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ernment before the upper.” The particular points at issue between the two Houses were afterwards settled by compromise, and the budget was finally passed on the last day of the session. But once again several important measures failed to get through both Houses.

The apparently inevitable conflict between the Diet and the Government was continued in the fourth session, when it took the form of a dispute over what the Constitution terms “fixed expenditures,” and says “shall be neither rejected nor reduced by the Imperial Diet, without the concurrence of the Government” (Article LXVII). The lower House called for large reductions, especially in naval expenditures; but the Government refused to entertain the idea, although the opposition mustered a large majority. Even after the Government, by suspending the session, had given an opportunity for calm reflection, the opposition vehemently continued the fight and finally carried by the sweeping majority of seventy-eight an address to the Throne impeaching the Cabinet. The Emperor, with the advice of the Privy Council, having carefully considered the situation, critical in the extreme, issued a conciliatory and compromise message, in which he skillfully balanced the censure and the praise on each side and closed by donating ten per cent of the imperial household allowance,^[1] and by directing all civil and military officials (with certain exceptions) to give the same percentage of their salaries, for six years, to the fund for building men-of-war. The total sum thus obtained was from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 yen. This spirit of compromise was still further carried out in the remainder of the budget, which was reduced, on its expense side, by about 3,750,000 yen. In this fourth session, the Diet also passed three important bills, marking long steps in advance in the path of popular rights; these bills effected most desirable amendments in the copyright law, the publication regulations, and the law of public meeting and political association.

In the fifth session, Mr. Hoshi, president of the lower