Littell's Living Age/Volume 127/Issue 1643/Miscellany

The Times correspondent at Shanghai gives some interesting details of the latest advances towards western civilization attempted by the Japanese. The first and most important is the effort, which really appears to be made with some adaptive skill as well as prudence, to introduce parliamentary institutions into Japan. An Assembly and a Senate have been constituted at Yeddo. The former was opened by the mikado in person on the 20th of June; it is not founded on a representative basis, nor has it legislative power, though it is believed that the leaders of the Japanese Liberals aim at ultimately giving it both the one and the other. They understand, however, and it is very creditable to them if they do, that "the chasm which divides feudalism from popular government cannot be passed at a leap." The new Assembly is, therefore, merely a gathering of the provincial governors or prefects at Yeddo, with the privilege of originating and discussing such projects of law as may occur to them or be submitted to them by the government. The mikado in his "speech from the throne" explained the views of his ministers. He said : —

Our object in opening in person this the Provincial Parliament has been to secure by its means the thorough discussion of all matters affecting the interior economy of our empire, and to secure to the provinces adequate representation. You have been convoked for this purpose, and in order that your knowledge of the condition and feeling of the people of your several districts may aid you in discussing their requirements and introducing such reforms and changes as may seem to you to be most urgently demanded. It is our wish that your deliberations should be marked by general harmony, and that, sinking minor differences, they should tend to promote the ends in view in calling you together. If with one mind you adhere steadily to this course, your conduct will be surely productive of the general welfare, and thus your deliberations may become the foundation of the eternal well-being of the empire.

These observations are commonplace enough in themselves, but in the mouth of a potentate who only a few years ago was almost worshipped as a manifestation of the Deity, and was shrouded jealously from vulgar eyes, they are very significant. The Senate, the Times correspondent writes, "was opened on July 5, also by the mikado in person, and with the same state and ceremony. Its functions are much more ambitious than the Assembly's, but no such precise definition of them has yet been made public." Another novelty, imitative of European conditions and pointing to the growth of a new power in the community, is a press-law of a rather rigorous type.