Note 107 — Chapter XLIV
Reading edition
Had the Japanese been readers of the London newspapers, they might have found in the following paragraph, which appeared in the “Examiner” of January 21, 1843, fresh motives for persisting in their exclusive policy: “Missionaries to China.—One of the largest meetings, perhaps, ever held in Exeter Hall was held on Tuesday evening, convened by the London Missionary Society, to consider the means of extending and promoting in China the objects of the society. Wm. T. Blair, Esq., of Bath, presided. Dr. Liefchild moved the first resolution, expressive of thanksgiving to God for the war between China and Great Britain (the infamous opium war), and for the greatly enlarged facilities secured by the treaty of peace for the introduction of Christianity into that empire. This resolution was seconded by the Rev. Dr. Adler, and was carried unanimously.” I have met with nothing in the letters of the Jesuit missionaries, nor in the Jesuit missions, that can be compared with this specimen of Protestant zeal.