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218 namely, the Imperial Household, Foreign Affairs, the Interior, Finance, the Army, the Navy, Justice, Education, Agriculture and Commerce, and Communications (that is, Railways, Posts, Telegraphs, etc.), each presided over by a minister of state. These, with the exception of the minister of the Household Department, constitute the Cabinet. The Cabinet is responsible only to the Emperor, by whom also each minister is appointed and dismissed at will; for government by party, according to the Anglo-Saxon plan, has not yet succeeded in establishing itself. Besides the Cabinet, there is a Privy Council, whose function is to tender advice. The empire is divided into prefectures (ken),—each with a governor,—which have, as in France, replaced the old historical "provinces," There are three capital cities, Tōkyō, Kyōto, and Ōsaka. An unusually large proportion of the revenue is raised by land taxation. Viewed from an Anglo-Saxon point of view, the Japanese are a much-governed people, officials being numerous, their authority great, and all sorts of things which with us are left to private enterprise being here in the hands of government. But the contrast is less in this respect between Japan and the nations of Continental Europe. Administrative changes are frequent: corrupt practices often come to light; political parties, too, form and dissolve and form again around men rather than around measures. Still, there is continuity, the aims of the government as a whole running on in the same groove, despite changes of personnel. The profound respect for the throne gives continuity. So does the character of Marquis Ito, the ablest man in Japan, who always takes the helm whenever the ship comes to some dangerous shoal or current.

In any case, and whatever its shortcomings, the ruling oligarchy has guided Japan with admirable skill and courage through the perils of the last five-and-thirty years. The nation may have—probably has—further administrative changes in store for it. One thing is certain: these changes will all be along that road leading westward, which the men of 1868 were the first to open out. If it is true that the last fifteen years have witnessed a cooling towards