“Upon one occasion, an official having been found in direct contradiction with himself, was asked, somewhat abruptly, perhaps, how he could reconcile it to his conscience to utter such palpable untruths? With perfect calmness and self-possession he replied, ‘I told you last month that such and such a thing had been done, and now I tell you that the thing has not been done at all. I am an officer whose business it is to carry out the instructions I receive, and to say what I am told to say. What have I to do with truth or falsehood?’” Again, it is sufficient that a proposition should emanate from the foreigner for it to excite objection. In spite of professions to the contrary, the Japanese raise difficulties on principle, even when they have no intention of ultimately refusing a demand. They are scrupulously courteous, quick, and subtle, but often childish in argument. Some notion of the trivial nature of their excuses may be formed from the reply to Colonel Neale’s despatch to the Japanese Minister narrating the attempt upon his life, and demanding the punishment, not only of the assassins, but of the daimio whose retainers they were, and who was specially charged with the defence of the Legation. This daimio must have been a party to the attack. It is thus that the Government endeavours to screen him, denying, at the same time, that there was more than one culprit:— “In the mean time the officer, Ito Goombio, a retainer of Matsdairn Tamban-no-Kami, one of the princes intrusted with the protection of the Legation, committed suicide, consequently his corpse was examined; then one wound caused by the ball of a gun, and two sword-wounds with which he committed suicide, were discovered. Taking these facts into consideration, it is probable that the same officer managed to get in by stealth, and was the assailant. Therefore we have decided that, although the said officer has committed suicide, he cannot escape the customary punishment of this country; and furthermore, that the officers (retainers) who were placed there for protection should be punished, after having been duly examined, for having been wanting in their duty. As the said prince, the master of the criminal officer (retainer), was ordered by his Majesty the Tycoon to protect the foreign nations, he did not neglect to proclaim the order to his subordinate officers (retainers); but the design which the criminal officer (retainer), of his own free-will, and without fearing death, intended to carry out, was most likely owing to a temporary derangement of his mind, brought on by the present state of affairs being unchangeable, and being deceived by false reports, spread about by wanderers, &c. He therefore, very simply, hated foreign nations, and forgot the orders he had received from the Government and his own master. Your Government will naturally suppose, from all the facts of