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JAPAN BY THE JAPANESE

differential tariff unless under special treaty arrangements. Moreover, if it be deemed necessary for promoting foreign trade, export duties will be abolished, and new treaty ports will be opened, although cabotage must be left to the entire control of the Japanese Government.’

The United States readily agreed to Count Terajima’s proposal, and the new treaty, signed in Washington, was published here on the 25th of July, 1878, but it was not to come into force until Japan had concluded similar treaties with the other Powers, or greatly modified the existing ones. As tariff reform affected England the most, so the British Minister, Sir Harry Parkes, strongly opposed the revision, and the efforts of Count Terajima seemed doomed to failure, when an unlucky incident put an abrupt end to this affair. In 1878 an Englishman named Hartley secretly imported opium in violation of the treaty, but Japan had no jurisdiction over foreigners, so the case was brought before the British Consul, who acquitted the prisoner on some ground or other. This greatly enraged the Japanese public, who now deemed the measures of Count Terajima as insufficient, and cried for tariff and judicial reforms at the same time. Count Terajima tendered his resignation, which was accepted.

The next Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Inouye, also ardently worked for the revision in concert with the Councillor Count Okuma. The new penal code and the law of criminal procedure compiled by the French jurist, M. de Boissonade, and voted by the Senate, the only existing legislative body at the time, was promulgated in July 1880, and seemed to pave the way for their success. The plan of Counts Inouye and Okuma was to recover both tariff autonomy and judicial independence, not at once, but by degrees, by negotiating with the Powers, not separately as did Count Terajima, but conjointly in the form of a diplomatic conference to be held at the Foreign Office in Tokyo. The main treaty was drawn up on the basis of perfect equality, but to it were attached a memorandum restricting jurisdiction over foreigners for a certain number of years, and separate articles on commerce and navigation by which the tariff rates were greatly revised to our advantage, but autonomy was far from being realized. The negotiations were conducted under great secrecy, but the drafts were published by the Yokohama Herald, through the indiscretion of the Dutch Minister, and the discontent of the public opinion at such a partial measure soon became very loud. The Dutch Minister was recalled, and the negotiations were dropped. Thus ended the third attempt at treaty revision in 1880.

Count Okuma, having become the leader of the first political