CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN AND PAST HISTORY OF JAPAN

Different opinions respecting Japan and the reforms which have been carried out in that Empire within the past few years—Necessity of understanding something of Japanese history in order to appreciate the recent transformation in the country—Origin of the Japanese—Early history—The Mikados—The Japanese adopt Chinese civilization between the fifth and eighth centuries of our era—Inability for the Japanese to accept certain Chinese institutions—Decline of the absolute power of the Mikados—Military government adopted in the twelfth century—Japanese feudalism—Increase of power among the feudal lords in the fourteenth century—Civil wars and anarchy in the fifteenth century—Order re-established and the Government centralized through the action of the great military chieftains at the end of the sixteenth century—Foundation of the dynasty of the Tokugawa Shoguns—Europeans in Japan in the sixteenth century—The Japanese accept our civilization with enthusiasm—Rapid spread of Christianity—Reaction in the seventeenth century—Purely political causes—Persecution of Christians and the expulsion of foreigners—Japan isolated during nearly two centuries.

The absolute isolation which Japan preserved for over three hundred years and her systematic rejection of any attempt at the introduction of even a ray of Western civilization, is not, it must be confessed, without fascination for all who take interest in the history of a people who, during the last thirty years, have become so popular and so progressive as the Japanese. Suddenly, and without any explicable cause, the country, which was as carefully sealed to the outer world as the enchanter’s famous casket, was thrown wide open, not only to admit, but even to court, foreign progress, science and civilization, and now Japan has definitively accepted without any hesitation the most absolute changes and audacious innovations in her political and social systems, and has effected a transformation in her manners, ideas, and customs, not to mention costumes, such as has never before been achieved by any other nation in so brief a space of time.

At first Europe watched this extraordinary evolution with interest, not unmingled, however, with scepticism, finding it difficult to take seriously what might in the end prove but a passing fashion or the result of caprice. Many, indeed, felt anxious lest the introduction of modern civilization into a country so deliciously quaint and fascinating as Japan might destroy the charm of a population of artists, and, moreover, do irreparable damage to that exquisite art for which it is so justly celebrated. For many, Japan ought to have remained the land of lovely china, of rich lacquers, of kakimonos, musmes and chrysanthemums. Indeed, who could be expected to believe that the home of the geisha and of all sorts of dainty delights, of dwarf trees and liliputian tea-gardens, could possibly acclimatize the smoky industries, the strict militarism and the matter of fact judicial and political systems of our humdrum civilization? As well expect such a transformation in a world of butterflies and glittering dragon-flies as in the Empire of the Mikado. One eminent writer declared that ‘the Japan of to-day is but a bad translation’; and yet another says: ‘I find Japan a sort of anÆmic dwarf. I know that she is of antediluvian antiquity, but for all that I cannot help thinking this little old mummy, bedecking herself in the trappings of Western civilization, supremely ridiculous.’ This was the opinion held not only by casual visitors to Japan, but also by not a few who had lived for years in the country, and who were never happy excepting when contrasting the solid qualities of the Chinese, their circumspection, their prudence, and their profound attachment to ancient customs, with the intense vanity and frivolity of the Japanese.

What could not be achieved by twenty-five years of hard work and peaceful progress in the way of convincing Europe of the earnestness of her intentions Japan did in less than six months by her military successes. When Europe beheld the triumphant achievements of the Mikado’s army, she had to confess that Japan was not quite the butterfly she had imagined, and began to study with greater attention the remarkable work which had been accomplished in that Empire. But the wonderful progress made in Japan during the last half of this century would not seem so extraordinary were the history of the Land of Flowers and its people better known. By the light of the past, the Revolution of 1868, which led to the suppression of the feudal system in Japan, and to the opening of the ports throughout the country, becomes clear and sequent.

In the fifth century of our era Japanese history begins to assume definite form, and the chronicles of the Kojiki and the Nihongi, which were written in the eighth century, cease to record mythological events and to deal with those purely human. Since that date the ancestors of the present Emperor have been ruling sovereigns over the two meridional islands Kiu-Siu and Sikoku, and the south-western section of the great Island of Hondo. According to tradition, they had already been reigning princes for over a thousand years, and their history, like that of almost every other great dynasty, stretches back into the night of time, when the world was peopled by gods and demigods. The first Emperor, Jimmu-Tenno, was a grandson of Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun, herself a great-granddaughter of the gods Izanaghi and Izanami, who were the actual founders of Japan. We next learn that Japan sprang direct from the hands of the gods, whereas all the other countries of the world, even those from whom she is pleased to accept modern civilization, originated through the evolution of natural forces. Jimmu-Tenno having alighted on this earth from heaven on the island of Kiu-Siu, passed thence vi the Inland Sea to Hondo, where, after conquering ‘people of the same race as his own subjects,’ who inhabited these parts, he subdued the whole of the western part of the island, even to the zone of the central forests, ‘which were peopled by barbarians.’ In the year 660 B.C., he established himself in the province of Yamato, where they pretend in our day to have discovered his tomb. It is from this very early date that the Japanese begin their history. Jimmu-Tenno was succeeded by several generations of Mikados, of whom the first seventeen were centenarians, who lived between a hundred and a hundred and forty years each. In those distant times, the gods, it seems, took the same personal interest in Japanese affairs as they condescended to do in those of the Trojans. The history, however, of Japan, in its legendary period, like that of most other countries, is exceedingly sketchy and contains nothing of a positive character until the year 200 A.D., when an Amazonian Empress, who rejoiced in the rather startling name of Jingo, headed a successful campaign against the Koreans.

Contemporary historical research has resulted in clearing away a good deal of the mist which shrouded in a veil of mystery the primitive history of Japan. It would seem, however, for instance, that some centuries before our era the Mongolian pirates indulged in frequent incursions upon the western coast of the country in much the same unpleasant manner as did, some thousand years later, the Normans in Europe. After exterminating the natives, who were not numerous, they established themselves, together with their wives and families, in the island of Kiu-Siu. Later on, an illustrious chief, who turns out on closer acquaintance to be none other than Jimmu-Tenno, of legendary fame, crossed over to the great island and ‘found it peopled by inhabitants of the same race as himself’; hence it becomes evident that there were two distinct migrations from the mainland of the ancestors of the actual Japanese, a fact confirmed in a double cycle of heroic legends, one of which deals with the island of Kiu-Siu and the other with the province of Idzuma, situated on the west coast of Hondo, an island opposite Korea.

The Japanese, therefore, form a part of the great family scientifically known as the Uralo-Altaic, which includes the Finns, the Hungarians, the Turks, the Mongols and the Koreans. The different branches of this family appear to be less closely united than are those of the white race, but on the other hand, their languages, which are distinctly agglutinant, have certainly a common origin. It should be remarked that the Chinese do not form part of this group, constituting a family quite apart, whose language is distinctly monosyllabic and rhythmic. Their handwriting, however, was adopted by the Japanese between a thousand and twelve hundred years ago, as were also a number of words describing objects which up to that time were unknown to them, and probably introduced from China. If it is an undoubted fact that the Chinese and Japanese belong to the Yellow Race, the link which unites them is quite as remote as that which exists between a Frenchman and a German on the one hand, or an Arab and a Kabyle on the other. A superficial analogy between the Chinese and the Japanese must not mislead us. The very sparse indigenous race which the Korean immigrants found upon the south and south-west of Japan were of the same family as the Ainos of our time, of whom some 15,000 still linger in Yezo, the great southern island of the Archipelago; and, moreover, they belonged to the same race as the Ghilaks of the Amur, and the tribes to the north-east of Siberia. These Ainos, who exist by hunting and fishing, are considered to be the hairiest people on earth; they are mere savages, quite as dirty in their habits as the Japanese are clean. They had in all probability little or nothing to do with the formation of the actual population.

The civilization of the ancient Japanese until the fifth or sixth century of our era was, it seems, most primitive. Writing was unknown, and the people were but just emancipated from the Stone Age, their knowledge of the use of metal being very limited. They owned a few domestic animals, the horse and the dog, and also poultry. They cultivated rice, millet, barley, two sorts of peas, and in addition to these cereals the sea and the rivers supplied them with fish, and the forests with flesh. They apparently ate more meat than do their descendants of the present day, a fact due, of course, to the introduction of Buddhism, whose followers are, or should be, vegetarians. As to their houses, they were of wood and extremely simple.

The Shinto religion, which has become once more the State religion, has a mythology formed out of legends dealing with the generation of the gods who preceded the advent of the Imperial family. Out of the eight hundred myriads of divinities only some half-dozen are now venerated. Among these is Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun, and ancestress of Jimmu-Tenno. The spirits of the deceased Mikados and of certain heroes are known as Kami, ‘superior beings,’ and are honoured by this title, as are also the ancestors of each family. Beyond this Shintoism recognises neither dogma nor ethics. A writer of the last century thus apologizes for this easy-going creed. ‘It was,’ says he, ‘invented by the Chinese, because they are a very immoral people; but in Japan morality is not needed, since the Japanese have only to act according to the dictates of their hearts to do well. To obey the Emperor, who is the descendant of the gods, and almost a god himself, and follow one’s natural inclinations, are the only precepts imposed upon its followers by Shintoism, and a pilgrimage to the nearest temple once a year the only kind of divine service exacted. There are no public ceremonies, excepting an occasional hieratic dance performed by young girls. In the wooden temples roofed with bark, which are supposed to reproduce the habitations of the primitive Japanese, there are no ornaments, no sculpture, and no representations whatever of the Divinity. The priests, who wear no distinctive costume, and who lead the lives of ordinary citizens, occasionally don a rich garment with long flowing sleeves, go to the various temples and perform certain very simple rites in the presence of a mystic mirror to be found in every temple, a facsimile of one given by the Goddess of the Sun to her grandson Jimmu-Tenno, as an emblem of purity. A white horse will also sometimes be seen within the precincts of the temples. The only sacrifice is the offering of fruits, fish, wine, and rice, accompanied by the recitation of certain prayers in the ancient Japanese language; this is, it must be confessed, an exceedingly primitive cultus, but it was the only one known in Japan until the sixth century, at which epoch began the great development of Chinese civilization in Japan, originally introduced, however, by the invasion of Korea by the Japanese armies at the commencement of the third century. The Korean envoys who brought the annual tribute to their Japanese conquerors eventually became the pioneers of civilization among the more primitive race which had overcome them. They brought into the country, for instance, in the year 284 the art of writing. Possibly this date is erroneous and ought to be 400, the period when, according to a very ancient tradition, the first mention of medicine is made in the national history, on the occasion of the grave illness of the then reigning Mikado, who was cured by a Korean physician. Then followed the silkworm, and the mulberry-tree, the arts of spinning and weaving. Finally, in 552 the first image of Buddha appeared, and eventually led to the introduction of the religion of Sakyamuni.

From this period until the beginning of the seventh century there was a perfect invasion of the arts, customs, and opinions, religious, social, and political, of the neighbouring continent. Then was for the first time displayed that ardour which is so peculiar to the Japanese, and, if I might so say, also of that rage for civilization—true, it was then only Chinese civilization—which characterizes them at the present day.

Buddhism triumphed without formidable opposition, and at the beginning of the seventh century there were not less than forty-six temples and 1,385 priests or Buddhist monks in Japan. The Chinese calendar was adopted, the language, writing and literature of China were studied with enthusiasm. Ambassadors and special missions were sent to the continent to examine on the spot the religion, the arts, the industries and also the government of the Chinese and their political and judicial system. Thus it so came to pass that feudalism was introduced centuries before it was imposed upon Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. At the death of the Empress Suiko in 628, under whose reign all these reforms took place, Japan was completely remodelled after the image and likeness of China. The remarkable feature about this transformation is its resemblance to the revolution now in progress. It was effected without the least opposition or violence. The methods used then were the same as those which are being employed to-day: the sending forth of missions and the employment of foreigners by the Government to study and introduce everything that was likely to improve the country and its people. Above all, there existed a universal goodwill and eagerness to stimulate the advance movement. Japan, therefore, by her wonderful powers of assimilation, was suddenly converted from a barbarian to a civilized country. Nevertheless, however deep-rooted was the influence of China, it did not interfere with the architecture and the art of the Japanese, which remained distinct. The good sense of this able people taught them to distinguish between the different elements in the civilization which they were introducing, to reject those which did not suit them, and to transform others which were better fitted to their inclination. A reaction, however, set in between the eighth and the eleventh centuries which enabled the Japanese to recover sufficient of their identity and yet retain most of the innovations in their industries, agriculture, and fine arts, in the culture of which latter they eventually surpassed their masters. The new religion suited them admirably, and it remains to this day much less corrupt in Japan than it is among the Chinese themselves. The official and administrative system introduced from China, being opposed to the natural bent of the Japanese mind, was, however, soon rejected, and they returned to their own, which suited them better.

The mandarinate was never acclimatized, and the principle of heredity always remained in force. The divers degrees of dignity, at first twelve in number and then nineteen, were never given, as in China, to individuals, but to families as hereditary titles. The position, for instance, of Prime Minister, or Kwambaku, became hereditary in a great family of the Court, that of the Fujiwaras, from which, moreover, according to tradition, the Empress was invariably selected. Then began to manifest itself that very peculiar trait in the history of Japan of real authority very rarely being vested in the hand of the man supposed to exercise it. The Mikado, who, from the ninth century onwards, was invariably a child, and abdicated in youth to retire into a monastery, is supposed to reign and yet never govern. This was the beginning of a system of Imperial self-effacement which lasted over a thousand years. Presently we discover that the hereditary Kwambaku also exercises no authority, which is exactly the opposite of what took place in Europe in the Middle Ages, where, if a Sovereign retired into privacy, his Prime Minister was pretty certain to become forthwith correspondingly prominent. In the Middle Ages, at an epoch when Europe was engaged in fighting and slaughtering, the Court of Kioto was a centre of art, pleasure and poetry, in which, however, authority was completely set aside.

In the meantime, feudalism established itself in the country. Side by side with the effeminate aristocracy of the kuges, certain nobles descended from collateral branches of the Imperial family, and who in their time had occupied great official positions, both in the provinces and in the capital, leaving subalterns to fulfil their duties, now formed themselves into a military and territorial aristocracy, and, whilst profound peace reigned in the greater part of the country, carried on a war against the Koreans in its south-eastern limits, and against the Ainos, who had been driven back to the north of Hondo, in the north-east. The custom imported from China by the Japanese of separating the civil from the military functionaries, combined with a genius for heredity, led in the course of time to the creation of many great military families, under whose authority or lead clans of soldiers grouped and gradually separated themselves from the rest of the population. The chiefs of these clans in due time became, especially in the tenth century, in the north and eastern provinces, independent, so that by degrees their influence during the two succeeding centuries in the Government was paramount, and the Court of Kioto was the object of perpetual dissensions between two great military families, the Taira, and the Minamoto, both descendants of Emperors of the eighth and ninth centuries. They had each a claimant to the Imperial throne, who was invariably an infant. A Taira, Kiyomori, governed Japan from 1156 to 1181 in the position of Prime Minister. He ordered the Minamoto family to be massacred; one or two of its members, however, escaped, among them Yoritomo, the son of the chief. In due course of time this Yoritomo created a revolution in Kwanto in his own favour. Upon learning of the death of Kiyomori he straightway marched upon Kioto in company with his bastard brother, Yoshitsune, who had escaped from a monastery to which he had been relegated. Between them they seized the capital and proclaimed a child of seven years of age Emperor in the place of the Mikado Antoku, who was not much older, and who was carried off by the Taira to the island of Kiu-Siu. The great naval battle of Dan-no-ura, won by Yoshitsune in 1185 at the mouth of the Inland Sea, completed the ruin of the Taira, who, together with their Emperor, were nearly all slain in the disaster to their fleet, which made Yoritomo master of Japan.

Yoritomo behaved with the utmost ingratitude to his brother Yoshitsune, who had so largely contributed to his success. He ordered him never to appear again at Court, and sent a group of assassins to pursue him to the farther end of the island. His life was frequently saved, thanks to the shrewdness of the giant monk Benkei and the devotion of the dancing-girl Shidzuka. The adventures of the brave Yoshitsune and his death by suicide has supplied Japanese literature with a number of interesting and picturesque legends not unlike those which delighted our ancestors in the Middle Ages.

After these events, the feudal system was firmly established in Japan for over seven centuries, and we hear no more of Chinese methods of administration. This is mainly due to the warlike character of the Japanese people and to the increasing power of the feudal chiefs, who had naturally, in order to maintain their reputation, to keep the country in a perpetual ferment of political or civil war. The striking difference between the feudal system in Japan and that which existed contemporaneously in Europe is that the Japanese ruler was never the Sovereign. He was called the Shogun, or Sei-i-tai-Shogun, literally, ‘General charged with the duty of subjugating the barbarians.’ This title was first bestowed upon Yoritomo in 1192. It was the Shogun’s duty to govern. In theory he was responsible to the Emperor, whose humble servant he was supposed to be. As a matter of fact, the Mikado had long since ceased to interfere in the government, and lived in the palace of Gosho at Kioto in the midst of luxury, his generals and ministers paying him no other respect than that of mere ceremony.

The new power of the Shogunate instituted by Yoritomo was not long before it also became attenuated. In 1198, immediately after the death of its founder, his father-in-law, Hojo Tokimasa, seized the reins of government, and in 1219 the posterity of Yoritomo was already extinct. The supreme authority was by this time definitely vested in the family of the Hojo, whose chief took the title of Shikken, or Regent, and chose and dethroned the Shoguns, usually children, at his pleasure, selecting them either from the Imperial family or from that of the Fujiwaras. The period during which this curious regime lasted is perhaps the most brilliant and the most prosperous in the history of Japan in the Middle Ages; but eventually Japan fell into a sort of feudal anarchy, bearing a close affinity to that which existed in Germany at the same epoch. The power of the Hojos was finally broken in 1334, thanks to the combined action of the feudal lords, aided by a Mikado named Go-Daigo, who happened for once to be possessed of some energy. The executive, however, did not remain long in the hands of this Emperor. His chief lieutenant, Ashikago Takauji, rose up against him, obliged him to flee from his capital, and replaced him by another member of the Imperial family, at the same time electing himself Shogun. From 1337 to 1392 Japan had two rival dynasties of Mikados. Notwithstanding these disturbances, the Court of the Shoguns Ashikagas was very often extremely brilliant, both from the literary and the artistic point of view. During the fifteenth century civil wars raged again, and the authority of both Mikado and Shogun consequently dwindled into insignificance. In the provinces the warriors, known as samourai, gradually became hereditary, recognising no authority but that of their feudal lords, the daimios. The country became poor, the population rapidly dwindled, and all the arts except that of the armourer tended to disappear. The opening years of the sixteenth century beheld Japan in a pitiable plight indeed, the population decimated by terrible epidemics and earthquakes, as well as civil wars, and such was her condition that she might have been compared to France after the Hundred Years’, or Germany after the Thirty Years’, War. When St. Francis Xavier visited the country in 1550 he was appalled by its misery. It was a far cry then from the Japan of his days to the Cipango, the golden land of promise so greatly vaunted by Marco Polo three centuries earlier. The feudal system in Japan, however, had been of great use in forming the character of the people; it preserved in them those virile qualities so conspicuously absent among the Chinese.

The close of the sixteenth century witnessed the decline and fall of feudalism throughout the Empire, which led to the re-establishment of centralization. This was due to the energy of three great military chiefs, Nobunaga, Ieyas, and Hideyoshi, the first of whom was descended from the Taira and the second from the Minamoto, and therefore both were essentially aristocratic. The third, however, was about the only personage in medieval Japan who ever rose from the ranks to occupy a towering position in the State. Ota Nobunaga, after having considerably aggrandized the very small principality which he had inherited from his father, interfered in the quarrels of a succession of Shoguns, and deposing in 1573 the last Ashikaga, seized the Government as Prime Minister, and compelled the daimios to obey him. He curbed the encroachments of the Buddhist monks, who had accumulated during the long period of the civil wars immense landed estates; but at last, hemmed in by his many enemies, this remarkable man ended his career by disembowelling himself, an unpleasant but evidently popular method of committing suicide with the Japanese.

Hideyoshi, who from groom had become principal lieutenant to Nobunaga, extinguished all further spirit of resistance on the part of the feudal barons. Once Japan was united, he wished to establish its power beyond the limits of the Empire, and for this purpose sent an expedition into Korea, which, however, only resulted in ruining that country, thanks to the quarrels and dissensions which took place between the Japanese generals, some of whom were Christians and others Buddhists.

At the death of Hideyoshi in 1598, the power of the daimios, even that of the great princes of the south-west, Choshiu and Satsuma, was already much attenuated, and everything was ready for a change similar to that which took place in France under Louis XI. It led to the quasi-independence of the lords being suppressed in favour of a feudality of a purely domestic character. The principal factor in this change was Tokugawa Ieyas, who had been one of the chief generals of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Placed by this last at the head of the council of the regency, which had to exercise power during the minority of his son Hideyori, Ieyas was not long before he quarrelled with his co-regents. Assuming the command of an army, recruited in the north and the east of the Empire, he in 1600 defeated at Sekigahara the united forces of the clans of the south and the west, and thus made himself master of Japan. Instead of a purely ephemeral sovereignty, he founded a dynasty and a rÉgime which lasted for 250 years, as the result of his ability and that of his son and grandson. Before proceeding further in detailing the political and social organization of this interesting country, it will be well to pause and consider an event of supreme importance which took place in the sixteenth century, and the effect of which explains much that is now happening. I refer to the period of the great Portuguese colonization, when that now small kingdom had annexed vast possessions in the Indies, and had added new ones in Cochin China and in the south of China to her Empire.

In 1542, three Portuguese, who had taken passage on board a Chinese junk, were wrecked upon the southern coast of Japan. Among the other passengers happened to be a Chinaman, who volunteered as interpreter. He seems, however, to have entertained for foreigners the same contempt as that in which they are held by his compatriots in this year of grace 1900. He described the Portuguese to the Japanese as people who were very little better than savages, who did not know how to write Chinese, and as being, moreover, profoundly ignorant of the art of eating their food with chopsticks. We may conclude, therefore, that these worthy Portuguese did not produce a very favourable impression. In 1545, the navigator Fernan Mendez Pinto arrived at the little island of Tanegashima, to the south of Kiu-Siu, and was well received by the feudal lord of that district. The powerful Prince of Bungo, father-in-law to the Lord of Tanegashima, having heard of the strangers, invited them to his capital in the north-east of Kiu-Siu, and entertained them very handsomely. Pinto was so favourably impressed by all he saw that two years later he returned to the same spot, carrying off with him two Japanese fugitives from justice. They had the fortune of being converted to Christianity by St. Francis Xavier, and served him as interpreters when the renowned Jesuit missionary landed on August 15, 1549, at Kagoshima, the capital of the Prince of Satsuma. The earliest converts were a few relatives of the interpreters. The Prince received the saint very favourably, and the Princess insisted upon him composing for her benefit a summary of the Articles of the Christian Faith, together with the translation of the principal prayers. St. Francis immediately edited a Japanese version of the Catechism and a translation of the Credo. Unfortunately, in the course of time the Prince of Satsuma was much offended by certain Portuguese sailors, who, probably on account of the obstacles they encountered in the attempt, refused to land in his dominions, and betook themselves and their merchandise further on to those of his rivals. Greatly annoyed at their behaviour, the prince now ordered the missionaries to quit his dominions. St. Francis obeyed and proceeded to the capital of the Prince of Bungo, who was highly delighted to see him, and assisted him in a number of ways to found churches and missions, so that when the great missionary left Japan in 1551, Christianity was fairly established in the country. Presently Japan was inundated with Portuguese missionaries, sailors, and merchants. The Japanese, with an eye as much to business as to social improvement, encouraged this influx of strangers in the hope of its leading to a profitable commerce being established between the two countries. The Jesuits, too, whose influence the Japanese quickly recognised, were treated with the utmost cordiality and respect. So great was the Japanese power of assimilation, that Mendez Pinto tells us that, having made a present of an arquebus to the Prince of Tanegashima, that potentate caused it to be imitated, and very soon afterwards the navigator was shown six weapons exactly like his own. A few months later there were 30,000 distributed in the province of Bungo, and 300,000 throughout the country. These figures may be taken with a grain of salt; nevertheless, there must have been a very firm foundation for the story. In 1582, forty years after the arrival of the Portuguese, artillery played a great part in the Battle of Shigutake, one of Hideyoshi’s greatest victories.

Whether material or spiritual motives were at the bottom of the rapid progress made by Christianity at this period it would be difficult to say. Princes, literary men, priests, even Buddhists, rich and poor alike, presented themselves in hundreds to receive baptism, and even Nobunaga, if he did not actually profess the new religion, at any rate favoured its propaganda. At the time of his death in 1582 there were fully 600,000 converts in the centre and the south of Japan; half the daimios in the island of Kiu-Siu had embraced Christianity, together with the greater part of their subjects; the Prince of Tosa, in the island of Sikokou, and many daimios in the centre and west of the great island had also been baptized. There were not less than 200 churches, some of which were even situated in the capital of the Empire. In Nagasaki, which in 1567 had become the centre of foreign commerce, there was scarcely a pagan left. In 1582 an embassy, sent to Rome by the Princes of Bungo, Arima and Omura, was solemnly received by Pope Sixtus V. It afterwards proceeded on a tour through Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Although Hideyoshi apparently did not display the same enthusiasm for Christianity as did his neighbours, nevertheless, their number continued to increase; and during the last ten years of the sixteenth century it is believed there were over a million converts to the Roman Church out of a population of between eight or ten millions, a marvellous record for fifty years’ missionary labour. Unfortunately, it was not to last long, although, to be sure, the brief epoch of its success was marked by a material progress quite as astonishing as the spiritual, for, with the religion of the Europeans, the Japanese had adopted a great many of their arts and industries. Tobacco, for instance, began to be cultivated, and boats built on European models transported Japanese trade as far afield as the Gulf of Mexico. Strangers could travel from one end of the country to the other without fear of being molested by the natives, and St. Francis Xavier had every reason to say that the ‘Japanese nation was the delight of his heart.’ Presently Hideyoshi became alarmed lest the system of government which he had formulated might eventually be overthrown through the missionaries and by possible religious wars occasioned by so abrupt a change in the opinions and ethics of an entire nation. He feared lest the admission into the country of so many merchants and missionaries might not be the prelude to another invasion of a hostile character, resulting in the conquest and annexation of Japan to some European power or other. It is even said that a Portuguese captain was sufficiently imprudent to inform Hideyoshi that the King, his master, had the intention of sending priests into the dominions of the Mikado with the object of ultimately landing troops, who, aided by the native Christians, should effect his overthrow. Whether these words were ever spoken or not is uncertain, but they were undoubtedly the expression of the thoughts of contemporary European Sovereigns, a fact which the Japanese soon learnt when they came to be a little better acquainted with the proceedings of the Portuguese in India. In a word, the suspicions of the Japanese rulers were awakened, and even the brilliant services rendered by the Christian General Konishi could not efface them, and the impression was further increased by the rivalry which existed between the Jesuits and the Franciscans, and also between the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the English and the Dutch, who were perpetually accusing each other of most malevolent designs. In 1587 Hideyoshi issued an edict ordering all missionaries to leave Japan within twenty-four days, which, however, remained a dead-letter until 1597, when it was put into force—in consequence of the imprudence of the Spanish Franciscans, who began preaching in the open air, and even in the streets of Kioto, which resulted in a riot and in seventeen native Christians being put to death at Nagasaki. Ieyas continued the persecution throughout 1614, as did his son and grandson, who, between them, contrived to extirpate Christianity in every part of the Empire before 1638. For years the inhabitants of Nagasaki were condemned to trample upon the Crucifix in the presence of the authorities, and even as late as 1868 placards were still to be seen stuck up in the streets offering rewards for the denunciation of members of the ‘forbidden, lying, and corrupt sect.’

The immediate result of this persecution, which was extremely severe, was the exclusion from Japan of all outside influence, for the foreigner and Christianity had become in the eyes of the Government a moral, social, as well as political dissolvent. The evil conduct of the European sailors, who, even according to the statement of the missionaries themselves, had carried off women and children in great numbers, to sell into slavery at Manila or Macao, and their dissolute behaviour generally, cast opprobrium upon the religion which they professed, and thus it came to pass that the Japanese accused the Christians of not practising the ethics they taught, but, on the contrary, of giving a bad example by their disrespect to parents, superiors, and to all in authority.

In 1609 and 1611 Ieyas granted the Dutch the right of trading all over the island, but his son, Hidetada, being suspicious of their good intentions, closed all harbours to them, excepting those of Hirado and Nagasaki in the island of Kiu-Siu, and, furthermore, prohibited the Japanese from leaving their country under any pretext. From 1637 the Dutch and the Chinese alone were authorized to trade in Japanese waters, and then only through the port of Nagasaki. Confined within the narrow limits of the island of Deshima, condemned to submit to the most abject humiliations, and never allowed to go ashore excepting once a year on a special mission to Yedo, when they conveyed presents to the Shogun, before whom they had to crawl upon their hands and knees, the agents of the Dutch East India Company entertained with Japan commercial relations of the scantiest kind. With this sole exception, Japan, which had acted in so liberal a manner towards foreigners, became in a short time a sealed book to the outer world.

Progress demoralized in Japan under the Shoguns Tokugawa—Imperial Court, Mikado and kuges, feudal society, Shogun, Daimios, samourai, and people—Foundation of the political rÉgime—Military preponderance of the Shogun—Seclusion of the Mikado—Divisions among the Daimios—Exclusion of strangers—Artistic development and economy—Progress of civilization—Decline of the Shogunate—Position of Japan in the middle of the nineteenth century—Foreigners begin to re-enter the country in 1854—Scandal created by the opening of the ports—The Court and the clans in the south-west provinces hostile both to Western civilization and the Shoguns—Fall of the Shogunate—Restoration of the Mikado and introduction of European civilization.

We have already seen that the Emperor, or Mikado, was deprived of all authority, and retained only the outward attributes of his Imperial dignity. He dwelt in his palace of Gosho surrounded by 155 kuges, or noble families, all of whom were descended from the Imperial house, but whose duties were merely ceremonial. In order to prevent any possibility on their part of the kuges interfering with him, Ieyas reduced the Court to absolute poverty. He fixed the civil list of the Mikado—according to custom, in kind—at 9,000 kokus,^[15] or 44,550 bushels of rice; as to the kuges, many of them lived in the most straightened circumstances. To still more completely isolate the Mikado the feudal princes were never on any pretext allowed to enter Kioto.

These princes, or daimios, who were the leaders of the military order, of whom the Shogun was the chief, were divided into five classes, according to their precedence and importance: firstly, the three great GosankÉ families, who reigned over the provinces of Owari, Kii and Mito, and were descended from the three elder sons of Ieyas: they enjoyed the privilege of electing from amongst their number the Shogun in case of the failure of direct heirs; secondly, the sixteen kokushu daimios, whose ancestors possessed their fiefdoms before the elevation of Ieyas, which he had considerably reduced as a punishment for their having taken up arms against him, and whose revenues ranged between 750,000 and 5,000,000 bushels; thirdly, the nineteen kammong daimios, who were the immediate relatives or vassals of the Tokugawas, and descendants of Ieyas’ favourite generals, among whom he distributed the fiefdoms he had confiscated from his enemies: they were eventually the chief supporters of the Shogunate, being, however, not so rich as the above, possessing only between 50,000 and 1,600,000 bushels of revenue; fourthly, the 88 tozamma daimios; and fifthly, the 110 foudai daimios, who were not infrequently cadets of one of the two preceding classes. They possessed an income of at least 50,000 bushels, but rarely more, and their estates were proportionally small. Nevertheless, there were eight tozammas and sixteen foudais who enjoyed between them a revenue of 500,000 bushels, and, who, when united, were sufficiently powerful to be very troublesome.

Next came the samourai, forming about a twentieth of the entire population of the Empire. They were a distinct military class under the daimios, and were distinguished by wearing, even in infancy, the two swords Ieyas called the ‘living soul of the samourai.’ Excepting in one or two principalities at the extreme south, notably at Satsuma, they were never agriculturists, but, despising all manual labour, lived on salaries paid by their chief. Exceedingly brave and punctilious in all points of honour, they were addicted to vendetta, and added to their other peculiarities the ferocious custom of hara-kiri, which obliged them on the least insult to disembowel themselves with a small sword, an unpleasant rite into which they were initiated when still very young. They were ever ready to shed their blood for their prince and fanatically attached to their clan. It was from them that the troops, as well as all the minor officials in the various principalities, were recruited. The samourai were not only military, but literary, and corresponded to our professional classes, and their opinions only had the slightest influence on the affairs of the country. When a samourai, for some reason or other, found himself without a master, either because he had been expelled from his service or his lord had been deprived by the Shogun of his titles and estates, he sometimes turned ronin, or knight-errant, more often than not a brigand, and occasionally a redresser of wrongs, but as a rule a fellow capable of the worst sort of crime as well as of the most heroic acts of chivalry. In times of trouble these ronin were wont to form themselves into bands and offer their services to a popular prince, and when accepted, their opinion and influence sometimes became of considerable weight.

Nineteen-twentieths of the population consisted of the heimin, or commoners. Of this class the peasantry was by far the most numerous and esteemed. Next came the artisans, then the merchants, for be it remembered that feudal Japan, like feudal Europe, held trade and tradesmen in supreme contempt. Finally the two classes of pariahs, the eta, or ‘dirty people,’ who followed the profession of leather-dressers, tanners, curriers, knackers, grave-diggers, etc., then the hinin (not men), and the beggars.

Only on certain rare occasions, when a daimio wished to increase the number of his men-at-arms, and recruited some of his samourai from the heimin, or, again, when a ronin, tired of vagabondage, embraced some trade or other and contrived to lose himself among the people, were the barriers between class and class ever broken down, and thus society in Japan remained strictly confined within its narrow boundaries for over two centuries. Notwithstanding these restrictions, the country enjoyed during this period a profound peace and great prosperity. Both Ieyas and Iemitsu understood to perfection how to apply the maxim, ‘Divide in order to reign,’ whereby they broke up the influence of the daimios, which, when united, might have proved formidable. This they contrived to do by isolating them from the Imperial Court, and creating between them divergences of interest, and by fermenting among them a spirit of hatred and jealousy. Ieyas had not dared dispossess all his adversaries after his victory, but he confiscated a part at least of their domains, out of which he created a number of fiefs, which he distributed among his allies and soldiers. The descendants of these, the kammong and foudai princes, being ever at war with the kokushu and the tozamma, obtained protection from the Shoguns by establishing a common bond of interest, being fully aware that the downfall of the Tokugawas would be sure to involve their own.

A danger undoubtedly presented itself to the south-east of the Empire, for here the domains of the kokushu princes of Choshiu, Satsuma and Hizen and others nearly as powerful formed a continuous line of territory, and consequently a storm rising in that quarter might have been fatal to the Shogunate; but so long as these great vassals received no support from a foreign power, the military preponderance of the Shogun was safe. This state of affairs eventually gave rise to a rigorous exclusion of foreigners. Divided among themselves, isolated from all external influences, deprived of all communication with the Court, the daimios in due time lost a great deal of influence in their own principalities. By virtue of the Sankin law, promulgated in 1635 by Iemitsu, and solemnly ratified by the Mikado, they were compelled to sojourn at least one year out of two at Yedo, and to leave their women and children during the following year in that capital as hostages. In this manner their initiative was enfeebled, and as they were obliged in great part to leave the administration of their own affairs in the hands of subordinates, they soon became mere idlers, under the constant supervision of a swarm of spies, who reported to the Shogun any attempt on their part to resist his authority, or to conspire against him. Notwithstanding its many drawbacks, this administrative system, although it unquestionably weakened the political character of the Japanese, was in the long-run, by securing a prolonged peace, exceedingly beneficial to the country, especially as regards the development of art and literature, and it is from the period of the Tokugawas that dates all that is finest in Japanese architecture, painting, sculpture, lacquering, including the temples of Nikko and the noblest specimens of Satsuma faience. In the meantime civilization had made rapid progress, and the intellectual influence of China upon Japan was paramount. The Chinese classics, formerly neglected by the Japanese, were now, thanks to the initiative of Ieyas, studied with ardour both at the Court of his successors and at that of the Mikado, and were even publicly taught in the ever-increasing number of schools. And thus it came to pass that when the Europeans returned in 1854 they found Japan more completely under the influence of Chinese art and literature than had their ancestors in the sixteenth century.

The causes which brought about the revolution of 1868, which resulted in the suppression of the Shogunate and of feudalism, and in the rapid introduction of European civilization, were quite as important and as deeply rooted in the hearts of the people of Japan as were those which led to the French Revolution in 1789, which, it will be remembered, had been brewing for a very long time before its eventual outbreak. Politically, the decadence of the Shogunate commenced in 1652, after the death of Iemitsu, and especially at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the Tokugawas began gradually to decline, precisely as had done the various dynasties that had preceded them. Surrounded by a brilliant court and enlightened patrons both of arts and letters, the Shoguns disdained occupying themselves with public affairs, which they left in the hands of the Gorogio, a council composed of five foudai daimios and their subordinates. This substitution of a rather effete bureaucracy for the old but energetic feudal system soon inspired the great vassals with a hope of being able to overthrow their former masters. They perceived that it was easy to pick a hole in the Shogunate from the doctrinal point of view, even in the name of those very Confucian theories upon which they had the pretension to base their supremacy. As a matter of fact, although the system of paternal government extolled by the illustrious Chinese philosopher is by no means opposed to feudalism, when closely examined into, it shows that there was no place in it for the Shogunate, since it does not admit of any intermediary between the father and his children.

At the same time, in the eighteenth century a whole college of literary men and a distinct school of literature rose, whose principal object was the study of the ancient texts, to collate, publish, and interpret them, whereby certain political and religious conclusions were arrived at, tending to prove that the only legitimate power in Japan was the autocracy of the Mikado, the descendant of the gods, and the only true religion Shintoism, and that patriotism, moreover, demanded the restoration of the ancient political and social organization which had existed in the Empire long before the introduction of Buddhism, feudalism, and of Chinese ideas in general. If these theories did not interest the people, they certainly, and very effectively, created a breach between the literary classes and the samourai, on the one hand, and the Shogunate and its supporters, who by this time had become not only unpopular with the productive classes of the nation, but were even looked upon in the light of a tax, against which the people very naturally rebelled, failing to see why they should be called upon to support an idle and otherwise useless caste.

In 1700 the Government, financially embarrassed, was compelled to diminish the number of charges imposed upon it by the feudal system, and to increase taxation, whereupon the merchants deemed it prudent to conceal the exact amount of their fortunes, and the peasants, who paid their lords a third or a half of their harvests, were not infrequently ransomed by the ronin. Under these circumstances the feudal system could no longer endure, since it was now brought into contact with a society richer and better organized than itself, and thus it became impossible for the Japanese Government to prevent the penetration into the Empire of European ideas, which filtered through the one port, Nagasaki, left partially open for the benefit of the Dutch. From the eighteenth century onwards certain young samourai were always to be found at this port endeavouring to place themselves in contact with the Dutch. The Shogun Tzunayoshi (1650–1709) pretended not to notice what was happening, although his Government was ostentatiously endeavouring to repress any kind of intercommunication between the natives and foreigners.

It appears that medicine was the first science which excited the interest of the youthful Japanese students. They at first managed to obtain from the Dutch some books, containing anatomical plates, which both interested and surprised them on account of the great difference which existed between the figures represented in these works and the fantastic theories invented by the Chinese doctors. At considerable risk, for the laws on the subject were extremely severe, they secretly experimented upon a corpse, in order to compare the results with the anatomical sketches they had obtained from Europe. This led to their procuring a Dutch treatise on anatomy, which, with great difficulty, they translated into Japanese, spending sometimes as much as a whole day upon a single phrase. Before the end of the eighteenth century several Dutch-Japanese dictionaries were compiled, and a good many European works were translated and published privately, and read with all that ardour which fear of persecution ever engenders.

Before the commencement of the present century these studies produced practical results, and the country was peppered with furnaces and windmills built after Dutch models. It led, also, to the introduction of several novel industries, which were evidently inspired by some occult European influence. However feeble these beginnings may have been, both European and modern Japanese writers attach a great importance to this early initiation of a certain number of able and learned men to at least one of the languages, and to some of the sciences of the West. It prepared the way for many ardent advocates of European civilization to influence the Japanese to accept European ideas. This was the impression conveyed to me at Tokio by that very able gentleman Mr. Fukuzawa, the editor of the most important newspaper published in Tokio, the Jiji Shimpo, or ‘Times,’ who is also founder and director of one of the largest free schools in Japan. He himself had studied Dutch between 1840 and 1850, when quite a young man, and showed me a book translated from the Dutch and published in Tokio in 1770. ‘The days,’ said he, ‘of the old rÉgime in Japan were counted when in 1854 the Americans forced my country to open her ports, and the Shogunate, which had become exceedingly unpopular, undermined on all sides, crumbled to the dust.’

The situation of Japan in the middle of the nineteenth century was therefore not unlike that of France on the eve of the Revolution; but, fortunately, above the honeycombed Government, doomed to fall at the first serious outbreak of popular displeasure, Japan possessed the Imperial dynasty, a power universally respected, all the more so because it was so completely exempt from interference in public affairs; towards it every heart turned in the hour of trouble, and the remarkable reforms were accepted in its name as proceeding from a Sovereign who ruled by Divine right. In 1853 an event occurred which more than any other tended to the overthrow of the Shogunate. An American squadron, consisting of four men-of-war, under the command of Commodore Perry, appeared in the Bay of Yedo with the object of presenting a letter from the President of the United States to the Shogun demanding the conclusion of a treaty of commerce and the opening of the ports. It was in vain that the Bakufu (the Government of Yedo) tried to induce the Commodore to proceed to Nagasaki and to employ the mediation of the Dutch and Chinese. Perry replied that he would only accord a few months for the delivery of the answer he demanded, and promised to return and fetch it in the following year. The Government of Yedo was taken by surprise, and feeling that it was impossible to resist the importunate and imperative strangers, and alarmed at the grave consequences which might result from the opening out of the country, addressed a circular to the daimios detailing the facts and asking their advice. Some of them suggested the opening of only one or two ports for a limited time, say three or four years, as an experiment, but the greater number—Prince Mito, chief of the house of Tokugawa, at their head—were of a contrary opinion, and counselled that no concession should be granted, and that the country should forthwith arm itself and prepare for resistance. Nevertheless, when Perry returned some time afterwards, a treaty was signed permitting the opening of the two ports of Shimoda and Hakodate, and, moreover, granting permission for the establishment of an American consulate (1854). This official took up his residence in 1857, just as France, England, and Russia had frightened the Shogun by a naval display into granting them like privileges, which were still further augmented by a new convention promulgated in 1858.

The prolonged isolation in which the feudal lords of Japan had hitherto lived had filled them with a horror of all things foreign, so that the concessions made by the Shogun very naturally produced an extraordinary fermentation among the military classes, who considered all these privileges bestowed upon the barbarians as so many outrages to the national dignity. The Imperial Court was not less scandalized. When the Mikado first heard of the arrival of so many Westerners on the sacred soil of Japan, he ordered public prayers to be said at Ise, the most holy temple in Japan, and presently a secret understanding was arrived at between the Court of Kioto and the clans in the south-west, who, although they were perfectly sincere in their detestation of the strangers, nevertheless thought this incident afforded an excellent chance for satisfying their hereditary rancour against the Tokugawa and a possibility of annihilating their power. When confronted by these dangers, the Shogun endeavoured to shirk his responsibility, and turned to the Mikado, asking him to confirm the treaties which he had himself concluded. A statesman of great energy and of progressive tendencies, Ii-Kammon-no-Kami, now determined to intimidate the Mikado and obtain from him at any cost the desired signature, which under such circumstances at another period would have been a mere formality. But this able man was assassinated in 1860 by the ronin, who, in accordance with Japanese usage, presently published a patriotic declaration justifying their crime. Needless to say, the Shogun, in his vain attempt to reconcile both parties, fell to the ground, like the man in the proverb who sought to seat himself between two stools. The audacity of his adversaries increased, and the Imperial Court and the daimios began to interfere without the slightest hesitation in the affairs of State. In 1862, against all precedent, the Prince of Satsuma, in going to Yedo, passed by Kioto, and undertook to escort thither a kuge, who was carrying Imperial despatches to the Shogun, and invited him to appear before the Emperor. The Bakufu now found itself so absolutely powerless that it was obliged to submit to all demands, including destitutions and reintegrations of dignitaries, together with the permission for the daimios to leave Yedo with their families; and thus was the first step taken towards the ultimate ruin of the time-honoured Shogunate.

For the first time in two hundred and thirty years a Shogun—a minor—went up to Kioto in March, 1863, preceded by the Regent. The Mikado left his palace, and, contrary to secular etiquette, went in solemn state to the temple of the God of War, where he bestowed the sword of honour upon the Shogun as the ensign of supreme command with which he was to expel the barbarians. The Shogun’s second visit to Kioto in 1864, on the other hand, witnessed his complete abasement; for the Court no longer accepted his decrees, and refused him any further control over their finances. In a word, from being master he had now become servant. Amongst those who immediately surrounded the Emperor, there were still many who revolted at the idea of his being allowed to occupy himself with the government of the Empire, and their so doing gave the rebel clans in the south-west time to reorganize themselves. After a short attempt at revolt, they soon came to the conclusion that further dissensions would only play into the hands of their enemies, and from 1865 the majority of the samourai had joined a general conspiracy which it was hoped would result in the ruin of the already crumbling Shogunate. Still, the cry of ‘Death to the barbarians!’ was not so easily suppressed, and hatred of the foreigner remained for some time yet extremely fierce among the masses. The governing classes, however, who had been brought into contact with Europe, began to see that it was useless resisting its power, especially after Kagoshima, the capital of Satsuma, was bombarded in 1863 by a British squadron as a punishment for the murder of Mr. Richardson by the Prince’s escort. The daimios and their councils no longer closed their eyes to the existing condition of affairs, and recognising the uselessness of resisting Powers which were armed with such formidable engines of war, they changed their policy as by magic, loaded the foreigners with honours, opened their ports to them, and even made preparations to place the Japanese army under the same rÉgime as that of civilized nations. This conduct was not wholly disinterested, for they were shrewd enough to perceive the commercial advantages which might ultimately accrue to them as a reward for their liberality. The Court followed their example, and two years after having issued an order to ‘sweep the strangers from the soil of Japan’ as if they were so much dust, the Emperor ratified the treaties of 1865 at the demand of the Shogun, who had come to Kioto with 70,000 men to suppress the open revolt of the Prince of Choshiu.

This struggle between the Tokugawa and a subordinate vassal was their last and supreme effort to regain power. Unfortunately for them, they were crushed in the attempt, and their military prestige was for ever destroyed. The Regent Hitotsubashi, who succeeded the young Shogun, who died on September 19, entertained no illusions as to the gravity of his position. He was by this time firmly convinced that it was absolutely necessary radically to modify the constitution of the country, and feeling certain that it would be useless any longer to resist so powerful and popular a wave of progress, he determined to associate himself with the new ideas, in the hope thereby of preserving some measure of his family’s former influence. He therefore entreated the Emperor to summon a council of the principal daimios, who accordingly assembled at Kioto in 1868, with the result that they one and all advised the Emperor to allow the centralization of the Government to take place at once, as being absolutely necessary to the welfare of the country. The Prince of Tosa, one of the chiefs of the south, addressed a letter to the Shogun, in which he informed him of the results of the meeting, and that they had acknowledged the supremacy of the Emperor. Hitotsubashi, seeing that resistance was of no further avail, sent in his resignation, which was accepted, with the condition, however, that he should continue to direct public affairs until after the general assembly of all the daimios. The southern clans, fearing that the Tokugawa might still be able to recover their power, made a bold move, and attempted to seize the person of the Mikado. On January 3, 1868, the Imperial seal was stolen, and a decree issued handing over the guardianship of the palace to the samourai of Satsuma, Hizen and Tosa. On the following day the Shogunate was formally abolished. Hitotsubashi retired to Osaka with his army, where, trembling lest he might fall into some trap skilfully prepared by his enemies, and refusing to listen to any overtures, even the offer of a high position in the new Government, he marched with his men on Kioto; but the unfortunate Shogun was now treated as a mere rebel, and when he beheld the troops of the hostile clans carrying the embroidered standard of the Mikado, he realized that he was betrayed by his own people, and fled by sea to Yedo, where he surrendered unconditionally to Prince Arisugawa, commander of the ‘Army of Punishment,’ The princes of his family were the first to rally round the Emperor; others of his partisans struggled for a brief time with an adverse fate, but were finally overcome, and thus a revolution which began with the cry of ‘Down with the foreigners!’ and was provoked by the daimios and the samourai, the representatives of feudalism, against the authority of the Shogun, ended in the destruction of feudalism, and in the definite introduction into Japan of Western civilization.

Soon afterwards, when the Imperial Court began to better understand foreign manners and customs, the kuges, the more intelligent among them, from being antagonistic became their staunchest friends and supporters. Presently the mass of the people, following the lead of their superiors, enthusiastically accepted the new idea that Japan could no longer live isolated. Their rulers had the distinct merit of understanding that in order to become the equal of the Western nations, if only from the simple point of view of material progress, it would not suffice for Japan to borrow their cannons and their guns, or even their military training, an experiment which had signally failed with other Oriental Powers; but that if Western civilization was to be of the least good to Japan, it was absolutely necessary to accept it in all its branches, civil, industrial and commercial, as well as military. The promoters of the movement, the ministers and agents of the great lords, had no more interest in maintaining feudalism than had, after the Revolution, the inferior clergy and squires in the Government of France before 1789. The first step in the suppression of feudalism was the abolition of the privileges of the samourai, who might, had they been allowed to retain them, have become troublesome.

In 1876 the carrying of the two swords, their erstwhile distinguishing insignia, was prohibited. The stipends which they had previously received from their lords, and of which the State had possessed itself, were capitalized, and the territorial revenues of the daimios, which were at first compensated by annual pensions, were transformed in the same manner. These changes, which were undoubtedly beneficial to the bulk of the population, nevertheless brought about a great deal of misery, by throwing a number of people who had hitherto enjoyed all the privileges of fortune into humble circumstances. The peasantry benefited most by the new form of Government, and became, without having to pay anything, in a very short time owners of the land which they had hitherto only held as tenants, and, moreover, no longer obliged to pay a tribute to their feudal lords, but only a small tax to the Central Government. Needless to say, there was considerable resistance on the part of the two millions of people whom these new laws deprived of privileges which they had enjoyed for centuries, but these were easily and speedily suppressed. From 1869, in order further to mark the rupture between the old and the new order of things, the residence of the Emperor was transferred from Kioto to Yedo, now known as Tokio. In 1872 the first Japanese railway was opened between the new capital and Yokohama. The old-fashioned samourai were at first dreadfully scandalized when they saw the Emperor, against all precedent, driving about among the lower classes in an open carriage. But the invading wave was too strong for resistance, and presently a number of samourai of their own accord, especially in the capital, gave up the custom of wearing the two swords. Yet another flicker of the old spirit, however, reappeared in 1877, when the clan of Satsuma rose and endeavoured to oppose the introduction of so many innovations. This rebellion was suppressed by Marshal Saigo, who lost his life in the affair, leaving, however, behind him a name still universally venerated in Japan. In 1889 Viscount Mori, a Japanese statesman of very advanced opinions, was stabbed by a fanatic on the day of the proclamation of the new Constitution. At present no one in Japan, be he statesman or simple citizen, unless, indeed, he chance to be some fanatic or other under the influence of the Buddhist priests in some out-of-the-way district, dreams of disturbing the pleasant relations which exist between the native population and foreigners. After the repression of the rebellion in Satsuma the new Government was definitively consolidated, and the country fully launched on the road to complete Europeanization. In 1889 the Parliamentary system was introduced, and we shall presently see with what success. It is therefore not saying too much to assert, before we proceed further, that the wonderful revolution which has taken place in our day in Japan is not ephemeral, and that it has now gone too far to be in any danger of reaction. It is, moreover, quite in accord with the antecedents and the intellectual spirit of this remarkable people, and therefore likely not only to become permanent, but even progressive.

Japan the country of contrasts—The port and town of Nagasaki—The navigation of the Inland Sea—Junks and steamboats—Yokohama—Its population and commerce—Tokio—The telephones and electric lights—The houses and the streets—The people and their costumes—Means of transport at Tokio—Jinrikishas and tramways.

The moment the traveller enters the harbour of Nagasaki he finds himself surrounded by the most extraordinary contrasts. In the first place, the scenery is quite charming: the mountains are a delightful green and are thickly draped with foliage, from which peep out a number of pretty little wooden houses, whose windows are replaced by sliding paper-panels. The sea is dotted with rocky islands covered with those picturesque Japanese fir-trees whose outline is as varied as it is graceful. Here and there rise from the water curious little fishing-sheds, the delight of the amateur photographer, which add considerably to a landscape which looks for all the world like an animated picture off a Japanese screen. One can scarcely believe that it is all real, and certainly not that it was at one time the scene of a terrible tragedy: yet such it was, for from one of the neighbouring islands in 1638—yclept Pappenberg—several hundred Christians were cast into the sea. Presently we see rising in the background a tall chimney with its streaming cloud of smoke, and the noise of machinery in motion grating upon our ears reminds us somewhat unpleasantly that modern civilization has at length penetrated into Japan, and the better to emphasize this fact, our steamer is presently surrounded by a fleet of ugly coal-barges, and a sudden turn brings us face to face with the ships and flags of all nations—British, French, German, Russian, and American.

On the other side of the bay, in the docks recently constructed by the Mitsubishi Company, workmen are busy building a 5,000–ton vessel. Not far distant, on the southern slope of the hill overlooking the town, is the European quarter, situated in the midst of delightful gardens. The elegant steeple of the Catholic church rises sharply from among the pine-trees, and contrasts favourably with the massive and very ugly building—an eyesore on the pretty scene—that disagreeably emphasizes the very bad taste of the American missionaries, as also the absolute tolerance which the Government of the Mikado accords to all denominations in a country where, not so very long ago, so great was its exclusiveness that even the shipwrecked were put to a cruel death. As I gazed upon this charming scene, I could not forbear picturing to myself how it must have looked fifty years ago when a solitary Dutch vessel landed its tiny cargo for the benefit of a few foreign merchants imprisoned in the artificial island of Deshima, the only spot where they were allowed to live, and even then subjected to many vexatious humiliations.

In forty-five years Nagasaki has become the chief coaling port on the Pacific, and as safe for Europeans—perhaps safer—than many a seaport in Europe itself. Steamers do not remain long at Nagasaki, where they only touch to coal, but passengers have time to land for a few hours and visit the town. Happily, the inhabitants have retained their national costumes, but the men have unfortunately adopted our very ugly headgear, and flourish in every variety of bowler and yachting hat. In the shops one soon perceives the march of civilization, for they are full of articles imported from all parts of the world, as well as others imitated from European models, improved upon, in the artistic sense, by the natives. You can buy books by all the leading authors almost as cheaply as in Paris or London, as well as oil-lamps, gas-stoves, photographs representing recent Japanese battles with the Chinese, looking-glasses (which were absolutely unknown in Japan until quite recently), and little terrestrial globes, the sight of which latter reminded me of an anecdote related by a missionary when I was in China. At the beginning of the Chino-Japanese War, the Viceroy of a certain province asked the Reverend Father to show him where Japan was located, and he had the pleasure of pointing out to His Excellency, for the first time in his life, the exact place whence came the warriors with whom his Government was then at war. The Japanese are very proud of their victory over their colossal neighbour, and have placed some of the cannon which they took from her in the principal Shinto temples in the city.

Twelve hours after leaving Nagasaki you pass into the great Inland Sea, or heart of Japan, to effect an entrance into which in 1863 required the combined efforts of the fleets of England, France, Holland, and the United States. Now every great steamer that trades in the Pacific is free to weigh anchor in this glorious harbour, which, however, is never open at night on account of the many dangers to navigation in the Strait of Shimonoseki, which, by the way, is only a mile wide. As we passed through it, I perceived quite close to the southern shore no less than six immense steamers, anchored off the port of Moji—rapidly becoming a rival to Nagasaki—up to which the trains bring coal from the mines situated some miles inland. On the summit of the long range of hills a number of huge cannon stationed at intervals testify that the coasts of Japan are by no means unguarded.

Everything has been done by the Japanese Government to facilitate navigation in this rather dangerous Inland Sea, which was so hermetically shut to foreigners a half-century ago. In 1895 there were over 149 light-houses, built either by the State or the local authorities, admirably placed at intervals along the coast of Japan, the majority, of course, being erected along the shores of the Inland Sea, which, it must be remembered, contains not less than 5,000 islands. These light-houses are all the more necessary because, although the scenery of this magnificent expanse of water is very beautiful, the currents are exceedingly strong and dangerous, and the shoals, moreover, very numerous. An amazing number of little Japanese steamers of from 80 to 200 tons, and even less, constantly carry passengers to and fro between the various ports and towns on these innumerable islands. Mingling among these are still to be seen a few old Japanese junks, which, however picturesque, are not of much use in these go-ahead days, and are rapidly disappearing. Their shape is now only retained by a few fisher-boats. As a matter of fact, it is no longer legal to build vessels after the old Japanese model, excepting on a small scale, as in fishing or pleasure boats. Such a decree as this would, in any other country, have caused some unruly expression of public opinion; but in Japan it was otherwise, and the people very reasonably accepted a change for the better in the time-honoured form of their sea-craft. After twenty-four hours, of which one or two were passed at Kobe, we left the Inland Sea behind, and almost immediately afterwards beheld for the first time the peak of the celebrated Fusi-yama volcano, rendered so famous by Japanese engravers. Twenty-eight hours after leaving Kobe we entered the harbour of Yokohama, which is within fifty minutes’ rail of Tokio, the capital.

Yokohama was, before the enfranchising of the ports, a miserable little fishing village containing about a hundred houses. It was opened to foreign commerce in 1858 in the place of Shimoda, which was thought to be badly situated. It is a town of 170,000 inhabitants, having sprung up after the mushroom fashion hitherto deemed peculiar to America, and is the third largest port in the Far East, being alone surpassed by Hong-Kong and Shanghai; but its streets appear much less animated than those of the last-named ports. The Bund, the principal thoroughfare by the sea, always seems rather deserted. On the other hand, on the hill above, to the south of the concession, is the European quarter, which is full of delightful houses, surrounded by lovely gardens. There are about 1,800 foreigners of various nationalities, exclusive of Chinese, settled here, a good half being English. The port is very spacious and commodious, and the biggest ships ever built can anchor quite close up to the quay. The total value of the exports in 1896 was £6,169,600, the imports £7,280,400, making a total of £13,450,000, or about half the foreign commerce of Japan, which, during the same year, reached the very important figure of £28,500,000.^[16] But this brand new town is not particularly interesting, and the traveller will do well to hurry on to Tokio.

The capital of Japan is the largest town in Asia, and the seventh in the world. On December 31, 1895, it was reputed to contain 1,268,930 souls, and must by this time, owing to the rapid increase of its population, have attained 1,400,000. It is spread over an enormous space, much larger than that occupied by Paris. The reason why it covers such an amazing extent is that everybody lives in his own house, which is never more than one story high, and then, again, nearly every house has its little garden. Under these conditions, it is, therefore, not surprising that such an enormous population requires unlimited space in which to accommodate itself. Moreover, Tokio contains a great many open spaces, and, odd to relate, most of these are to be found in the centre of the town in the neighbourhood of the Imperial Palace. These ‘building sites,’ if one might so call them, were formerly occupied by the palaces of the great daimios, the majority of which were surrounded by bastions, supported on a cyclopean stone wall rising from a deep moat. When the daimios first received permission to leave Tokio, a few years before the downfall of the old Government, they retired to their castles in the provinces, and, at the abolition of the feudal system in 1872, their lands became, as we have seen, the property of the State. On the site of several of them immense public buildings have been erected after the European fashion, among which are the palaces of the various Ministries, and also the Parliament House; but many other wide, open spaces are still waiting to be utilized, and, being weed-grown and disorderly, produce a distinctly dreary effect. The old ramparts, planted with pine-trees, which surrounded most of them, are still standing, and one, embracing the immense park of the Imperial Palace, is used as a public promenade. As you walk along it, and look towards the palace itself, it is difficult to believe that you are in Japan, everything is so very European, and on the other side the waste land contains a perfect forest of telegraph and telephone poles, which affirms, and very forcibly, too, that our civilization is distinctly the reverse of picturesque.

Telephones, telegraph, electric light, gas, petroleum lamps, etc., are now as plentifully used in Tokio as they are in any English or American town. It is most amusing to notice as you pass along the streets, when the paper screens which form the faÇade of most of the houses are removed, the artisans seated at their tatamis, working by the light of an Edison lamp. When they cannot afford electricity or gas, the Japanese use petroleum exclusively, but not without some considerable risk to the safety of a city entirely built of wood. Since a Japanese house contains next door to nothing in the way of furniture, and that even in the houses of the rich all valuable objects of art are usually kept in an iron safe, and only exposed on state occasions, a fire does not matter so much as it would in a London mansion or a Chicago ‘sky-scraper.’ A few cushions, coverlets, and household utensils, which are to be found in every house, are soon put outside the doors, so that the inhabitants have very little to fear, for their house is only one story high, and the whole faÇade consists of paper screens, which slide into one another when required. The only people who really have anything to fear from fire are the retail merchants, whose shops, of course, are well stocked. Fires are of very constant occurrence, and people are not at all surprised to wake up in the morning to hear that some hundred houses have been burnt down during the night.

The authorities at present avail themselves of fires in order to widen the streets and improve their sanitary condition. They are now as a rule much straighter and wider than any to be found in most other Oriental cities, and even, for the matter of that, in the towns of Southern Europe, and although they have no side-walks, they are much cleaner than any you will find in China or Siberia, or, indeed, in most cities of the United States. Possibly on account of the immense size of the city, they are nothing like so animated as the streets of Peking or Tien-tsin, and are much less picturesque than one might have been led to expect, for the Japanese, both men and women, after they have reached their tenth or twelfth year dress very plainly in neutral colours, blue, gray and brown prevailing. The women, however, enliven the scene by their bright-hued waistbands and huge bows. As to the children, especially on holidays, they wear the most vivid colours. Sometimes you can trace upon their tiny persons an entire landscape, and at others enormous bunches of flowers dashed upon a background of scarlet China crape, which decorate their exceedingly small figures. Their heads are generally close-shaven when they are infants, but as they grow older the dignity of age is marked by that funny zone of stiff black hair which adds so much to the comical appearance of a Japanese doll. Another peculiarity about these youngsters is that a smaller one generally hangs on to the back of another so tightly as to suggest a big barnacle. It is indeed amusing to watch a little lady of between five and six years of age carrying her still smaller brother on her back literally from morning to night, never appearing in the least degree incommoded by what to children of other nationalities would be a most uncomfortable position. The little boy accommodates himself to all the various movements his sister may make. If she tumbles, he tumbles, and if she gets up, up gets he, and it would really appear as if the younger child formed an integral part of the elder’s body. European children who are brought up in Japan fall into this singular habit quite as naturally as the Japanese, who can fall to sleep in a position which would, one imagine, have kept awake one of the famous Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.

European costume has undoubtedly made some inroad throughout Japan, but fortunately not to the extent originally anticipated. Japanese ladies, who first adopted European fashions with enthusiasm, at present have nearly returned to the delightful way of dressing invented by their ancestresses, so that during the three months I spent in Japan I only once saw a Japanese lady dressed À la Parisienne. The European costume is now only to be seen at Court on state occasions, where, it should be observed, the old Japanese Court dress was not only very ugly and extremely heavy, but most uncomfortable. A few years ago an order was given that all the officials, little and great, should wear, when on duty, frock-coats and straight trousers, but this edict is no longer in force. Nevertheless, it has become the fashion for Japanese officials of rank to attend their offices in European costume, but here again there are already exceptions. English hats of all sorts and shapes, Tyrolese, bowler, sailor hats, and German caps, are universally worn by men in every class. Some young gentlemen, with pretensions to fashion, are adopting the tailor-made garments of Bond Street and the Rue de la Paix, and although this is regrettable from the Æsthetic point of view, it must be conceded that our dress is much better adapted for the exigencies of our modern life than the loose, long-sleeved garments of the Japanese.

The kago, or palanquin, has absolutely disappeared from Tokio, and is now only to be found in the mountain districts, its place having been taken by the jinrikisha. It is now so well known in Europe, thanks to Japanese exhibitions, that all I need say is that it is a very small carriage supported by two very tall wheels, and pulled along by a runner. The jinrikisha is not, as many imagine, of Japanese origin, but due to the inventive genius of a foreigner, who made a fortune out of his invention. It is now used throughout the whole of the Far East; but Japan remains the land of its predilection, mainly on account of the extraordinary swiftness and skill of the native runners, who are unsurpassed in this respect in any other part of the East. There are at the present moment about 200,000 of these quaint vehicles in various parts of the Empire, of which about 40,000 are in Tokio. As a rule they can only seat one person, but a few are built to convey two passengers, exclusively Japanese; for the jinrikisha is not yet built that would accommodate a couple of Europeans, even ladies. The lowest fare is 2½d.; by the hour, 5d.; and for the half-day, 1s. 3d. These are the prices exacted from Europeans, but the Japanese pay considerably less.

Independently of the jinrikisha, Tokio possesses a few omnibuses, and a line of tramways uniting the two stations of Shimbashi, the terminus of the Western, and Uyeno, that of the Northern Railway. The extreme length of this tramway is nine miles, and the fare is 1½d. all the way. The tramcars are driven by horses, and the number of seats is not limited, people being allowed to stand up in the middle as in the United States. In 1895 the company conveyed fifteen million and a half passengers, paying a return of thirty-five per cent. on a capital of about £45,000. An electric tramway is now under consideration. One improvement Tokio certainly stands in need of, and that regards its lighting. Here and there you may come across an electric lamp or so; but the principal street illumination invariably proceeds from those big Chinese lanterns, lighted by petroleum lamps, which hang outside the shops, which, fortunately, remain open until quite late; but when the shutters are up in most of the wooden houses one passes by, the darkness is quite Egyptian, unless, indeed, it happens to be a moonlight night. Doubtless, in the course of a very little time, Tokio will be as well lighted as any other highly-civilized city.

Japan the Great Britain of the Far East—Osaka, the centre of Japanese industry—Great and small industries—Increase of certain industries hitherto unknown in Japan: glass and match manufactories, breweries, etc.—Employment of children—Scale of wages—Length of labour hours—Cotton-spinning—The larger industries—Recruiting of workmen and women from the rural districts—Abuses denounced by the press—Increase of wages throughout Japan.

Nothing delights the Japanese more than to hear their Empire compared to Great Britain, and when we come to think of it there is a certain analogy between the Archipelago of the Rising Sun in the Far East and the British Isles in the West; but the Japanese hope that this resemblance will not end in a mere geographical comparison, but extend to their maritime, commercial and industrial development. To their credit, be it said, they are really working very hard to attain their ideal. One has only to visit Osaka, the Manchester of the Mikado’s Empire, to realize the amazing progress made by the Japanese in the last quarter of the century. This city, which has a population of about half a million souls, is situated midway between Kioto and Kobe, about thirty miles distant, which respectively contain 340,000 and 150,000 inhabitants. About six and a half miles further on is yet another industrial centre, Sakai, with a population of 50,000. This region, which slopes gradually to the Inland Sea, may be described as the heart of Japan, being its main centre of commercial, agricultural and industrial activity, and it is the chief tea-market of the Empire. It was also until 1869 near the political centre; for Kioto was from the end of the eighth century the capital of the Mikados, who removed their Court thither from Nara, where they had previously resided for several centuries.

Industries on a large scale have only been recently introduced into Japan, among the earliest being that of cotton-spinning, established in Osaka in 1882. Before the arrival of the Europeans, and even up to 1880, nearly all the minor trade of the country was divided up into a number of small workshops scattered all over the country. A few large silk manufactories existed, however, in the more important towns, and at Kioto there were some fairly important paper factories, and sakÉ-distilleries (wine made from rice); but these were not numerous, and only engaged a very few hands. The official statistics for 1894 disclose the existence of 4,732 families manufacturing the various ceramic products for which Japan is famous, employing about 23,726 people; 4,407 families, giving employment to 14,092 artisans, engaged in the manufacture of lacquer-ware; 81,652 matting and straw-plaiting factories; and lastly 600,444 families working 820,585 looms. From this we see that what might be termed the minor industries of the country are very numerously represented. In these small and independent workshops are produced all those numerous Japanese articles that enjoy a European popularity which they are not likely to lose for a very long time to come, Japan having a monopoly in the production of an infinite number of toys, articles of furniture, paper fans, umbrellas, boxes, screens, and knick-knacks of every description; and it is fortunate it is so, on account of the density of the rural population, and the exceeding smallness of the farms, which are easily cultivated, leaving their proprietors a great deal of leisure on their hands, which they wisely employ in making those countless pretty things that in Europe go by the name of ‘Japanese fancy goods.’ These small workshops now carry on nearly all the art industries of the country, but no Japanese city is now without its tall chimneys, rising quite as conspicuously and unpicturesquely in their suburbs as they do in Europe.

Northward of the cyclopean stone ramparts of the old castle of Osaka stands the enormous Mint, one of the finest establishments of the sort in the world, to the east of which is the Arsenal, where the Japanese turn out all the cannon and guns necessary for the use of their army. At night the horizon is crimson with the ruddy glow of the cotton-mills and other numerous factories. Most of these industries have only been lately introduced into the country, and the fathers of many of those who are engaged in them had no idea even of their existence. The Japanese, for instance, until quite recently, had no conception of the art of glass-blowing. To-day there are several very important glass factories doing a first-class trade at Osaka, glass being now much needed on account of the prevailing use of petroleum lamps, and many people are beginning to use glass in place of the paper screens which have hitherto served the Japanese as windows. Breweries have been established in various parts of the country, and the principal at Osaka produces admirable beer, largely exported, even as far as Vladivostok and Singapore. Brushes of every description, too, are now manufactured in Japan, and exported in great quantities to the United States. I had the pleasure of inspecting one of these brush manufactories at Osaka, which employed 300 men, women and children on the premises, and 900 others in its various branches in the suburbs. I experienced some little difficulty at first in gaining admittance on account of my nationality, and I had even to take an oath that I would not divulge any of the secrets of the trade. This precaution was due to some fear that I might possibly introduce their economical system into France, and thereby do them considerable mischief in the way of competition. A curious fact connected with this particular trade of brushmaking is, that the necessary pigs’ bristles and bone have to be imported, for the excellent reason that St. Anthony’s pet animal is practically non-existent in any part of the Empire, so that the Japanese confine themselves to carving the handles for the infinite number of brushes which they manufacture, and in putting the bristles into the variety of objects that require them. Osaka likewise contains a number of iron-foundries and ship-yards, in which nearly all the small steamers which ply between the islands are constructed. Unfortunately the harbour of Osaka is a very bad one, and, indeed, might almost be described as non-existent, the entrance to the river being very sandy, and the exit seaward hopelessly narrow and exposed to east winds. For this reason the majority of the goods manufactured at Osaka are exported vi Kobe, where nearly all the great English and American steamers touch, and which is an admirable port. The formation of a large harbour at Osaka was begun in 1899, at a cost of something like £2,000,000, assured by a loan of £1,700,000, issued by the town, in addition to a considerable subvention from the State. A new industry has recently been introduced at Osaka, that of jute carpet-making, which is likely to become very important, an enormous number of very cheap and very pretty carpets having already been exported to the United States and still more recently to England, where, on account of their excellent patterns, durability and extreme cheapness, they have suddenly become extremely popular. The present Exhibition at Paris will no doubt introduce them into France.

The Japanese copper and tin industries have only recently been created, and at present do not employ more than eighty hands. The silk industries are entirely concentrated at Kioto. Mats and other straw goods, which form a very important item of Japanese export, are exclusively made in and about the same city. Undoubtedly the two most important of the modern Japanese industries are cotton-spinning and match-making. In 1889, 10,165,000 gross of matches, costing £184,000, were produced. In 1894, the figures stood at 18,721,000 gross, valued at £406,800, since when this industry has gone on increasing by leaps and bounds. Matches, as may well be imagined, are very cheap throughout the country, and you can buy two boxes containing each about sixty for five rin, or a half-sen, i.e., half a farthing.

Nothing can be more interesting than a visit to one of these great match factories, which exclusively employ women and children, the latter being sometimes under six years of age. Wages, when compared with those of Europe, are very trifling, the highest average being 15 sen, or about 3¾d., per diem. Some of the girls get a little more for pasting on the labels, which requires considerable skill, and the women who put the matches in the boxes are paid 4½d. Very clever workwomen, who by the sheer delicacy of their touch are able to tell to a match, without the trouble of counting them, how many go to a box, are paid 7d. Some objection has been made to the employment of so many infants, but their mothers do not seem to object, for in the first place the children add a farthing or so to the general fund, and in the second they are able to keep them about them, which no doubt saves them much anxiety. Very few men are engaged in these match manufactories. The match-boxes are nearly all made by the workpeople at home in their off-hours, and also in certain workshops set apart for their manufacture. Japanese matches are exported in great quantities to Hong-Kong, China and India.

The cotton looms are located in stone buildings erected on Manchester models, and employ many thousands of hands. The following Custom-house statistics will give an excellent idea of the progress of this industry:

	Importation of Raw Cotton into Japan.	Spun Cotton.
		Exportation from Japan.	Importation into Japan.
	Tons.	Tons.	Tons.
1894	64,071	2,067	9,350
1895	84,739	2,362	8,661
1896	99,108	7,677	11,810
1897 (10 months)	117,710	20,274	7,185

From the above it will be remarked that Japan, in a relatively very short time, from being almost exclusively an importer of cotton goods, now exports them to foreign markets, and with good results. The Custom-house declared in 1898 £1,109,600 worth of cotton, or 20,269 tons of exports, and £734,400, or 7,185 tons of imports. The statistics of the Japanese Cotton Spinners’ Union record the following figures:

	Mills.	No. of Looms.	Workmen.	Workwomen.	Production of Spun Cotton.
					Tons.
31 Dec., 1890	30	227,895	4,089	10,330	18,798
31 Dec., 1895	47	580,945	9,650	31,140	68,106
31 Dec., 1897	61	839,387	13,447	43,367	97,435
31 Oct., 1898	61	1,233,661	13,447	43,367	97,829

Nearly half of this cotton is manufactured at Osaka, the rest at Kobe, and at Okyama, on the Inland Sea, to the west, and at Yokkaichi, Nagoya and Tokio, to the east. The conclusion of the late Chinese War gave a great impulse to the cotton industries in Japan, and necessitated the construction of new and much larger establishments, and the enlargement of those already in existence, so that it is calculated that before long over a million and a half looms will be in activity in various parts of the country. These very important industries, it must be remembered, are not subsidized by foreign capital, or under the direction of foreigners; they are purely and absolutely Japanese; up to the present, however, nearly all the plant has been imported from England and America.

Until 1897 employers of labour had a good deal of trouble in obtaining workmen. The townspeople, being engaged in a great many small industries of their own, were not willing to abandon them for work which was not likely to prove as remunerative as their own; in consequence of this the country districts had to be ransacked for hands, and nearly all the girls employed in the factories of Osaka are the daughters of small farmers. They are lodged and boarded by the various companies in buildings erected expressly for the purpose, a percentage being deducted from their wages for their keep. Certain abuses having arisen in their management, a leading local newspaper, published in English, but really owned and edited by Japanese, in 1897 called attention to the same in a series of articles, violently attacking the working organization of the Osaka cotton-mills. The lodgings of the workwomen were, it was stated, exceedingly unhealthy; and as to the morals of the women employed, the less said about them the better. Then, again, the agents who engaged these young women were accused of doing so under false promises, and it was said they even went so far as to intercept their correspondence with their homes. The editor furthermore condemned in the severest terms the employment of extremely young children.

These articles attracted a great deal of attention, and contained doubtless a certain amount of truth, not unmingled, however, with considerable exaggeration. The Japanese employers of labour are, it should be remarked, after all in very much the same position in which our own were some fifty or sixty years ago. As to the moral tone of the workgirls, it is doubtless neither better nor worse than it is in the great manufacturing centres of Europe and America. At Moscow a manufacturer informed me that the morals of his workgirls were very bad, and at Shanghai another gentleman related to me things on the same subject best left unpublished. The working hours are not longer in Japan than they were in Europe thirty or forty years ago. They never exceed twelve hours a day, from which half an hour must be deducted for the midday meal. Nevertheless, it is excessive, especially when we remember that the week’s work is divided into two parts, one half the hands working all night and the other all day, so that the looms are never at rest. Then they have only two off-days in the month, on the first and the fifteenth; and there are only four special holidays in the year, the three first days in the New Year, and the Emperor’s birthday. Even the first and the fifteenth are not observed if there is a press of work. If these hours appear too long, it must not be forgotten that the Japanese workman, like his brother worker in the South of Europe, does not labour with the intensity that distinguishes the Englishman or the American. As to the employment of women, they are only engaged in the match factories, and their work is of the lightest.

Nevertheless, attention in Japan is being directed towards these two very important questions, which will, doubtless, sooner or later, receive proper attention and be modified. Wages are already rising, as the workpeople begin to understand their worth and their own interests, and to know how to protect them. A danger to which the Japanese industries are exposed is undoubtedly due to a diminution of capital, the result of over-production after the late war, which brought about much the same phase that occurred in the commercial history of Germany after the Franco-German War. However, the financial crisis of 1898 and the competition recently created at Shanghai have created a certain degree of anxiety concerning the immediate future of Japanese industry; but, on the other hand, the magnificent results obtained in such a surprisingly short time, and the courageous manner in which this industrious people have overcome the many difficulties which beset them in the earlier stages of their career, must not be forgotten.

Predominance of agriculture in the economic existence of Japan—Density of the rustic population in the plains and lower valleys—Importance of the Japanese fisheries with respect to the food supply of the people—Principal crops: rice, tea and mulberry-trees—Absence of domestic animals—Returns of Japanese agriculture—Small holdings—Japanese peasantry, their vegetarian or ichthyophagian diet—Their dwellings—Position of women—Their extreme cleanliness, politeness and good nature—Cost of living—Amelioration of peasant life in Japan after the Restoration—Spread of Western civilization and instruction among them.

Notwithstanding the rapid industrial development which has recently taken place in Japan, the greater proportion of the population is still essentially rural, and derives, if not all, at least the greater part of its means of subsistence from the soil. Petty industries, however, abound and materially assist this hard-working people to add to their very small incomes. Along the indented coasts of the islands, and on the shores of the Inland Sea, innumerable little villages will be found, whose inhabitants depend entirely for their subsistence upon the fisheries, but notwithstanding their importance, Japan may be described as an essentially agricultural country. It is, also, the cultivation of the soil which supplies the raw material of the silk, still one of the staple export industries, and also of another very important article of exportation, tea. On a total export in 1896 of £11,650,000 worth of Japanese products, tea represented £637,200, rice £795,100, raw silk cocoons and silk-ravel £3,166,600. If we add to these figures about £4,700,000 worth of miscellaneous products, or 14 per cent., and add also about £1,200,000, or 4 per cent., of raw or unprepared produce, we shall find that the aggregate value of agricultural products of all kinds reaches the respectable figure of £5,950,000, more than half that of the total export. Notwithstanding their importance, the area devoted to the culture of the tea-plant and the mulberry-tree is relatively small as compared with that devoted to rice, which is the staple article of food of the whole of the Far East. The extensive culture of this latter accounts for the peculiarity often noticed in Japanese landscapes, that you never see any of those gentle hill-slopes which are so familiar in France. The hills rise abruptly from the stagnant waters, and seem cut into three or four broad step-like terraces, possibly the result of the action of the water which inundates the rice-fields. When I was in Japan, in the autumn, the rice harvest was just over, and the country would have looked very dismal on account of the drab colour of the muddy soil, divided up like a chess-board into regular squares, from which the rice had been recently cut, and now covered by a thin layer of dry weeds, had it not been for the peculiarly elegant shapes of surrounding heights which are shaded by those delightful firs so familiar to us in old Japanese prints. The lace-like curtains of bamboo clustering here and there added also to the variety and charm of the scene, which was further enhanced by the numerous cryptomerias, whose superb foliage contrasted vividly with the brown and the red of the maples that are invariably planted around the charming little temples dotted about in all directions. In the hilly districts the beauty of the trees breaks the monotony of the rice-fields and of the reclaimed wastelands, but in the plains and valleys there is not one to be seen, every inch of land being most carefully cultivated.

The rural population of Japan is marvellously dense, incomparably more so than in any part of Europe. On an area but little greater than that of Great Britain and Ireland, Japan contains 42,270,620 inhabitants, that is to say, 284 souls per square mile, including the large southern island of Yezo, which is very sparsely peopled. Not taking this very extensive island into account, it will be safe to state that the population of Japan is twice as dense as that of France, and only equalled by that of Belgium, an absolutely industrial country, whereas at least 80 per cent. of the Japanese live in the country. Certain provinces, Shiko and Sitama, for instance, to the north-east of Tokio, respectively boast of 604 and 709 to the square mile, although the capital cities of these two provinces contain respectively only 26,000 and 20,000 inhabitants. The island of Shikoku and the province of Kagawa, on the other hand, which possesses only one large town, Takamatsu, with 34,000 inhabitants, has a population that reaches the phenomenal figure of 998 souls to every square mile. In only thirty-six out of forty-six Japanese provinces, exclusive of Yezo, are there less than 250 inhabitants to the square mile, and in only four, three of which are at the extreme north and one at the south, is the population less crowded than in most parts of France. The following statistical table shows the population, with its relative density:

	Square miles.	Population.	Density per square mile.
Nippon, Northern	30,556	6,455,287	191
Nippon, Central	37,028	16,368,995	442
Nippon, Western	20,922	9,523,168	453
Island of Shikoku	7,113	2,929,639	412
Island of Kiu-Siu	17,037	6,524,024	384
Hokkaido, or Yezo	36,734	469,507	13
	149,390	42,270,620	316
Formosa	8,995	2,041,809	228
	158,385	44,312,429	272

Even more remarkable than the population is the small area of cultivated land required to support such an immense number of people. Japan is an extremely mountainous country, and although the plains and valleys, especially in the east and south, are admirably cultivated, and the rice-fields occasionally cover hills that slope so close to the sea as not to allow of the existence of even a small fringe of cultivable land, the mountain ranges in the interior are still covered with forests, and even the northern part of the great island, where the land is excellent, is quite uncultivated. According to recent statistics, about one-fifth of the total surface of the country has been reclaimed and subdivided into a remarkable number of small farms and tenements. The forest lands, on the other hand, cover 88,632 square miles, of which 28,544 square miles belong to private owners, 51,834 square miles to the State or to the various provinces, and 8,254 square miles are Crown lands. The remainder of the island is occupied by moors, uncultivated tracts of land, extremely extensive in Yezo, where the forests are of vast extent, and where only 1,269 square miles of land repay cultivation. If we leave aside the northern island, and only take into consideration the land occupied by 99 per cent. of the Japanese population, we discover that, exclusive of 67,571 square miles of forest land, only 21,234 square miles provide food for 42,000,000 people, whereas in France there are about 56,917 square miles devoted to cereals alone, and if we add potatoes, vineyards and other edibles, we arrive at a total of 75,889 square miles for a population much inferior to that of Japan; moreover, France imports provisions very largely from other countries.

In England and in France, as in most other European countries, very extensive and superior pasture lands are set aside for the forage of domestic animals intended for food. In Japan there is nothing of the sort. On the highroads you will meet peasants dragging their own carts and waggons, and if you travel by any other means than the railway, it will be in a jinrikisha hurried along by human runners, or in a palanquin carried on men’s shoulders, rarely, if ever, in a carriage or on horseback. Sheep and goats are absolutely unknown in the Empire, but I am assured there are a few pigs, although I never saw any. A European who had lived many years in Japan assured me he had travelled for twelve hours by rail without seeing a bullock or a cow; in the west, however, I myself have often met with cattle. The scarcity of animals is one of the peculiarities of Japan which most surprises the traveller. Statistics confirm this impression, for they give only a return of 1,097,000 head of cattle and 1,477,000 horses.

Doubtless this singularity may be attributed to the predominance of the Buddhist religion, which prohibits the eating of flesh, notwithstanding which the Japanese are not above relishing a fowl, although poultry is nothing like as abundant as it is in our villages. The very great quantity of fish eaten doubtless accounts for this enormous population being able to exist in so mountainous a country on such an abstemious diet. The various fishing industries for 1894 returned produce valued at £2,740,000. We have already mentioned the countless fishing villages which send out a fleet of not less than 600,000 of those graceful one-sailed junks that sometimes seriously impede the progress of the numerous steamers in the Inland Sea. The secondary and very rocky island of Awaju does not contain a single town, but nevertheless can boast of a population of 198,000 inhabitants, spread over an area of only 220 square miles, subsisting entirely on its fishing industries.

The importance of the fisheries does not prevent Japanese agriculture from taking a foremost position, and it must be admitted that farming must have reached a high degree of perfection if the limited space allotted to it can support such a dense population, a fact all the more remarkable when we remember that Japan imports very few articles of food. It is true that in many places there are two crops yearly, although rice has only two harvests in the southern island of Shokoku; in many other places, in November, as soon as this has been gathered, the earth is manured again and sown with barley, or daikon, a kind of monster turnip. The following statistics of 1895, which give the extent of cultivated land and the nature of the various products, will serve to illustrate how relatively great these are when compared with the area of land in cultivation.

	Area in Acres.	Produce.
Rice	6,821,694	195,612,321	bshls.
Barley	1,600,632	33,830,173	?
Rye	1,649,390	34,377,074	?
Wheat	1,096,257	19,470,855	?
Peas and azuki	1,318,779	17,701,808	?
Millet	848,282	18,633,157	?
Buckwheat	422,928	5,891,613	?
Sweet potatoes	586,478	1,865,709	cwts.
Potatoes	56,727	18,598,076	?
Colza	374,072	4,932,246	bshls.
Cotton	148,649	471,978	cwts.
Hemp	51,431	102,967	?
Indigo	114,999	579,298	?
Tobacco	88,185	279,870	?
Mulberry-trees	675,972	279,870	?
Tea	123,404	635,979	?

The absence of domestic animals obliges the Japanese to have recourse to novel methods of manuring the land. The rice-fields are strewn with green grass, freshly cut in openings in the forests and on the mountain sides, which, when covered with muddy water, speedily decomposes; to this lime is sometimes added. Excrements of all kinds are also largely employed in all fields except those devoted to the cultivation of rice, and along the coast-line fish manure is much used.

Everywhere, excepting in Yezo, the cultivation of rice preponderates, especially in the northern part of the principal island, mainly because the climate is elsewhere too cold to allow of any other crop being sown during the winter and spring. Barley and wheat are grown mainly in the centre of the great island of Nippon, rye in the western parts of the same island, and also in the two southern islands of Shikoku and Kiu-Siu, the last-named of which produces sweet potatoes in abundance. These were originally imported from Java to Satsuma, and are still called Satsuma-imo, or Satsuma potatoes. Tobacco, which was introduced by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, and which is universally used all over the islands, being one of the few customs the Japanese have retained from their first contact with Europeans, is cultivated everywhere, except, perhaps, in the north. The mulberry-tree grows exclusively in the mountainous regions of the centre, and only in very small quantities in the north. Tea will be met with, on the other hand, only in the plains, and at the foot of the lower ranges of hills. From the windows of the train which passes from Tokio to Kioto, and principally in the environs of this last-named town, as also of Osaka and Nara, one sees extensive tea-plantations lifting their deep, green foliage from the rice-fields.

As may well be imagined, owing to the smallness of his tenement, the Japanese peasant is by no means rich, and has to live on very little. In the plains he subsists mainly on rice boiled in water, precisely as do the workpeople in the towns, a little fish seasoned with soy, or Japanese sauce, flavours this very simple menu, which also includes a few eggs, and occasionally a chicken, a little game, or a wild duck. In the mountains, where the people are very poor, and rice is considered a luxury, barley and millet are sometimes substituted. The fisher-folk replace this almost exclusively vegetarian diet by the produce of their work. Even among well-off people in the towns the principal dish at dinner consists of boiled rice. During meals the usual drink is hot sakÉ, which the guests offer each other in little cups with a good deal of polite ceremony. This very weak form of brandy is distilled from rice, and about 150,000,000 gallons of it are consumed annually. The other great Japanese drink is green tea.

The Japanese peasantry usually live in small villages, separated from each other only by a few hundred yards. Sometimes, however, their houses are built in little groups of four or five, but it is extremely rare to find a peasant’s cottage quite isolated. Nothing can exceed the simplicity of the construction of these habitations, which only differ from those of the townspeople by their lofty and heavy thatched roofs, which usually contain a granary, and are supported by very stout wooden pillars, rising from a heap of stones placed on the bare ground, without any attempt at a foundation. Those walls only which support the gable are solidly built with clay kept together by a bamboo lattice. The two principal faÇades stand back about a yard inside the pillars, and consist of paper screens which slide backwards and forwards. At night, or in stormy weather, these screens are replaced by wooden shutters. The whole front is thrown wide open when the weather is fine or there is a ray of sunshine, so that passers-by may have a full view of the interior. It is this curious fashion of living in public which most strikes the traveller who arrives in Japan from China, where you cannot even see what is going on in the outer courtyard, and is one of the chief characteristics that differentiate the Japanese from all other Orientals. Another very striking feature is the scrupulous cleanliness which reigns in these dwellings, whose only furniture are tatamis, or thick straw mats, which cover the floor of the whole house, excepting a space immediately opposite the door where visitors are expected to leave their boots and slippers.

The total absence of furniture, added to an equal lack of heating apparatus and to the non-existence of any means of shutting out cold and draughts, at first gives one an impression of extreme discomfort, but it must not be forgotten that when the Japanese adopted Chinese civilization they rejected three things: chairs, coverlets, and stoves. The Imperial palaces at Kioto would make one of our humblest cottages, so far as furniture is concerned, appear quite luxurious. At Hirashima, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, the principal hotel is kept by a Japanese, and although lighted by electricity and possessing a telephone, the guests are expected to sit upon the floor, and only to warm the tips of their fingers at the two or three little scraps of burning embers in the hibachi, and in the morning, although it may be freezing, they have to perform their toilet in the open courtyard. When I was in this city I visited the house occupied by the Emperor during the Chinese War, and was shown his study, which contained merely an arm-chair, a few other chairs, and by way of stove only a hibachi, of exquisite workmanship, it is true—black lacquer worked over with gold.

The emptiness of a Japanese peasant’s home is, therefore, no sign of extreme poverty, and although we may describe him as poor, as his capital is extremely small, there is no reason to describe him as destitute. In summer he is dressed as lightly as possible, and in winter as warmly, always in deep blue, in contrast to the light blue affected by the Chinese. The men wear a pair of trousers, or rather a tight-fitting pair of drawers that reach to the ankles, and an ample vest with pagoda sleeves. The women, on the other hand, wear one or two skirts reaching half-way down their legs, and gaiters or stockings without feet, the whole made of cotton or dark-blue linen and joining the tabi, or little shoe, which ascends above the ankle.

Japanese women enjoy greater freedom than any other women outside Europe. They may come and go wherever and whenever they like, and chatter with whom they choose. Whereas in China you never see a woman in a tavern, in Japan you very frequently see only women. At an inn you are always received by the wife of your host and by a whole troop of young girls, who serve you, and keep you company. The women, when they have finished their household duties, which are very slight, share with the men the labour in the fields; and I remember seeing in the neighbourhood of Kioto a woman with a child on her back helping her husband to drag a waggon along. One is astonished to perceive with what persistent good-humour these small but very hardy people perform their very heavy work. In the midst of the trying labours of the rice-fields, with their feet benumbed by the cold mud during the harvest, which is gathered in November, they are invariably gay and happy. Doubtless that which contributes most to their cheerfulness is the fact that they are far ahead of the corresponding class in any other country in the matter of artistic instinct. There are very few of them but preserve some curiosity in bronze or lacquer, which has been handed down by ancestors, and which, of all the scanty heirlooms, is the one thing most valued. They are, moreover, passionately fond of nature.

Every season of the year has its flowers, wild or cultivated, from the plum-trees in February to the deep, red-leaved maples in November, and every district has some particular spot celebrated for the beauty and abundance of this or that flower. Thither the whole neighbourhood goes in gay crowds to enjoy and admire them. In that season of the year when they have less to do, the peasants, who are indefatigable walkers, under the pretext of a pilgrimage, go incredible distances to visit some beautiful site, or a famous temple, usually surrounded by magnificent trees. Then, again, their domestic industries supply them with a great deal of light work, which tends to render their existence less monotonous than it otherwise might be. In order to give my readers an idea of the cost of living in Japan, I copy from the Japan Times the following table of the expenses of the family of a schoolmaster in the province of Rikuzen, in the north of the principal island.

Expenses for Three Persons—Husband, Wife, and Infant of from Six to Seven Years of Age.
	£	s.	d.
3 to (1 to = 4 gallons) 3rd quality rice	0	9	2
Vegetables and fish	0	3	0
House linen	0	3	0
Rent of house	0	1	7½
Lighting and heating	0	1	6
3 sho (1 sho = ? gallon) 2nd quality soy (sauce)	0	0	10½
Tea	0	0	7
Writing materials	0	0	7
Education of child	0	0	5
Baths every three days	0	0	5
Taxes	0	0	3½
Footgear	0	0	3½
Extras	0	0	11
Total	1	2	8

Or, in other words, about £1 3s. for the month. To this must be added £1 10s. a year for clothing, making a total of £15 2s. for the year. These figures were compiled in 1897, when the price of provisions had considerably increased. It must, however, be stated that they exceeded the salary of the unfortunate teacher, which has not been raised, and is only £1 a month.

The peasantry have certainly benefited by the abolition of the old form of government, and Western civilization is even now commencing to penetrate among them. They light their dwellings with petroleum, and, although their notions of the value of time are exceedingly simple, nearly all of them possess a watch or a clock. Most have adopted European caps or hats, and none of the men shave their heads as they did in olden times; moreover, they never express the least opposition to the encroachments of modern civilization, but, on the contrary, invariably display curiosity and a great desire to try experiments. Public education is theoretically obligatory, and about 80 per cent. of the boys and 40 per cent. of the girls attend schools, where they are taught to read and to write about 100 Chinese characters, as well as the two syllabic Japanese alphabets, in addition to one or two other general things. The schoolmasters, having been too hastily recruited, may have been educated too much on the old-fashioned Chinese lines; but, nevertheless, modern ideas are making headway, and in the course of time will undoubtedly carry the field.

The Japanese people, even in the country, are definitely on the road to progress. It would be unwise to change everything from the night to the morning as by the touch of a magician’s wand, but undoubtedly the first impulse has been given, and has met with no resistance. From the agricultural point of view, there can be no question that the Japanese have much to learn, not so much with respect to those products which they already cultivate, but to the introduction of others besides the all-prevalent rice. These reforms will be very difficult to bring about, for the obvious reason that the small farmers only accept changes with extreme caution; but in the course of time they will have to be introduced, especially when we reflect that the population of Japan increases at the rate of 300,000 souls per annum, and the extent of territory which has been reclaimed and is in cultivation is so small in proportion to the density of the population.

Progress of Japanese commerce in the last fifteen years—Remarkable increase of exports and of the importation of raw material—Importation of capital in the form of machinery for native manufactories—Countries interested in Japanese commerce—Japanese merchants accused of occasionally producing inferior articles and not fulfilling their contracts—The reasons for the excess of imports over exports in the years 1894–98.

Nothing can better illustrate the rapid progress made in Japanese commerce during the last thirty years than the development of her import and export trade, which is regularly recorded in a pamphlet published by the Japanese Minister of Finance, both in Japanese and English, entitled the ‘Monthly Return of the Foreign Trade of the Empire of Japan,’ which gives the fullest particulars respecting the commercial operations of the month, as well as a rÉsumÉ of what has recently transpired. Each spring a complete volume is issued which supplies further details, and gives a table showing the commercial status throughout the preceding year. According to the figures given in this document, which are extremely accurate, the exports in 1898 attained the unusually high figure of £16,570,000, and the imports £27,700,000, making a total of £44,270,000. The following table displays very clearly the prodigious advance made in Japanese commerce during the thirty years included between 1868 and 1898.

The figures in the original document are, of course, given in Japanese currency, but, for the convenience of English readers, they are here rendered by their equivalent in English money, taking the yen at two shillings, the rate it has held for a considerable time past.

Japanese Foreign Commerce.

	Imports.	Exports.
1868	£1,070,000	£1,550,000
1879	3,300,000	2,820,000
1884	3,220,000	3,400,000
1889	6,620,000	7,020,000
1894	12,170,000	11,330,000
1895	13,870,000	13,620,000
1896	17,170,000	11,780,000
1897	21,930,000	16,310,000
1898	27,700,000	16,570,000

By studying the statistics published in this official pamphlet, we find that out of £3,581,200 of indigenous articles exported from Japan in 1883, £2,713,900 were of a purely agricultural character, and only £242,200 represented articles manufactured in the country. This last class consisted only of the various articles included among the ancient art industries of Japan: £54,400 worth of ceramics and pottery, £54,300 of lacquer, £26,100 of paper fans, umbrellas, and fancy goods generally, etc. The silk industries did not even attain the comparatively low figure of £9,000. Five years later, in 1888, the situation was entirely changed. The export of indigenous merchandise exceeded £6,489,100, of which only 68·6 per cent. instead of 76·4 per cent. represented agricultural produce, 3 per cent. instead of 3·4 per cent. forestries, 5·2 per cent. instead of 6·7 per cent. of the total amount fisheries; on the other hand, the various minerals had risen from 6·7 per cent. to 11·2 per cent., and manufactured goods rose from 6·8 per cent. to 11·8 per cent. Japan also exported £350,000 worth of copper and £300,000 worth of coal. The silk manufactories exported silk goods to the extent of £168,000, and all the art industries, with the sole exception of the lacquer, which remained stationary, rose very considerably in value. To these figures must be added the returns of certain other commercial products of a kind totally unknown in Japan a quarter of a century ago—matches, for instance, of which £74,000 worth were exported.

A glance at the following figures will show of what the Japanese export trade during the last three years was composed, and the nature of the goods.

Principal Exports from Japan in 1895, 1896, 1897 and 1898.
	1895.	1896.	1897.	1898.
Raw silk and cocoons	£4,800,000	£2,880,000	£5,560,000	£4,200,000
Silk ‘ravel’	290,000	280,000	300,000	270,000
Tea	820,000	640,000	780,000	820,000
Rice	720,000	790,000	610,000	590,000
Camphor	150,000	110,000	130,000	120,000
Cuttle-fish	100,000	110,000	140,000	?
Coal	760,000	890,000	1,150,000	1,520,000
Copper	520,000	550,000	580,000	730,000
Tissues and silk handkerchiefs	1,530,000	1,200,000	1,320,000	1,600,000
Sewing cotton	100,000	400,000	1,350,000	2,010,000
Spun cotton	240,000	230,000	260,000	260,000
Matches	470,000	500,000	560,000	630,000
Mats and straw goods	480,000	530,000	640,000	630,000
Fans and screens	80,000	100,000	120,000	?
Pottery	200,000	200,000	180,000	200,000

Altogether the chief manufactured articles exported in the year 1895 were valued at £4,000,000; three years later they rose in value to £6,300,000.

At the present moment goods which were absolutely unknown in Japan in 1850 are exported from that country all over the East from Korea to Singapore; and Japanese cotton goods, the raw material for which has to be imported from India, compete with Chinese materials of the same class, the raw material for which is obtained from the same country. Needless to say, Japanese silks and mats can be procured in every part of the world, and their coal, though inferior to the Welsh, being greasy, emitting great quantities of smoke and burning away quickly, is very cheap, and is supplied to all the steamers touching at the ports of the Far East from Korea to the Straits of Malacca. In the meantime, those industries for which Japan has always been noted have not diminished in importance. It must, however, be confessed that this branch of industry has decreased both in quality and beauty, the result, doubtless, of hasty and purely commercial production. If, however, very fine work is not produced so much as it was formerly, cheap Japanese artistic goods, ceramic and otherwise, flood the markets of the civilized world. A curious fact connected with the actual condition of Japanese export trade is the remarkable extension and increase in value of what might be called the new industries, of which by far the most important are those connected with cotton.

Meanwhile, the import trade has lately been considerably altered. Fifteen years ago Japan imported sugar and petroleum only. In 1897 raw cotton was introduced to the value of £4,300,000. If we add to this £100,000 worth of wool, £93,400 of pig-iron, £47,700 of steel, and one or two other minor items, we have a return of £5,900,000, or 23 per cent. of the entire imports; the food imports during the same year were also 23 per cent. The increase in the value of these latter in 1897, which stood at £5,900,000 as against £3,400,000 in the previous year, is due to the failure of the rice crop, which necessitated the importation of 3,800,000 cwt. of rice, valued at £2,180,000. A certain quantity of rice, between £400,000 and £800,000 worth, has to be imported annually from Korea and Indo-China, in order to counterbalance the amount of Japanese rice of the first quality exported to Europe and the United States. Besides rice, the import of sugar has reached the high figure of £1,980,000, and petroleum, of which 61,000,000 gallons were imported in 1897, £766,700.

Imported manufactured goods may be divided into two distinct classes, the first including articles of domestic use or consumption, and the second those which tend to extend the various industries of the country, and which in a sense constitute a certain proportion of capital. In the first category may be placed spun goods, both cotton and woollen, and watches; in the second, machinery, wrought iron and steel, rolling-stock and other materials for the railways.

Woollen industries did not exist in Japan until recently, for the simple reason that sheep were not introduced until after the opening of the ports to Europeans. In 1897, woollen goods were imported to the value of £133,700, and textile fabrics to £1,020,000; while watches, which were never seen in Japan until 1850, are now in general use, and in 1897, 305,894 of these necessary articles were imported and retailed at an average of about 12s. each.

The second class of manufactured articles imported into the Empire in 1897 includes £830,000 worth of wrought iron, £1,360,000 of machinery and boilers, £510,000 of locomotives and railway carriages and trucks, £330,000 of rails, and £200,000 of other railway stock, i.e., 15 per cent. of the total imports. This rapid development, which compares very favourably with the two preceding years, 1896 and 1895, is mainly due to increased activity in railway construction since the Chinese War, and also to the rapid commercial expansion throughout the Empire.

The following table shows the manner in which Japanese foreign trade was shared among the various nations in 1896:

	Exportation from Japan.	Importation into Japan.	Total.
Great Britain	£900,000	£5,920,000	£6,820,000
United States	3,150,000	1,640,000	4,780,000
China	1,380,000	2,130,000	3,510,000
Hong-Kong	2,000,000	910,000	2,970,000
British India	450,000	2,250,000	2,700,000
France	1,900,000	770,000	2,670,000
Germany	300,000	1,720,000	2,020,000
Korea	340,000	510,000	850,000

Japan also carries on a very extensive trade with other countries besides those above mentioned, among them Switzerland, Asiatic Russia, Italy, Australia, the Philippines, Cochin China, Canada, etc., but in no case does it exceed £400,000 annually. The relative high figures of the business transacted between Japan and Hong-Kong is due to that port being a centre whence goods are distributed to other countries. One striking feature of the above table is the preponderance of the trade between Japan and England, from which country she derives all her cotton and linen goods, as well as nine-tenths of her machinery and wrought iron (nails excepted), and more than half of her woollens—in a word, the immense majority of all the manufactured commodities imported into the country. Germany sends machinery, cloth, almost all the iron nails, alcohol, sugar and paper; Belgium and Russia export manufactured articles into, but take almost nothing from, Japan. The principal French import is mousseline de laine, valued at £570,000, which is almost a French monopoly. About a fifth of the goods imported from America consists of machinery and wrought metals; the rest includes petroleum, raw cotton, flour and leather. The United States, France, and lastly Italy, are Japan’s principal customers for raw silk, as well as for her light spun silks. Five-sixths of the tea grown in Japan goes to America and the rest to England. China, Korea and India take almost all the Japanese matches, while the coal will be found distributed along the whole of the Asiatic Coast of the Pacific. Copper goes to Hong-Kong, Germany and England, and rice, camphor, matting, straw and art goods are distributed all over Europe and the United States.

This brilliant picture of Japanese commercial prosperity has, unfortunately, its shady side. Many complain that the articles manufactured in Japan are not up to the mark in point of excellence and finish. As is generally the case with Orientals, they start well and make their first batch of goods admirably, but the quality soon falls off, probably the result, not so much of negligence, as of over-hasty production, due to competition. There can be no question that these and other complaints are not unfounded, and many intelligent Japanese are the first to acknowledge and deplore them. As an instance in point, matches are not nearly so well made as they used to be. Many complaints have also been made as to the increasing inferiority of a certain class of silk goods known as haboutaye and of the silk pocket-handkerchiefs, of which an enormous quantity are exported, with the result that the exportation of these last-mentioned necessary articles fell from 1,855,000 dozens in 1895, to 1,157,000 in 1897. On the other hand, there is a distinct increase in the export of haboutaye. Nevertheless many thoughtful people have watched this deterioration in the excellence of the new Japanese industries with some alarm, and not a few manufacturers who have had their attention drawn to the matter have already mended their ways. The same complaint might be made of goods manufactured in certain parts of Europe, notably in Germany, where cheap and showy articles are fabricated in superabundance, but Japan would do well to maintain her reputation as high as possible as a producer of all that is best in the market.

Still graver is the charge brought against Japanese merchants of occasional lapses from a high standard of honour, and of availing themselves of the slightest possible pretext to avoid fulfilling the letter of their contracts, in which they contrast unfavourably with the higher class of Chinese merchants, whose reputation for integrity and for a strict adherence not only to their written, but also to their verbal promises, is well known, with some degree, possibly, of exaggeration. It is as well to recall in this connection that the Japanese were until quite recently a feudal and military people, who despised trade in all its branches, and those who were engaged in its pursuit were not considered any the better for being honest. In China, on the other hand, it has ever been otherwise, the merchants, after the literati, being looked upon as the most honourable class in the Empire, whereas the military were invariably despised, being recruited from the lowest ranks of society. Ideas have certainly been considerably modified in Japan in the last thirty years; still, the majority of the merchants are of the same class as their predecessors when they are not their immediate descendants; therefore, we should not be surprised if they retain some of their traditions it were better they were without. In a word, since the Restoration of 1868 the Japanese have done their best to get rid of the prejudices of feudal times, but although these are fast disappearing, some of their after-effects still remain.

It has always been extremely difficult to induce Orientals to understand the value of time, and in this particular the Japanese are still on a par with their neighbours. Foreign merchants have the greatest difficulty in persuading their Japanese correspondents that a few days’; nay, a few hours’ delay in the transaction of business and in the despatch of goods often leads not only to much inconvenience, but to absolute loss.

One of the chief desires of the Japanese at the present time is to see their export commerce pass from the hands of foreigners, who hold it, into their own; but they may rest assured that until they improve their business habits they will not succeed in carrying out their object in this direction.

It has been noticed that during the three years 1896, 1897 and 1898 the Japanese imports have been immensely in excess of their exports. This is probably due to the necessity of obtaining plant in great quantities for the immediate increase of the many new industries that have sprung up all over the country in so short a time. This financially has undoubtedly resulted in a distinct loss to the nation. The Chinese War indemnity brought a good deal of gold into the country, but the greater part of it has been expended in augmenting the navy and in the purchase of war materials. Fortunately, trade throughout Japan in 1899 was distinctly flourishing, thanks mainly to the abundance of the crops in the preceding year, and also to a curb having been put on exaggerated industrial activity, whereby, as already intimated, the imports were in excess of the exports, and the danger of a crisis in this direction was averted. This extraordinary commercial development in so remarkably short a period reflects the greatest credit upon the Japanese people, but we must not expect that it will continue progressing without encountering occasional checks, and there are not a few thoughtful people who foresee that the Japanese factories will soon have to compete very seriously with those which have been recently erected in the free ports of China. In this respect it may be remarked that salaries have risen at Shanghai, as well as at Osaka and Tokio. The acquisition of the island of Formosa will probably before long enable the Japanese to cultivate cotton and other tropical produce on their own territory, which will, of course, be a great gain to them.

Flourishing condition of Japanese finance on the eve of the war with China—Present Japanese financial problem the result of the important military, naval, and public works undertaken by the Government at the close of the war—Enormous expense of this programme, demanding a loan of £24,000,000—Gradual method of paying off this debt in nine instalments—Impossibility of floating the loan on the home market, all Japanese capital being locked up in the various newly-created industries—Debts incurred in connection with the programme of expansion, whereby the ordinary Budget was doubled—Progressive scale of taxation from the present date until 1905—Absolute necessity of augmenting certain taxes—Projected imposition of increased taxation, especially upon land and on beers, wines, and spirits—Taxation as compared with the population of Japan and other countries—Prospects of Japanese finance.

Before the war with China, Japanese finance was in a most brilliant condition, and the fiscal year April 1st, 1893, to March 31st, 1894, the close of which preceded hostilities by only a few months and which is the last of which accurate accounts have been published, showed a return of £8,588,300 ordinary and £315,913 extraordinary revenue, making a total of £8,904,213, as against £8,458,187 expenditure, the surplus being £446,026, which on a Budget of £10,400,000 was a very creditable but by no means an exceptional result. As a matter of fact, there had been only one deficit, that of 1891–92, resulting from the exceptional expenses incurred by the nation through the disastrous effects of the earthquake of 1891, one of the most terrible on record even in Japan, where these dreadful visitations are of very frequent occurrence. The whole financial tendency of the preceding years is summed up in the statement that at the beginning of the year 1896–97 £3,900,000, derived from accumulated surpluses, was at the disposal of the Treasury, although £2,300,000 had already been withdrawn from this reserve fund to help in defraying the expenses of the war.

On the other hand, the National Debt at this period was not higher than £28,350,000, of which £1,570,000 was paper money in circulation. It had therefore diminished since 1890–91 by £2,300,000, of which £1,450,000 was due to the withdrawal of the paper money. These notes had been issued at a period when the new regime was not firmly established, the insurrection at Satsuma still to be suppressed, and the Government unable to obtain cash, even at a very high rate of interest. In 1881 the premium upon silver, the standard currency, had risen to 70 per cent., thanks to the energy of Count Matsukata, the very able Minister of Finance. It fell to 9 per cent. by 1884; in 1886 par was reached. The paper money of the State and the national banks was gradually withdrawn and replaced by notes of the Bank of Japan, payable at sight. In brief, if we compare the figures of the Debt and the Budget with those of the population, 41,500,000, we can only envy the financial situation of Japan on the eve of the war.

Although the expenses of the Chino-Japanese War, which were partly covered by the indemnity obtained from China and partly by a public loan, undoubtedly checked the progressive prosperity of the country, they had nothing whatever to do with the present financial problem, which has been created by the magnitude of the military, naval, industrial, and commercial enterprises undertaken by the Japanese Government since the close of the war. Between 1895 and 1896 the Government decided to double the strength of the army, by raising the number of divisions from six to twelve (exclusive of the Imperial Guard), and it will now thus muster 150,000, as against 70,000 to 75,000 on a peace footing, and 500,000, instead of from 270,000 to 280,000, in time of war. The fleet is to be increased from 43 vessels of 78,000 tons, plus 26 torpedo-boats, without a single cruiser, to 67 men-of-war, of which 7 are first-class battleships, with a displacement of 258,000 tons, besides 11 torpedo-boat destroyers and 115 torpedo-boats. The creation of numerous arsenals and fortifications will eventually complete the programme, but beyond these War Office expenses, very considerable sums have been spent in the construction of railways, extension of telegraph lines, creation of new ports, subventions to the mercantile marine, and in the establishment of a second University at Kioto. The plan of railway extension which was decided upon in 1893 by the Diet must be completed according to contract in 1910. The other measures for the augmentation of the army and navy were included in the programme of the Ito Cabinet, which the Chambers accepted immediately after the signing of peace. This extra expenditure is to be disbursed in ten instalments from 1896 to 1906, and some further amendments and additions were made during the Parliamentary Session of 1896–97. The expenses entailed by these extensive schemes, together with the railways, are tabulated below:—

Navy and arsenals	£22,650,000
Army	8,220,000
Fortifications	940,000
Other military expenses	680,000
Railway construction	7,980,000
Increase and improvement of lines	2,650,000
Telephones	1,280,000
Construction of ports	790,000
Defence against floods	1,970,000
Subventions to banks	2,060,000
Creation of a tobacco monopoly	820,000
Subventions to various industries, commerce, agriculture, and other public works	1,460,000
Total	£51,500,000

Of this amount £32,495,670 was for War Office expenses, and £19,005,406 was intended for the very extensive commercial enterprises.

In 1893 a loan was voted to be issued as and when required to entirely cover the expense of the new railway lines. The indemnity was £30,000,000, plus £4,100,000 as compensation for the retrocession of the Liao-Tung Peninsula, imposed upon Japan by the Russian, French, and German Governments. This latter sum, as well as the first instalment, £7,500,000, of the indemnity was duly paid into the Japanese Treasury on November 8, 1895; the remainder was to be paid by regular instalments on May 8 of each year until 1902. China, however, availed herself of a clause allowing her to pay off the debt at once, and thus escape interest charges, which she did on May 8, 1898. Japanese statesmen had anticipated this act of the Chinese Government, and did not count upon more than £34,100,000. Of this sum £8,000,000 had been debited to the war account, leaving a balance of £26,100,000. In addition to these amounts, the Treasury held the accumulated surpluses, which, on April 1, 1896, attained £3,900,000, to which £500,000 must be added as the surplus in the Budget of 1896–97. The difference between the total of these receipts and the anticipated expenses was to be balanced by a loan known as ‘the loan for State enterprises.’ The following table exhibits the assets for this programme of expansion:

Chinese indemnity[17]		£26,100,000
Surpluses of previous Budgets		4,400,000
Railway loan,	£7,980,000	21,480,000
Loan for State enterprises,	£13,500,000
Total		£51,980,000

The expenses being £51,500,000, there would thus remain a surplus of nearly £500,000, thanks to the favourable result of the fiscal year 1896–97.

Apart from this financial scheme, however, there was still a war charge which had not been foreseen. It had at first been believed that the island of Formosa would be self-supporting, an illusion which was soon dispelled, and the Government had therefore to grant this new acquisition for a period of years a subvention from the Imperial Treasury of about £600,000, to obtain which various receipts officially described as extraordinary, such as voluntary contributions and restitutions, sales of State lands, and interest on divers funds had to be drawn upon. These receipts generally averaged £200,000, and by the year 1905–6, the time fixed for the conclusion of the expansion programme, will have furnished between £1,500,000 and £1,800,000; for the remainder it will be necessary to have recourse to a loan, and supposing that during this period the subvention of the Japanese Budget to Formosa, which must necessarily diminish year by year, rises to about £4,000,000, another loan of between £2,000,000 and £2,500,000 will have to be raised. Japan would therefore have to borrow about £24,000,000 from 1896–97 to meet the extraordinary expenses she had undertaken. On the other hand, when these were met, her ordinary Budget still remained greatly augmented by the necessity of maintaining an army and navy double what they were before the war.

This being the case, two important questions presented themselves. In the first place, was it possible to raise without difficulty a loan of £24,000,000, and from whence was it to be obtained? In the second, was the country sufficiently rich, once the scheme was executed, to maintain this increased expenditure, and by what means would it be able to obtain fresh resources to pay current expenses? The first question contained the principal difficulty. Not only did Japan need to borrow £24,000,000, but she had to borrow most of this without loss of time. Naturally, the Administration decided to carry out with the least possible delay the essential parts of the programme already determined upon, especially those connected with the national defence, and the Budgets of 1896, 1897, and 1898 were therefore most heavily charged with the extraordinary expenses. The extraordinary Budget of the first year reached £10,300,000, that of the second £14,200,000, that of the third £6,000,000. In no case, however, could the surpluses of the previous Budgets and the part already paid out of the indemnity (which was £20,600,000, of which £8,000,000 had been handed over to the War Office) have sufficed to provide such large amounts. It was therefore necessary to borrow in 1896–97 £1,830,000, in 1897–98 £6,880,000, while in 1898–99 a further issue of £4,500,000 had to be made. Now the grave situation which arose was this: the issues of 1896–97 were readily taken up by the public, but in 1897–98 only a third of the sum needed could be obtained, because the conditions of the market were too unfavourable and disposable capital was lacking. Whereas in the summer of 1897 £4,000,000 of a 5 per cent. Japanese loan was floated on the London market at par, the Government offered the Japanese people bonds bearing the same interest at 94, but they were not placed without much difficulty.

All the capital in Japan is locked up either in previously contracted State loans or in the innumerable commercial enterprises which have sprung up in the country during the past few years. When we remember that nine-tenths of the £40,000,000, at which the National Debt stood after the war, is in Japanese hands, and that it is with their own money that they have constructed railways and established new industries, there is no ground for surprise at this lack of ready capital. In view, however, of the evident impossibility of placing a domestic loan for the sum required, two alternatives remained: a foreign loan, or a reduction to more modest proportion of the programme of expansion.

The result of an appeal to foreign capitalists would no doubt have proved successful if the attractive interest of from 5 to 5¼ per cent. had been offered. Japan offers excellent security. Her finances have hitherto been admirably managed, and her liabilities do not appear to be in excess of the capabilities of her people. Nevertheless, the project of a foreign loan seems to have met with serious opposition from many eminent people in Japan, which arose from a twofold cause: first, fear of compromising the independence of the country by supplying foreigners with a pretext for interfering in the internal affairs of the Empire, in case there was any difficulty in fulfilling obligations; and, secondly, the national pride, which regarded it as humiliating for Japan to become indebted to Europe. This latter motive was doubtless the most powerful, but it rested upon an altogether exaggerated notion of national dignity. What all the great Powers of the world, except, perhaps, France and England, have done, Japan might do without sacrificing her dignity. The Japanese Government, after long hesitation, in which it perhaps missed the most favourable opportunity, decided in June, 1899, to issue a 4 per cent. loan on the London market at the rate of 90 francs. The high rate of issue did not greatly tempt the public, but that part of the loan not then subscribed will be gradually issued and advanced by the banks which undertook the issue, and thus the Japanese Treasury will find itself in possession of sufficient funds to proceed with its programme until money is more plentiful at home. In the meantime, so far as concerns the honourable intentions of the Japanese to fulfil their obligations, we may rely with safety upon their natural high sense of honour, and rest assured that they will do everything in their power to meet their obligations. Moreover, the resources of Japan, which I will briefly analyze, appear sufficient to enable the country to meet without much difficulty the interest on the loans as well as the permanent expenditure resulting from its greater national importance.

Let us, to begin with, review the principal items in the revenue as tabulated in the Budget of 1897–98:

Land tax	£3,870,000
Income tax	190,000
Tax on drinks	2,990,000
Tax on tobacco	310,000
Registration	750,000
Tax on sales, contracts, etc.	590,000
Customs	660,000
Various duties	490,000
Posts and telegraph	1,210,000
Profits of the State railways	540,000
Crown land products	290,000
Other items	250,000
Receipts from Formosa	810,000
Total	£12,950,000

This Budget is higher by one-half than that of 1893–94, the total of which we have already given, and whose ordinary receipts did not quite reach £8,600,000. This increase results from four causes: (1) better returns from the public services—railways and posts; (2) a slight increase in the revenue from taxes whose rate has not changed, and also in the Crown lands; (3) the establishment of two new taxes on registrations and sales, contracts, and other commercial deeds, the aggregate value of which increased the revenue by about £1,200,000; (4) the reorganization of the tax on drink, increased by £1,150,000, and of that on tobacco, in consequence of this product having been converted into a monopoly, the effects, however, of which were not felt in 1897–98, for it only came into force in January, 1898. To these we must add the receipts from Formosa, which, unfortunately, are not net receipts. The total revenue for the fiscal year 1897–98 was £12,950,000, and exceeded ordinary expenses by £600,000; but these figures will undoubtedly be greatly augmented when the programme of expansion is completed. It is calculated that by the year 1904–5 the ordinary expenses will stand as high as £17,300,000, in order to meet which it will be necessary to raise another £4,400,000 by increased taxation.

Taxation in Japan has a natural tendency to increase. During the years 1887–94 the annual rise was between 1¼ and 1½ per cent. at a time, when it was not affected by any unusual excitement. This was before the war. Assuming that it only advances at the rate of ¾ per cent., it is expected that by the year 1904–5 the increase will add £500,000 to the £9,800,000 of 1897–98. On the other hand, the Customs tariff, which was kept exceedingly low by the treaties with foreign Powers, has risen in consequence of the revision of these treaties, and, it is hoped, will produce an increase of £600,000. The tobacco monopoly will also, it is anticipated, produce £800,000 per annum, an absolute increase of £500,000 on the existing returns. There remains, therefore, £2,800,000 to find, which will doubtlessly be obtained from the increased receipts of the posts, telegraph, and telephones, and by the extension of the State railways now in existence, and the exploitation of those in process of construction.

The recent excessive activity in commercial circles has suffered a check of late, a halt not very surprising after such a forced march. In the meantime, there is some risk that the returns of the posts and railways may not increase as rapidly as the more sanguine anticipate, for the new railways are not likely to prove as profitable as those already in existence, which pass through richer regions. During the interval 1892–96 the net railway returns to the State, without including any remarkable increase in the lengths of their lines, was doubled. By the year 1904 it is calculated that there will be 1,250 miles of rail instead of the 600 in 1897, which it is estimated will yield an increase of £550,000 upon the present returns. As to the posts, telegraph, and telephones, whose rough receipts were augmented by about 80 per cent. during the last four years, there is every reason to believe that they will in 1904–5 be £850,000 above what they are at present. Thus we have £1,400,000 added to the necessary £2,800,000. The remaining £1,400,000 will have to be taken from various other sources of taxation. The question now arises: Will the country stand further taxation without protest? The answer seems to me reassuring. The land tax before the Restoration and even to the close of the seventeenth century, as can be verified by reference to many important historical documents, was seven times more burdensome than it is at present, and was paid in kind—in rice, or other kindred products—and yielded to the daimios and the Central Government 147,000,000 bushels of rice per annum. At the price fetched by rice in 1897, when the harvest returned a fair average, the land tax should now represent about a sixth of this amount, and the total Budget of £17,300,000 anticipated for the year 1894–95 only claimed 93,100,000 bushels. If we add to these all the provincial and communal Budgets, we find not more than 127,400,000 bushels of rice. It is therefore untrue that the Japanese are not better off to-day than they were under the old regime. Since the introduction of the present financial conditions and the abolition of the feudal system, prices have increased enormously. From 1887 to 1897, according to the Monthly Returns published by the Bank of Japan, on the returns of about forty principal products of the Empire, we find that they have increased in value by no less than 73 per cent. Salaries have augmented even to a greater extent, and the population has risen 4,000,000, so that an addition of 45 per cent. upon the taxes leaves the taxpayer less heavily burdened than before. The most important of all these taxes may strike us as distinctly heavy, but we must not forget that in former times it was the only form of taxation. In those good old days nine-tenths of the population lived in the country, which was divided up among the daimios, the peasantry being their tenants; but at the abolition of the feudal system the peasants, under the new law, became proprietors, without having to pay a fraction either to their former masters or to the Government.

In 1896 the agricultural produce of Japan was valued at £62,600,000, exclusive of the produce of the fens, which, however, is very important. The land taxes, therefore, at £3,800,000 are only 5·6 per cent., and the local land tax 2·8 per cent. of this total. All this is not excessive.

Finally, the land tax includes £352,500 derived from the tax on urban building land, which pays £1 12s. per acre, only four times as much as the rice-fields, and should easily return from £200,000 to £300,000 more. As regards the total of the land tax, it was decreased by one-sixth in 1877; an equivalent increase would bring in a return of about £600,000 more, and this could be effected without much inconvenience, owing to the general increase in the value of property. The tax on sakÉ, the principal drink of the country, was raised in 1897 about one-half. It would bear augmentation, as at present it pays 5d. per gallon on a drink which is worth 1s. 3d. a gallon. In general, the Japanese financiers prefer to raise existing taxes rather than establish new ones. If we study the question from another point of view, and examine how best to increase Japanese taxes, let us consider the Budget as it will be five years hence, after the necessary taxes already mentioned have been added to it. Of the £17,300,000 of the Revenue, £3,400,000 will be derived from Crown lands, railways, and posts, £850,000 from Formosa, and £13,000,000 from monopolies and taxes paid by Japan proper. The population, increasing as it does at the rate of 350,000 to 400,000 souls a year, will have reached 45,500,000, contributing to the State at the rate of £13,000,000, or about 5s. 9d. per head, which does not seem to us excessive when compared with what is paid by people of other countries. A Frenchman, for instance, pays £3, an Italian £1 12s., a Russian 12s. 9d., an Egyptian 16s. 9d., and a Hindu 3s. 9d. I have not selected these nationalities haphazard, but because each of them has some special characteristic in common with Japan, especially Egypt, essentially an agricultural country. I do not think that anybody can maintain that an Italian, as a rule, is five or six times richer than a Japanese, or an Egyptian three times, or that the 130,000,000 of Russians, 20,000,000 of whom are Asiatics, possess incomes double the average to be found in Japan, and there is no doubt an immense inverse difference between a Hindu and a Japanese. Bearing in mind these facts, one must certainly conclude that the amount which the Jap will pay to his Treasury is considerably lighter than that obtained from almost every people in the Old World. With regard to the National Debt, five-sixths of which is held by natives, at the present moment it does not exceed £40,000,000, but it will reach its maximum in 1901, when it will stand at £49,930,000. The annual repayment stands at present at £720,000, but will increase to £1,000,000 in 1903, and go on augmenting, so that by 1938, unless fresh obligations are incurred beyond those already in view, Japan will be free of debt.

The financial difficulties confronting Japan at the present moment are therefore not so formidable as they appear. In 1899 the Chamber increased the land tax, which it had previously very persistently refused to do. At the same time it raised the tax on sakÉ and on the posts. The Budget of ordinary receipts was therefore advanced to £19,000,000. This figure may appear excessive, but it shows a surplus of £4,000,000 on the actual expenses, a fact which indicates the intention of the Government to pay off as soon as possible the extraordinary expenses of the Ito programme, which means that these increased taxations are to be considered merely as temporary. They may possibly impede commerce at first, a thing which, unfortunately, cannot be helped, but, at any rate, the future will be considerably benefited thereby. The finances of Japan have, happily, always been managed in a highly satisfactory and prudent manner, and if the Empire carries out the present plan of expansion, and does not embark on any fresh schemes involving further outlay, Japan seems to have found a clear way out of the transient difficulties which at one time weighed upon her finances.

Present social organization—The nobles, or kwazoku; the shizoku, or ancient samurai; and the heimin—Equal civil rights for all citizens—Preponderance of the samurai in politics since the Restoration—Survival of the clan spirit—Japan governed during the past thirty years by the Choshiu and Satsuma clans—Creation in 1889 of a Constitution modelled on that of Prussia—Parliamentary struggles against Cabinets governed by Southern clans—Frequent crises and dissolutions—A Ministerial crisis in Japan—Efforts of the Chamber to impose Ministerial responsibility and to replace the Government of clans by that of parties—Signs of improvement in the working of the representative system—Its prospects in Japan.

We have now to study the least praiseworthy of the many institutions borrowed from Europe by modern Japan, that relating to the home politics of the country, which are very unsettled. Since 1889, when the Mikado, in fulfilment of the promise made to his people at the Restoration, first granted a Constitution analogous to that of Prussia, the Chambers have been dissolved not less than five times. A constant antagonism has existed between the representatives of the people and the various Cabinets which have succeeded each other; and if we except the time of the Chinese War, when the patriotism of the Japanese was so intense as to absorb even party feeling, we shall find that no Cabinet has been able to dispose of an important majority. In order to understand this state of affairs, we must recall the manner in which the Restoration took place, bearing in mind the actual social organization of Japan, and also the fact that the clan instinct has survived both class prejudice and feudal privileges, which were suppressed without the least opposition or regret.

Twenty-five years have now elapsed since the abolition of the old regime, and in the meantime the feudal system has been replaced, primarily by a centralized and absolute monarchy, and now by Parliamentary representation modelled on the European plan. The eighty odd historical provinces have become forty-five departments, each administered by a Prefect. The people are, however, still divided into three distinct classes: the aristocracy, or kwazoku, formed of a fusion of the ancient daimios with the kuges, or Court nobles, and of the shinkwazoku, or newly ennobled persons (in all 644 families, consisting of about 4,162 persons); the shizoku, or ancient samurai (numbering 432,458 families, or 2,049,144 persons); and finally the heimin, or commoners; but apart from the predominance of the nobility in the composition of the Chamber of Peers^[18] no privileges have been granted either to them or to the shizoku: their duties are exactly the same as those of any other members. From the social point of view we shall, however, very soon find that far less exclusiveness exists in this country, where feudalism was in full force only so recently as thirty years ago, than we should in many in Europe, where its abolition dates back in some instances several centuries. A Japanese gentleman recently said to me: ‘In Japan we never dream of asking a person the first time we see him to what class he belongs.’ I dare say some time-honoured privileges still linger in their inner circle, and that a few old-fashioned noblemen do consider themselves superior to the heimin, but they take great care not to display any such feeling. One meets members of the Japanese aristocracy in every public resort and place of amusement, and they mingle without the least hesitation with the rest of the public. I remember one day at Tokio being present at a wrestling match, a very favourite sport with the Japanese. Someone pointed out to me Prince K?, the President of the House of Peers, seated among the crowd on one of the steps of the ring. The Marquis H?, the descendent of a great family of daimios, was also present, as well as the Marquis Tokukawa, who is an ardent admirer of the sport and belongs to the family of the Shoguns, to have merely looked upon a member of which a generation or so back would have cost a man of the people his life. These gentlemen appeared to thoroughly enjoy the entertainment, and evidently thought very little or nothing at all of their former exclusiveness.

Although the highest positions in the Government are open to all, they have hitherto always remained in the hands of the samurai. Just as immediately after the Restoration, so to-day the country is governed by members of this very numerous and intelligent gentry. All the successive Ministers, the majority of whom have been ennobled, even made kwazoku, have sprung from its ranks. The same may be said of all the high officials, and, with very few exceptions, of the majority of the smaller employÉs of the Government, even down to the very police agents and the vast majority of the military and naval officers. This is not surprising when we remember that the samurai constituted before the Restoration not only the military, but also the student and literary class. Even now the greater number of the students at the University are recruited from among them, and as a proof that a sort of special respect is still entertained for them, they form the majority of the members of the Lower House, although they only possess one-twentieth of the voting power of the country. The mass of the Japanese people may be described as caring very little about public affairs; and it is, after all, perhaps as well that the political and administrative affairs of such a new country should be in the hands of a distinct and cultured class. This is, however, merely a transitory state of affairs, not a privilege. It is already observed that the proportion of the heimin in all public offices, even in the army, tends to increase rapidly.

The only marked feature of the former regime which still survives the many social changes that have recently taken place in Japan is the clan spirit, which is as strong to-day as ever. The bond which united the followers of a former feudal prince among themselves still subsists, although the prince himself may have fallen almost to the level of his clansmen. The men who have up to the present governed modern Japan have always belonged to southern clans, especially to those of Choshiu and Satsuma; the two others, Hizen and Tosa, are less united, and although certain important political personages are of their number, they have had to fight their way to the front rather by dint of hard work than through any clan influence. The influential combination formed by the first-named clans, and unitedly known as the Sat-Cho, holds in its hands the reins of administration, rules the army, and makes its influence felt even more strongly in the navy. Their politics, however, are not quite identical. Those of the Satsuma, for instance, are usually believed to be rather more conservative and authoritative than otherwise, and it is from its ranks that are recruited the majority of the military party. The men of the Choshiu, on the other hand, are more progressive and more subtle, but they are also accused of being too fond of money. The chiefs of these clans appear to understand each other sufficiently well to establish a sort of balance of power between themselves, occasionally collaborating in a Cabinet, at other times succeeding each other as distinct Ministries. In the rank and file there is considerable rivalry, positions and honours being more liberally distributed among the followers of those in power. During the earlier part of my visit to Japan, under the last Premier, Count Matsukata, the Satsuma clan was in the ascendant, and to give some idea of its influence all I need say is that the Minister of Finance, the President of the Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Home Minister, and the Minister of War and Marine—in short, the five most important Ministers out of eight—were of their number, and a sixth was a prominent member of the Choshiu, their allied clan. Now the provinces of Yamaguchi and Kagoshima, which are the home of these two clans, contain only one out of the forty-two million inhabitants of the entire Empire. It is therefore not surprising that people in other parts of the country should complain of having so small a share in the Government. Imagine France ruled exclusively for thirty years by ProvenÇaux! It would only be natural that such a state of affairs should lead to great dissatisfaction throughout the Republic.

So long as Japan remained an absolute monarchy, in which the Legislature was concentrated within a narrow circle, the Choshiu and Satsuma Ministries succeeded each other without any noisy opposition; but when in 1890 Parliamentary Government was established, an immediate collision occurred between the Lower Chamber, which is composed of representatives from all parts of the country,^[19] and the Cabinet, dominated by the Sat-Cho combination. Although according to the Constitution, analogous to that of Prussia, the Ministers are not responsible to the Chambers, but to the Emperor alone, and although the Budget of the current year, if the finance bill is not voted in due time, becomes by law that of the following year also, the irreconcilable opposition which manifested itself from the beginning greatly embarrassed the first Matsukata Ministry in 1891 and 1892, and the Ito Ministry which succeeded it. This latter, whose plans for the extension of the Navy were obstinately rejected by the Chamber, twice dissolved it: in December, 1893, and again in May, 1894. After the war patriotic feeling ran so high that people cared very little about the Government and its measures, and projected laws were adopted without the least opposition; but when affairs began to settle down it was otherwise. In 1897 and 1898 there were two dissolutions, and in the latter year the Ministry in power was the ninth since December, 1885, and the seventh since the establishment of the Parliamentary system. This gives an average of about two years for each Cabinet, and even less for the Chamber, of which not one has yet attained its legal term.

The reason for this persistent conflict is due in the first place to the popular assembly being hostile to the Government of the clansmen, and in the second because it is displeased that the Ministers are not responsible to it. Whilst professing the greatest respect for the Emperor, the Chamber considers that the Government should possess a Parliamentary majority in order to retain power. It, moreover, complains of a certain lack of respect, Ministers rarely troubling to appear before it, and that it is seldom, if ever, addressed by any but high functionaries, appointed Government Commissioners for matters within their several departments. In a word, there exists considerable friction in the popular assembly against this state of affairs, which reduces it to the position of a mere debating society.

Now, all successive Cabinets have resolutely refused to consider the Lower Chamber in any other light, which gave rise to some curious incidents during the Ministerial and Parliamentary crisis of December, 1897, and January, 1898, which I had the good fortune to witness. The Cabinet, persuaded that the majority was hostile to it, determined to avoid even the semblance of dependence upon the Chamber, and therefore did not wait for the passing of a vote of censure, but dissolved the Chamber and offered their own resignation to the Emperor, to whom alone they considered themselves responsible.

Consequently, on December 24th the Emperor, according to custom, came in person to read the Speech from the Throne to the two united Chambers, who forthwith voted the usual answer. These two documents were very short, and the second, containing merely protestations of respect and loyalty, was unanimously adopted. On the morrow, scarcely had the order of the day been read and certain financial projects of the Government presented, than the doyen of the Chamber, Mr. Suzuki, asked leave to speak, and proposed the amendment, so as to enable the House to discuss a vote of censure. This amendment, which did not come as a surprise, being unanimously passed, the same gentleman returned immediately to the tribune and read out the following resolution, ‘That the Chamber of Deputies declares it has no confidence in the present Ministry,’ whereupon somebody presented a folded paper to the President, who silenced the speaker by announcing that he had just received an Imperial rescript, the tenor of which he informed the Chamber was as follows: ‘In virtue of Article 3 of the Imperial Constitution, We hereby ordain that the Chamber of Deputies be dissolved forthwith.’ The House rose, having met for only seven minutes, and simultaneously the Upper House was prorogued. Two days later, on the 27th, the Emperor received the resignation of Count Matsukata and his colleagues. On the evening of the same day the Marquis Ito, who had already twice been Premier, in 1886–88 and in 1892–96, and who is certainly the best known living Japanese statesman, was summoned to the palace. At first he hesitated about accepting the leadership of the Government under such very difficult circumstances, especially with respect to foreign affairs, Japan being at that time at the acute stage of her Chinese question, while home matters were embarrassed by several economical and financial obstructions of a very serious character, but nevertheless, the Marquis finally accepted. After ten days’ fruitless negotiations, he was obliged to give up his difficult task; but he was able, however, by the 12th of January to compose another Cabinet containing some excellent names, but it was a clan Ministry, including four Choshius and two Satsumas. In June he was obliged to dissolve Parliament, and the Ito Cabinet had to give way to another, formed under the Presidency of Count Okuma, a statesman of very progressive views, which may be described as the only genuine Parliamentary Cabinet Japan has yet known. The new Cabinet was not composed from a single party, but by a coalition of the two already existing, and leagued against the clans. It lasted but a short time, and towards the end of 1898 the Satsuma and Choshiu parties returned to office under the Premiership of Marshal Yamagata.

As in the case of the clans, the parties are formed of groups of persons and interests. They have no defined programmes, but are constantly changing their views, and are mere cliques surrounding one or two influential politicians who aspire to replace the clan in office merely for the sake of the advantages to be obtained, and to be able to distribute posts among their relatives and friends. In the Parliament which was dissolved in 1897 by Count Matsukata the most important of these groups was that of the ‘Progressives,’ including some 90 to 95 members out of 300; then came the ‘Liberals,’ with about 80 adherents; then the ‘National Unionists,’ 25 to 30; and, lastly, some twenty other subdivisions, besides the ‘Independents.’ The Progressives are more consistent, possibly because they have only been in existence since 1896. The Liberals, although the oldest group, have almost completely lost their influence and cohesion during the last two or three years.

If you question a Japanese about the programmes of these different parties he will give very vague answers, and, for the matter of that, they are hardly distinguishable one from another. The demands presented by the Progressives to Count Matsukata in the autumn of 1897 were formulated in the vaguest terms, and confined to generalities, such as reforms in the administration, a magnanimous system of government, etc. The National Unionists are somewhat conservative in their tendencies, but their programme is also extremely nebulous. On one point, however, everybody seems agreed, and that is a horror of any attempt to increase taxation, and not even the most seductive of projects will induce the Chamber to budge an inch in this direction—an economical consistency which is a distinct virtue considering the youth and inexperience of the Japanese House of Representatives.

The influential politicians do not form a part of the Chamber, nearly all of them having been ennobled, and, what is more, with one exception, they are not avowed chiefs of any party. If Count Itagaki, an old Radical, is the official leader of the Liberals, Count Okuma, by far the most original statesman in the Empire, does not profess to be the leader of the Progressives, although he is extremely intimate with them. Neither does Marshal Yamagata openly declare his influence over the National Unionists. This action on the part of those who in any other country would be popularly known as leaders of the various parties undoubtedly weakens the influence of the several groups in the Japanese Parliament. As to the representatives of the two clans in power in the House, needless to say, the feeling of clanship carries all before it, even party interests. Three Satsuma deputies who belong to the Progressives immediately withdrew when this party in a preliminary meeting declared opposition to the Matsukata Ministry.

The men of the Southern clans have now governed Japan for over thirty years, and governed her well. The able and energetic statesmen of the first days of the Restoration have been succeeded by others of equal ability, and of the same school. They are surrounded, however, by a bureaucracy which existed in Japan even in the days of the last Shoguns, and closely resembles that of Prussia, which, although arrogant, is highly educated and progressive. They are supported by a powerful and well-disciplined army, a navy whose officers are for the most part members of the same clans as the Ministers, and the heads of the Civil Service. These men have led their country happily through a series of unexampled changes, transforming her from a feudal to a modern State administered on advanced principles. They have placed her in an excellent financial position, they have covered her with military glory, and have assured her a period of extraordinary prosperity and economic development. These observations force themselves upon the impartial spectator who visits Japan with the object of studying the remarkable progress she has made in so surprisingly short a time.

It is impossible not to feel some anxiety lest affairs should be wrenched from the hands of such experienced statesmen as those of the Satsuma and the Choshiu clans, only to be scrambled for among the groups into which the Chamber is at present divided. This, however, need not make us despair of the success of Parliamentary Government in Japan. We must not forget that the British Parliament was not shaped in a day, and that in all countries in which this particular form of government has been accepted many years have had to elapse before it attained anything approaching perfection, and it is but natural that Japan should go through the same experience. To be just, however, considerable progress has lately been made in the right direction. The parties which possess any kind of adhesion have occasionally participated more or less directly in the Government. Marquis Ito brought Count Itagaki into the Cabinet of 1895, and at the end of his Ministry was himself supported in the Chamber by the Liberals. Then, again, in 1896 Count Matsukata came into power in company with Count Okuma, favoured by the Progressives. Throughout the whole of the Session of 1896–97, thanks to their support and to that of the secondary groups, the Government possessed a decided majority which did honour to the political acumen of the Ministers and to the wisdom of the members. Unfortunately, in the autumn of 1897 the Progressives grew tired of a Cabinet which did not fulfil its promises, and withdrew, carrying with them Count Okuma; but this attempt showed on the one hand that the Government had recognised the importance of an understanding with a party, and on the other that such an understanding possessed some staying power. Since the month of October, 1898, the Yamagata Ministry has had to deal with a very reasonable Parliament, which has unhesitatingly passed those laws which were required to extricate the country from its financial difficulties, and also divers measures necessitated by recently concluded treaties with European Powers. All this seems to indicate that under certain grave circumstances the Japanese Parliament is quite capable of rising to the occasion, and possesses the great quality, as I have said once before, of a spirit of economy often, unfortunately, absent from the more experienced Parliaments of Europe. If the Japanese Parliament ever returns to its old turbulent and boisterous humours, and insists upon governing instead of controlling, and if its irreconcilable Opposition incurs the risk of compromising the interests of the country, it is not at all improbable that the Constitution may be seriously embarrassed by a series of crises, but at present there is not much chance of exceptional measures creating any serious trouble. If the voters of Japan are apt to display an over-exuberance at elections, this is due in the main to the fact that they are new to their business, and moreover they form but a very small proportion of the population. The masses are absolutely indifferent to political agitation. The newspapers, which are read in the towns, make but slight reference to politics, and are mainly filled with gossip, novels and anecdotes, while to the vast majority of the people the Emperor is still a demi-god, and the last thing the commercial classes would approve would be a series of riotous scenes in the Chamber.

The military forces of Japan—The part they may play in the Far East—Japanese army and navy—Excellent qualities and sound instruction of the troops—Remarkable power of organization displayed during the war with China—Importance of a Japanese alliance for the Powers interested in China—The feeling of Japan towards foreign countries—Her conservative policy in China since the war—Her policy hostile to Russia and favourable to England—The Korean Question—Motives which might lessen her feeling of hostility towards Russia—Japan the champion of the integrity of the Celestial Empire.

The Japanese Parliament having voted the necessary funds for carrying out the programme of military, naval and economic expansion which was formulated by the Government after the Chino-Japanese War, the Empire will have, as we have already seen, without mentioning new railways and other public works, an army of 150,000 men on a peace footing, instead of from 70,000 to 75,000, and will be able to send into the field 500,000 men instead of from 270,000 to 280,000 men. Her fleet will be increased to 67 men-of-war, of 258,000 tons, 11 torpedo-boat destroyers, and 115 torpedo-boats, instead of the 33 vessels of 63,000 tonnage and 26 torpedo-boats she had before the war with China.

It is not expected that the completion of this programme of defence will take place before 1905 as regards the navy, and 1903 with respect to the army. As the matter stands, however, more than half the work is finished. Of the £21,300,000 voted to defray the expenses of the augmentation of the navy, which includes arsenals, docks, etc., it was stipulated that £13,300,000 was to be disbursed before April 1st, 1899, and £3,400,000 more between that date and April 1st, 1900. The lengthy opposition made by the Parliament with regard to the raising of taxes and foreign loans possibly may have retarded the works a little, especially those which have been executed in Japan; but the foreign orders have been fulfilled, and the Mikado’s navy is now in possession of nearly all the new vessels contracted for. The completion of at least three out of the five arsenals is also far advanced. The same may be said of the army. Of the £7,900,000 demanded for its increase, £4,200,000 was spent before April, 1896, and £1,000,000 between that date and April, 1900. It may be well to remind my readers that when everything is completed the army will consist of twelve divisions instead of six, exclusive of the Imperial Guard. Three of these new divisions were completed when I was in Japan in 1898.

What constitutes the great importance of the Japanese factor in the Far East, and consequently throughout the world—the question of the Far East dominating all others—is that her military and maritime forces are on the spot. The Japanese navy would be respectable under any circumstances, for it is equal to that of either Italy or Germany; but it should be remembered that the Western nations cannot leave their coasts and their colonies unprotected, and consequently can only send a secondary portion of their maritime force, otherwise scattered throughout the world, into Chinese waters. It follows therefore that no other European Power, excepting perhaps England, could bring into these waters in case of war a fleet in any way comparable with that of the Mikado.^[20]

What has been said of the naval power may be repeated with still greater emphasis of the military. It is needless to recall the difficulties to be overcome in transporting, notwithstanding the immense size of vessels now in use, even a single army corps to the Far East, the long and minute preparations necessary for such an enterprise, or the perils that are likely to be encountered, unless the sending Power is absolute mistress of the sea. Japan, thanks to her railways and Inland Sea, can now in a few days concentrate her whole army where no hostile vessel dare pursue it, in the island of Kiu-Siu, 125 miles from the coast of Korea, barely 500 miles from the mouth of the Yang-tsze-Kiang, a distance equalling that between Marseilles and Algiers, and 625 miles from the Bay of Pe-chi-li, and 940 miles from the entrance to the Pei-ho, the river which flows to Peking. It could, therefore, in a few days after the declaration of war land in China and especially in Korea such a force as no European Power, excepting Russia, once the Trans-Siberian line is finished, could introduce in so short a time.^[21] Since her fleet can easily protect her own territory, she need keep only a part of her reserves at home.

We have already seen that in the struggle with China, Japan, with her naval and military forces, easily overcame that rather contemptible enemy. It was evident that in this campaign the Japanese displayed remarkable organizing ability, and that the whole working of the delicate machinery of transports, ambulances, commissariat, etc., was admirably managed. This is a great point in their favour, especially when we remember that a similar compliment could not be paid to many a European expedition sent out against enemies less redoubtable than the Chinese. Even the English, after observing the manoeuvres of the Japanese squadron during the Chino-Japanese War, did not hesitate to praise their excellence; and the military attaches who followed the Korean and Manchurian campaign expressed themselves equally impressed by the Japanese army.

The courage of the Japanese cannot be questioned. They have proved it in their long and bloody feudal wars, and, again, only twenty years ago, during the insurrection in Satsuma. Their patriotism is equally sincere, for they are the only Orientals among whom this sentiment exists, and with them it easily rises to fanaticism. The endurance of their troops is extraordinary. The subjects of the Mikado are unquestionably the best pedestrians in the world; and it needs no strain on the imagination to realize what must be the excellence of the infantry of a country whose peasantry use no cattle to draw their waggons, and who pass their winter months in making pilgrimages to distant sanctuaries in their own and in neighbouring provinces.

In Japan two men think nothing of dragging a jinrikisha sixty miles in twelve hours, taking only two for rest, and recommencing their journey the next day quite fresh. A Japanese battalion has been known to march twenty-five to thirty miles in a day, knapsack on back, without leaving any stragglers behind. The instruction of the soldiers—cavalry, perhaps, excepted—is excellent, and they learn very quickly. I have watched the manoeuvres of some recruits who had only been six weeks in the regiment, and, although they had never in their lives been in European dress before, they wore their uniforms much more easily than many of our young soldiers. The Japanese are, moreover, excellent shots.

The raw material of the Japanese army is, therefore, exceedingly good. It is provided with first-class guns and cannon, and as the navy is composed of vessels built by the best builders in Europe and America, according to the latest models, it goes without saying that the artillery is worthy of the vessels which convey it. The staff may possibly not attain the same high standard as the rank and file, but this is difficult to pronounce upon, the data not being sufficient to assist us in forming a correct opinion. It seems, however, that it has been accused of lacking decision, and also of being too much under the influence of academic and technical theories, not paying sufficient attention to the exigencies of modern warfare.

Be this as it may, it is very probable that in the case of Japan going to war as the ally of a European Power, these defects would be much modified if they listened to the advice of their friends. In addition to the above, we must not forget to add that Japan is the only country of the Far East which works important coal-mines, and that two of the principal of these are situated in the island of Kiu-Siu, quite close to that part of the coast nearest Korea and China, and that she is, moreover, at the present day mistress of the Pescadors, a strategical point which Courbet valued very highly, situated in the middle of the China Sea. It will thus be easy to estimate of what value the co-operation of this nation would be to those Powers who are interested in the Middle Kingdom.

It is, therefore, necessary to know something of the feeling entertained by Japan towards the Sick Man of Peking, as well as towards the various doctors assembled round his bed, thinking less of the patient’s recovery than of the eventual division of his legacy. So far as China is concerned, Japan is undoubtedly favourably disposed towards her, and since the war she has had no warmer, and, it may be added, no sincerer friend than her late enemy. If Japan had been allowed a free hand, she would undoubtedly have reorganized China to her own profit, but possibly Europe, in preventing this, displayed considerable acumen, for her so doing might in the long-run have proved dangerous. Next to being able to reform China herself, Japan would like her to undertake her own reformation, and place herself in a position to maintain her autonomy, so as not to fall a prey to the European Powers.

The Ministers of the Mikado are very naturally somewhat alarmed at the thought that their country may soon be the only one in the whole world inhabited by a non-European race that maintains its independence, and they cannot forbear asking themselves how long this independence may be allowed to last, all the more so since Japan is in immediate contact with, numerically speaking, the most powerful State in the world, the colossal Russian Empire, which borders upon China. Might not Japan under these circumstances be constantly menaced by so formidable a neighbour? Doubtless she would be able to resist an invasion, but at a terrific sacrifice—for to conquer Japan it would be necessary to exterminate many millions of Japanese. In any case Japan’s foreign influence would be at an end, especially in Korea, which she has several times conquered, and upon which she still cherishes pretensions that date over 2,000 years. Even from the purely economic side she would suffer greatly; for her principal commercial outlet, China, might be closed to her for good.

These are the principal reasons which oblige the Japanese to remain the devoted friends of the Chinese Empire, and at the same time the adversaries of Russia, who, they believe, wishes to absorb China, and thereby dominate, if not the whole, at least the north, of the Asiatic Continent, and which compel them to throw in their lot with England. This latter Power does not aim at the political annexation of China; she only wishes to obtain additional facilities for her commerce and concessions for public works, and has therefore no intention whatever of surrounding the Celestial Empire by a formidable ring of Custom-houses. Undoubtedly Japan has had good reason to seek an alliance with England, and we need not be surprised at her distrust of Russia, which, having deprived her of the fruits of her continental conquests in 1895, three years later annexed them herself. As to England, her interest in obtaining the co-operation of Japan is so self-evident as only to need a passing allusion. Through her friendship with Japan she could obtain what she wants, not only in the Far East, but elsewhere, a large and well-organized army that, owing to an unquestionable supremacy on the sea, the result of the combination of two formidable fleets, could be easily and safely transported to the neighbouring continent.

May there not, however, be certain other reasons which might eventually induce not so much Great Britain to break off her Japanese alliance as Japan to sever her side of the compact and ultimately extend her hand to Russia? There is ground for the belief that such a proposition does exist, since there are Russophiles at Tokio and Japanophiles at St. Petersburg. Is it not, moreover, rather imprudent to oppose the progress the Tsar’s Empire is making on the continent? It is, after all, an irresistible force resulting from the very nature of things, and therefore it were perchance wiser to be rather with Russia than against her. Then, again, it should be remembered that Russia displayed her goodwill towards Japan by leaving her a free hand in Korea, not, however, until after she had seized Port Arthur. True, the situation created in Korea by the compact of April, 1898, was precarious; and possibly, when once her position in the Far East is consolidated by the completion of the Trans-Siberian line, the Tsar’s Government may rescind the concession which it has signed and occupy the peninsula. But even if we admit that this contingency is a possible one—and it is by no means absolutely certain that Russia does entertain any such project—Japan may still hope for compensation elsewhere in the centre or south of China round the province of Fu-kien, where she has already made her influence felt, as also at Borneo. Russia might also give certain tariff guarantees, and might it not be to her interest, less urgently, perhaps, than in the case of England, to secure the co-operation of Japan in case of conflict? And, finally, is Great Britain a very safe ally? May she not be simply using Japan for her own ends, thrusting her forward only perhaps to abandon her when she is committed? Will she lend assistance to a commercial rival?

These are arguments which are not without their influence at Tokio, where the difficulty of opposing a solid and durable barrier against the encroachments of Russia on the continent is fully appreciated, and where there certainly exists a feeling of distrust, not only of the English, but of all other Europeans. Political and military interference in continental affairs has never resulted otherwise than in weakening an insular power, and much as the subjects of the Mikado may desire Korea, it should not be forgotten that, however great Japan’s interests may be in that direction, she may easily renounce her pretensions on terra firma if she were offered some material and tangible compensation elsewhere. It has been said that Japan had cast a longing eye on the Philippines, and certain signs led many to think that at one time she had played with the rebels in those islands much the same part enacted by the United States in Cuba; but now America has seized upon these islands, and has also annexed Hawaii, another spot coveted by Japan. Unfortunately, Japan has come too late into the world to possess colonies, and must therefore content herself with the solitary Formosa, which, however, is a possession by no means to be despised.

Still, even now, Japan does not lose all hope of eventually obtaining a footing upon the continent; but, providing that others do not handle China too roughly, she has no intention of interfering with her neighbour, certainly not to menace her integrity. She wishes only to consolidate her by augmenting at the same time her own influence, and would not intervene even if she thought the Celestial Empire were in danger. From the point of view of international politics, Japan is certainly a conservative element; but in the day of struggle, should it ever occur, she is destined to weigh very heavily in the scale, not only in the solution of the question of the Far East, but also in the problem which rises behind it—that of supremacy in the Pacific, which will one day be fought out, not between the Whale and the Elephant, but between the Elephants of the Old and the New Worlds—that is to say, between Russia and the United States. But whatever may be the events which will eventually transpire, Japan apparently does not wish to precipitate a struggle, provided only that the maintenance of the status quo is not threatened by others.

Questions which are raised by the recent evolution in Japan—Can the Japanese assimilate the civilization of peoples of a different race?—Precedents and analogies—Up to what point does Japan wish to resemble Europe?—Character and degree of the changes which have taken place in Japan from the social, political, and economical point of view—Adaptation of Western institutions in Japan—Feeling of the Japanese towards foreigners—The revision of treaties with foreign Powers—The absolute necessity for Japan to enter into intimate relationship with the rest of the world if she wishes to retain her newly-acquired civilization.

To one who has studied Japan on the spot, a very serious question presents itself for solution, one of vast importance, not only to the inhabitants of that island Empire, but to the entire human family, i.e., Will the evolution which this country has undergone prove permanent and not likely to collapse at a given moment, bringing with it the ruin of the State? In a word, the question is, whether it be possible for a people so suddenly to assimilate the old-established and elaborate civilization of another race. Let us, to begin with, remember that the Japanese have already afforded precedents proving that they possess powers of assimilation in a rare degree. From the third to the sixth century of our era they introduced Chinese civilization into their dominions, and from the ethnographic point of view, whether the Japanese belong to the Mongol or to the Malay family, they are not so far removed from the Chinese as the whites; nevertheless they are quite as distinct from them as are the Aryans from the Semites, and as the French or the Germans from the Arabs. The example of Russia is perhaps less marked, because more intimate affinities unite the Slavs to the Western races, and yet the Russians are the least Slav of any of the Slavs, being in reality for the most part Finns who have submitted to Slav influences. The Finns are related to the Mongols, and Muscovy, moreover, was under the Tatar yoke for three centuries, a dominion which has left a very profound impression on the race. Peter the Great’s enterprise was therefore not an easy one. The principal objection, however, which can be brought against the example of Russia is that her evolution was never completed, and did not influence the lower strata of society sufficiently for it to become completely Europeanized. Hungary offers a better field of investigation in this direction, for the peoples who originally invaded her were distinctly Oriental, but now this country has become absolutely European, the result probably of an intimate connection between its inhabitants and their neighbours. But beyond these facts, there is one point which we should not overlook. Our own civilization is not the monopoly of one race, but was constructed by the concurrence of many people. It results directly from Roman and Greek civilization, and through these from Phoenician and Egyptian. The Egyptians, needless to say, were a branch of the Hamites, the most degraded white race of our time; the Phoenicians, on the other hand, were Semites, and it was another Semitic race, the Arab, that during the Middle Ages held the light of civilization, and transmitted to us the inheritance of antiquity, after having widely extended its scientific uses. The whole history of our civilization, therefore, protests against its having ever been at any time monopolized by the Aryan branch of the white race.

Modern ethnography, based upon recent linguistic and anthropological discoveries, has shaken to its foundations those notions concerning the white races which were universally accepted in bygone times. We no longer hold that it was from the high plateau of Asia that swept those tribes who eventually peopled Europe, but that they radiated from the centre of Europe herself. Far from forming the majority of the inhabitants of the Continent, the Aryans, if that term still preserves its meaning, are but one of its elements. They have mingled everywhere in variable quantities among the different hordes of Finnish and other races who have overrun our continent. The varied formation of the skulls which has been observed among the different inhabitants of a single country corresponds with the predominance of one or other of these original elements, with the result that the unity of race which has hitherto been imagined to exist among all Western peoples is now proved to be chimerical.

Whatever truth these theories may contain, they are nevertheless subject to frequent modification, but it seems impossible with the present facts to sustain À priori that one race cannot assimilate the civilization of another. No doubt the Japanese differ more completely from the Europeans of the West than do the Russians, or even the Arabs, or than they themselves do from the Chinese; but once the unity of the human race is admitted, this becomes a mere question of degree of parentage. Must we, therefore, draw a line of degree between peoples beyond which the transmission of the civilization of the one cannot penetrate to the other, even as the French law fixes a limit to the transmission of inheritance? Nothing short of experience can solve the question. For the matter of that, the phenomenon is constantly taking place before our eyes, and if there be a people who might attempt it with hope of success, it is surely the Japanese, who to exceptional intelligence and remarkable powers of assimilation add a great spirit of enterprise and an uncommon energy.

Japan cannot be compared for a moment with China; for, much younger than her Celestial neighbour—since she received her civilization at her hands at a period contemporary with the fall of the Roman Empire, when the annals of China reached as far back into the night of time as those of Egypt—she has not had time to fossilize herself in sterile admiration of the past, and she has never adopted that mandarinate which China considers one of her chief glories, but which is in reality slowly ruining her. Above all, like Europe in the Middle Ages, she has submitted to the virile influences of the feudal system, and, therefore, there is no reason À priori why she should not succeed in her enterprise. Whether or no Japan wishes to convert herself on every point into an absolutely Europeanized nation, and a Western European nation at that, is another question which demands close attention. Possibly it is an exaggeration to say that the promoters of the remarkable series of reforms which have lately been effected in Japan had ever an eye to so complete a transformation. The first reform which engrossed their attention was undoubtedly to place their country, which had so suddenly broken through her ancient tradition of isolation, on a military, naval, and an economical basis, that would enable her to treat as an equal with any of the other nations of the world. The Japanese are the only Oriental people who have understood the conditions necessary to attain this aim. Japan discerned that by accepting a military and economic position equal to that of any European country, she was also obliged to undergo immense changes in every department of her national existence, and she unflinchingly faced her new position, resolved to accomplish every sort of transformation in order to place herself on a firm footing.

It seems to me that Japan has solved the difficult question as to which were the changes she ought to undergo. The fact that she has accepted the entire programme of European civilization, barring a few domestic usages, certain traditions of family existence and religion, speaks for itself. The religious question is one of the most interesting and curious phases of Japanese experience. Until the present day history has always demonstrated that the first act of a people which desired to model itself upon another was to adopt its religion, and in Japan itself 1,500 years ago Buddhism paved the way for the advent of Chinese civilization. In the sixteenth century, at a time when she was first brought into contact with Europeans, Christianity played an important part, and soon made many proselytes. To-day it is otherwise. The Mikado, it is true, does not prevent his subjects from embracing Christianity, but he does not encourage them to do so. Most probably this is the result of the fact that religion is no longer the foremost factor in Western civilization, and is somewhat veiled by important scientific discoveries and material improvements, and, whether rightly or wrongly, there can be no question that the spirit of the century pretends to solve political and social problems outside of the sphere of religion.

The Japanese have evidently arrived at the conclusion that it was unnecessary to effect a transformation in an order of ideas which the Europeans themselves apparently consider accessory. If one day they find that they have made a mistake, it probably will not take them long to change their minds; but for the present they have preferred to rally round the popular idea, neutrality of the State in matters of religion and freedom of conscience to all, and this allows them to retain Buddhism and Shintoism as the religion of the immense majority of the people.

From the civil point of view, on the other hand, they have introduced many European reforms. Japanese society formerly resembled in many ways that of ancient Rome, especially with respect to the constitution of the family. The new civil code which has been carried into effect is more in accordance with modern ideas, and modifies the excessive habit of adoption, diminishes the power of the head of the family over his married children and his younger brothers, and raises somewhat the position of women, who were already freer in Japan than in any other Oriental country. But it also permits, in accordance with Japanese traditions, very slight difference to exist between legitimate and illegitimate children, and on this point, as on that of divorce—whether for good or otherwise I do not consider myself called upon to judge—it shapes itself very much on the same lines as does modern legislation elsewhere. The personal status, therefore, of a Japanese is very much the same as that of a European, and the laws relating to property have for a long time been identical with our own. As to the penal code, it is one of the most moderate in the world, and the death sentence is only passed in cases of crime against the Emperor.

Politically speaking, the Japanese have gone further still, and have given themselves a Constitution analogous, as already stated, to that of Prussia. It may perhaps be queried whether they were wise in accepting so entirely our representative system; but undoubtedly within the last eight years Parliamentary life in Japan has made rapid strides, and, indeed, is neither better nor worse than it is in many a European country. The parties do not come to stay long, and their programmes are very confused. The relation between the clans and the provinces plays a very conspicuous part in the Parliamentary existence; but, for the matter of that, so they do in Italy and elsewhere. Even if it has been a rather premature experience, nevertheless Parliamentary Government in Japan seems likely to stay. The numerous provincial and communal assemblies carry out their business fairly well, although, to be sure, there are whispers of a slight amount of corruption—but where is it otherwise? One of the happiest traits of Japanese evolution is that there appears little probability of its ending, like the great Russian transformation under Peter the Great, in the creation of two distinct classes, separated by an insurmountable barrier. There is no serfdom or anything to maintain the Japanese peasantry in the same position of inferiority as the Russian mujik, and the mass of the nation unhesitatingly follows the lead of its chiefs.

Refined by from twelve to fifteen centuries of civilization, the subjects of the Mikado are much better educated than were those of Peter the Great, and therefore can march with far greater assurance on the road to progress. While the smallness of the country and the density of its population, concentrated for the most part on the coast-line, are likewise aids to the rapid penetration of new ideas, still further assisted by a well-organized system of primary instruction and a military service, it is, however, rather from the material point of view that the change has been most striking and rapid.

Without returning to the matter of the extraordinary rapidity of the increase of industry, there is one subject connected with it which I cannot forbear dwelling upon, and that is the excessive ability with which the Japanese have succeeded in organizing certain public services introduced from the West in such a manner as to place them within the reach of even the poorest. In many European colonies the high tariff of the rail and postal services deters the natives from using them; but in Japan it is otherwise. There you pay on the railway ¾d. a mile first class, ½d. second, and ¼d. third, which latter is used by the majority of the people, and the total returns for 2,290 miles of Japanese rail, notwithstanding these low rates, reached in 1895 £1,878,600 (of which £1,179,600 were paid by travellers), as against £766,300 for expenses, the profits being £1,112,300, or about 10 per cent. upon the outlay capital, which was £11,649,200. The post is also extremely cheap in Japan, ½d. being charged for letters and ¼d. for post-cards. In 1896–97 503,000,000 objects passed through the post-office, of which 263,000,000 were post-cards, 122,000,000 letters, and 87,000,000 newspapers. The preponderating number of post-cards, which surpasses that of letters, is strikingly in contradistinction to what one observes in every other country, and is a proof of the economical habits of the people and of their appreciation of this cheap method of correspondence. The enthusiasm with which the population profits by all the innovations introduced from the West is a convincing proof of the very slight resistance which the implanting of our civilization receives. Yet another favourable sign is the exceptional number of students in the new universities and public schools of all descriptions. Practical science, law, and medicine attract the majority of the students, and already many of them have attained marked success in their several careers. As an example, I may mention that it was a Japanese who discovered the microbe of the bubonic plague. The Japanese are sometimes, and possibly with some truth, accused of lacking the inventive faculty; but those peoples who are from many points of view at the head of civilization at the present day, the English and the Americans, are not those among whom the power of invention is exceptionally prominent. It is in France or in Germany that the principles of nearly all modern discoveries have been found, but it is in England and the United States that their application has been perfected. No one, however, can refuse the Japanese this latter gift, and they unquestionably possess an almost excessive faculty of attention to minute detail. Possibly they have not so far materially assisted in advancing science, and surely it is somewhat premature to pronounce judgment on this subject; but with good technical teachers—and everything points that they will have them—they can certainly soon acclimatize European civilization in their country, precisely as they did in days of old that of China, but only on the condition that they keep themselves well in touch with Europe.

Their principal danger, however, seems to me to consist in their attempting to isolate themselves too much, and to believe that they have learnt everything that can be taught them, and consequently have no further use for their masters. Perhaps, too, in certain cases they have got rid only too quickly of the services of foreign functionaries and councillors. Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century Russia, so to speak, modelled herself on the German plan, and Japan would also do well not to forget too hastily the advice of Western teachers. Already a certain amount of negligence is noticeable in the post-office and on the railways, whose systems are occasionally dislocated by many irregularities and also by a certain carelessness, usually attributed to excess of work or to the breakdown of machinery, but which is more probably due to the inexperience of the public servants of the entire hierarchy. The fact is, Japan does not at present value the most characteristic feature of modern civilization—punctuality; but, to be just, when we consider the indolent habits of Asiatics in general, we should not be surprised at this, rather the contrary. It would, however, be well for the Japanese, until they have got thoroughly trained to an appreciation of the value of time, to retain officials who will remind them of its importance.

It may also be added that in the commercial development considerable inexperience and too great zeal in every branch, industrial, financial, and commercial, has been displayed: in the over-rapid increase, for instance, of banks and companies of all kinds, in the mismanagement of new societies, and in the abuse that has frequently been made of credit. All these things are new to Japan, and they have occasionally not been treated as they should have been. We have bestowed so much praise on the economical development of the country that we may surely be allowed to observe that much has been done too quickly. But this has been the case in all new countries, in the two Americas, as well as in Australia, and one must not therefore be too severe on Japan in this respect, but also not surprised if it occasionally results in the paralysis of business and even in an occasional crisis. As often occurs, a rise in salaries accompanied industrial expansion, and proved very inconvenient to export industries, all the more so as these are for the most part mainly nominal, and prices rose almost immediately. During the last two years an inverse movement has taken place, and we must do the Japanese the justice to say that when they saw the danger they displayed considerable sagacity, and both the Government and the public expressed a wish to limit their desire for expansion. If there were serious economic difficulties in Japan in 1897–98, they seem now to have passed away; they were but the result of over-activity, and the present outlook in the Mikado’s dominion, although not as brilliant as it was immediately after the war, is once more normal.

The transitory troubles of the Empire of the Rising Sun will not, in our opinion, become very grave if the Japanese thoroughly understand that it is to their interest rather to increase their contact with foreigners than to limit it. Since 1889 there has existed in Japan a reactionary movement against strangers, which apparently reached its culminating point in 1896, and now seems gradually diminishing. It is sincerely to be hoped that this feeling of suspicion will absolutely disappear. One of the numerous reasons which contributed to raise a certain hostility against Europeans was their attitude with respect to the renewal of the treaties. This important question, which so closely concerned the relations between the Japanese and foreigners, has now been settled, and if Japanese statesmen are well inspired, the solution that has been arrived at should greatly enhance the true interests of their country.

Almost immediately after the Restoration, the Government of the Mikado expressed the desire to revise the treaties concluded between it and the foreign Powers during the last years of the old regime. What it most desired was to abrogate the extra-territorial privileges granted to strangers, and to render them responsible to the native tribunals. It also hoped to re-possess itself of the right to modify the Custom-house tariff, which was very low, not with a view to protection, but in order to augment the revenues. In exchange for these concessions Japan offered to open the country to Europeans, to allow them to reside and to establish their industries anywhere outside of the five ports in which they had hitherto been confined. Joint negotiations were opened with the seventeen Powers who had signed the treaties on several occasions, but without favourable results, and the check they received in 1897 greatly irritated public opinion in Japan. The Government then decided to negotiate separately through the intermediary of its representatives in Europe. The first success was with England, by the treaty concluded in 1894; the other nations followed suit, and the new treaties were enforced on July 17th, 1899.

For several years, however, a change had taken place in public opinion in Japan, and many people began to think that it might be as dangerous to completely open the country to foreigners as to grant them privileges of proprietorship. ‘They are much richer than we are,’ said they, ‘and will buy up all our lands and strip us of our resources, so that in time we shall cease to be masters in our own house.’ On the other hand, the Europeans began to make an outcry at the thought that they would be obliged to submit to Japanese jurisdiction, which, although founded on the European system, might be misapplied by the Yellow people, who were still barbarians, and who might use it to make the existence of foreigners in Japan intolerable. Both views of the case were exaggerated, and rendered the task of the various diplomatists an exceedingly difficult one. Diplomacy, however, carried the day, not without sacrificing the proposed absolute equality of rights between Japanese and foreigners.

The new treaties accepted the Japanese desideratum respecting the suppression of consular tribunals and European municipalities, but foreigners were, in their turn, to renounce proprietary rights. The English treaty thus summarizes the principal concessions granted: ‘All members of the principal contracting parties may carry on any wholesale or retail business, in any sort of product, manufactures and merchandise, personally or by their representatives, individually or through an association, either with other foreigners or with natives; and they shall have the right to possess, let or occupy houses, shops, manufactories and other premises as they deem necessary, or to hire lands, to live therein, or to engage therein in business, by conforming themselves to the laws, and the police and Custom-house regulations of the country, as if they were natives thereof.’ This gave rise to considerable controversy. It confirmed the right of foreigners to possess, let or occupy houses and divers places of business, but on the other hand, it only allowed them to rent land, which according to Japanese law can only be hired on short leases of between thirty and fifty years, as the case may be, which is, of course, a great hindrance to the installation of any important industry.

This apparent contradiction formed the subject of an agitated controversy carried on by the English papers printed at the various ports, which pointed out with rather thoughtless acrimony that the new treaty was only intended as a blind to deprive foreigners of their extra-territorial liberties. They forgot that outside of property and of the leasehold system the Japanese code contains another method of tenure, called ‘Surface Right,’ whereby the purchaser of a piece of land has the right to everything that is on the surface thereof (excepting the crops), that is, to plant or cut down trees and to build thereon. One can purchase the surface of the land in accordance with Japanese law for as long a period of time as one likes, a thousand years even, either on payment by instalments or complete purchase. For any enterprise which is not purely agricultural this purchase is equivalent to absolute possession of the land.

Foreigners can thus establish industries in Japan, and it is therefore to the interests of the Japanese to encourage them so to do. Private individuals, as well as the Government, ought to do everything they can to attract foreign capital, but this can only be done in the case of industrial enterprises by allowing foreigners to take the direction of affairs. I have been asked whether it is not possible to induce foreign capitalists to lend their money on sharing terms to Japanese companies as they do to the American railways, without taking any part in the direction, but I am afraid this is a hope the Japanese would do well not to entertain. Whether it be through prejudice or otherwise, it is quite certain that Europeans will do nothing of the sort, and the Japanese seem to be aware of the fact, and several railway companies have modified their statutes in order to admit a clause whereby foreigners can become shareholders; but as the Japanese possess all the land over which the lines run as well as the stations, I do not think that this proposition can be legal. It is, therefore, to be regretted that public opinion has not insisted upon a concession of the right of proprietorship being bestowed upon foreigners.

It is, however, not improbable that before long the Legislature may get over this difficulty by deciding that in companies constituted according to Japanese laws, and registered in Japan, the members, though they be foreigners, become thereby Japanese citizens, and can also be absolute land-owners. However, on all points the Japanese Government, supported by Parliament and public opinion, has taken the necessary precautions to apply the new treaties in the most liberal manner possible. If there have been some unfavourable verdicts pronounced in the Japanese tribunals in the short time they have been in existence, these have generally been revised on appeal. The greater experience gained by contact between the Japanese and Europeans, and the wish to see foreign capital collaborating in the development of the resources of the country, will doubtless suggest, little by little, new measures calculated to smooth down any feeling of irritation between the native and the foreign population. If there still exists a feeling of hatred of the foreigner among individual fanatics, a certain ill-will in the lower and more ignorant class of the people, some abuse of authority among inferior officials, the Government of the Mikado is too sagacious to allow any flagrant cause of annoyance to disturb European residents, which would soon be resented by their respective Governments and might even lead to the scattering of the fruits of thirty years’ progressive effort.

Japan has already done much, but especially because she has done so much in so short a time, and because the immense majority of her inhabitants had no idea thirty years ago of European affairs, and therefore have no means of comparison, they are apt to exaggerate their progress, however marvellous it may be, and consequently they are not in a position to notice that certain European importations come to them slightly deteriorated. Foreigners act the part of critics, and even if their criticism is sometimes severe, it is nevertheless useful. The functionaries and the young men who are sent on foreign missions also fulfil the same critical office, and this is an additional reason why the Government is so wise in maintaining these missions. Unless, indeed, from time to time the new civilization which has been imported in Japan is refreshed at its primary source, it will soon run a risk of losing strength, and, for the matter of that, any people, even European, that isolated itself too much and became absorbed in self-admiration, would inevitably deteriorate. It is not belittling the extraordinary progress so rapidly accomplished by the Empire of the Rising Sun to say that it can only be perfected if the people of that wonderful country remain in contact with the inhabitants of Europe and America.