In 1666 a new edict was issued against the Roman Catholic religion; and in 1668 an order was promulgated prohibiting any new Buddhist temples being erected. In all probability the Buddhist priesthood had been exalted by their victory over the Roman priesthood, and had again acquired so much power as to be once more threatening to disturb the equilibrium of the state. The zeal of individuals had perhaps been again endowing new and enriching old establishments, actuated by feelings with which the state powers did not wish to sympathize. Only four years before this edict, the enormous copper idol of Buddha at Miako had been melted down and coined into copper “cash,” and a wooden figure was substituted. If it be true, as is asserted, that it was three or four times the size of the figure of Dai boods, near Kamakura (at present existing in copper, and upward of forty-five feet in height), it must have been of considerable value in coin. This edict against the erection of new temples is still in force in Japan, and while it is aided by a growing want of zeal in the hearts of the people, with a contempt for the priesthood, it may be broken through by the permission given to repair, or restore, or enlarge any temple already existing, however small it may be; and as a temple or shrine is standing upon nearly every knoll or eminence in Japan, there can be no difficulty, were the funds forthcoming, of raising such edifices as were raised of old by the zeal of fervent worshipers. The Buddhist priesthood in 1720, by a great religious festival all over the empire, commemorated the eleventh centenary of the establishment of Buddhism. The Japanese claim the discovery and settlement of the Bonin or Monin Islands in the year 1683. The name means “no men,” or uninhabited. Attempts were made to colonize the islands, but they seem to have failed; and some English and Americans, with Sandwich Islanders, male and female, succeeded them. But in 1862 the Japanese government fitted out a vessel and carried away all these adventurers, bringing them to Yokohama, and it seems to find the islands a convenient distance to which they can send vessels to train officers and men.