VANITY FAIR. (LONDON, APRIL 23, 1903).

Men of the Day. No. DCCCLXXV. (SIR ERNEST SATOW, G.C.M.G.)
He was born just sixty years ago, and received that mental training which has qualified him for his marked success in life at Mill Hill School and at London University; so that, at eighteen, he was appointed a Student Interpreter in Japan. The early sixties were stormy years for Europeans in the Land of the Rising Sun. Daimios and their two-sworded Samurai were by no means united in their desire to welcome foreigners among them, and assassination emphasised the determined protests of these recalcitrants against the more liberal policy of the Shogun. At Kagosima, in 1863, where Prince Satsuma raised his anti-foreign standard, Satow received his baptism of blood; and shortly afterwards at Shimonoseki, where severe chas tisement was meted out to Chosin, the ruler of Nagato, he passed through another fiery ordeal. For his services on these and other occasions he was appointed Interpreter in Japanese, and in 1868 he was made Japanese Secretary of Legation. Few men have been called on to encounter more risks. Twice, among other incidents by flood and field, he was murderously attacked by disaffected Samurai on the Mikado’s highway. Once when travelling from Kioto to Yokohama he was assailed by a party of double-sworded men, whose onslaught he and his company successfully resisted; and on another occasion, when accompanying Sir Harry Parkes on a State visit to the Mikado’s Palace, he escaped without a wound from a fierce assault. Still, he acquired a thorough knowledge of the language of Japan, and rapidly In 1884 he was ran through the gamut of promotion. appointed Minister to the Court of Siam; when his departure from Japan was regarded by natives and foreigners alike as a misfortune. He saw four years of service in Bangkok; was transferred to Montevideo; and eventually, after a as Minister. residence in to Japan Morocco, returned There five years of quiet diplomacy prepared him for the For after the hard times which were in store for him. Boxer outbreak it was imperative that a strong man should be sent to Peking, and Sir Ernest was chosen, recent events in that quarter of the world bearing evidence of his unfailing tact and diplomatic skill.
He is an Oriental scholar, who probably understands the Japanese as well as any living Englishman may.

JEHU JUNIOR.

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