Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/503

Rh home press, that the time had arrived for the admission of her claims, in return for granting which it was understood that she should throw open the whole empire to foreign trade and residence, instead of restricting these to the "Open Ports" of Yokohama, Kōbe, etc., as under the system of exterritoriality hitherto in vogue. A preliminary conference was held at Tōkyō in 1882, to settle the basis of negotiation. The Japanese proposals included the abolition of exterritoriality outside the foreign settlements as soon as an English version of the Civil Code should have been published, the abolition of exterritoriality even in the foreign settlements after a further period of three years, the appointment of no less than twenty-five foreign judges for a term of fifteen years,—the said judges to form a majority in all cases affecting foreigners,—and the use of English as the judicial language in such cases. Diplomacy, in Japan as else where, talks much and moves slowly. To elaborate the scheme here outlined was the arduous work of four years, and 1886 was already half-spent when the great conference, intended to be final, met at Tōkyō. The English and German representatives led the way by making liberal concessions; and all was progressing to general satisfaction, when suddenly, in July, 1887, on the return from abroad of certain Japanese politicians holding radical views, the Japanese plenipotentiaries shifted the basis of their demands, and the negotiations were consequently brought to a standstill.

Nevertheless, as there remained a genuine desire on both sides to get the treaty revision question settled, the attempt to settle it was not given up. Some of the powers now allowed them selves to be approached singly. Mexico (absurd as it may sound) led the van. To be sure, she had no trade to be influenced, and no citizens in Japan to protect. Anyhow, she made her treaty, which was ratified early in 1889. In the summer of the same year several of the powers followed suit,—first the United States, next Russia, then Germany. France, too, was on the point of signing; and the other powers, though moving less quickly,