The first portion of this book was written at intervals
between 1885 and 1887, during my tenure of the post
of Her Majesty's minister at Bangkok. I had but
recently left Japan after a residence extending, with two
seasons of home leave, from September 1862 to the last days
of December 1882, and my recollection of what had occurred
during any part of those twenty years was still quite fresh. A diary kept almost uninterruptedly from the day I quitted
home in November 1861 constituted the foundation, while my
memory enabled me to supply additional details. It had
never been my purpose to relate my diplomatic experiences
in different parts of the world, which came finally to be spread
over a period of altogether forty-five years, and I therefore
confined myself to one of the most interesting episodes in
which I have been concerned. This comprised the series of
events that culminated in the restoration of the direct rule of
the ancient line of sovereigns of Japan which had remained in
abeyance for over six hundred years. Such a change involved
the substitution of the comparatively modern city of Yedo,
under the name of Tokio, for the more ancient Kioto, which
had already become the capital long before Japan was heard
of in the western world.
When I departed from Siam in 1887 I laid the unfinished
manuscript aside, and did not look at it again until September
1919, when some of my younger relations, to whom I had
shown it, suggested that it ought to be completed. This
second portion is largely a transcript of my journals, supplemented from papers drawn up by me which were included in the Confidential Print of the time and by letters to my chief
Sir Harry Parkes which have been published elsewhere.
Letters to my mother have furnished some particulars that were omitted from the diaries.
Part of the volume may read like a repetition of a few pages
from my friend the late Lord Redesdale's " Memories," for
when he was engaged on that work he borrowed some of my
journals of the time we had spent together in Japan. But
I have not referred to his volumes while writing my own.
