The right of property of
every Japanese subject shall remain inviolate. Japanese subjects shall
enjoy freedom of religious belief. Japanese subjects shall enjoy
liberty of speech, writing, publication, public meetings and
associations. Japanese subjects may present petitions. We have in
these few brief provisoes the sum total of everything that, in effect,
constitutes the liberty of the subject.

The Diet of Japan, like the Parliament of Great Britain, consists of
two Houses--a House of Peers and a House of Representatives. The House
of Peers is composed of (1) the members of the Imperial family, (2)
Princes and Marquises, (3) Counts, Viscounts and Barons who are
elected thereto by the members of their respective orders, (4) persons
who have been specially nominated by the Emperor on account of
meritorious service or by reason of their erudition, (5) persons who
have been elected, one member for each city and prefecture of the
Empire, by and from among the taxpayers of the highest amount of
direct national taxes on land, industry, or trade, and who had
subsequently received the approval of the Emperor. It will be seen
that the members of the Imperial family, the Princes and Marquises,
have an inalienable right to sit in the House of Peers, the latter
rank on attaining the age of 25 years. In regard to Counts, Viscounts,
and Barons there is no such right. Those ranks, like the Peers of
Scotland and Ireland, meet together and select one-fifth of their
number to represent them in the House of Peers for a term of seven
years. Any subject over thirty years of age nominated by the Emperor
for meritorious service or erudition remains a life member. Those
returned by the cities and prefectures remain members for a period of
seven years. It is provided by the Constitution that the number of
members of the House of Peers who are not nobles shall not exceed the
number of the members bearing a title of nobility.

The question of the necessity for the existence of a second chamber
and the composition thereof has been keenly debated in this and other
countries of recent years. It seems to me that in this matter Japan
has hit upon the happy mean. She has combined in her House of Peers
the aristocratic or hereditary element in a modified degree with the
principle of life membership by which she secures the services and
counsel of the great intellects of the land, and such as have done the
State good service in any capacity. At the s