A Diplomat in Japan: Theinner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the portswere opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took anactive part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiencesduring that period.
Mythoughts were firstdrawn to Japan by a mere accident. In my eighteenth year an elder brotherbrought home from Mudie's Library the interesting account of Lord Elgin'sMission to China and Japan by Lawrence Oliphant, and the book having fallen tome in turn, inflamed my imagination with pictures verbal and coloured of acountry where the sky was always blue, where the sun shone perpetually, andwhere the whole duty of man seemed to consist in lying on a matted floor withthe windows open to the ground towards a miniature rockwork garden, in thecompany of rosy-lipped black-eyed and attentive damsels—in short, a realisedfairyland. But that I should ever have a chance of seeing these Isles of theBlest was beyond my wildest dreams. An account of Commodore Perry's expedition,which had preceded Lord Elgin's Mission, came in my way shortly afterwards, andthough much more sober in its outward appearance and literary style, onlyserved to confirm the previous impression. I thought of nothing else from thattime onwards. One day, on entering the library of University College, London,where I was then studying, I found lying on the table a notice that threenominations to student-interpreterships in China and Japan had been placed at thedisposition of the Dean. Here was the chance for which I had been longing.Permission to enter myself for the competition was obtained, not withoutdifficulty, from my parents, and having gained the first place in the publicexamination, I chose Japan. To China I never wished or intended to go. My agewas sufficient by a few hours to enable me to compete. I was formally appointedin August 1861, and quitted England full of joyful anticipation in November ofthat year.