go about without a good Japanese escort.  Yesterday we had a most charming expedition into the country.  We started at about 11 A.M., rode first to the road I have already described, and which runs along the moat of the second enclosure of the Emperor’s domain.  We passed alongside of this enclosure.  The effect of the domain within, with its dropping trees (not yews, I see, but pines of some sort, many of them with spreading branches like cedars), being somewhat that of a magnificent English park.  This, mind you, in the centre of a city of two or three millions of inhabitants.

Sunday, August 22nd.—­We then passed through the gate of the outermost enclosure on the opposite side, and entered some crowded streets beyond, through which we made our way, passing on our right the palace of the greatest of the hereditary princes, really an imposing mass of building.  Beyond, we got into the country, consisting at first of a sort of long street of quaint cottages with thatched or tiled roofs, embosomed in gardens, and interspersed with avenues conducting to temples.  Further on were cultivated fields, with luxuriant crops of great variety:  rice, sweet potato, egg-plant, peas, millet, yams, taro, melons, &c. &c.  At last, we reached a place of refreshment, consisting of a number of kiosques, on the bank of a stream, with a waterfall hard by, and gardens with rock-work (not mesquin, as in China, but really pretty and in good taste) opposite.  Here we had luncheon.  Fruits, and a kind of Julienne soup; not bad, but rather maigre, served to us by charming young ladies, who presented on their knees the trays with the little dishes upon them.  The repast finished, we set out on our return (for we had overshot our mark), and visited the gardens, which were the object of our expedition.  They had the appearance of nursery gardens, with rows of pots containing dwarf-trees and all manner of quaint products; all this, moreover, in a prettily accidente country, abounding in forest trees and luxuriant undergrowth.  We got back at about 7 P.M., having met with no mishap.

[Sidenote:  Peace and plenty.] [Sidenote:  Good temper.]

On the whole, I consider it the most interesting expedition I ever made.  The total absence of anything like want among the people; their joyous, though polite and respectful demeanour; the combination of that sort of neatness and finish which we attain in England By the expenditure of great wealth, with tropical luxuriance, made me feel that at last I had found something which entirely surpassed all the expectations I had formed.  And I am bound to say, that the social and moral condition of Japan has astonished me quite as much as its material beauty.  Every man, from the Emperor (who never leaves his palace) to the humblest labourer, lives under a rigid rule, prescribed by law and custom combined; and the Government, through its numerous agents, among