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body wanting nourishment, and consequently lacking blood-supply. That our economic world should thus remain undeveloped is due to several causes.

The men who assisted the Emperor in the work of the Restoration, thereby forming the ruling class of Japan, are now the peers of the land. They all belong to the class of so-called Bushi. The Bushi were the descendants of the military class, and were accustomed to rule by the power of their bows and arrows rather than by work. They spent the days walking in the streets with their two swords at their sides, and disdained to talk of the rice market, as unbecoming their vocation. As children we were taught and ordered by our parents not to use the counting instrument, but to study the ‘Shisho’ and ‘Gokyo’ (Chinese classics), and to study politics and the art of ruling; and if we had discussed the subject of harvesting we would have been despised by our friends. Though we knew nothing of the way to earn a penny by our labour, to raise a single silk-worm—nothing, in fact, but the Chinese classics and the art of ruling—we kept our spirits high, and felt ourselves proud and above ordinary mortals because of the saying imbued in our people that ‘the best of flowers is the sakura, and the best of men are the Bushi.’ Even hunger could not break down this aloofness. Such men as these have been holding the reign of the land for thirty years, and do not feel the need for economies. They feel no need for earning money, and they will continue to serve our country only in their capacity of rulers.

From the lowest to the highest Governmental officials, earning money has not been contemplated, but the sole desire has been to serve the country. The ruling officials have thought only of giving laws, or of making treaties on equal terms with foreign Powers, and thereby produced our laws and codes adapted from those of Germany and of France. Japan was thought incomplete without the adoption of laws and treaties. Thus the skeleton was acquired and given a perfect shape, but not economic politics.

The most depressing conditions have continued since the beginning of the Meiji era; and the history of the past thirty years convinces us that this condition of affairs is the result of the Samurai holding the power of government. On the other hand, it will also be noticed that those who had more regard for the economic aspect were the peasants and the merchants. These were the classes that were opposed to the Samurai. They had not been allowed to have a voice in politics, and even if they had been, had no ideas, owing to their uneducated condition. Thus they always stood in a difficult relation to the Samurai. There never was, indeed, a merchant who