tatistical
statement of the present attainments of New Japan. Such information
may be procured from Henry Norman's "Real Japan," Ransome's "Japan in
Transition," and Newton's "Japan: Country, Court, and People." It is
enough for us to realize that Japan has wholly abandoned or profoundly
modified all the external features of her old, her distinctively
Oriental civilization and has replaced them by Occidental features. In
government, she is no longer arbitrary, autocratic, and hereditary,
but constitutional and representative. Town, provincial, and national
legislative assemblies are established, and in fairly good working
order, all over the land. The old feudal customs have been replaced by
well codified laws, which are on the whole faithfully administered
according to Occidental methods. Examination by torture has been
abolished. The perfect Occidentalization of the army, and the creation
of an efficient navy, are facts fully demonstrated to the world. The
limited education of the few--- and in exclusively Chinese
classics--has given place to popular education. Common schools number
over 30,000, taught by about 100,000 teachers (4278 being women),
having over 4,500,000 pupils (over 1,500,000 being girls). The school
accommodation is insufficient; it is said that 30,000 additional
teachers are needed at once. Middle and high schools throughout the
land are rejecting nearly one-half of the student applicants for lack
of accommodation.

Feudal isolation, repression, and seclusion have given way to free
travel, free speech, and a free press. Newspapers, magazines, and
books pour forth from the universal printing press in great profusion.
Twenty dailies issue in the course of a year over a million copies
each, while two of them circulate 24,000,000 and 21,000,000 copies,
respectively.

Personal, political, and religious liberty has been practically secure
now for over two decades, guaranteed by the constitution, and enforced
by the courts.

Chinese medical practice has largely been replaced by that from the
West, although many of the ignorant classes still prefer the old
methods. The government enforces Western hygienic principles in all
public matters, with the result that the national health has improved
and the population is growing at an alarming rate. While in 1872 the
people numbered 33,000,000, in 1898 they numbered 45,000,000. The
general scale of living for the common people has also advanced
conspicuously. M