X
THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF JAPAN
When the disorders of government in Japan and the anti-foreign disturbances which marked the first few years after the opening of the ports to intercourse with the outside world, as already narrated, had in great measure passed, the rulers of the nation addressed themselves to the task of adapting the country to the changed conditions. New and unexpected embarrassments, however, were at once encountered. It has been seen that the Japanese were as artless as children in the practice of diplomacy, and accepted submissively the treaties which Commodore Perry and Minister Harris prepared, as well as those of the other nations patterned after them. But the statesmen of Japan were sagacious and highly patriotic, and they early discovered that the nation had been led into a thralldom, a release from which would require the greatest wisdom, persistency, and forbearance.
Soon after the treaties went into effect it became apparent that the government had surrendered two of the highest attributes of sovereignty and independence—the power to enforce its authority over all the people within its territory, and the right to frame and alter its tariff or impost duties at its pleasure. According to the American treaties of 1854 and 1858,
