MANGUM, United States Consul to Hon. John A. Bingham , United States Envoy Extraordinary and, May 8, 1876

Mr. Mangum to Mr. Bingham.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 270, of March 15, 1876, and regret that I have been unable to reply to it earlier, in consequence of a severe illness of several weeks’ duration.

You inform me that in November last you received a communication from Thomas B. Glover, esq., representing the municipal council of Nagasaki, of date October 15, 1875, setting forth my neglect to notice a complaint to me by the council against one Smith, an alleged American citizen, for the non-payment by him (Smith) of license-fees assessed under the Nagasaki municipal regulations, and request an explanation of my views on the subject.

In reply, I have the honor to state that in consequence of irregularities in their election, the said Mr. Glover and those he alleged himself to represent as the municipal council of Nagasaki had received no official recognition from the consular body, (one consul alone dissenting, Mr. Flowers, the British consul,) nor from the Japanese authorities, and he was therefore debarred from instituting, as chairman of the, so-called municipal council, the said complaint against Mr. Smith in this consular court.

The rules under which the affairs of the foreign settlement have been managed are known as the “land regulations.” They make no mention of a municipal council, and such an institution was not contemplated by their framers. The name has been used as a matter of convenience, but no corporate powers have ever been conferred upon it; these regulations are essentially defective, and have been a fruitful source of dissensions from time to time since their adoption, many of the land renters, Mr. Glover and his associates among them, complying with them when it suited their convenience and disregarding them at other times. They were originally compiled, on the opening of the port, by the consular body and the governor of Nagasaki, and forwarded to Yeddo for the approval of the government and the foreign ministers. Some of the ministers approved of them, others did not. Among the former was the representative of the United States, but I have no record of their ever having received the sanction of the Government at Washington.

Our treaty is silent on the subject of the said regulations, but provides that “the place which the Americans shall occupy for their buildings and the harbor regulations shall be arranged by the American consul and the authorities of each place,” &c., (vide article 3.) The rule regarding licenses was framed by the consular body a few years ago to check the evil of the many drinking-houses, but without the sanction of our Government to the land regulations. I doubt my authority to have enforced the payment of license-fees against the said Mr. Smith by suit in the consular court, on the complaint of any one. The only remedy I can see to the periodical dissensions is to place the municipal and police regulations under the control of the Japanese government. Let a foreigner, on the recommendation of the consuls, be appointed by the governor of Nagasaki, with a suitable salary, to superintend the settlement, and the foreign police be appointed in the same way, the governor and consuls to agree upon the amount of taxes on an equitable basis, and these taxes to be collected, in default of payment, through the consular courts in the name of the Japanese government, precisely as the land-rents are now collected. I am glad to state that a majority of my colleagues fully agree with me in this opinion.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,