Ow the 29th of May, 1876, all Yedo was astir, and a group of strangely clad and eccentric figures were welcomed with the parade of Japanese etiquette to the capital and the Court of the Mikado. The most prominent personages of the party were two old men clad in wirework hats, with clumsy shoes and monstrous spectacles, who walked supported on the arms of secretaries, like the Jewish lawgiver between Aaron and Hor. Their servants carried tridents and blew conch shells and beat queer drams, as they moved with pompous steps along the platform of the railway station to the chairs of state in which they were borne to the place prepared for them. These fossil-like veterans wore the Corean Ambassadors, the representatives of the most consort vative and isolated country in the world, who were forced most unwillingly out of their shells to reconcile certain difficulties that had arisen between their Government and the Sovereign of progressive Japan, This ceremonial, then, which those who witnessed it will not easily forget, was the outward symbol of an interesting and important event, viz., the admission of Corea into the comity of Asiatic nations. A commercial convention was concluded between Corea and Japan, and some hopes were entertained that the obstinate resistance to foreign ideas, which had been for centuries the traditional policy of the strange nation, would be changed. Such, however, does not seem to be the case. The very limited commerce permitted between Japan and Corea has been fruitful in quarrels and misunderstandings, and, if we may believe the Japan Mail, Japan may be forced into a war with the most stupid and absurd nation now existing in the world, It would bea blessing to mankind if the Coreans
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.