innumerable and almost daily recurring causes of dispute and irritation between the Japanese officials of all grades and the foreign traders, both as to the nature of the trade they enter into, and the mode in which they conduct it, open in many instances to grave objection, I cannot wonder at the existence of much ill-feeling. And when to those sources of irritation and animosity among the official classes, are added the irregularities, the violence, and the disorders, with the continued scenes of drunkenness, incidental to seaports where sailors from men-of-war and merchant ships are allowed to come on shore, sometimes in large numbers, I confess, so far from sharing in any sweeping conclusions to the prejudice of the Japanese, I think the rarity of retaliative acts of violence on their part is a striking testimony in their favour. … Our own people and the foreigners generally take care that there shall be no lack of grounds of distrust and irritation. Utterly reckless of the future; intent only on profiting if possible by the present moment to the utmost; regardless of treaties or future consequences, they are wholly engaged just now in shipping off all the gold currency of Japan. … Any coöperation with the diplomatic agents of their respective countries in their efforts to lay the foundations of permanent, prosperous, and mutually beneficial commerce between Japan and Western nations is out of the question.
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