The exterritorial principle was found inconvenient in other respects than in judicial matters. When the consulates were first established in the treaty ports the Japanese government had no postal system, and in each consulate there was a post-office for the convenience of resident foreigners, through which foreign mail matter passed. When the excellent postal service organized by the Japanese government was in full operation, it requested that the consular post-offices might be closed and the government service substituted. The American consulates were the only ones which promptly acted on the suggestion, the others claiming for several years afterwards the right to maintain a separate service in Japanese territory.
A still more aggravating application of exterritoriality was made respecting quarantine matters. During a cholera epidemic in 1879 the government established health regulations at the ports, which the British, German, and some other ministers refused to recognize, and they claimed the right to enact regulations in the ports for their own vessels. A German ship, coming directly from an infected port, was placed in quarantine outside of Yokohama, but under the orders of the German minister the vessel was taken out of quarantine by the consul, attended by a German man-of-war, and brought into port. General Grant, who was visiting in Japan at the time, was emphatic in his denunciation of the European diplomats, and said the government would have been justified in sinking the German ship. The British minister gave instructions to the consuls of his nation to disregard entirely the regulations. On the
