ment set before itself at the commencement of the Meiji era was not merely the performing of the functions of protecting life and property, opening up communications and keeping them in an efficient condition, and educating the rising generation, to which most administrations limit themselves, but in addition it undertook to modernize industry and finance, and revolutionize the structure of society, and especially feminine conditions. Since at that time the Government consisted of a coterie of a few statesmen, the descendants of feudal clansmen (known as geniro, or "elder statesmen"), it meant that the face of their country was to be literally and not merely figuratively changed at their will and by them. Never did another oligarchy voluntarily assume such a stupendous task. Fifty years ago, when the most progressive governments in Europe hesitated to undertake anything worthy of notice beyond the orthodox functions of administration, it needed a great deal of courage for Japan to shoulder this great responsibility.

This ambition was materialized by utilizing the knowledge gained by a few Japanese from their limited contact with Westerners; employing competent foreigners to help to initiate reforms, introduce American and European machinery and methods, and instruct the Nipponese in the liberal arts and sciences, professions and trades; and by sending promising young men and (mark you) women to the United States of America and several European countries to observe how the Occidental nations lived and worked, study their civilizations, imbibe their spirit, learn their methods, and master the use of their machinery and tools. Bearing in mind the fact that within a few years of the time when this policy was framed Japan had lived in strict isolation, screened

off from the rest of the world, one cannot forbear marvelling at the progressiveness and longsightedness of its authors.

From what I have been privileged to learn from some of those Japanese statesmen who assisted in the framing of this programme, I gather that it was laid down that Japan was to ruthlessly pluck out of her social economy every institution that hampered the nation's progress, but, at the same time, she was to preserve and develop all that was good and useful in her old civilization. Nothing was to be taken from the West that the nation could not assimilate. The task was not to be regarded as finished unless and until the foreign institutions had actually become engrafted upon the Japanese systems so that they lived and thrived, and gradually the graft and parent tree became one and indivisible. Japan's ideal was not merely to be an imitator of America and Europe, but to so make Western knowledge her own that the natives would be able to improve upon that which had been acquired to meet their own requirements.

But as is inevitable in such cases, the Nipponese were at first not able rigidly to adhere to this splendid course of action. Stepping out from the shadows of their ages-old exclusiveness into the mid-day sunshine of Western civilization, their eyes were so blinded by the glare that they could scarcely see anything wrong in foreign institutions, or anything right in their own; and many of them replaced their former habits and customs with foreign ones by wholesale. This indiscrimination inspired by excessive zeal led them to commit many mistakes, probably the greatest amongst them being the crushing out of the national system of local government. Their eagerness to make rapid progress also sometimes caused them to sacri

fice quality, and infringe upon the patent rights of foreigners. During the years of transition some of them behaved towards the alien traders in a manner calculated to lay them open to the charge of lacking commercial morality. But the wide-awake amongst them have already realized these defects, deplored them, and sought to get rid of them. The Nipponese have been able, during the latter years of their development, almost completely to overcome these undesirable tendencies, and as a result their recent advancement has been better ordered, more even, deeper, and more abiding.

IV.

What are the results of the activities set into motion by the impact of the Occident upon Japan? A broad, general outline of the changes effected during the four and a half decades that have passed since the Meiji era began may be given.

The face of the three principal islands, namely Hokkaido (30,275 square miles), Honshiu (86,770 square miles), and Shikoku (7,032 square miles), which constitute Japan proper, and, roughly speaking, at present possess a population of about 55,000,000 souls, has been changed by a network of elaborate, costly, and efficient means of communication of which any nation may justly be proud. Beginning with actually nothing, or next to nothing, Japan has established railways, tramways, wire and wireless telegraphs, sea cables, telephones, and post offices; improved the existing roads and bridges, developed harbors and a merchant marine and made navigation safe in the Japanese waters, to such purpose that the ends of government, industries, trade and commerce and private communication are adequately and efficiently served.

Japan has greatly improved and ex

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tended its handicrafts and established gigantic power industries. Amongst the latter, that of shipbuilding has had probably the most marvellous career. At the beginning of the Meiji era little was attempted except the building of wooden junks. But since then, and especially since the passing of the Shipbuilding Encouragement Act in 1896, Government and private yards have been established where Dreadnoughts, protected and unprotected cruisers, torpedo boats, destroyers, submarines, and merchant vessels constructed, and where armor plate and the heaviest and latest pattern of guns and machinery are manufactured. The biggest of them all is the Yokosuko yard, covering 116 acres, with a graving dock large enough to accommodate any ship afloat, and two big building slips, besides three smaller ones. The Kuré yard has to its credit the feat of building and launching an armored vessel, the Ibuki, six months after the keel was laid. This yard can construct guns and mountings of the largest type, and can turn out all the armor plate to meet the needs of the many years to came.

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Equally remarkable progress has been made in the manufacture of weapons. The arsenal at Tokyo makes a speciality of rifles and their ammunition. Ordnance is constructed at the Osaka Arsenal, and powder is made at four explosives factories. A private explosives factory covers 300 acres, and manufactures 300 tons of explosives daily. The invention of the Murata infantry rifle and the Arisaka quick-firing gun, and the ability to manufacture 12-inch guns, renders Japan practically independent of foreign supplies of this character, while a £1,000,000 foundry makes it possible to produce at home practically all the iron and steel needed for building and equipping ships of all kinds.

To insure her interests against foreign encroachment and internal disorder, Japan has reorganized her army according to the Western pattern, and established a navy and constabulary, both also after the Occidental model. The army and navy were, during the Meiji era, called to action in the ChinoJapanese War of 1894; in the Boxer Uprising of 1900; and the RussoJapanese War of the past decade (in addition to which the soldiery suppressed the Satsuma Rebellion, to which reference has been made). Though of late some attempt has been made to belittle the achievement of the Japanese fighting forces during the conflict with Russia, yet all fairminded critics admit that they demonstrated their prowess in a remarkable manner, and proved that the Nipponese can successfully fight the Occidentals with their own weapons. In 1862 the army consisted of 13,625 officers and men. In 1894, Japan was able to send an army of 240,000 trained men, 6,495 irregulars, and 100,000 coolies to fight China. In 1911-12 she had a war establishment of 1,650,000 and a peace establishment of 225,000, all recruited by conscription.

At present Japan's navy consists of sixteen battleships, including two of the Dreadnought type; thirteen armored cruisers; two first class, twelve second class, and five third class protected cruisers; four unprotected cruisers; three torpedo vessels; fifty-seven torpedo-boat destroyers; fifty-seven torpedo boats; and twelve submarines. In 1913 she stands fifth in respect of battleships, having outstripped Russia and Italy in this respect. As regards "Dreadnoughts and ships launched since 1906 which may be considered fit to 'lie in line,'" as classified by the Naval Annual in 1910, she ranked fifth, and was ahead of Austria and Italy. In the matter of

ships building and built of Dreadnought or super-Dreadnought armament, she ranked fourth in 1912. She is, to-day, the only power possessing a Dreadnought in the Pacific, and this gives her a position of supremacy so far as those waters are concerned. Besides this formidable fleet ready for action, she has two battleships, four battle cruisers, two second-class protected cruisers, two torpedo-boat destroyers, and three submarines in course of construction, and is straining her finances to be the mistress of the Eastern seas as England is supreme in Western waters, having spent the better part of the £35,000,000 sanctioned at the end of the RussoJapanese war for building new ships, repairing old vessels, and those captured from Russia, the whole of which sum will be exhausted by 1917.

The Japanese, in learning from the West how to butcher soldiers and sailors, have not neglected to adopt from the same source the system of Red Cross relief. Indeed, that work has enlisted the interest of the Nipponese from the Dowager Empress down to the mistress of the meanest cottage. The organization is now completed, and the Japanese Red Cross has been recognized by sister movements in Europe and America.

The campaigns in which Japan has engaged (or their aftermath) have resulted in extending the Mikado's Empire by the acquirement (permanent or temporary) of Karafuto or Japanese Saghalien (13,000 square miles in area and with a population of 26,000); Formosa (with an area of 13,500 square miles and a population of about 3,500,000); Corea (71,000 square miles in extent and with 12,000,000 inhabitants); a part of Manchuria; and the Kwantung Peninsula (covering 200 square miles, with 400,000 population). Space forbids reference to the changes inaugurated by the Jap

anese in these possessions, and we must content ourselves with the mere statement that she has introduced railways, roads, telegraphs, irrigation canals, public offices, schools, and hospitals, and has established and developed agriculture and industries.

The Government, after its reconstruction in the Meiji era, gave almost immediate attention to the constitution and training of the police, and this attention has never been relaxed. As a consequence a constabulary system has been evolved which, though somewhat deficient as compared with those of Europe and America, yet is well organized and honest. It consisted, in 1904, of 33,473 officers and men, and carried on its operations in 15,521 offices and stations. The ratio of police to population in that year was about one to every 1,357 units.

The organization of the judiciary, the codification of laws, the building up of prisons, and the evolving of the prison system on the basic principle that all are equal before the law, that each individual has a right to be properly charged and tried, and that the State owes it to itself and to its citizens to concern itself with the care of the health of those convicted and to seek to enlighten their minds and reclaim their souls, was early taken in hand and has been satisfactorily completed. The civil, criminal, and commercial laws have gone through one or more revisions, and are patterned after the legal codes of France and Germany, modified in the light of Japanese customs and requirements. The best proof of the efficiency of the legal institutions of Japan was furnished when the European nations (so fastidious in such cases) recently surrendered their extra-territorial privileges and submitted their subjects and citizens from thence on to be tried by Nip

ponese judges and according to Japanese laws.

The efforts of the government to organize medical relief and give the people the benefits of modern hygiene and sanitation have borne abundant fruit. About a thousand hospitals are dotted over the land, many of them charitable institutions maintained by philanthropic ladies, some especially conducted for lepers, and others for poor children. According to a recent census there were 35,160 physicians, 2,898 pharmacists, 26,837 apothecaries, and 25,959 midwives, all of whom were under the supervision of the Sanitary Bureau of the Home Department; while 9,664 school physicians made physical examinations of the pupils at fixed intervals, with a view to promoting the health of the rising generation.

Intellectual advancement has kept pace with all other reforms. When the Emperor Mutsuhito came to the throne, learning was very much restricted amongst men, and was practically non-existent amongst women. Education of a utilitarian nature was looked down upon by the upper classes, who acquired more or less proficiency in verse-making and the classics; while the lower castes did not possess the facilities to learn even to read and write and do simple sums in arithmetic. Starting without any nucleus whatever, a system of public instruction was established early in the Meiji era, based upon the idea that in course of time there should not be a single home with an illiterate member, and not a single village with an unlettered family; and that particular attention was to be paid to the education of agriculturists, artisans, and women. This aim has been kept steadfastly in view; and gradually an educational system has been built up comprising academic, agricultural, technical, professional, art, industrial

and commercial instruction, from the lowest to the highest grade. Primary education for years has been compulsory and free. Special attention has been paid to physical culture and ethical development. In 1909-10 there were 7.319,399 children of both sexes, or 98.06 per cent of schoolables attending institutions of learning; and by that year the stigma of illiteracy had been almost completely wiped off the face of Japan. No country in the world can show such a marvellous advancement towards literacy as that of the Daybreak Empire. Nippon, however, has not been made vain by this achievement, but continues to lavish attention and money upon public instruction, spending over 9,000,000 yen a year on that head.

Japan's efforts to impart knowledge to her citizens, besides resulting in all the progress to which attention has been called, have enabled her to make noteworthy advancement in literature, journalism, fine arts, drama, and music, and have led to the amelioration of feminine conditions and to the reconstruction of government.

When the Shogun was shorn of his powers, the womanhood of Japan was benighted, abided in seclusion, segregated from members of the opposite sex except near male relatives, and lived solely to cater to the whims and caprices of man. By means of primary and higher education and pedagogic, industrial, technical, professional and commercial training for women, and the enactment of laws giving them more equitable property and divorce laws, these conditions have been greatly improved. Education and contact with foreigners have also improved male notions regarding women and worked toward the same end. Though the status of females is not, as yet, what modern requirements decree, the rate at which progress is being made gives promise that ere

long the deficiencies in this respect will be removed.

The administration of the land has changed from absolutism to limited monarchy. The functions of Government have been departmentalized, and capable men have been installed as chiefs of the various bureaus. In 1889 a Constitution was granted to the people, and as the result of it, upper and lower houses of Parliament were organized the latter an elected assembly. Considerable progress has also been made in municipal and local government. However, the complete sovereignty of to Parliament is still come; clamor for it is increasing year by year, and the authorities are bound to bow to the popular demand in course of time.

The most remarkable thing in connection with the record of Japan's achievement is that it has been accomplished in the face of much unthinking conservatism and with limited resources. In 1867-68, the first year of the Meiji era, the revenue was only 33,000,000 yen. With the development of agriculture, industries, mines, forests, and other national assets, this income has gradually increased until in 1909-10 the ordinary revenue stood at 483,241,169 yen. But even with such an amount Japan would not have been able to achieve one tithe of what it has done but for the most rigid economy in administration, sagacious finance, and recourse to foreign loans. The point to be noted is that the new régime started with a debased coinage of little real worth, valueless paper money of some 1,600 kinds, and that it had to pay nine per cent interest on its first London bonds: and that gradually its financiers have adopted the gold standard, improved the coinage, organized banks, state-aided and otherwise, and so metamorphosed the monetary system that the foreign rate of interest has been cut in half. It