After this bitter experience with Christians, the Government became convinced that it could have nothing to do with Christian people with any safety. This originated the insular policy that prevailed for more than two hundred years. But when the western coast of America became settled, and our commerce with the "East by the way of the West" became an established fact, we found ourselves face to face with Japan. The advantages of an unrestricted commerce with this rich insular region were too great to be overlooked. The Dutch had been allowed a little trading-post ever since the expulsion of the Jesuits. It was known that many curious. articles were manufactured here, and that the possibilities of the tea and silk products of the country were very great.

Accordingly, Commodore Perry, of the U. S. Navy, was directed to open communications with the Government of Japan, with a view to a treaty of commerce. Accordingly, in 1853, he steamed into the Bay of Yeddo, and opened negotiations with the Shogun, whose capital was at Yeddo, the Mikado's capital being at Kioto, two hundred miles away. In these negotiations the Shogun styled himself Ti-Kun, which foreigners wrote Tycoon, so that he became known to Europe and America by that pretentious title, Ti-Kun-the Great Ruler. The assumption of so grand a title by the Shogun, the affectation of imperial dignities, in addition to the usurpation of imperial powers, filled up the measure of the national discontent. The history is long and somewhat intriI cannot follow it. It is sufficient for my purpose to say that it all culminated in the revolution of

cate.

1868, in which, after considerable fighting, the Shoi gun was defeated in a final and decisive battle at Yeddo, in which the Shogunate perished forever.

The Mikado who had recently succeeded to the empire was a youth of only seventeen, isolated from his infancy from all affairs, and so both immature and inexperienced. But he was taken possession of by the men who had made the revolution, and he had either the good sense or the weakness to give himself up to their direction. They are remarkable men-this is universally conceded. By their advice he removed his residence from Kioto, the nominal, to Yeddo, the actual capital, at the same time changing the name of Yeddo to Tokio, which means the Eastern Capital.

But now the revolution was but just begun. All great revolutions are marked by significant coincidents. The concurrent advent of Perry, with the growing opposition to the Shogun, involved a great deal, only a little of which I can give in this chapter.

To begin with: The restoration of the Mikado was coeval with the new problems that arose in the Japanese Government as incidental to its new foreign relations. The treaty of the United States must of necessity be followed by treaties with the various States of Europe. This involved the residence of Ministers and Consuls at the capital and the ports. It involved Embassies from Japan to the various. courts of Europe and America. It involved, also, the opening of an active commerce; and all this involved the influx of new ideas. Indeed, the coming and going of steamships alone gave the more thoughtful Japanese a suggestion of forms of civili

zation that were, at least in some respects, vastly superior to their own, and so already, before the revolution came, some of the more sagacious Daimios had sent young men from their provinces to America to be educated, some of whom returned about the time of that event, all full of the wonders of the foreign civilization.

Then came the necessity of organizing the Government on a footing that would enable it to deal with other Governments. It must have an army and a navy, and it must have revenues adequate to all this. It must be able to concentrate its forces. It must have statesmen versed in international law. It must have every thing, in short, that constitutes a civilized Government.

It would be impossible to introduce all these changes without having, sooner or later, a stable code of laws to take the place of mere personal government, ruling the people by proclamations posted in public places.

All this would involve the most radical changes, and the men who guided the revolution saw at once how inevitable and how difficult their task was.

In the first place, the feudal system must be broken up. But this system involved the very organization of society. It would break up the samuri class, the proudest and most formidable class of people in the empire. The traditions of ages would be suddenly and violently broken in upon. But the matter was entered upon firmly. Many of the Daimios, seeing the necessity of the case, were forward to surrender their great dignities and privileges, and all of them acquiesced with a good grace. Perhaps it was the

grandest instance in history of a privileged class giving up its position for the welfare of the country. The plan was that every Daimio should surrender his territories and revenues to the Government, receive a pension, and make his residence at Tokio, the capital. This was all done at once; I believe it was in 1871. These great nobles all simultaneously took leave of their retainers, and repaired with their families to the capital, many of them voluntarily, and some, perhaps, because they were powerless to resist the movement of the majority.

Then there must be an army created. The French model was determined upon, and French officers were imported to organize and drill it. A navy must be created, and who but the English could do that? So Englishmen were imported to do it. Railroads must be built, and the English were brought in to do that.

No less important was it to improve the education of the people, and especially in the exact and practical sciences, and Americans, chiefly, were called on for that. American text-books were translated, an American was placed at the head of the Bureau of Education, and on his suggestion a system of public schools was created, embracing the whole empire, and culminating in a university at Tokio, in which four of the leading Professors are Americans, and the instructions are carried on in the English language, the students having first to pass through an English school to prepare them for its classes.

Now the whole empire is consolidated; all its revenues are administered by the central Government, which appoints the governors of provinces, and provides for the internal police in every part. A written

code of laws-the "Code Napoleon," so far as it is applicable-has been adopted, the army and navy organized, and a nascent system of education set on foot. Besides that, the Gregorian calendar has been adopted, only the era dates from the restoration of the Mikado, so that this is the year 8 instead of 1876. But the year begins, as with us, and has the same division of months and even of weeks, for they have taken Sunday as a day of rest for all Government employes, though it is considered only in the light of a holiday, and is not in vogue among the people at large.

Now, is not this a wonderful revolution to have been effected in eight years?

Is it permanent? What may be hoped for in the future? I confess I do not know.

It would be folly to deny that there are grave occasions of alarm, and it is scarcely possible that discontent, and even open rebellion, should be wanting. Indeed there is grave discontent already. The taxpayers are ground down by a more oppressive levy than the rents they paid to the old Daimios. The Daimios measured only the land in actual cultivation, but the present Government measures the ditches and terrace-work, adding a good deal to the area. The tax, I was told, is five dollars an acre for ricelands, and half that amount for all other. But it must have money to pay the pensions of the Daimios, and to buy ships for the navy, and to organize it and the army, and to pay high salaries to its foreign officers and teachers. These foreign employes are first-rate men, who would have high salaries at home, and who demand higher here, because they look upon