Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/82

 undecided cases had accumulated, became thus an object of derision to the authorities in Yedo, and was liable to removal for incompetence, it is recorded that marked improvement soon manifested itself. The petition-box (meyasu-bako), spoken of in a previous chapter, contributed materially to the same end, for complaints about undue delay in adjudicating law-suits were among the documents that people received a special invitation to forward through that channel.

Encouragement given to informers was a marked feature of the Tokugawa system. Not only pardon, but in many cases substantial rewards, were bestowed on persons turning "King's evidence." Thus, in the days of the third Shōgun, Iyemitsu (1623–1650), when the pastime of hawking was passionately affected by the Yedo Court, the law provided that anyone finding a hawk's nest should be handsomely remunerated, and that to him and to the other four members of the "five-men guild" to which he belonged should be entrusted the remunerative duty of taking care of the young hawks; whereas if anyone concealed the nest or robbed it, he and his fellow-members became liable to death, and an informer, although particeps criminis, was to receive a reward of fifty pounds. Again, in cases of incendiarism, one of the guilty parties might not only avoid punishment, but also obtain thirty pieces of silver by giving information, and a sum of about one hundred pounds together with