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assistance of foreign professors we founded an Engineering College, now incorporated in the Tokyo University. From this institution have come the majority of engineers who are now working the resources and industries of Japan. I consider the establishment of this college as one of the most important factors in the development of Japan of to-day.

It was most necessary that Japan should not only be educated, but also provided with suitable codes of laws, before there could be any question of a revision of the treaties with foreign nations, and for a considerable time all our efforts were turned in this direction.

There are two events in Japanese history that have been all-important. The first was the change of régime of government of the country and the promulgation of the Constitution, and the other was the Chino-Japanese War. I spent much time away from Japan studying the Constitutions of various countries, the Emperor having ordered me to undertake the arduous task of framing a draft of the new Japanese Constitution. The work was very difficult and necessitated much thought. Never before had there been a Constitution, in the modern sense of the word, in Japan, to help me to know what were the most vital points to be provided for in the new code. The country had been so essentially a non-constitutional and feudal one that it was difficult to sit down on the débris of its past history and prepare off-hand a Constitution for it; and even when I had decided as to what was most necessary, it required very great care to insure the proper working and execution of the various provisions. I had always to remember that my work was intended as a permanent measure, and therefore I had to examine all the possible effects likely to arise from it in the distant future. Above all, there was the pre-eminent importance to be attached to the necessity of safeguarding the sacred and traditional rights of the Sovereign. With the assistance of my secretaries and collaborators—all of them as devoted to the work as myself—I accomplished my task as well as I could, and it is not without some satisfaction that I see that it has not been found necessary to amend the Constitution since its promulgation.

The old election law, however, having been found unsatisfactory, we have introduced an improved one, one of the principal changes in which is that the voting is by secret ballot, instead of by signed ballot, as at present; another important change being the insertion of provisions for more ample representation of commercial and industrial elements of the country, and the business tax. According to the new law, if any candidate should resort to corrupt means to secure his election, the proceedings would become, owing to the secrecy of the ballot,