Signing of the Treaty of Tientsin, Harpers New Monthly, 1858
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61E6hJyx8eL._SX300_.jpg
In Escape from Impasse: The Decision to Open Japan (Tokyo: Japan, International House of Japan, 2006) it is mentioned that the English wanted to their treaty with Japan to have similar terms to the one they had made previously with the Chinese after the first part of the second Opium war during 1857-1859. This treaty, the Treaty of Tientsin (1) stated that British subjects could travel throughout China for business or for pleasure, could practice Christianity there, and would be subject to the jurisdiction of the British authorities, among other similar demands. Basically the treaty stated that the British could do whatever they would like to do in China. This would explain the “aggressive attitude” of the British that Harris describes in his letter. In the second to last paragraph of his letter Harris states that the British want the treaty to “…require the Japanese, to give to all British subjects, the right to travel in to any or all parts of the Japanese Empire, and also that the Japanese should be free, to adopt the Christian faith if they saw fit.”(2). Knowing the context of British’s previous treaty with China, it makes sense why they would not see these requests as aggressive.
1. https://bcc-cuny.digication.com/MWHreader/Treaty_of_Tientsin_1858
2. Townsend Harris letter No. 40
1. https://bcc-cuny.digication.com/MWHreader/Treaty_of_Tientsin_1858
2. Townsend Harris letter No. 40