110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



iSIikado in 1868, the government has been in reality an 

 oligarchy, a simple despotism in form, administered by a 

 sn})reme council, consisting of the prime minister, the left 

 and right vice-prime ministers, and ten ministerial heads of 

 the various departments. Their task is far from being an 

 easy one. They have been obliged to defer more or less to 

 the needs and prejudices of a large army of beaurocrats, in 

 whose ranks many of the Samurai have found refuge. 



Constitutional means have been devised, to take effect next 

 year, for the establishment of a representative assembly or 

 legislature clothed with limited powers at the outset, but 

 which will servo the effective purpose of securing an ex- 

 pression of the more intelligent public sentiment existing 

 throughout the empire. 



None of the members of the imperial cabinet, with possi- 

 bly one exception, were nobles of high rank, but simply 

 respectable Samurai, some of whom, up to the time of the 

 restoration, or even later, were bitter opponents of foreign 

 innovations. 



The career of the present prime minister, General Kuroda, 

 under whose administration as colonial minister I served, 

 affords an apt illustration. 



I well remember the keen zest with which he related the 

 principal events of his early life, one beautiful summer's day 

 in 1876, as we steamed up the eastern coast of Japan on our 

 first journey to Yezo, in a fine vessel bearing his name. 



Kuroda belonged to the powerful clan of Satsuma. He 

 inherited the national hatred of foreigners, and in 1862, at 

 twenty-two years of age, was one of the i)arty who cut down 

 Richardson, an Englishman, for presuming to pass through 

 the imposing retinue of his prince, Avhile proceeding along 

 the Tokaido near Yokohama. 



Witnessing the power of the English guns in the bombard- 

 ment of the Satsuma capital, by which mighty England re- 

 buked proud Satsuma for this high-handed offence, his hatred 

 of foreigners was intensified ; but his eyes were opened to 

 the fact, that, to cope with and drive out the intruders, they 

 must learn from them their art of warfare. 



Accordingly, although it was then a capital offence for a 

 Japanese to leave his country without the permission of the 



