THE PRESENT BRITISH minister to Peking, Sir Ernest M. Satow, one of the greatest of the four or five great English-speaking Japanese scholars in the world, has gladly acknowledged his indebtedness to S. R. Brown. On his arrival in Japan, having entered the British Consular service as student interpreter, he was taken by his fellow student Russell Robertson over to Kanagawa to call on Dr. Brown and Dr. Hepburn. There existed at that time only a rather poor collection of sentences rendered into Japanese by the Rev. S. Liggins, and an essay on Japanese grammar, by Sir Rutherford Alcock, of very little practical use. Dr. Brown was just then printing the first sheets of his book Colloquial Japanese and kindly gave them some spare proofs, and on these the two young men made a start in the language. This was the beginning of the superb scholarship in Japanese for which the minister to China is noted.

In October Colonel Neale sanctioned the arrangement by which Dr. Brown gave the two young men two hours’ teaching every week. The first book they read under their teacher was the famous popular sermons of the Buddhist priest which A. B. Mitford has given in translation in volume i. of his classic, Tales of Old Japan. These lessons continued until 1863. In a letter written from the legation in Peking to the biographer, 2, June 1901, Sir Ernest writes:

From the second Sunday after his arrival, in November, 1859, he had begun religious services with preaching once a day, and these were continued at Dr. Hepburn's house for about eight months.