In March 1904 there was a gathering in Tokio to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the treaty made between Japan and the United States of America, consequent on the visits of Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854. Count Okuma, in giving a sketch of the Educational progress achieved by Japan in recent years, made some thoughtful remarks which showed how thorough is his grasp of the teachings of history as well as his breadth of view. Alluding to the circumstances which had compelled Japan to close her doors to Western nations early in the seventeenth century, he remarked that for a long period prior to that time she had been in free and unfettered intercourse with Europe, particularly with Spain and Portugal. That intercourse led to the introduction of a new religion, which made such rapid progress that tradition put the number of converts at several millions within a hundred years. “The first religious propagandists,” he said, “were men of noble character. But they were soon followed by men of inferior quality. These began to meddle with politics. People began to suspect that the real object of missionary work was to conquer the country. The home Governments at Lisbon or Madrid might possibly have been innocent of any evil designs, but their missionaries in the Far East behaved in such a manner that the rulers of Japan came to the conclusion that the object and presence of foreign missionaries was inimical to the peace and tranquillity of the country. At the time Japan adopted this policy it so chanced that Europe was also grappling with a religious trouble. It was the harassing period of the Thirty Years’ War. But during the seclusion of 216 years which followed Japan was not altogether out of touch with the West. The light of Western Civilisation was all the time penetrating Japan through the little port of Nagasaki, where the Dutch, alone of all Occidental nations, were permitted to reside and trade. The result was the spread of a knowledge of medicine, astronomy, botany, and other branches of Western learning among the people long before the advent of Perry. Preparations had thus been steadily made during the period of seclusion for the reception with advantage of the full flood of Western Civilisation. As to Perry’s mission in 1853, the Pacific Coasts had been touched by more than fifty Japanese fishing craft driven across the ocean from their own islands by storms. And in 1860 Japan herself sent the Oguri Mission to the United States, in a warship of her own, commanded by Count Katsu, at that time the lord of Awa province, at the entrance to Yedo bay,—a mission which received as much attention, if not more than was accorded in America to the Iwakura Embassy a dozen years afterwards. One of the many beneficial results of the Oguri Mission was the discovery which the members of it made of the importance of studying the English language. At that time Dutch was the only prevalent European tongue cultivated in Japan.” Count