ence of Spiritual affairs, they interfered with Politics and the Councils of the State, and endeavoured to assume a superiority over the Nobility of the Empire. One haughty Prelate in particular, meeting one of the chief Counsellors of the State, refused to pay him that deference which he was entitled to receive. This insolence provoked him to prefer heavy complaints at Court; and thereby the irritation of Government, already excited against the Portuguese, was considerably increased. There was reason to apprehend that they intended to effect a Revolution in the State; and the interception of two Letters, written by them, detected and explained their treacherous designs. The storm, that had been gathering for some time, now burst with a tremendous explosion. Instantly were they, with their Clergy and Japanese kindred, ordered to quit the country. The other Japanese Christians were detained; those who were from home commanded to return; and, in a short time, the whole were put to death. The final blow to the Roman-Catholic interests in Japan, was struck in one day; when above 37,000 Members of that Church perished by fire and sword.*

The Portuguese blame the Dutch for this Persecution.--The latter may have acted in an unchristian manner, to which they

were,

The Portuguese made several attempts to recover the ground they had lost. On one occasion they sent a splendid Embassage from Macao to the Court of Japan; but the Emperor ordered the whole (61 persons) to be beheaded--saving only a few of their meanest servants, who were preserved to carry home the sad intelligence of their masters' fate.†

The Japanese have from that time adopted every possible measure to prevent the introduction of Christianity into the Empire; and, identifying the Protestant with the Catholic Faith, under the general term of Christianity, their precautions are used alike against the professors of those opposite Creeds. "Their Laws are extremely rigorous against Teachers of the Christian Religion." "The following inscription is placed at the head of the Stone

were, doubtless, provoked by the jealousy and opposition of the former against them, from their first settlement in Japan, in 1600. But how could the Dutch occasion the pride and intrigues of the Portuguese, which were the real cause of their sufferings? + Golownin, in his Narrative of his Captivity in Japan, relates the last attempt made by the Roman Catholics to introduce their Religion among the low inhabitants (the Hairy Kuriles) of Eetooroop, which is under the dominion of the Japanese. The means they used were most unchristian and disgraceful; but they totally failed. The persons composing the Mission were obliged to flee, and were closely pursued by the Japanese: (Vol. I. pp. 105, 106.) This occurred about the beginning of the present Century.

Tablets of Laws, which are fixed up in all public places, and even in the streets :'Whosoever knows any individual who has taught Christianity, and can convict him thereof, shall receive a reward of 500 silver pieces.'" One Law prohibits Masters from hiring Servants, until they receive from them a written assurance of their not being Christians. Another enacts; "If any European, residing in Japan, shall attempt to teach our People the Christian Faith, he shall undergo a severe punishment, and shall not be restored to his Native Country." Their Laws protect all Foreigners within the Empire from corporal punishment, except "those who attempt to induce Japanese Subjects to embrace Christianity." They prohibit the teaching of Christians to read and write their language; and even exclude from the Public Service every Japanese who has lived among Christians in a Foreign Country.

Such is their concern to preserve and propagate this contempt of the Christian Religion, that "in Nangasaki, where Christianity had made the greatest progress, there is a staircase, on the steps of which are laid various ornaments and utensils of the Catholic Church, and on the first step a Crucifix" (and images of the Virgin Mary and some other

Saints). "On New-year's Day, all the inhabitants of Nangasaki are obliged to ascend these steps, and, as a proof that they are not Christians, trample on the articles." "Even young Children, unable to walk, are held down by their mothers to touch the Images with their feet."*

The Japanese informed Captain Golownin, that this strict prohibition of Christianity by their Laws, was solely to be attributed to the mischievous civil wars which arose in Japan after its introduction.

Such is briefly the rise and fall of Popery in Japan and the Roman Catholics are chargeable with the guilt of producing these inveterate prejudices, and thus closing every avenue against the introduction of the Gospel into that extensive Island. It was by similar conduct that they provoked against themselves a severe persecution in China, also; and occasioned in the Rulers of that vast Empire, a resolution equally determined to exclude the Christian Religion.

We see, then, that the Abbé Dubois has little reason to refer to the success of the Jesuit Missionaries in Japan, either in proof of the efficiency of the means they used to propagate Christianity, or in support of his

* See Krusenstern's and Golownin's Narratives, &c.

inference, that, since the same means have been employed in India without success, the Conversion of the Hindoos must be a hopeless undertaking.

He admits the decline of Christianity from that numerical strength and partial reception which it once possessed in India. He says, "The low state to which it is now reduced, and the contempt in which it is held, cannot be surpassed. There is not at present in the country (as mentioned before) more than a third of the Christians who were to be found in it eighty years ago; and this number diminishes every day, by frequent apostacy. It will dwindle to nothing in a short period; and, if things continue as they are now going on, within less than fifty years there will, I fear, remain no vestige of Christianity among the Natives." (p. 12; see also, to the same effect, pp. 13, 14.)

The commencement of this decline, he attributes to the interference of the Pope with the proceedings of the Jesuits. Its more rapid progress was occasioned, he says, by "the invasion and bloody contests for dominion between the English and French." The confirmation of the Natives' contempt for Christianity arose, as he admits, from their detection of the fraud which the Jesuits had