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and no interference in it by the Diet should be allowed. The power of determining the organization of the army and navy, when minutely examined, embraces the organization of military divisions and of fleets, and all matters relating to military districts and subdistricts, to the storing up and distribution of arms, to the education of military and of naval men, to inspections, to discipline, to modes of salutes, to styles of uniforms, to guards, to fortifications, to naval defences, to naval ports, and to preparations for military and naval expeditions. The determining of the peace standing includes also the fixing of the number of men to be recruited each year.

13. Declarations of war, conclusions of peace and of treaties with foreign countries, are the exclusive rights of the Sovereign, concerning which no consent of the Diet is required. For, in the first place, it is desirable that a monarch should manifest the unity of the sovereign power that represents the State in its intercourse with foreign powers; and, in the second, in war and treaty matters, promptness in forming plans according to the nature of the crisis is of paramount importance. By ‘treaties’ is meant treaties of peace and friendship, of commerce and of alliance.

14. A state of siege is to be declared at the time of a foreign war or of a domestic insurrection, for the purpose of placing all ordinary law in abeyance, and of entrusting part of the administrative and judicial powers to military measures. It is expressly provided that the conditions requisite for the declaration of a state of siege and the effect of the declaration shall be determined by law, and that in pursuance of the provisions thereof it appertains exclusively to the sovereign power of the Emperor, under stress of circumstances, to declare or to revoke a state of siege. By ‘conditions’ is meant the nature of the crisis when a state of siege is to be declared, the necessary limits as to territorial extent affected, and rules needful for making the declaration. By ‘effect’ is meant the limit of the power called into force as the result of the declaration of a state of siege.

The exercise of the right of warfare in the field, or of the declaration of a state of siege, as the exigency of circumstances may require, may be entrusted to the commanding officer of the place, who is allowed to take the actual steps his discretion dictates, and then to report to the Government. This is to be regarded as a delegation of the sovereign power of the Emperor to a General in command of an army, in order to meet the stress of emergencies, according to the provisions of the law (Notification No. 36, issued in the 15th year of Meiji, A.D. 1882).

15. The Emperor is the fountain of honour. It belongs to the sovereign power of the Emperor to reward merit, to require services, to mark distinguished conduct and praiseworthy under-