Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/139

 dens in her daily life. A concubine acquired by this new legislation the status of a second-grade relative, but the system was purely morganatic, the law peremptorily refusing to recognise two wives.

The edicts of the era embodied an excellent code of ethics. Such virtues were inculcated as industry, integrity, frugality, simplicity of funeral rites, diligent transaction of business even during periods of mourning, and the exclusion of mercenary motives from marriage contracts. Further, the new democratic principle extracted from the Confucian cult—the principle that the throne must be based on the good will of the nation at large, and that full consideration should be given to the views of the lower orders—found practical expression in the erection of numerous petition-boxes wherein men were invited to deposit a statement of grievances demanding redress, and in the hanging of bells which were to be rung when it was desired to bring any trouble of a pressing nature to official notice. Codes of laws were also framed.

An interesting fact shown by this legislation is that the economical principle of a common title to the use of land received recognition, practically at all events, in ancient Japan. Looking as far back as history throws its light, it is seen that the Crown's right of eminent domain was an established doctrine, but that, during the era of patriarchal government, large tracts of land