ocedure have been entirely changed; thoroughly efficient
systems of police, of posts, of telegraphs, and of national education have
been organized; an army and a navy modelled after Western patterns have
been formed; the finances of the Empire have been placed on a sound basis;
railways, roads, and harbours have been constructed; an efficient
mercantile marine has sprung into existence; the jail system has been
radically improved; an extensive scheme of local government has been put
into operation; a competitive civil service has been organized; the whole
fiscal system has been revised; an influential and widely-read newspaper
press has grown up with extraordinary rapidity; and government by
parliament has been substituted for monarchical absolutism."(1) At the
present day, an Englishman travelling in Japan is constantly meeting
numbers of his countrymen, intent on either business or pleasure; while at
all the principal cities and places of resort, handsome new hotels, fitted
in Western style, are to be found. The Mikado may be seen driving through
his Capital in a carriage that would not be out of place in the Parks of
London or Paris; and at Court ceremonies European dress is _de rigueur_.
English is taught in all the better-class schools, and at the Universities
the works of such authors as Bacon, Locke, Macaulay, Darwin, John Stuart
Mill, Herbert Spencer, are in constant request with the students. In
short, on every side evidence is afforded, that be it for better or for
worse, the old order is fast changing and giving place to new.

The circumstances which have brought about these wonderful changes can
only be very briefly indicated here. It was towards the middle of the
sixteenth century that Japan first came into contact with the Western
world; the first traders to arrive being the Portuguese, who were followed
some sixty years later by the Dutch, and in 1613 by a few English ships.
To all of these alike a hospitable reception appears to have been
accorded; nor is there any doubt that Japanese exclusiveness was a thing
of subsequent growth, and that it was based only on a sincere conviction
that the nation's well-being and happiness would be best consulted by
refusing to have dealings with the outer world. And indeed, that the
Japanese should have arrived at this decision is by no means to be
wondered at; their first experience of foreign intercourse having been
singularly unfortunate. The unhappy breach, which eve