Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/59

 of her judicial autonomy, the whole country should be thrown open, and all limitations upon the trade, travel, and residence of foreigners should be removed throughout the length and breadth of the land. As to tariff autonomy, it was arranged that Japan should recover it after a period of twelve years, and that in the interval a greatly increased scale of import duties should be applied.

Thus Great Britain took the lead in releasing Japan from the fetters of the old system. The initiative came from her with special grace, for the system and all its irksome consequences had been imposed on Japan originally by a combination of Powers with England in the van. As a matter of historical sequence, the United States dictated the terms of the first treaty providing for consular jurisdiction. But from a very early period the Washington Government showed its willingness to remove all limitations of Japan's sovereignty, whereas Europe, headed by England, whose preponderating interest entitled her to the place of leader, resolutely refused to make any substantial concession. In Japan's eyes, therefore, British conservatism seemed to be the one serious obstacle to her international enfranchisement, and since the British residents in the Settlements far outnumbered all other nationalities, alone had newspaper organs to ventilate their grievances, and exhibited all a Briton's proverbial indifference to the suavities and courtesies of speech and method that count for so much in