sufficient control instituted over the savages in future to ensure that no repetition of the inhuman acts should occur. But the negotiators at Peking sought to cut down the sum-total of the indemnity, and to avoid giving any written pledge as regards the time to come. Okubo, however, was very firm on these points, and told the other side plainly that Japan would not place confidence in his assurances unless they were supported by documentary evidence that the settlement was of the character which he might describe it to have been. “Of course I do not covet the indemnity,” he declared, “but if I cannot explain the steps to be taken and the amount of compensation for expenditure to be paid, with written proof to support my statements, how can I in honour report my mission to the Emperor as having been completed?” Finding the Chinese to be still reluctant to comply with these terms, he prepared to return to Japan, but at that juncture Prince Kung hurried to the British Legation and besought Sir Thomas Wade to intercede. In the end a treaty was drawn up and signed, between Okubo and Kung, acting on behalf of their respective sovereigns, whereby it was agreed:— Article I: that the enterprise of Japan was a just and rightful proceeding to protect her own subjects, and China did not designate it as a wrong action,— Article II: that a sum of money should be given by China for relief of the families of the shipwrecked Japanese subjects maltreated. Japan having constructed roads and built houses, etc.: in that place, and China wishing to have the use of these for herself, she agreed to make payment for them, the amount to be fixed by special agreement. Article III. All the official correspondence thereunto exchanged between the two states to be returned mutually and be annulled, to prevent any future misunderstanding. As to the savages, China engaged to establish authority, and promised that navigators should be protected from injury by them. Under a special clause it was agreed that 100,000 taels should be paid to the families of the murdered men, and that in respect of the roads and buildings the sum paid should be 400,000 taels. Japan was to withdraw all her troops, and China was to pay the half-million taels agreed upon by the 20th December following, in that thirteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tung-Chi. Japan thus early in her era of Meiji, or Enlightened Rule, vindicated her right to be regarded as a champion of the rights of our common humanity, a position which she has successfully maintained on every occasion since that time.