258 DUBOIS— JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i86o. [April 21, 



the assay process is based on it and the money scheme is decimal, 

 while the British scheme is not. Neither can it be doubted that the 

 impressions carried back by the envoys in i860 were factors in Ito's 

 mission ten and eleven years later under a new government. 



Ito was one of the progressives from Perry days, who (as previ- 

 ously explained) assumed an anti-occidental complexion merely for 

 the sake of opposing the Shogunate. Prince Iwakura who headed 

 the embassy of 1872, was another of those connecting links. He 

 had not been favorable to foreigners but yet he had incurred the 

 enmity of the Shogun's opposers. Under the empire he became one 

 of the ablest of the emperor's advisers and was especially interested 

 in the revision of the old treaties, which it took years to accomplish. 

 Another was Matsukata, the father of the gold standard in Japan 

 and the introducer of the metric system ; and still another was 

 Shibusawa, the father of the national banking system. 



In 1872 Ito was here again, this time on a mission of which 

 Prince Iwakura was the head. In an eloquent address in San Fran- 

 cisco, Ito said : " A year ago I examined minutely the financial sys- 

 tem c f the United States and every detail was reported to my gov- 

 ernme it. The suggestions then made have been adopted and some 

 of them are already in practical operation." The result was as 

 already noted. Banking and even a postal system on American 

 models i"'lso followed in this year. 



That the lessons of i860 were active forces in this later day is 

 further evidenced in a private letter to the heads of the Assay De- 

 partment from Dr. H. R. Linderman, previously the chief clerk of 

 the mint in the days of the embassy and later a treasury agent in 

 Washington versed in mint matters. This letter requested that the 

 two under-assayers do him the favor to prepare as early as con- 

 venient a brief description of the processes in use at the mint. " I 

 desire this information," said the letter, " to incorporate in a paper 

 which I am preparing for the Japanese at the request of the depart- 

 ment. They shall have due credit for their work and will place me 

 under obligations." This was in March, 1871 — the very year of 

 the enactment of Japan's new coinage law under the pressure of 

 Ito and Matsukata. 



