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accomplished before the close of the nineteenth century. At the same time, the war with China gave rise to many fresh problems for Japanese diplomacy concerning China and Corea, generally known as the ‘Far Eastern Questions,’ most of which have not yet found any definite solution, so that our history must end here for the time being.

For the organization of diplomatic service in Japan a few words must suffice. By the 13th Article of the Constitution the power of deciding over peace and war, and of making treaties and conventions, rests in the Emperor. This article is so interpreted that in Japan the conduct of diplomatic affairs, like the conduct of military and naval affairs, forms a part of the Imperial prerogative, and lies entirely outside the rights of the Imperial Diet. If the execution of a diplomatic act calls for something which, according to the Constitution, can be done only by force of law, such a law will be submitted to the deliberation of the Diet as law, but the diplomatic act itself never requires the assent of the Assembly for its validity. Similarly the resolution of the Diet regarding diplomatic questions has no binding effect, and can at best only take the form of an address to the Emperor or memorandum to the Government. Interpellations regarding foreign policies are generally met by the answer that such and such a matter is beyond the power of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to answer.

Such absolute power of the Sovereign in diplomatic affairs is under ordinary circumstances exercised by his Cabinet Council, and only in rare, exceptional cases does the Emperor directly commission his Minister of Foreign Affairs to conduct a special diplomatic business without reference to the Cabinet Council, as we have seen in the case of the treaty revision. By the 5th Article of the Ordinance on the organization of the Imperial Cabinet all treaties and conventions and important international affairs have to be submitted to the Cabinet Council, and hence the real head of Japanese Diplomacy is the Minister President, and not the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who usually takes the initiative, but can decide nothing of weight by himself. This is the internal arrangement, but outwardly it is of course the Minister of Foreign Affairs who represents the Imperial Government towards foreign Governments and their representatives in Japan, and also gives instructions to the Japanese Ministers abroad. Knowing that nothing of weight can be decided without a Cabinet Council, foreign Ministers in Tokyo sometimes go to the Minister President directly for the negotiation of an affair at hand, but