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dynamite shell thrown into his carriage by Tsuneki Kurushima, ex-samurai of Fukuoka, who instantly cut his own throat, with a sharp dagger, and died on the spot. Luckily, the wound of Count Okuma was not mortal, but the amputation of his left leg prevented him from taking part in the affairs of State for some months. The Kuroda Cabinet resigned on the 25th, and in the difficulty of finding a new Premier among the active statesmen of the day, the Emperor called out Prince Sanjo from his retirement, and entrusted him with the formation of the next Cabinet. Thus was brought to an end the fifth attempt at treaty revision.

In December, Marquis General Yamagata formed a new Cabinet, and Viscount Aoki was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The next year, 1890, was a busy one in the political history of Japan, for it was in this year that the Imperial Diet was to be assembled for the first time, and the new Constitution put into execution. Many new things had to be done before legislation should become hampered by the addition of new machinery, whose action and working nobody could foresee, and among other laws hastily ‘crammed,’ so as to speak, at this time were the civil and commercial codes, civil procedure, and the law on the organization of the Courts of Justice. They were all prepared by the Board of Codification, transferred to the Judicial Department immediately after the retirement of Count Inouye; the civil code was drafted by M. de Boissonade; the commercial code by the distinguished German jurist, Dr. Roesler; the civil procedure and the law on the organization of the Courts of Justice by another German jurist, Dr. Rudolf. Many were the objections against these hasty codifications, and the Senate, which was soon to give place to the Imperial Diet, rejected them, but the necessity of their completion as preliminary steps to treaty revision, and the fear that the coming Diet might never pass them, induced the Yamagata Cabinet boldly to promulgate them in the early part of 1890. The law for the organization of the Courts of Justice came into force on the 1st of November, 1891; the commercial code and the civil procedure on the 1st of January, 1892; and the civil code, which was to take effect on the 1st of January, 1893, was postponed by a law passed by the Diet in its first session till five years later. It is fair to add that the civil and the commercial codes were afterwards carefully revised with the consent of the Diet, so that they now suit Japanese life and institutions perfectly well, and no loud complaint is heard of their being foreign in origin.

As the day for the first election in 1890 approached, the political life of the people, with its parties, papers, meetings,