Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/50

 imposition of taxes and certain extortions with their collection. But of the Tokugawa chiefs and their agents it must be said that the uniform tendency of their administration was to lighten burdens and to correct abuses; that wholesome employment of power was the rule, its perversion to evil ends the exception, and that their most conspicuous faults were unwisely drastic attempts to restrain by legislation vices which only ethical progress could successfully correct.

The most important officials after the above, though not the highest in rank, were the "Magistrates" (Bugyo) and the "Deputies" (Daikwan). In every urban district one or more Magistrates were posted and in every rural district there was a Deputy. That was the Tokugawa system, and most of the feudal nobles followed it in their dominions. The Magistrates were the chief civil administrators of the region where they officiated, and had also the duty of making tours of inspection as well as of dispensing justice in cases appealed from the Deputy's Court or incapable of settlement by tribunals of arbitration which will be presently referred to. There are three ranks of magistrate, the Temple Magistrate, the City Magistrate, and the Finance Magistrate, the different scope of whose duties may be roughly gathered from their titles.

The Deputy has been well described as a combination of judge and revenue officer. His func-