il by the
ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. This anxiety on
Japan's part to rid herself of this shameful regime imposed upon her
against her will, will not appear surprising when the fact is learnt
that one Occidental nation went so far as to call her consul at
Yokohama, "Her Britannic Majesty's the Most Honourable Court for
Japan"--a name almost enough to imply that Japan was a British
province. Extra-territoriality rests upon the assumption that the laws
and procedure of the non-Christian nations are so unlike to and
different from those of the Christian nations that without the
protection of this system the safety and well-being of the subjects of
the latter sojourning in the territory of the former would be placed
in constant jeopardy. Accordingly in the early seventies Japan came to
the conclusion that the only possible way of emancipating herself from
the disgraceful yoke of extra-territoriality was to adopt one of the
systems of law obtaining in the Christian world and compile a code of
law based upon that system, and applicable alike to the Japanese and
to the foreigners residing in Japan.

There were three such systems--the Anglo-American, the French, and the
Germanic Roman--each offering itself for adoption. Mr. Yeto
Shimpei,[2] who became the Minister of Justice in 1872, seems to have
had a personal preference for the French system. He called to his
assistance some of the most eminent jurists of France and entered upon
the work of drafting a code. At the same time he established in Tokio
a law school known as the "Department of Justice Annex Law School," in
which French law was taught by those same jurists whom he had called
from France. About this time there was also established in the
University of Tokio a law school in which instruction was given
chiefly in English law. It was while teaching in this university law
school that Mr. Henry T. Terry (a New York lawyer and an alumnus of
Yale College) wrote his memorable book on English law, designed
especially for the use of Japanese law students. From henceforth
"Terry's Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law" became as familiar
to them as are "Blackstone's Commentaries" to the law students of this
country.

[2] Those who have followed the course of events in Japan
since the beginning of the new era will remember that upon
the return of Prince Iwakura, in 1873, from his
around-the-world embassy, Mr. Yeto