It may well be questioned whether, in the course of a like period of

time, any country has ever undergone greater transitions, or made

more rapid strides along the path of civilization than has Japan

during the last quarter of a century. A group of numerous islands,

situated on the high-road and thoroughfare of maritime traffic across

the Pacific, between the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and in

area considerably exceeding Great Britain and Ireland,—Japan, until

thirty years ago, was a terra incognita to the rest of the world;

exceeding even China in its conservatism and exclusiveness. And

now, within a space of some five-and-twenty years, such changes

have come about as to have given birth to the expression,—“the

transformation of Japan.”