With the failure of the embassy nothing was left for the rulers of Japan but, first, to bring their country up to the standard of administration fixed by the European powers before they would relinquish the practice of exterritoriality; and second, to make the power of the country so great as to command the respect of the Western nations, and thereby secure a recognition of the right to regulate its own system of taxation.

This course had been already marked out by the emperor. In a banquet which he gave his nobles just before the departure of the embassy in 1871, he foreshadowed his policy for the reorganization of the government, and appealed to them to lead and encourage the people "to move forward in paths of progress. . . . With diligent and united efforts we may attain successively the highest degree of civilization within our reach, and shall experience no serious difficulty in maintaining power, independence, and respect among nations." 1

To attain this "highest degree of civilization," measures were instituted to reform the system of jurisprudence and education in conformity with Western methods, and to reorganize the departments especially of finance, military affairs, and internal improvements. To this end Japanese of intelligence and capacity were sent abroad to study the systems of other countries, and foreigners were called to Japan to instruct and take direction in the reforms to be established.

In the accomplishment of this work it was natural,

1 U. S. For. Rel. 1871, p. 597; 1874, p. 646; 1883, p. 607; The Japanese in America, by C. Lanman, New York, 1872, pt. i.; Nitobe, 162.

in view of their past relations, that Japan should look largely to the United States. It is not possible here to give in detail the distinguished part borne by American citizens in the reformation of the government and people. Americans were early employed as confidential advisers in the foreign office to aid in the direction of diplomatic affairs, and they have been continuously retained up to the present time. In the development of education they have taken a leading part. At the request of Japan officials were detailed from the United States Treasury Department to remodel its financial system. Its agricultural bureau, and largely its scientific institutions, were organized under American direction. The present excellent postal establishment was initiated by an American, and the first postal convention with Japan was made by the United States.1

In connection with the influence which American citizens exerted in remoulding Japan may be noted the visit to that country of General U. S. Grant in 1879, on his tour of the world. He was made the guest of the nation (the first instance of the kind under the reorganized government), was lodged in an imperial palace, and, besides the usual audience, he held with the emperor (at the latter's special request) an interview of two hours and several others with the prime minister, in which the interests of Japan were fully and freely discussed. At the time of his visit China and Japan were in serious dispute over the sovereignty of the Lew

1 U. S. For. Rel. 1871, p. 595, 614; 1875, p. 795; 1876, p. 360; Nitobe's Intercourse of U. S. and Japan, 117-139; Advance Japan, by J. Morris, London, 1895, p. 378.

Chew Islands, which, it will be remembered, Commodore Perry in 1854 had recommended should be occupied by the United States. There was great danger of hostilities between the two oriental empires over the question, and General Grant actively interested himself in preserving peace. Both nations cherish his visit with grateful remembrance.1

The task of regeneration to which the emperor of Japan had summoned his people was pushed forward with commendable zeal. He promptly set the example by inviting the diplomatic corps in 1872 to a New Year's audience, as in Western courts, with the absence of all Asiatic ceremonials; and a few years later the empress stood beside him in these audiences, which Minister Bingham noted "as an evidence of the advancing civilization of the empire." In 1875 an imperial decree was issued convoking provincial assemblies, in order, as it stated, that the emperor might "govern in harmony with public opinion." In the same year the British and French troops were withdrawn from Yokohama, where they had been stationed since the opening of that port, on the ground of protecting for eign residents, the first manifestation of a disposition on the part of the European powers to respect the sovereignty of Japan. Edicts followed in quick succession adopting the European calendar, proclaiming Sunday as a day of rest, enacting and putting in force penal and other codes, for the compilation of a constitution

1 U. S. For. Rel. 1879, pp. 636, 643, 685; 1881, p. 231; 2 Around the World with General Grant, by J. R. Young, New York, 1879, pp. 410, 545, 581; Nitobe's Intercourse, etc. 140.

after Western models, and announcing the convocation of a national parliament. Meanwhile a compulsory system of education had gone into operation, and the intelligence of the people was being quickened by the multiplication of daily newspapers, a network of telegraph lines, and the opening of railroads.1

With all these and other reforms in process of consummation, and chafing under the humiliation of the exercise of sovereignty on its own soil by foreign nations, the government of Japan, in 1878, approached the diplomatic representatives of powers in Tokio with a proposition for a revision of the treaties. The discussion which followed developed the fact that no time was fixed in these conventions for their termination, and that if revision could not be agreed upon they would run indefinitely.

Mr. Harris, who negotiated the American treaty of 1858, and which became the model for all others, had inserted the exterritorial provision

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against his conscience." He states that he did it under the instructions of Secretary Marcy, who agreed with him that it was an unjust provision, but he said that, as it appeared in the treaties of the United States with other oriental countries, it would be impossible to secure the ratification of the treaty without it. Mr. Harris regarded it only as a temporary measure.

The provisions as to the tariff had even a less claim for their continued existence. Mr. Harris states that the Japanese negotiators left that matter entirely to

1 U. S. For. Rel. 1872, p. 321; 1875, pp. 787, 794; 1876, pp. 377, 381; 1878, p. 486; 1880, p. 690; 1881, pp. 658, 728.

him, frankly avowing their want of knowledge respecting it, and trusted to his acting justly. He framed such a tariff as he regarded best for the interests of Japan, placing raw products, food supplies, and building materials on the free list or at a duty of five per cent., manufactures, etc., at a duty of twenty per cent., and liquors at thirty-five per cent. He intended to give Japan the power of revising the duty at the end of ten but the construction placed by the powers upon years, the language used by him made the concurrence of all the nations necessary to any change.

Lord Elgin, who negotiated the British treaty a short time after that of the United States, succeeded in having placed in the five per cent. column manufactures of wool and cotton, the articles most largely exported to the East by British merchants. Under the most favored nation practice all countries shared in the rate, and it had the effect, when the tariff revision of 1866 took place, of a reduction of all imports to a five per cent. duty.

This tariff proved disastrous to Japan. It destroyed the cultivation of cotton and in great measure the small manufactories, throwing many thousands of laborers out of employment. It deprived the government of all revenue from this important source, the duties collected barely paying the cost of maintaining the customs service, and amounting to less than one thirtieth of its income, while in the United States and many other countries the customs receipts equal or exceed one half of the national revenues. But the most serious objection to its maintenance was the humiliation it caused