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the Oath against Simony, shall, in lieu thereof respectively, make or subscribe the Declaration of Assent, and the Declaration against Simony.

VIII.- In addition to the above recommendations, we submit the following suggestions with regard to two subjects, which do not, perhaps, fall strictly within the limits of the inquiry with which we have been charged by your Majesty: :

1. We have recommended the substitution of a Declaration for the present oath against Simony; to this recommendation we desire to add an expression of our opinion, that the law on the subject of Simony urgently requires revision.

2. There is another class of Oaths, "required to be taken by the Clergy of the United Church of England and Ireland," on admission to certain Ecclesiastical Dignities, namely, those taken in virtue of Cathedral Statutes by Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, and Canons. We have considered this subject, and being of opinion that some doubt may be entertained whether the Oaths in question fall within the scope of Your Majesty's Commission, we content ourselves with expressing our opinion that it is highly desirable they should be revised by competent authority.

IX.-These recommendations we now humbly offer to Your Majesty. To carry them into effect, some alterations must be made in the Canons of the Church, and

IV.

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DESPATCHES AND CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING THE MURDER OF MAJOR BALDWIN AND LIEUTENANT BIRD AT KAMAKURA, IN JAPAN.

(From Papers presented to both Houses of Parliament.)

Sir R. Alcock to Earl Russell.-(Received January 26, 1865.)

(Extract.)

Yokohama, November 29, 1864.

It is with great regret that just on the eve of my departure from this country I have to report another outrage to be added to the long series of barbarous murders in which foreigners have been the victims.

The covering despatches of Mr. Consul Winchester, with their several enclosures, will put your Lordship in possession of the leading circumstances attending this last painful evidence of the continued insecurity of life in Japan. The enclosed printed slip, giving the proceedings of the Coroner's inquest together with a summary, although not official, is essentially accurate,

and will supply the place of the record which there is not time to copy.

Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird, both officers of the 2nd Battalion 20th Regiment in garrison here, made an excursion on the 20th instant to Kamakura, a large temple within the limits of the port, but some seventeen miles from this. They were waylaid, it appears by evidence, about two o'clock that afternoon, close to the avenue of the temple where three roads meet, by a couple of two-sworded men, and cut down. The evidence of a little boy about eleven years old is by far the most explicit and trustworthy. He says he saw the two officers riding leisurely one after the other, the younger (Lieutenant Bird) first; and then two samurais, who had already roughly warned him to go away as there was danger,

draw their swords and rush upon the unsuspecting travellers. The first was instantly dismounted, when the boy in terror took fright and saw no more.

About one o'clock the following morning, the Governor of Kanagawa came to Mr. Consul Winchester's house, and informed him that he had heard two foreigners, said to be English officers, had been attacked at Kamakura, one killed and the other severely wounded. He admitted that the intelligence had reached Kanagawa three or four hours before, between nine and ten o'clock it seems. This delay he explains by stating that his residence being some distance out of the town, and the Vice-Governor having first to be found, a considerable time had elapsed before he could himself take any steps; that he had then instantly despatched some of his own officers to the scene of the murder, and subsequently walked to the Consul's house, a distance of some two miles or more; when he also lost some time gaining admission.

This was not very satisfactory, but unfortunately it was not without many precedents. It appears to be the invariable rule, in all cases where foreigners have been murdered, in the first place to send, for instructions no doubt, to the Government at Yeddo, and despatch their own emissaries to the scene. The last step is taken, I believe, with the object principally of securing what evidence is to be had on the spot, and providing against any being given to the foreign Consuls, other than such as they, the authorities, shall deem fitting or expedient.

I mention these circumstances because in the present instance this common practice has a very painful bearing on the worst features of this deplorable case.

The evidence of all the Japanese leaves no doubt that one of the officers survived many hours, certainly, if any of them are to be believed, until ten P.M. It is further established that the survivor was Lieutenant Bird, his companion Major Baldwin having been killed on the spot, by the concurrent testimony of several eyewitnesses.

The dead and the living were removed, after an uncertain interval of an hour or two, to the vicinity of a tea-house, and there laid together on mats stretched on the ground, and a bamboo shed raised over them. The Chief or head man of the nearest village was sent for by some of the country people who first saw, or admit that they saw, the mangled foreigners; and from about five P.M. they must be held to have been in his custody. By his order they appear to have been removed from the place where they fell, a Japanese doctor

sent for, watches in charge set over them, and a messenger despatched to the Governor at Kanagawa with information of the deed. The doctor and others depose to have been with the survivor, to have heard him speak, move his head, drink water, or seem to drink it, and medicine. This until about ten o'clock, when they say he died. Up to that time the doctor deposes he remained with him.

The horrible circumstance connected with these facts is, the evidence of the surgeons, after careful post-mortem examination of the wounds, that one which Lieutenant Bird received across the back of the neck had divided the spine across the bodies of the second and third cervical vertebræ, completely severing the spinal cord at that point; and they declare that, after receiving such a wound he could not have survived, but must have died almost instantaneously.

The only inference upon such evidence is, that this unhappy victim of Japanese treachery received his death-wound while in the custody of his keepers, and many hours after the first onslaught. If so, by whom was this last wound given, and with what motive? Where were the men, placed in charge? Were they accomplices and present, or merely faithless to their charge and absent, or driven away and accessories after the fact? The tomb is not more silent than they are on any matter tending to throw light upon a second deed of treachery. They declare they remained by the wounded man until he died, unmolested and undisturbed by any one.

If the report of the two regimental surgeons is to be implicitly relied upon-and it is too precise in its terms and specific in its evidence on the one point essential, the severance of the spinal cord at the part indicated and by a clean cut, apparently the same which divided the bones of the vertebræ and the covering soft parts, to leave any reasonable ground of doubt-there is an end of all question as to the fact of a deed of murder with connivance of his custodians, of almost incredible atrocity. The only possible alternative, the supposition that the wound first given may have divided the fleshy parts and the bones only, and the cord thus unprotected may have been torn across in moving the body before surgical scrutiny when it arrived in Kanagawa, seems to be negatived by the very distinct nature of the evidence of the two surgeons; they state that they ascertained that it had been completely severed, and by a clean cut, in the exact direction of the external wound.

But on this assumption, as many of the witnesses depose to a wound in the neck, and he had but one, we are driven to the

scarcely less perplexing conclusion that many hours later a final act of butchery was perpetrated under circumstances all but incredible. The assassin must have turned over the helpless body of his victim and struck a savage blow down through the spine, so exactly in the line of the original wound as not to be distinguishable from the first, or thrust a sharp-bladed knife into the first wound, dividing the cord and that only, almost with surgical precision. But this implies a degree of forethought and calculation, if not of scientific knowledge as to the functions of the spine, of which I do not believe Japanese samurais capable. It would seem much more natural, if any of the same class as the original assailant had desired to put an end to the foreigners, to conclude they would have taken the simplest and most expeditious mode, and drawn a short sword across his throat or plunged it into his body. They might make sure of the silence of any Japanese, and no foreigner had seen either victim, to count or describe the wounds first received, and so betray the fact that another had been subsequently added.

I confess the difficulty appears to me equally great whichever view be taken; that indicated by the surgeons' report, or the other suggesting the possibility of their being mistaken, not as to the severance of the cord, but the mode and time when this may have taken place, before or after death.

Colonel Browne was immediately communicated with, and a party of mounted artillery at once despatched to Kamakura, with Mr. Fletcher as interpreter, where they arrived soon after daybreak; and after examining the ground in the vicinity, and endeavouring without success to get some information, they returned with the bodies.

Sakai Hida no Kami, one of the Second Council was sent to me from Yeddo by the Gorogio, on the evening of the first day, to convey their condolences-the expression of their regret that such an event had occurred, at this moment above all others, when the relations of the Tycoon's Government with foreign Powers were daily assuming a more satisfactory character. The Vice-Minister seemed really affected, and assured me in the most earnest manner that no efforts should be spared to track the murderers, and, if possible, have them executed on the very scene of their crime before I took my departure. The enclosed official communication to the Gorogio on the subject was despatched the same day.

I believe, as I stated therein, that the Tycoon and his Council alike deplore the perpetration of such a crime, at this time

more especially. I think it is very probably the act of those who are equally hostile to him and to foreigners. There does not seem to have been any personal motive connected either with the victims individually or their nationality. They were not in uniform, or otherwise distinguishable from other foreigners who were in the neighbourhood on the same day, visitors and residents. It seems to have been neither more nor less than one of those periodical manifestations of deadly hatred and political fanaticism of which we have had too many examples, and directed against all foreigners indiscriminately. They might have been French, Dutch, American, or of any other nation. It is extremely improbable that the assailants knew or cared to know what was their country. They were out like Red Indians in their war paint on a scalping expedition; and watched their opportunity to cut to pieces the first unsuspecting strangers they fell in with.

They have been tracked, so the authorities inform me, into Yeddo, and out again on the middle tokaido leading to Kioto2. There seems to be some hope, therefore, of their arrest. All the more that their leaving Yeddo so promptly is tolerable evidence that the Government is so actively in pursuit as to have given them a sense of insecurity even in the cover which a great city affords.

But it is impossible to forget that twelve similar onslaughts have been made on foreigners, and in no one instance has justice had its due. Even in the only case where men were executed-three of those concerned in the first attack on the Legation-the Government did not venture, in exposing their heads, to declare their crime or admit that it was for an attack upon foreigners.

Long experience has shown, as a matter of fact, that every foreigner coming to Japan carries his life in his hands, and is exposed to the fatal contingency of being suddenly set upon, and without the slightest warning or provocation to be cut down in open day by ruffians of the twosworded class.

The main source of this danger is probably to be sought in the disturbed state of the country, and the weakness of the Tycoon's Government, both combined. Feudal jurisdiction and territorial divisions are great impediments in the administration of justice and facilitate escape; and this is another cause of insecurity to life. The prevalence among the dangerous classes who are privileged to wear two swords wherever they go, of a politi

This has since been contradicted.-R.A.

cal fanaticism, in which hatred to foreign intrusion and the innovations on old customs and privileges which come in their train, is no doubt a predominant motive of action with most of the assassins. This feeling of a national character more or less underlies, if it does not directly prompt the guet-apens in which foreigners fall. In some cases there is probably an ulterior object of a more definite kind and strictly political character. Hostile parties seek by such outrages to embroil the Tycoon with foreign Powers, hoping in the confusion that he himself might be more easily got rid of. In other cases it has seemed to be part of a system of terrorism and intimidation, by which the antiforeign faction hope to secure either the voluntary withdrawal of foreigners from the country, or at all events their restriction to the limits of the foreign Settlement and comparative isolation.

The greatest of all sources of danger, however, in presence of all these various motives for violence, is to be traced to the assured immunity of those who perpetrate the murders. The same enmities and passions might prevail with comparative freedom from danger to the foreigner but for this certain impunity to the offender. No remedy can be effective which stops short of securing the prompt arrest and execution of the perpetrators of these murders. This alone can strike at the root of the evil.

Security to individual life (apart from the general and collective security which has, hope, been tolerably well assured now as regards the foreign Settlements) -a security which has never existed since the first opening of the ports, will have to be sought, I am thoroughly persuaded, by other means than any yet resorted to, and with that special object in view.

In all the dismal series of butcheries and assassinations, beginning with the Russians, taking each nationality in succession and indiscriminately until this last, of which two British officers are the victims, there is no instance on record of the arrest and punishment of the offenders.

Consul Winchester to Sir R. Alcock. Kanagawa, November 24, 1864.

Sir,

I have the honour to wait upon you with the following report relative to the deaths of Major Baldwin and Lieute. nant Bird, of the 2nd Battalion 20th Regiment.

A little before 1 A. M. on the 22nd instant I received a visit from the Governor of Kanagawa, who informed me that two

English officers had been attacked at Kamakura, one of whom was quite dead and the other severely wounded. I asked if they were naval or military officers, but on that point the Governor could give no information. At what hour they had been attacked? and was answered, between 3 and 4 P.M. English time. By whom? By Japanese unknown, doubtless, whom every effort would be made to discover. When and how had the Governor received the information at his residence? At 9 P. M. by a written report from the Chief of the village. What steps had been taken by the Governor? A Shirabiac and party had been despatched at once to Kamakura to give assistance to the wounded survivor, if still alive; the Governor believed that the Japanese doctor of the village was giving what aid he could. Was the Governor certain that one was alive? The report said so, and the messenger who had brought it and had left Kamakura before 7 P.M. confirmed the report. The wounded man had himself said he was an English officer.

I endeavoured to obtain a description of the two officers, and in doing so was told that it was the younger of the two who survived.

Dismissing the Governor with a request to keep some mounted guides and an interpreter ready for immediate service, I at once proceeded to make you a verbal report of the melancholy intelligence.

Arrangements were forthwith made with Colonel Browne, commanding the garrison, for the despatch of a strong party to Kamakura. This detachment consisted of Lieutenant Wood and twenty-five mounted artillerymen, and was accompa nied by an assistant surgeon and Mr. Fletcher. It left at once, and returned about 1 P.M. with its melancholy convoy.

Yesterday an inquest sat for five hours, and terminated in a verdict of "Wilful murder against Japanese swordsmen unknown. " The original minutes of the proceedings were at once placed in your hands.

The Japanese evidence taken separately by the Governor was rapidly translated by Mr. Fletcher, and read by him as a statement communicated from a third party. I concur with the opinion the jury have expressed of its unsatisfactory character.

Perhaps the most painful consideration remains to be told. Since the Governor left me on Tuesday morning I have had several interviews with Vice-Governors and officers, and have been uniformly assured that it was the fair-haired young man who survived till 7 P. M.; that medicine was offered to him and declined, but that he kept continually calling for water,

which he swallowed, and that he was able to say he was an English officer. In taking down the evidence, the fact of Mr. Bird being the survivor was several times repeated to Mr. Fletcher.

Mr. Bird was tall and thin, with only a downy appearance of hairs on his face. Major Baldwin was several inches shorter, his countenance and figure distinctly indicating middle age, his face of a dark complexion, and covered with an abundant dark beard and moustache and whiskers. The contrast between two men of the same race could hardly have been more striking.

On viewing the body at the time the inquest commenced, the wound in Mr. Bird's neck struck me as quite incompatible with the continuance of life, or the performance of the functions of speaking and swallowing. The severance of the spinal cord between the second and third cervical vertebræ must at once put an end to respiration. This opinion was fully confirmed by Dr. Woodward in his deposition.

The other wounds received by Mr. Bird were on the extremities, and though of the frightful nature usually inflicted by Japanese assassins, would not necessarily have been immediately fatal; whereas the wounds on Major Baldwin's face and back were much more severe and deadly, and though compatible with a short continuance of life hardly with a survivorship of three hours.

The inference from these premises (if they can be depended on) is very sad, viz. that the ruffians finding the prolongation of Mr. Bird's life rendered it possible that he might live to tell his story to some passing foreigner (for besides Mr. Wirgman's party at Fusisawa, there were three or four Dutch naval officers who arrived at Kamakura or Fusisawa before dark, and remained at a tea-house about a mile distant from the spot) finished the hours of the unhappy youth by the coup de grace on the neck. A statement was the same evening made to these last gentlemen that two foreigners had been killed, by one of their Japanese boys, who said it came from the landlord of the tea-house; that person on being interrogated denied having said so.

My own impression is that these gentle. men were attacked as they returned from visiting the great statue, before they reached the point where the great road in front of the Hajiman divides, that the horse of one gentleman carried him on to the point on the road towards the sea where the bushes were found sprinkled with blood, and that the body was thence removed to the spot were it was found by Lieutenant Wood and his party; where the other fell, I can form no conjecture.

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I have had the honour to place in your hands the notes of the statements made yesterday and to-day by the Japanese witnesses brought to Yokohama from Kamakura, relative to the murder of Major Baldwin and Mr. Bird, of Her Majesty's 20th Regiment.

The evidence was taken yesterday in presence of the Governor, Vice-Governor, an examining magistrate, and numerous staff of Japanese officers; the three captains of the 20th, who sat on the coroner's jury, and Messrs. Fletcher, Siebold and Satow, by whom the interpretation was conducted entirely to my satisfaction.

After each statement had been made, it was read over in Japanese from my written notes, and its correctness acknowledged by the witness; but when on conclusion of the viva voce translation of the first statement, I requested that the witness might sign it, the Governor objected to his being called on to do so before his own interpreters had an opportunity of translating it. To-day the procedure was in every respect similar, but the Governor was not present.

The general result of the evidence may be thus briefly stated as follows:

:

The unhappy gentlemen, after visiting the colossal statue of Budha, mounted to ride homewards, and were attacked on the same road at or near the little bridge where the hat and two pairs of Japanese clogs were found; that the horse of one carried him on to the point of the road leading towards the sea, about forty yards from the division of the three-fold road leading to the Hajiman; that the officer who survived until ten o'clock P.M. was beyond all question Lieutenant Bird, and that he and the body of Major Baldwin were removed to the court-yard of Yasiyemon's house, possibly for the accommo

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