recital and outline of his opinions of the present and future of that Island Empire and the Orient, and especially its probable political relations to the United States of America. The substance of that interview, brief as it was, we shall repeat, relating to what General Grant saw and thought of Japan while in the far East. Passing by the genial and informal greeting of that hour, General Grant, who, when interested himself in the subjects of his discourse, was always entertaining, after modestly giving a brief resume of his voyage across the Pacific, said his visit to Japan produced the conviction, never changed since, that if he had ever cherished ambition for diplomatic life, he had rather have represented his country in Japan than at the Courts of even England, Germany, or France. Not that it was of the same diplomatic class or of same commercial importance; but because there was attached to this marve lous country, which impressed him deeply, the added attractions of a rapid yet steady growth; a striding toward the better and higher civilization in all the elements that constitute the material as well as the enlightened political and moral power of a State. He saw in his study of their educational, political and judicial institutions, and their absolute toleration of all religious faiths, the promise, though far in the Pagan East, of a people soon to take their co-equal and independent place in the family of nations. On his first arrival in Japan what struck General Grant most forcibly, was the physical characteristics of the country. Its soil, even on the mountains and especially in the valleys and by the sea-side, was of wonderful fertility and cultivated with all the care and skill of professional gardeners in Europe or America. For thousands of years these lands have been enriched by fertilizers and composts. From |