1840.
Notices of Japan, No. V.
15
perpetration of crimes requiring such punishment should be imputed to conni- vance, negligence, or general mal-administration on their part.
The governor is assisted by an official establishment, appointed by the council of state, most of the members of which are subject to the same restrictions as himself; and their number would be incredible, were we not told that the principle of Japanese government is to employ the most persons possible of the higher and middle classes. The official establishment of Nagasaki, the only one of which the Dutch writers have personal knowledge, may be worth giving as a sample.*
The gevernor has under him two secretaries, and a number of go-banyosi,† or superior police-officers, to each of whom is allotted a department, for which he is responsible, and a number of banyosi, or under police-officers, to execute his orders. All these are subject to the governor's authority; but the following officers are wholly independent of him: the treasurer, a sort of district chancellor of the exchequer, who is second in rank to the governor, and has an accountant to assist him in his labors; and the military commandant of town and district, the third in rank. Of all these official persons-the banyosi, who are of a very inferior degree, excepted-only the treasurer and the military commandant are permitted to have their families at Nagasaki. It is needless to repeat, that all these are surrounded by spies.
And here, having again occasion to mention the ever-recurring spies, it may be worth while to pause, in order to say a word or two further upon this mainspring of Japanese government. Their Japanese name of metsuke is interpreted by Dr. Von Siebold to mean 'steady looker,' or observer; by the Dutch writers, 'lookers across. They are of every rank in life, from the lowest to the highest beneath that of a prince, since even the proudest noblemen undertake the base office, either in obedience to commands which it were death-that is to say, imperative self-slaughter-to disobey, or impelled by the hope of succeeding to the lucrative post of him in whom they can detect guilt. Those spies at Nagasaki, who are subject to the governor, are entitled to demand on audience of him at any hour of the day or night; and woe betide him, should he, by postponing their admission, incur the risk of their reports being transmitted to Yedo otherwise than through himself. But there are other spies, not officially known, upon himself; and this, which notwithstanding the constant mention of spics as official public characters, it is self-evident must be the case, is further proved by the following anccdote of the success of a high-born spy. The incident did not, indeed, fall under the personal observation of the Dutch factory, inasmuch as it occurred in another and remote government, Matsinai; but it is given upon good authority, and is general in its application.
"Complaints of the governor of this province had reached the court, which took ¡ts own measures for ascertaining their truth. The agreeable tidings that the governor was displaced were speedily received; but it was not without astonish- ment that the capital, Matsmai, recognized in his successor a journeyman
* Doeff and Meylan.
+ [Go-banyosi is a term of general designation; go means imperial or govern. mental, and is applied to whatever appertains to the government; ban means to watch, to judge, to oversee (a ban no iye or ban-ya, is a guard-house); and si in officer; so that a go-banyosi is a governmental overseeing officer. These officers are perhaps confined to imperial cities like Nagasaki, for none of our informants have ever heard of such a title.]
↑ Meylan.