Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/58

 for the moment at all events, seriously hostile criticism on the part of the nation, there gradually grew up among the people, pari passu, with journalistic development, with the study of international law, and with the organisation of political parties, a strong sense of what an independent State has a right to expect; and thus the longer the negotiations were protracted, the keener became the popular scrutiny to which they were subjected and the greater the general reluctance to endorse any irksome concessions. Had foreign diplomacy recognised the growth of that sentiment and been content to take moderate advantage of the Japanese negotiators' mood, the issue might have been comparatively satisfactory to foreigners. But by asking too much and haggling too long. Western statesmen lost their opportunity of obtaining any substantial guarantees, and had ultimately to hand over their nationals to Japanese jurisdiction virtually on trust.

The end was reached in 1894, when Great Britain agreed that after an interval of five years, ending in July, 1899, Japanese tribunals should assume jurisdiction over all British subjects within the confines of Japan, the only condition imposed being that the new Japanese codes of law — some of which had not yet emerged from the hands of the compilers — must have been in operation for a period of at least one year before the abolition of British Consular jurisdiction. Japan, on her side, undertook that, simultaneously with the recovery