AFTER AN EXTENDED sojourn as a student, in Europe and America, for nearly eight years, I lately returned home filled with wild expectations in regard to the great improvements now universally acknowledged. I am obliged to say, however, that in the habits of the people and public improvements generally there has been less progress than I expected to see. But that the country has undergone a complete revolution in sentiment, both social and political, is beyond question. In this particular I am agreeably surprised. The numerous journals which have sprung into being since 1872, and whose editorials may fairly be taken as expressing the opinions of that class of people mostly interested in the welfare of the empire, teem with intelligent discussions, both of a social and political nature.

The most prominent and noteworthy questions discussed are those bearing upon the subject of the revision of the existing treaties; and it is evident that both the Government and people are in perfect accord on this subject. It is also evident that they are now wide-awake from the seeming slumber of the years just past; and they are no longer dreaming of the blissfulness of the “Tariff Convention,” nor yearning after the blessedness of “extra-territorial jurisdiction.”

It was in 1853 that Commodore M. C. Perry arrived in Japanese waters, in command of the United States squadron, bearing a letter from the President of the United States to the Government of Japan.

On the 30th of March, 1854, a “treaty of peace and amity” was signed by Commodore Perry and the commissioners of the Tycoon.

A similar convention, but providing for the opening of Nagasaki, was signed October 14, 1854, by the commissioners of the Tycoon Government and Sir James S. Knight, H. B. M. rear-admiral in the East Indies. On the 26th of February, 1855, a treaty was made with Russia; and in the spring of 1856 Holland made a somewhat more extended treaty, but no additional privileges were granted by Japan.

In June, 1857, Mr. Townsend Harris, United States consul general, made another convention, more commercial in its character, but this was revoked by the treaty of 1858.