o nationalities than can be either imagined or
described, and, considering their contiguity, it is indeed surprising
that they have scarcely a habit or a pursuit in common. The mind of
the modern Japanese is progressive and acquisitive. The mind of the
Chinaman of the nineteenth century, as far as he allows it to be seen,
is as torpid and retrogressive as his ancestors of the Confucian
period.

"Up to the year 1868 Japan was governed jointly by a Tycoon and a
Mikado together with a council of the Daimios, or great feudal
princes, in whose hands all real power rested. The spiritual sovereign
was the Mikado, nominally the chief ruler, the Tycoon being considered
his first subject. All enactments required his sanction. The office of
the Tycoon was hereditary and he gradually absorbed all the powers of
the State. In 1868 a revolution occurred which culminated in the
overthrow of the spiritual head and the seating of the Tycoon on the
throne as an hereditary prince with the title of Mikado. There is now
no such person as a Tycoon in Japan. The insurrection of 1868 also saw
the downfall of the Daimios or feudal princes of Japan. These princes
had each standing armies of their own, and administered justice in
their own territories. Their retainers were the famous two-sworded men
so long a terror to Europeans, and who strongly objected to any
intercourse with foreigners, probably foreseeing its inevitable
result. In 1868 the whole of these ferocious men were disarmed, and a
standing army modelled on the French fashion established for the
defence of the Empire. The Japanese Navy was organised about the same
time by an English officer, and at first consisted of a few obsolete
American and English men-of-war. That, however, is now a thing of the
past, the Japanese Government having during the past few years spent
many millions in purchasing modern ironclads and other vessels of the
most approved type, and the Japanese Navy bids fair before long to
become a power in the Far East.

"Concerning the oft-debated question of Japanese morality I can say
little. Their ideas on the subject are, to put it mildly, somewhat
lax, and would no doubt shock any one strongly imbued with morality as
it is in vogue (theoretically) in European countries. That there is
not that privacy between the sexes which prevails in other countries
may be indicated by the fact that men and women make their ablutions
together in the public wash-houses. Neverthel