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the view of initiating the Japanese into the benefit of Customs revenue, and was therefore quite fair. He openly told the Tokugawa officers that the items might not be in accordance with the real economical interests of Japan, so that Japan should work out its own problem by the practical experience of international trading. It was therefore quite regrettable that the Tokugawa Government should have succumbed to the pressure of the Powers in 1866, and by the articles signed in Osaka by the representatives of Japan, England, United States, France, and Holland, on the 25th of June of that year, consented to lowering the Customs duties on all imports to 5 per cent., excepting the few articles respecting which prohibitive tariffs were agreed upon.

Now the treaties, together with the tariff rates, were revisable on or after the 1st of July, 1872, subject to one year’s previous notification, and the new Imperial Government had already proclaimed its intention ‘to proceed to their early revision’ by the decree issued immediately after its formation, on the 10th of January, 1868. But how was the consent of the Powers to be obtained?

The fourth year of the new Imperial Government, 1871, is memorable as one in which the last trace of feudalism was done away with. The Daimyos, to whom had been entrusted the government of their ancient domains as provinces of the empire, were now relieved of their functions, and were superseded by the regularly appointed Governors removable at the will of the central Government. A uniform system of coinage was also established, and provincial paper moneys of all kinds and values exchanged with the new Imperial currency.

Externally the establishment of regular diplomatic intercourse with China and the Western Powers was considered to be necessary in order to proceed to the solution of the questions above mentioned, and the same year saw the sending of two important missions abroad—one to China, and the other to Europe and America.

On the 27th of April, 1871, Muneki Date, ex-Daimyo and Minister of Finance, was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Peking, and Lord Yanagiwara and Shindo Tsuda were associate envoys. The mission stayed for two months in China, and signed with Li-Hung-Chang, on the 29th of July, 1871, the treaty of peace and friendship, accompanied by the commerce regulations and a tariff table. According to this treaty, criminal jurisdiction over the Japanese in China belongs