Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/560

540 England, France, Russia, Austria, Italy, and Prussia, and consuls in China and several other countries. It has a foreign debt of over $30,000,000, a system of national banks based upon that of the national banks of the United States, custom houses with American inspectors, and paper money consisting of both government and national bank notes. There is a mint at Ozaka, built and equipped in modern style under English supervision. It coined in the year ending July 31, 1873, $25,162,614, and in 1872 $14,488,981 in gold, and from 1871 to 1873 $10,213,598 in silver. All the old gold and silver coinage of the empire has been called in, and the new round milled coins substituted. The new copper coinage appeared in 1874. The money system of the Japanese is decimal, the units being the yen, equal to the American dollar, and the sen, equal to the cent. The national postal service is under the control of the treasury department, and is based mainly on the American system, and Japan now has postal treaties with the chief countries of the world. The national revenue in 1872 was $65,831,362, of which $59,363,625 was from land taxes. The disbursements for the same year were $62,371,574. The customs duties amounted to $1,191,171. The expenses for feudal commutations amounted to nearly $24,000,000. The army is organized on the French model. The country is divided into six military districts, in which are camps and garrisons as follows: Tokio, 7,140; Sendai, 4,460; Nagoya, 4,260; Ozaka, 6,700; Hiroshima, 4,340; Kumamoto, 4,780; total, 31,680 soldiers, constituting the army on a peace footing. Of these troops, 8 regiments of infantry (6,456 men), 1 squadron of cavalry (96 men), and 2 regiments of artillery (1,444 men) constitute the konoye, or imperial guard. The main army is divided into 14 regiments of infantry, 3 regiments of cavalry, 18 companies of artillery, and 10 companies of engineers. The estimates for the army on a war footing are not yet (May, 1874) made, but 90,000 is usually regarded as the number of soldiers that could easily be sent into the field in an emergency. The navy is organized on the English model, and consists of 2 ironclads, 10 men-of-war, 8 gunboats, and 4 transports. On these are 1,514 sailors and officers; 298 boys are on school ships, training to be officers, and there are nine companies of marines. The education department has in Tokio a medical college with 8 German professors and 300 students. The imperial university, consisting of the three departments English, French, and German, has 25 foreign professors and 600 students. The national scheme of education provides for 8 universities, 32 high schools or academies, 250 grammar schools, and 55,000 primary schools. Foreign languages and learning are to be pursued only in the two higher schools, but the method of study in all is to be closely modelled on the foreign system. In 1874 this scheme was about one sixth fulfilled. Chinese learning is neglected, and foreign science and languages take precedence. An immense number of foreign books, many of them of a high character, have been translated. The department of religion takes charge of the Shinto shrines, and propagates the dogmas of Shinto and the three commands of the government, the chief of which is, "Thou shaft revere the mikado, and obey the will of his court." There is a railway 18 m. long from Yokohama to Tokio, completed in October, 1872; the average traffic receipts per week in 1874 were nearly $10,000. The road between Kobe and Ozaka was finished May 11, 1874. The route for a trunk line from Kioto to Tokio, and from Ozaka, via Kioto, to Tsuruga in Echizen, has been surveyed. A system of 18 lighthouses of the finest kind, with buoys, beacons, &c., under the care of trained Europeans, with native assistants, and costing over $1,000,000, has robbed the coast of Japan of its former terrors to mariners. There is a telegraph line from Nagasaki to Tokio, with branches, and the capital of Japan communicates directly with San Francisco, via Asia and Europe. The railway, lighthouse, telegraph, and mining bureaus follow the English system, and have British assistants. In 1872 there were 224 foreigners employed in the service of the government, on salaries ranging from $480 to $16,000, and one at $36,000 per annum. Of these, 119 were English, 50 French, and 26 American. In 1874 Americans held the highest offices given to foreigners, in the treasury, emigration, education, and state departments. While American and British citizens hold the paramount foreign influence in Japan, they are all, except one American in the state department, who holds a commission as officer of the second rank, and one English officer, in the strictest sense of the word employees, and have neither title, rank, nor commission, but render service by contract. The emigration department has engaged a staff of American officials, who have surveyed and explored a great part of Yezo, built roads, and introduced scientific agriculture, American stock, &c. In 1874 there were about 2,500 foreign residents in Japan, exclusive of soldiers and sailors, of whom 300 were in Tokio. Yokohama, once a wretched fishing village, is now a splendid city, with most of the institutions of civilized cities in Europe, having a foreign population of about 1,500, and a native population of 50,000. Kobe is a similar instance of rapid growth and transformation. The British residents in Japan are mainly commercial and diplomatic, the Americans mostly professional. In May, 1874, there were 31 male and 10 female American Protestant, 12 British, 3 Russian, and about 30 French Roman Catholic missionaries. Nearly the whole of the New Testament has been translated into Japanese, and several native Christian churches have been established. Since 1864 Japanese have been visiting foreign countries, and while several thousand have passed through Europe or America, about 400 have