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by very small, very civil policemen in European-cut alpaca coats and white duck trousers, before whom, however, the peasants and lower classes bow with much of the abject terror with which they formerly prostrated themselves before the nobles.

"The mystery of a "spiritual Emperor," secluded in Kiôto, and a "temporal Emperor" reigning in Yedo, no longer exists; the Shogunate (of which each writer adopts a different mode of spelling) is abolished; Yedo has become Tôkiyô; the daimyo, shorn of their power and titles, have retired into private life; the "two-sworded "men 22 are extinct, and the Mi-kado, a modern-looking man in European dress, reigns by divine right in Tôkiyô, with European appliances of ironclads, Armstrong and needle guns, and the prestige of being the one hundred and twenty-third in descent from the sun-goddess, the chief deity in the Pantheon of the national religion. His government is a modified despotism, with tendencies at times in a constitutional direction. Slavery is unknown, and class disabilities no longer exist.... Politically, old Japan is no more. The grandeur of its rulers, its antique chivalry, its stately etiquette, its ceremonial costumes, its punctilious suicides, and its codes of honour, only exist on the stage. Its traditional customs, its rigid social order, its formal politeness, its measured courtesies, its innumerable and enslaving superstitions, linger still in the interior, specially in the regions where a debased and corrupt form of Buddhism holds sway. Over great districts of country which I traversed, from Nikko to Ao-mori, the rumble of the wheels of progress is scarcely yet heard, and the Japanese peasant lives and thinks as his fathers lived and thought before him.' (Unbeaten Tracks, vol. i. p. 8.)

Progress, we must however hint, is not necessarily identical with change. Japan at this moment presents a scene more instructive than almost any other to be found on the surface of the world, if only we were in a position thoroughly to understand the changes that have recently occurred and those which are still in progress. For that, however, details are wanting, and are, we fear, likely to be wanting. As far as the interior is concerned, the great feature of the recent revolution is the abolition of the territorial aristocracy-a movement which a large number of ignorant persons in Europe regard as a sort of commencement of the millennium. Of the actual effect of that great change on the teeming peasantry of Japan we have not the means of forming an opinion. But as to their present material condition, so far as can be gathered from the observations of the tourist, no evidence is forthcoming to show that it is in any way whatever an improvement upon the past.

An otherwise inexplicable anomaly we feel disposed to ex

plain rather by the failure of the traveller to get at the kernel of the matter than in any more elaborate way. We refer to the contrast presented between the extreme poverty and misery attributed to the people on the one hand, and their marvellous industry, their unquestionable ingenuity, the fertility of the soil, the advanced condition of the processes of agriculture, and the light incidence of the taxes on the other hand. The public revenue of Japan for the financial year 1879-80 is given us from official sources at 11,130,000l. The population of the empire is stated at 34,358,404 souls, or about 230 to the square mile. Thus the incidence of taxation in the gross is but 6s. 6d. per head; and if we deduct export and import duties, profits of industrial works, receipts from government property, and refunding of advances, this is reduced to about 5s. 10d. The bulk of the income of the State is derived from the land tax, amounting to 8,250,0007., being at the rate of about 1s. 9d. an acre. In this, however, account has to be taken of untilled and waste land on the one hand, and, on the other hand, of the fact that there is nothing in the way of house or assessed taxes. The tax on alcoholic liquors amounts to little more than 10 per cent. of the land tax, and that on tobacco does not amount to 4d. per head per annum. These cannot be regarded as heavy imposts. As to the wages of the people, a scale was formed, for the service of the railway contractors, of from 8d. to 11d. per day for the three classes of common labourers, and from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 8d. per day for those of skilled workmen. Thus little more than three days of the work of a carpenter, out of the 365, would be enough to pay his proportion of taxes, if a bachelor; and a fortnight out of the twenty-six would be enough if he had four other persons to support. When we learn then that to the two-tenths of the area of Japan which is under tillage a garden cultivation is applied, that the variety of climate affords produce ranging from wheat and grapes to banana and sugar cane, that rice affords an abundant supply of food, and that fish is everywhere accessible as a cheap article of diet, we feel sure that there must be something which has not yet been told if the Japanese peasant is anything but extremely well off, according to his own peculiar notions of comfort.

Under the rule of the Siogoms or Shoguns, the 3,850 islands and islets which form the empire of Japan were divided into ten provinces, each of which contained one or more lordships belonging to feudal princes, who enjoyed a large amount of independence, and received considerable revenues. Thus the prince of Ksiou had a patrimonial revenue amount

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ing to 355,2007.; the prince of Aki, a revenue of 279,0407.; the prince of Nagato, 236,1607.; the prince of Bidzen 198,4007. How far these large sums are now represented by the imperial taxation is one of those points on which information is desirable.

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As an instance of the manner in which the reader will be misled who relies on any abstract of second-hand information with regard to Japan, we cannot forbear citing a note furnished by Sir E. J. Reed on the Japanese alphabet. In the Japanese language,' he says (vol. ii. p. 56), there are forty-seven syllables, by the combination of which, and of a supplementary character corresponding to n placed at the end of the syllable, all the words of the language may be represented.' A table follows, from which the reader is justified in coming to the conclusion that five vowels, and nine, or at the outside eleven consonants, are enough to form all the primary syllables of Japanese words. The idea naturally suggests itself to the mind that an immense simplification of the written language would be extremely easy, and that the adoption of European letters, or even of the Morse symbols, is a reform at once so ready and so useful that it may safely be anticipated.

If we turn, however, to such an authority as Ballhorn, we find that the I-RO-FA, or A, B, C of Japanese, contains indeed forty-seven original symbols, but that the number is raised to seventy-three by the addition of the accents nigori and maru, as well as of the n unattended by a vowel. Nigori consists of two minute marks at the right of the syllable, and softens the consonant. Maru, a single dot, also at the right, hardens it. Thus the fifty letters or syllables tabulated by Sir E. Reed give little or no idea of the full number of sounds in the language. The alphabet given by Ballhorn is in the Katakana character, and the type used was cut under the direction of Professor J. Hoffmann of Leyden, and cast by M. Tetterode in Rotterdam. A Katakana syllabary is also engraved by M. Humbert (vol. ii. p. 33), the signs of which, somewhat more freely drawn than those of Ballhorn, do not always quite agree with the latter. These symbols are taken from the formal Chinese characters, being adapted rather than copied from 48 out of the 214 Chinese 'keys' or radicals. But alongside of the Katakana I-RO-FA is the Hirakana syllabary, founded on the cursive Chinese, containing also seventythree symbols. The two styles of writing have been immortalised by a Japanese artist, who has drawn, as an allegoric representation of the first, or noble, style, a grave personage enveloped in a flowing mantle, the outline of which is formed

by those movements of the pencil which form the Katakana letters. The companion figure, a beggar leaning on a crutch, is formed by the Hirakana symbols. The latter character is that used by women and by the lower classes. Children are first instructed in this, and only learn the Katakana later in life, if they require a more advanced knowledge of literature. In addition to this, the Japanese student is expected to acquire a sufficient knowledge of Chinese to be able to read the Conversations of Confucius,' or at least this was considered needful ten years ago.

The ethnography of the Japanese is a subject of considerable difficulty. The peaceful tribes of hunters and fishermen who, under the name of Ainos, are scattered along the coasts of the northern isles, are regarded as the remains of an aboriginal population. These Ainos, of whom Miss Bird appears to have seen more than any other traveller, show no trace of Mongol descent. They have neither the oblique and half-open eyes, the projecting cheek-bones, nor the thinly-plaited beards of their Turanian neighbours. They are so distinguished by the peculiarity of their hair, that M. Humbert says they look like contemporaries of the cave bears. The American geologist Bickmore, who has visited Yezo, regards them as furnishing a sole instance of an Aryan tribe driven into the wilds by the invasion of strange and inferior immigrants, instead of beingthemselves the invaders. The relics of the successive cities on the site of Hissarlik, however, seem to prove that this inversion of what we have been accustomed to regard as the usual course of history is by no means peculiar to Japan.

As in her visit to Yezo Miss Bird has ventured on a track more unbeaten than is the case in almost any part of her adventurous journey, we commence our notice of her sketches at this point.

The island of Yezo differs so much from the rest of Japan that it is exempt from the ordinary taxes. On the other hand, it is subject to special imposts which produce about 72,000l. a year. The Imperial Government is laying out large sums on the island, under the charge of a special department of the administration, called the Development Department.' The appropriation for last year exceeded 300,000l. The objects of the outlay are twofold. One is to provide a field for the reception of emigrants from the over-peopled districts of Japan; the other is to build up a bulwark against Russia, the unscrupulous and aggressive character of which State is fully understood by the Japanese. The ultimate importance of the

VOL. CLIV. NO. CCCXV.

K

island is assured by its enormous coal-fields. The fisheries are most abundant, salmon being the chief fish caught. This is not only sent through all the interior of Japan, but is also exported to China. Hakodaté, the northern treaty port, has a deep and magnificent harbour, and is a flourishing city of 37,000 souls. Its foreign trade, however, is sinking to nothing, while Japanese commerce thrives. In 1859, when Sir Rutherford Alcock visited the place to instal the British Consul, the population was only 6,000 souls.

'Separated from the main island of Japan by the Isagaru Strait, and from Saghalien by the narrow strait of La Perouse, in shape an irregular triangle, extending from long. 139° 50′ E. to long. 146° E., and from lat. 41° 30′ N. to lat. 45° 30′ N., its most northern point considerably south of the Land's End, Yezo has a climate of singular severity, a heavy snowfall, and, in its northern parts, a Siberian winter. Its area is 35,739 square miles, or considerably larger than that of Ireland, while its estimated population is only 123,000. The island is a mountain mass, with plains well grassed and watered. Impenetrable jungles and swamps cover much of its area. It has several active volcanoes, and the quietude of some of its extinct ones is not to be relied upon. Its forests and swamps are drained by innumerable short, rapid rivers, which are subject to violent freshets. In riding round the coast they are encountered every two or three miles, and often detain the traveller for days on their margins. The largest is the Ishkari, famous for salmon.

"The coast has few safe harbours, and, though exempt from typhoons, is swept by heavy gales and a continuous surf. The cultivated land is mainly in the neighbourhood of the sea, with the excep tion of the extensive plain around Satsuporo. The interior is forestcovered, and the supplies of valuable timber are nearly inexhaustible, and include thirty-six kinds of valuable timber trees. Openings in the forest are heavily grassed with the Eulalia japonica, a grass higher than the head of a man on horseback; and the forest itself is rendered impassable, not only by a dense growth of the tough and rigid dwarf bamboo, which attains a height of eight feet, but by ropes and nooses of various vines, lianas in fact, which grow profusely everywhere. The soil is usually rich, and the summer being warm is favourable to the growth of most cereals and root crops. The climate is not well suited to rice, but wheat ripens everywhere. Most of the crops which grow in the northern part of the main island flourish in Yezo, and English fruit trees succeed better than in any part of Japan. I never saw finer crops anywhere than in Mombets, or Volcano Bay. Cleared land, from the richness of the soil formed by vegetable decomposition, is fitted to produce crops, as in America, for twenty years without manuring, and a regular and sufficient rainfall, as in England, obviates the necessity for irrigation.' (Unbeaten Tracks, vol. ii. p. 1.)

Game abounds in the forests of the interior. Grouse, hares, quail, snipe, teal, woodcock, wild duck, venison, and deer are

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