The history of the world certainly tends to prove that paper
Constitutions have not been over-successful in the past. There
assuredly has been no lack of them in the last century or so, and
although some, if not all, of them have been practically tried, a very
few have attained any considerable measure of success. The English
Constitution has long been held up to the rest of the world by writers
on Constitutional history as a model of what a Constitution ought to
be, for the somewhat paradoxical reason that it is nowhere clearly, if
indeed at all, defined. It is largely the outcome of custom and usage,
and it is claimed for it that on the whole it has worked better than
any cut-and-dried paper Constitution would have done.

Nevertheless there does not appear to be any good and valid reason why
a Constitution should not be as clearly defined as an Act of
Parliament. Undefined Constitutions have worked well at certain
periods when there was a tacit general consent as to their meaning,
but they have not always been able to withstand the strain of fierce
controversy and the coming into existence of factors which were
undreamt of when these Constitutions were originally evolved, and
definitions or additions or amendments thereto have, accordingly,
become necessary.

The promulgation of a Constitution for Japan in February, 1889, was an
event of great interest to the civilised world. There were, of course,
at the time a large number of persons who prophesied that this
Constitution would go the way of many others that had preceded
it--that it would, in fact, be found unworkable and, being so found,
Constitutional Government in Japan would eventuate, as it had
elsewhere, in the resumption of autocratic rule as the only
alternative to anarchy. It is pleasing to be able to record that these
prophecies have, after nearly eighteen years' experience, not been
fulfilled, and that the Japanese Constitution, well thought out and
devised as it was, seems not only likely to endure but is admirably
adapted to all the circumstances and needs of the country.

In order to fully comprehend the events that gradually led up to the
establishment of Constitutional government in Japan, and the precise
place of the Crown and aristocracy in that government, it is, I think,
essential to make a rapid review of past events in that country.

In ancient times the Mikado was both the civil ruler and the military
leader of his people. Under him there