ossible towards that
consummation. But the rulers of Japan are not mere sentimentalists;
they have to recognise facts, and recognising facts they have done
what seems best to them under the circumstances.

As regards commercial morality, I believe even the European merchants
and traders in the country admit that there has of late years been a
marked improvement. In old Japan commercialism was looked down upon.
Making a profit out of buying and selling was regarded as degrading;
those who indulged in such practices were despised, and not
unnaturally the trader, finding himself a member of a contemned class,
lived down to the low level on which he had been placed. In old Japan
traders, in the presence of the Samurai, were, when addressing him,
required to touch the ground with their foreheads; when talking to him
they had to keep their hands on the ground. Such a state of things, of
course, has long been effete, but the influences thereof remained for
a considerable time after the acts had ceased. There has now been
effected a revulsion of feeling in such matters. Commerce is honoured,
trade is esteemed, and the Japan of to-day is convinced of the fact
that on her commerce, trade, and industries the future of the country
largely depends. Men of the highest rank, men of the greatest culture,
men of the deepest probity are now embarked in trade and commerce in
Japan; the whole moral atmosphere connected with trade has changed,
and there are at the present time no more honourable men in the whole
commercial world than those of Japan. In this matter there has
undoubtedly been an enormous advance in ideas and ideals. This
advance, I believe, is destined to extend in other directions--indeed,
in every direction. The Japan of to-day has, I think, so far as I have
been able to gauge it, a feeling--a deep feeling, which perhaps I can
best describe as _noblesse oblige_. It is sensible of the position the
country has attained; it is full of hope and enthusiasm for the future
thereof; it believes implicitly that it is incumbent on it not only to
attain but to maintain a high moral standard in every direction. It
has been urged as against the Japan of to-day by a writer on the
subject that Spencer and Mill and Huxley have been widely read by the
educated classes, and that Western thought and practice as to the
structure of society and the freedom of the individual have been
emphasised throughout the country. I confess to feeling no al