Tue May number of the Atlantic Monthly contains an article called the "Martyrdom of an Empire," which is a good specimen of inconsequential abuse of England and Eoglishmen in general and Sir Harry Parkes in particular, The writer states that having spent ten years in Japan he has had to listen to so many mistaken opinions of its condition, that he resolved to attempt to enlighten his countrymen, and to discharge his soul of the trath concerning the Kingdom of the Rising Sun and the monstrous doings of Englis men there. And, granting the possession of a soul to Mr. EH. H. House, the author of the article, it was prudent in him to endeavour to rid it of the malice, uncharitableness, and ignorance which he has contrived to cram into some dozen pages of the Adlantio, But we are puzzled to see what good the editor of the magazine proposed to himself when he found space for it, or how he permitted an attack so wide of the cruth as that on Sir Harry Parkes to appear.
After praising, as it deserved, the manner in which the great Governmental and other reforms were carried through, and contrasting the position of Japan then with its present condition, the writer states that she is now "in the plainest words destitute, of money, as nearly penniless as a nation can be, and yet preserve the outward decencies of existence," and he undertakes to show that this has come about by "the oversights of the unwary," and the "malignant machinations of the unfriendly," to the "utter consternation of those most deeply interested—the rulers of the Empire." The unfriendly are the English, and, chiefly, the several representatives of Great Britain, with Sir Harry Parkes as head malignant machinator, for the Ministers of the other European Powers are either reflectors of the English policy or sail in " the wake" of perfidious Albion "as" what the writer calla "a matter of commercial instinct." The United States, we are led to infer by Mr. House, have been nearly, but not quite
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.