too, the Westerners might be no braver than the Japanese,less brave perhaps. When therefore, in 1904, Russian aggression in Manchuria and Korea had become a standing menace to Japanese independence, and repeated protests proved unavailing, Japan silently and swiftly rushed on her gigantic foe, with the result, almost incredible to European self-sufficiency, that Russia's navy was practically annihilated in little more than two months. The conflict is still in progress on land. Whatever may be its final issue, one fact has deeply impressed all those who, by long residence among the Japanese and familiarity with their language, have been able to watch the attitude of all classes during the various wars and other changes here briefly sketched:—it is the fundamental sturdiness and healthiness of the national character. The assumed intellectual inferiority of Far-Eastern nations—at least of this Far-Eastern nation to Europeans has been disproved. Disproved, likewise, is the supposed moral inferiority of "heathen" nations at least of this "heathen" nation—to Christians. For no one fully cognisant of the events of the last forty years can allege that any Christian European nation could have shown itself readier to acknowledge its former errors, more teachable in all the arts of civilisation, franker and more moderate in diplomacy, more chivalrous and humane in war. If there be any "Yellow Peril," it must surely consist in Europe's own good qualities being surpassed by a higher grade of those same qualities in her new rivals. Such are the astonishing results of forty years of hard work on the part of a whole nation, which saw itself in a bad way, and resolutely determined to mend it.
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It is not possible to conclude this sketch of Japanese history with the usual formula, "Books recommended,"—for the reason that there are no general histories of Japan to recommend. The chapters devoted to history in the works of Griffis, Rein, David
