Since I wrote the above, we have heard that, before his entry into the fatal hall, Taki Zenzaburo called round him all those of his own clan who were present, many of whom had carried out his order to fire, and, addressing them in a short speech, acknowledged the heinousness of his crime and the justice of his sentence, and warned them solemnly to avoid any repetition of attacks upon foreigners.  They were also addressed by the officers of the Mikado, who urged them to bear no ill-will against us on account of the fate of their fellow-clansman.  They declared that they entertained no such feeling.

The opinion has been expressed that it would have been politic for the foreign representatives at the last moment to have interceded for the life of Taki Zenzaburo.  The question is believed to have been debated among the representatives themselves.  My own belief is that mercy, although it might have produced the desired effect among the more civilized clans, would have been mistaken for weakness and fear by those wilder people who have not yet a personal knowledge of foreigners.  The offence—­an attack upon the flags and subjects of all the Treaty Powers, which lack of skill, not of will, alone prevented from ending in a universal massacre—­was the gravest that has been committed upon foreigners since their residence in Japan.  Death was undoubtedly deserved, and the form chosen was in Japanese eyes merciful and yet judicial.  The crime might have involved a war and cost hundreds of lives; it was wiped out by one death.  I believe that, in the interest of Japan as well as in our own, the course pursued was wise, and it was very satisfactory to me to find that one of the ablest Japanese ministers, with whom I had a discussion upon the subject, was quite of my opinion.

The ceremonies observed at the hara-kiri appear to vary slightly in detail in different parts of Japan; but the following memorandum upon the subject of the rite, as it used to be practised at Yedo during the rule of the Tycoon, clearly establishes its judicial character.  I translated it from a paper drawn up for me by a Japanese who was able to speak of what he had seen himself.  Three different ceremonies are described:—­

1st. Ceremonies observed at the “hara-kiri” of a Hatamoto (petty noble of the Tycoon’s court) in prison.—­This is conducted with great secrecy.  Six mats are spread in a large courtyard of the prison; an ometsuke (officer whose duties appear to consist in the surveillance of other officers), assisted by two other ometsukes of the second and third class, acts as kenshi (sheriff or witness), and sits in front of the mats.  The condemned man, attired in his dress of ceremony, and wearing his wings of hempen cloth, sits in the centre of the mats.  At each of the four corners of the mats sits a prison official.  Two officers of the Governor of the city act as kaishaku (executioners or seconds), and take their place, one on the right