68,000 teachers and
2,319,000 pupils.[5] The following table shows the comparative history
of educational institutions within three years, 1878-1880 (inclusive):

Teachers. Pupils.
Year. Institutions. Male. Female. Male. Female.
1878 27,672 66,309 2,374 1,715,425 610,214
1879 29,362 71,757 2,803 1,771,641 608,205
1880 30,799 74,747 2,923 1,844,564 605,781

Furthermore, hundreds of students went abroad yearly, and returning,
powerfully influenced the destiny of their country.

III.--NEWSPAPERS.

It was in 1869 that the Emperor sanctioned the publication of
newspapers. Magazines, journals, periodicals and newspapers sprung up
in a night. The number of newspapers published in 1882 was about 113,
and of miscellaneous publications about 133. It is to be noted that
the newspapers defied the old censorship of prohibition under very
sanguinary pains and penalties. Their circulation increased every
year. The total newspaper circulation in 1874 was but 8,470,269,
while in 1877 it was 33,449,529. In his consular report of 1882,
Consul-General Van Buren makes an approximate estimate of the annual
aggregate circulation of a dozen noted papers of Tokio to be not less
than 29,000,000 copies.[6]

The publication of books and translations kept pace with the growth
of newspapers. Observing the effects of these literary activities, Mr.
Griffis well says: "It is the writer's firm belief, after nearly four
years of life in Japan, mingling among the progressive men of the
empire, that the reading and study of books printed in the Japanese
language have done more to transform the Japanese mind and to develop
an impulse in the direction of modern civilization than any other
cause or series of causes."

Meanwhile, great changes were affecting law and religion. Here it
is sufficient to observe that the old law which had been hitherto
altogether arbitrary--either the will of the Emperor or of the
Shogun--was revised on the model of the Napoleonic code and soon
published throughout the land. The use of torture to obtain testimony
was wholly and forever abolished.

With the incoming of Western science and Christianity, old faiths
began to lose their hold upon the people. The new religion spread
yearly. Missionary schools were instituted in several parts of the
country. Christian churches were built in almost all of the