they consulted the codes and laws of
Austria, Montenegro, Prussia, Saxony, Switzerland, and the draft Civil
Code of the German Empire. As representing the English system they
consulted the leading American and English reports and treatises, the
draft Civil Code of New York, and the codes of California and British
India.[5]

[4] I refer to Professors Hodzumi, Tomii, and Ume. Prof.
Hodzumi is a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, and is
one of the ablest representatives of English law in Japan.
Prof. Tomii is a _Docteur en Droit_ of the Facility of
Lyons, and is by far the ablest expounder of the French
codes in Japan. Prof. Ume, though a bearer of the same
degree from the same Faculty as Prof. Tomii, has attended
several German universities, and is more of the German
school than of the French. The Commission itself consisted
of several other distinguished personages, with the Prime
Minister at the head. But these three professors composed
what was called the "Compilation Committee," so that
practically they were the Commission.

[5] Prof. Ume, a member of the Commission, is responsible
for these statements so far as they relate to the codes and
laws consulted. The classifications, however, are my own.

After four years of the most constant application the Commission
submitted in 1896 a revisal of a part of the original draft. Had the
Commission had the entire code revised they could not have shown
greater wisdom. For the parts incomplete were those dealing with the
Family Law and Successions, and the Commission remembered that these
were the parts that occasioned the most vital objections to the old
code. The Parliament referred the revised draft code to a Committee of
their own, of which Mr. Hatoyama, the present Speaker, was made the
chairman. After making a careful examination and some important
modifications, Mr. Hatoyama reported favorably to its adoption. The
Parliament acted according to his advice, and the draft became the
law.

In its general arrangement the new code follows what the German
jurists call the Pandekten system. It is divided into five general
parts. Part I is called "S[=o]soku," or General Laws, and deals with
persons, natural and artificial, as the subjects of rights; with
things as the objects of rights; and with juristic acts as setting