HISTORICAL SKETCH MISSIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD JAPAN.^ s. T. VJ i/o)/ I!c4i ~ \ — ^ ^ • *—* . / i WITH SUPPLEMENT. 'A / / / Vo : I /r' BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD, i/ 1 Somerset Street. 1886. 1 LIBRARY OF THE URion IlieGiogicai ver.:i!i5!| NEW YORK CITY w;((jr^^»V' ::yS#|fe vh\^ .. ? Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00amer_1 JAPAN, — « — HISTORICAL SKETCH. The Empire of Japan consists of three large islands, con- taining, respectively, not far from 100,000, 16,000 and 10- 000 square miles, and surrounded by many smaller islands, making in all an extent of territory variously estimated, but probably amounting to about 160,000 square miles. The population is dense, numbering, as is supposed, from 30,000, 000 to 40,000,000. The surface of the country is mudi broken by bills and valleys, but the soil is fertile and almost everywhere well cultivated, producing a good variety of grains, vegetables, and fruits. Minerals are abundant — gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, mercury, coal, sulphur, salt, etc. It is, writes Mr. Blodget, of the North China mission, “ a land of hills and valleys and lofty mountains ; a land of pure air, clear streams, running brooks and fountains of water ; a land abounding in trees and flowers of numerous varieties, and rich in productions useful for food, for man and beast.” The civilization of the Japanese, peculiar, but very consider- ably advanced, is supposed to be of Chinese origin. Chinese is their learned language, Chinese classics have been the text-books in their schools, and many Chinese words have become incorporated in their language. The prevailing re- ligion has been Buddhism. The people are represented as of middling size ; tawny complexion, with black, glossy hair ; active, lively, quick of apprehension ; exhibiting more in- telligence than is common among Asiatics. Education, to some extent, is almost universal, “ the poorest and lowest 1 2 JAPAN. laborers being taught to read and write ; ” printers and book- sellers are numerous, and the literature is somewhat exten- sive. Many mechanical arts are carried to a high degree of perfection, and commercial operations are conducted, some- times on a very extensive scale, with promptness and accu- racy. Indeed, the Japanese would seem to need nothing but the pervading influence of a pure religion, to give them a higli position among the nations of the earth. The existence of such a people was first made known in Europe by the Venetian, Marco Polo, who returned from liis travels in 1295. His statements, however, respecting this and other lands, were generally rejected as utterly incredible, and for about two hundred and fifty years after his time there seems to have been no European intercourse with the empire. About the year 1543, Pinto, one of the many Portuguese adventurers then crowding to the East, driven by a storm, landed on one of the Japan islands. He was well received, and carried to his countrymen such a report of the riches of the country as led many traders and adventurers there, and a Portuguese settlement was soon established. Papal missionaries, if they did not at first accompany the merchants, followed them almost immediately, the celebrated Francis Xavier, with his companions, reaching Japan in 1549. At this time there seems to have been little preju- dice or opposition. Both merchants and naissionaries were favorably received. Soon after the introduction of Chris- tianity, the emperor is said to have replied to some of the heathen priests, who requested him to prohibit the foreign faith, by asking how many religions there were in the em- pire. Being told that there were thirty-five, he remarked : “ When thirty-five religions are tolerated we can easily bear with thirty-six ; leave the strangers in peace.” Xavier re- mained two years, and laborers and converts rapidly multi- plied around him. About thirty years later, in 1582, Japanese Christians lent an embassy, with letters and presents to the Pope a! HISTORICAL SKETCH. 8 Rome, and after their return converts were still more increased; so that in the course of two years (1591-2) it is said 12,000 persons were baptized. Persecutions, however, had already commenced, or at least opposition, an edict for the banishment of missionaries having been issued in 1587, and befbi’e the close of the century there were repeated wises of martyrdom. Allured by the success of the Portuguese, the Dutch East India Company sent out merchant vessels for Japan in 1598, one of which reached there in 1600. Others followed, in 1609 ; and the same year a port was granted to that com- pany, and a factory, or trading settlement was established. The new settlers seem to have had an eye to trade alone, making no religious demonstrations, willing to renounce even all the forms of Christianity for the sake of gain. Already the Government had become distrustful of the Portuguese, whose success had made them haughty, arrogant, and incau- tious. Portugal was then united with Spain, and a Span- iard being asked by the emperor how their king had man- aged to possess himself of half the world, is said to have intimated, in reply, that having first sent priests to convert the people, the native Christians would join his troops, and conquest was easy. As might have been expected, such a reply made a deep impression on the mind of the emperor. The Dutch, at war with Portugal, and seeking their own advantage, were not likely to do anything to allay suspicion ; difficulties, commenced before their arrival, continued and increased ; the Christians took no measures to pacify the Government, but defying it, rather, began to destroy idols and heathen temples, and severe persecutions followed, in 1612 and 1614. In 1622, there was a frightful massacre of Christians in the neighborhood of Nagasaki, with horrible tortures inflicted upon many, in the vain attempt to make hem renounce a faith declared to be infamous and rebel- lious. In 1629, there were still numbered in the empire 400,000 Christians, but twenty years later, one hundred JAPAN. years aft(!r the first arrival of Xavier, there remained none. Driven to despair, they were said to have entered into a conspiracy with the Portuguese, to overthrow the imperial throne ; by the close of 1639, the Portuguese were entirely expelled, and their trade transferred to the Dutch ; the native Christians, still defending themselves, took possession of a strong castle in Simabara, but were at length over- powered, by the aid of Dutch artillery and military science, and utterly destroyed, to the number of 37,000, about the year 1640. In 1641, the Dutch were ordered to leave their position at Firando, and take up their residence on the little island of Desima, at the port of Nagasaki, where they were placed under rigid inspection, and where, for more than two hundred years, they retained the undisturbed monopoly of European trade with Japan. The English, and the Rus- sians, meantime, made several unsuccessful attempts to estab^sh commercial intercourse, and some unavailing efforts were put forth by Papal missionaries to regain a footing in the empire ; but by Protestants, no attempt has been made to preach the gospel there until within the last few years. An edict was published, soon after the destruc- tion of the Christians, which has remained in force until very recently, offering a reward to any who should inform against Christians, if there were such still undiscovered (about $500 to “ whoever informs on a padre,” and $300 to “whoever informs on a Roman ”). From that time to very near the present the most bitter hostility to Christianity has been cherished, and it has been a capital crime to become a disciple of Christ. Within a few years, efforts on the part of Christian nations to overcome the long-continued exclusiveness of Japan, and establish diplomatic and commercial relations with the empire, have been more earnestly prosecuted, and crowned, at last, with success. In 1846, an expedition from the United States was conducted by Commodore Biddle, designed, if possible, to open friendly negotiations; but it HISTORICAL SKETCH. 5 Bccomplished nothing. In 1849, Captain Glynn, of the United States ship Prehle, rescued from Japan some ship- wrecked American seamen, who had been imprisoned nearly seventeen months and treated with great severity ; but he was not permitted to remain, or to communicate with the people. In 1852, the United States Government dispatched an expedition under command of Commodore Perry, who was instructed to demand protection for American seamen and ships wrecked on the coast, and if possible to conclude a treaty by which American vessels should be permitted to enter at least one port, to obtain supplies and for pm-poses of trade. Perry entered the bay of Yedo, and after much difficult negotiation, succeeded in delivering to high officials a letter addressed to the Emperor by the President of the United States. In February, 1854, he entered the same bay again, vrith a squadron of seven ships of war, and came to anchor a few miles from the capital ; and on the Jlst of March, a treaty was agreed upon. Simoda and Hakodadi were designated as ports which American ships might visit to obtain supplies, arrangements were made for the residence of United States consuls at those ports, protection and assistance were guaranteed to shipwrecked seamen, and liberty to trade, under certain restrictions, was granted. Treaties with other nations, and further concessions, soon followed. An English squadron entered the harbor of Nagasaki in September of the same year, and a treaty was concluded with Great Britain by which that port and Hako- dadi were opened to British commerce. The Russians soon obtained like privileges, and in November, 1855, the Dutch secured relief from most of the restrictions so long imposed upon them. In June, 1857, Mr. Townsend Harris, United States consul-general for Japan, negotiated a new treaty at Simoda, by which additional privileges were secured to American merchants, and after July 4, 1858, Americans were permitted to reside at Simoda and Hakodadi. In 1858, he succeeded in reaching Yedo, and concluded a still more R JAPAN. favorable treaty, making provision for opening the ports of Kanagawa (a suburb of Yedo, substituted for Simoda), Nagasaki, and Hakodadi to general trade, within one year, and of Hiogo, the harbor of a most important commercial city, Osaka, in 1860; and for the residence of an American ambassador at Yedo. It is worthy of grateful mention, that in the instructions given to Mr. Harris by Mr. Marcy, the United States Sec- retary of State, he was directed to do his best, by all judi- cious measures, to obtain full toleration of the Christian religion, and protection for missionaries who might go there to promulgate this religion. Mr. Harris’s own desires were fiilly in accordance with such instructions, and the treaty did provide for the free exercise of their religion by Americans in Japan, with liberty to erect places of worship. The Japanese commissioners, in accordance with the long-con- tinued policy of the empire, attempted to place Christianity and Christian teaching among the forbidden articles of im- portation ; but all such propositions were repelled with firm- ness, and were consequently withdrawn. The custom of trampling on the cross was to be abolished, but no liberty was secured for the Japanese to embrace Christianity, or for foreigners to propagate its doctrines. Indeed, it was ex- pressly stipulated, that nothing should be done “ calculated to excite religious animosity.” Within the same year a British ambassador, the Earl of Elgin, was conveyed to Yedo, and concluded a new treaty, based on that negotiated by Mr. Harris, but securing some additional concessions. Protestant Missionary Efforts. By these treaties, and others with Christian nations, great progress was made towards the full opening of Japan foi intercourse with other lands, and apparently for the re-intro iuction of Christianity. Yet the hopes and expectations wliich were thus excited, were not all warranted even by the treaty stipulations ; and certainly not by the past history of PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 7 Japan, the known aversion to intercourse with foreigners, the bitter, long-continued hostility to Christianity, or the peculiar and not well understood character of the Govern- ment, — the relations of the two Emperors, as they were sometimes called, the civil (Tycoon) and the spiritual (Mi- kado), to each other, and of the many hereditary princes, sovereigns to a great extent, within their own dominions, to the supreme authority. A prominent clergyman in the United States remarked, in an address delivered in Febru- ary, 1859, and subsequently published: “Mr. Harris has expressly secured the right of Christian teaching, and of building Christian churches in Japan, which shall be unmo- lested and protected ; and by his eminently wise and suc- cessful services as a negotiator, American Protestant Chris- tianity is to enjoy unlimited freedom of establishment and propagation in this new and wonderful field.” The state- ment is quoted only to show how glowing were the antici- pations too readily indulged by many. No such “unlimited freedom of propagation ” had been secured for the Protestant or any other form of Christianity. In the good providence of God, however, great changes had been effected, and there was reason for the hope that others would follow in • due time. Christian missionaries could enter the empire, as citizens of other nations, and reside at some designated places ; could study the language, and thus be preparing themselves for future labors ; and might find the way open- ing before them more and more fully. Accordingly, several missionary societies in the United States at once turned their attention to the new field. In February, 1858, Dr. Boone (missionary Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States to China), then in this country, sent for publication in the “ Spirit of Missions,” a letter from an officer in the United States Navy, dated at Hakodadi, Japan, October 2, 1857, which expressed the opinion that the time had come for sending missionaries — prudent men, of tried experience — 8 JAPAN. who “ must remember that it is death to a Japanese to be- come a Christian,” and must not “ rush headlong into the work, without considering secondary means ; ” but who, if judicious, would probably “ meet with as much encourage- ment as they generally do when first commencing operations in heathen lands.” On the 14th of February, 1859, the Foreign Committee of the Episcopal Board of Missions formally determined to enter upon work in Japan, and ap- pointed Rev. Messrs. John Liggins and C. M. Williams, then of the China mission, to commence at Nagasaki. Before these brethren received the intelligence of their appointment, one of them, Mr. Liggins, acting under medical advice, was already at Nagasaki, to try what reinvigorating power there might be in the climate of that place. He arrived there May 2d, 1859, two months before the time when, by treaty stipulations, he would be allowed to take up his residence in the city ; but, assisted by Mr. Walsh, United States consul, and promising to instruct a class of government interpreters who were anxious to learn English, he soon succeeded in getting permission to remain, and in obtaining part of a good house, in a beautiful situation. Mr. Williams joined him in July. Thus was commenced “ the first Protestant mission actually established in that empire.” It was soon apparent that the encouragement was not likely to be all that had been hoped. There had been reac- tion at Yedo against the liberal measures, with degradation of the ministry and the appointment of those in favor of the old, exclusive policy. The prohibitory edict against Chris- tianity remained unrepealed. Mr. Harris believed it would •never be enforced, but still thought it best for missionaries to confine themselves to the sale of books, as the only safe ground. The Annual Report of the Foreign Committee for I860 says : “The experience of the past year has deepened the impression expressed in 1859, touching the necessity of extreme caution in the prosecution of the work in Japan,” and in October of that year, the Foreign Committee again PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 9 reported, that they were not advised of any freer opportu- nity for direct missionary effort than when the former Report was made. The missionaries could, as stated by Mr. Lig- gins, procure native books and teachers, and acquire the lan- guage ; prepare philological works to facilitate its acquisition by others ; dispose, by sale, of many historical, geographical, and scientific works, prepared by Protestant missionaries ; sell the Scriptures and religious books and tracts in the Chinese language, understood by every educated Japanese ; answer the inquiries of persons coming for such books to their own houses, and thus explain to many the doctrines of ChVistianity and urge its claims upon them ; and by their Christian walk and conversation, by kindness and benevo- lence, weaken and dispel prejudice. Mr. Williams wrote, June 18, 18G1 : “ There is no proper missionary work to report It may appear singular that so little has been accomplished ; but the peculiar difficulties of our situation, — the antecedents of Christianity in Japan, the jealousy of government, the sweeping clause in the treaty, that ‘ Americans shall not do anything calculated to excite religious animosity,’ the ramifications of the system of espion- age, reaching everywhere, alike the cottage of the poor, and the ‘ forbidden inclosure’ of the ‘ Son of Heaven,’ — should all be kept in mind. When these things are fuUy compre- hended, it will be seen that great caution is necessary. A ihlse step may be fatal, and surround us with such a host of spies, that intercourse with the people will be virtually cut off. Though the practice of trampling on religious emblems is abolished, still the law against Christianity is unrepealed. .... The means used by the authorities to prevent converts to Christianity being made, are most thorough, and if strictly observed would be most effectual Each individual is compelled to sign a paper once a year, declaring that he or ffie is not a Christian, also specifying the sect of Buddhists to which he belongs They offer large rewards to all who inform of those who become Christians.” 10 JAPAN. In such circumstances not much jirogress was made, and after a few years the work of this church in Japan, which had been connected with its China missions, seems to have died out or been discontinued. In his Report of 1868, the Bishop to China says : “ It is heart-sickening to report that our Church has not a single representative ” in Japan. Two missionaries, since appointed, are supposed to have sailed from San Francisco for that field in December, 1872. As early as 1855, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States requested one of its missionaries in China to visit Japan and make inquiries, preparatory to sending forth laborers to this “ long inacces- sible field.” In 1859, the door seeming to be open, and some candidates for the missionary work having expressed a desire to be sent to that land, it was resolved to commence a mission. Dr. James C. Hepburn and wife, formerly mis- sionaries in China, but then in the United States, were at their own request appointed to the work, as were also Rev. John L. Nevius and wife, then of the Ningpo mission. Dr and Mrs. Hepburn sailed from New York for Shanghai on the 24th of April, and from Shanghai for Kanagawa, Octo- ber 1. In January, 1873, five missionaries were connected with the Japan mission of the Presbyterian Board, and it was then stated that others, under appointment, would sail in a few months for that field. The Board of the Reformed Protestant (Dutch) Church in the United States, about the close of 1858, were moved to efforts in Japan, (1) by letters from Christian brethren of several denominations then in that empire, urging the work upon them especially, as those who could avail them- selves of the Dutch language, and (2) by an almost simul- taneous consecration of means, by brethren of the South Church in New York, for missionary effort there. One of he pastors in Central New York also solicited a missionary appointment to that field. The Board, therefore, deemed it duty to attempt a new mission in Japan ; and Rev. S. R PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORIS. 11 Browu, of Owasco, was appointed as a missionary. A young Holland brother, just completing his theological studies, and a medical missionary, were soon secured as his associates. The company sailed from New York, May 7, 1859, consisting of Rev. S. R. Brown, Rev. G. F. Verbeck, and Dr. D. Simmons, with their wives, and Miss Julia Brown. It was understood that their work must be for a time, perhaps a considerable time, preparatory ; and that “ the churches should exercise all patience in looking for results.” This Board had, at the close of its , last year, five male laborers in that field ; but the brethren of this mission have been largely engaged in educational work, receiving much of their support from the Japanese Government. The English Church Missionary Society reports two mis- sionaries in that empire, and by some other societies and individuals, evangelistic work has been or is about to be attempted there. It was certainly to be expected, that the Papal Church would not be unmindful of the renewed opening of a land fi’om which its adherents were banished more than 200 years ago, and in January, 1862, religious services were commenced in a new Roman Catholic church at Yoko- hama, — “a neat and conspicuous building of white stucco,” erected on ground given for the purpose by the French minister. Thus the Romanists were in advance of any Protestant denomination in the completion of a church building in Japan. The last Report of the Roman Catho- lic Association for the Propagation of the Faith gives one bishop and fourteen “ missioners ” as their force in Japan. At the annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. held at Pittsburgh, Penn., in 1869, the Board fully and heartily ap- proved of the proposal submitted by the Prudential Com- mittee to establish a mission in Japan, and on the fourth ol ihe next month (November, 1869), Rev. Daniel Crosby Greene, son of a former secretary of the Board, sailed from San Francisco with his wife, to commence the mis- 12 JAPAN. sion. They reached Yokohama ou the 30th of the same month. After spending a few months at Yedo, and after consultation with Mr. Blodget, of the North China mission, and others, Mr. Greene fixed upon Kobe, a town of some 65,000 inhabitants, about twenty miles from Osaka, 35C miles from Yedo, on a bay of the inland sea in the central portion of the island of Nippon, as the best place for the first station of the mission, and he was soon established there. After something more than a year, Rev. and Mrs. O. H. Guliek joined him, arriving at Kobe March 3. Rev. J. D. Davis and wife arrived on the first of December fol- lowing, Dr. J. C. Berry and wife on the 27th of May, 1872, and Rev. M. L. Gordon, M. D., and his wife, in October, 1872. A new station was taken at Osaka, in the summei' of 1872, by Mr. Guliek, where Mr. Gordon joined him. The other brethren are still at Kobe. Two ladies. Misses Dudley and Talcott, sailed from San Francisco on the 1st of March, 1873, to join the mission. Recent Changes. It is hardly needful to dwell upon the changes which have been going forward in Japan while missionary socie- ties have thus been sending laborers there, and making some preparation for the great work to which it has seemed so probable that the Christian Church must soon be called. These changes have attracted much attention from the whole civilized world, and will be, perhaps, sufficiently in- dicated here by extracts from an article published a few months since in the “ Missionary Record ” of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and a communication from Mr. Davis, of the Board’s mission, written at the close of his first year in Japan. The article in the “ Record ” states : “ Under various names, two Emperors, the one called the Tycoon and the other the Mikado, the former a military and secular sovereign, the latter a spiritual governor, tech- nically supreme, have hitherto ruled the Empire of Japan, RECENT CHANGES. 13 with its thirty-one millions of population, scattered over its three principal and its numberless smaller islands. These islands used to be divided into sixty-eight provinces, over every one of which a prince, under the name of Daimio, or Siomio was set as ruler, under the two Emperors, whose re- lation to one another we shall, in the course of this article, endeavor to explain. “The recent revolution has been accomplished hy the deposition of the Tycoon, and the assumption of his pre- rogatives by the Mikado, who has been, for four or five years, the sole Emperor of Japan. This abolition of the office of Tycoon has also completely changed the relation of the Daimios, and other local rulers, to the government and to the people. Formerly these princes had to reside in the city of Yedo for about half of their time, with their families, as hostages, under the eye of the Tycoon, who had the power to depose them, and who, through his council of state, surroimded them with an atmosphere of constant espionage. These circumstances lessen our surprise that the aristocracy of Japan was, to a large extent, a consenting party to the revolution which has sent the Tycoon to vir- tual and perpetual banishment, and has left the Mikado to rule without a rival, and to reconstruct the goveimment. “The present Japanese dynasty, that of the Mikado, stretches so far back into the past as to dwarf the antiquity of the oldest royal families of Europe. We are not aware that any man can call in question the unparalleled claim of the present Emperor, to a pedigree stretching back to the sixth century before Christ. This Emperor has witnessed the most remarkable revolution that has taken place in the empire since his family began to reign, twenty-four centu- ries ago. He is a young man of twenty-four years of age. His father and predecessor died on the 3d of February, 1867, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. The present Emperor was then a boy of seventeen ; and within little more than a year of the beginning of his reign. May 16. 14 JAPAN. 1(868, the turning-point of a new regime, the hinge of Jap- 4nese history, was reached, unconsciously on his part and Jiat of his fellow-countrymen. He has indeed manifested .ao small degree of vigor and intelligence, inasmuch as he nas risen to his position in spite of his youth and the in- credible bondage of those associations and traditions by wnicn be was surrounded, and by which he was liable to be enslaved. It is not, however, to be imagined for a moment that he, or his immediate advisers, contemplated the marvel- ous consequences which have just began to develop them- selves, in changing the relations, the customs and habits, as well as vhe beliefs of that singular people. The change was not a human policy, bnt a divine and resistless providence. “ The pitfsent revolution must necessarily awaken relig- ious inquuv, inasmuch as the Mikado, who was for ages shrouded m mystery, and viewed as an invisible divinity, has found it wiccessary to come forth into the arena of ac- tion, and tak« bis place not only over his subjects, but side by side with u.s fellow-mortals. The recent revolution of 1868 was the overthrow of a previous revolution, which took place in the year 1142. Previous to that date, the Mikados of Japan were the only sovereigns of the empire. Their sovereignty, however, was of a spiritual kind. It made its appeal to the imagination, and based itself on sen- timents of religion. To make use of an analogy, well un- derstood in Europe, the Mikado was, up to the middle of the twelfth century, more a pope than a king. He shrouded himself in mystery ; lived invisible in an immense palace in the city of Kioto, surrounded by a little army of guards, entrenched behind a bulwark of superstition, more potent for his defense than all his soldiers. “ The Mikado himself is believed to be the lineal descend- ant of the last of four gods who succeeded the goddess Ten-sio-dai-zin, believed to be the daughter of the god who created the world. Of this divine race of sovereigns who have ruled Japan, the present Mikado is the 122d. When RECENT CHANGES. 15 the 76th in this long succession was on the throne in his secret place of thunder, that is, in the year 1141, disturb- ances arose which needed to be suppressed by the sword. The successful soldier, who became the general of the aimy « hich put down the insurrection, used his position as gen- eralissimos have often done, to lift himself to power. This he did by severing the temporal from the spiritual preroga- dve, leaving the Mikado with his spiritual supremacy in his «acred city and palace, wrapped up in the power of his long and celestial pedigree, but stripped of all immediate exer- cise of temporal authority. Thus the power of the Mikado was divided between himself and the military emperor. For 716 years, up to the recent revolution in 1868, Japan had two Emperors, one visible and the other invisible, with cer- tain acknowledged forms of subjection on the part of the temporal to the spiritual ruler. “ It would be an interesting but endless process of anat- omy, to pursue into its details the complex constitution of this old government, which has worked longer than any other in human history, without more than one great change deserving the name of revolution. We refer to the revolu- tion set up in 1142, and upset in 1868. The former change set the Tycoon on a throne nearly as high as that of the Mikado ; the latter laid prostrate the Tycoon and put the klikado on a solitary throne, by restoring that limb of his prerogative which was broken in the twelfth century. “We cannot enter in this article into the growth of sen- timent which, by gradually advancing among the ruling class, prepared the way for the abolition of the Tycoon’s power. The facts, however, must be noted, as essential to the briefest narrative, that the old feudal aristocracy of Daimios and Siomios (the higher and lower grades of pro- vincial governors) have been to a large extent superseded, and that an imperial parliament is on the eve of being elected, which will ere long, if the experiment succeed, exalt the mass of the people from a position of serfdom t