a par with the ladies of Europe. The Chancellor regarded every reform as valuable that helped to remove the feeling of inferiority prevailing among the women of Asia, holding that, so long as the Japanese ladies wore the native dress, they remained Orientals, and therefore inferior in the eyes of those Western nations Japan was desirous to emulate and imitate. He saw that improved modes of home life were necessary for the physical and moral amelioration of the people, and he believed they might be best acquired by adopting the systems which have grown up in the most advanced countries of the globe. As evidence of the readiness with which the outward signs of this reform were adopted, it may be mentioned that at the entertainment given by the Japanese Minister to celebrate the Mikado's birthday not a single Japanese dress was worn by any of the guests, male or female, and the only Oriental costumes worn were those of the Chinese diplomatists present and by a single Corean. Besides the change in the national garb, the Government, initiated or advocated the better education of girls, the cultivation of foreign languages, especially English, the rapid growth of houses built, furnished, and managed in European style, the training of ladies in domestic work, the multiplication of dances and other entertainments for the freer intercourse of foreigners and Japanese, and of the Japanese among themselves.

At the conference of diplomatists in 1882 the Japanese Government had offered to open the whole empire to foreigners, to travel, trade, and reside in without restriction, in return for the surrender of the privileges of the consular tribunals and of a recognition of the supremacy of the Japanese law. The sixteen mutually jealous States represented at the conference were unable to agree, and the proposals of Japan were declined. In 1884 she had again, at another conference, attempted to recover her liberty of action, this time in the direction of the finances, but again a deadlock ensued. At length Great Britain and Germany addressed a joint note to the other Powers, suggesting a return to the Japanese scheme of 1882. On this basis negotiations recommenced, and the delegates agreed to the constitution of a bench of judges, composed of jurists of Japanese and foreign extraction in equal proportions, to try cases, criminal or civil, in which foreigners are concerned. Upon this agreement the negotiations for the revision of the Japanese treaties were suspended until the new Japanese civil code should be in a state to be laid before the conference. It had been originally arranged that this code should be published before the new treaties came into force, but at the wish of the Japanese negotiators the formal ratification of the treaty was postponed with this view. delay had no political bearing, so far as the other Powers were concerned, and no obstacle to the final proceedings was anticipated; but the resignation of Count Inouye, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in the midst of the negotiations seemed an

The

unfavourable omen. By his tact, ability, and judgment the outgoing minister had conducted the treaty negotiations until they had reached the stage where the signatures of the contracting parties were alone required to conclude the convention. The Cabinet, by deciding to postpone the conference at this point, could have had no other motive than to express the view that Count Inouye's project was premature, and his resignation was consequently inevitable. The success, however, of his foreign policy was shown in his having accomplished the apparently insuperable task of reconciling the conflicting interests of sixteen Western Powers.

Athough Count Inouye retired from the Cabinet, he nevertheless remained in the Government, holding the relatively unimportant post of Court Councillor; whilst in the direction of the foreign affairs of the empire he was succeeded temporarily by his old friend Count Ito, Minister President of State. By this arrangement the treaty revision in accord with Count Inouye's general policy was insured, the basis of which was the opening of the entire country to foreign trade in exchange for the recovery of Japan's judicial autonomy. Further evidence of the desire of the Japanese Government to treat on equal terms with the European Powers was traced in the journeys of Prince Komatsu, the Mikado's uncle, who had been despatched to Berlin to confer upon Prince William of Prussia the Order of the Chrysanthemum. After being made the object of much attention, social as well as official, the ambassador and his suite went on to Constantinople, where they were hospitably entertained by the Sultan. Trade in Japan for some time past has been undergoing some curious changes. Taking imports and exports together, it amounted in 1886 to 13 millions sterling. The native manufactures were increasing rapidly, and there being no want of either capital or labour, the Japanese have taken to setting up manufactories of their own, and such goods as cotton fabrics, canvas, silk, glass, carpets, and copper work are produced in such quantities as to satisfy the local demand. In order, however, to supply herself with such products, the need for machinery has made itself more and more generally felt. England has furnished engines and boilers for the cotton mills near Osaka, and there are now twenty-one spinning factories in the country worked by foreign machinery. The umbrella industry offers a good illustration of the changes in progress. In 1875, 212,000 foreign umbrellas were imported; in 1879 the number fell to 20,000, and in 1886 to almost nil. But in 1875 Japan imported 800,000 yards of Italian cloth and umbrella ribs to the value of 9,7691. In 1879, side by side with the fall in the import of the finished goods, there was an increase in Italian cloth to over 3,000,000 yards, and in ribs to the value of 36,5821. In 1887 the transformation was complete. There was no longer any demand at all for finished ribs imported, but the import of

iron wire had grown to more than three times its price in 1875, and that of Italian cloth had grown to upwards of 4,500,000 yards. The export trade in 1886 amounted to about 8,000,000l., of which America took 3,326,1037., France and China upwards of 1,150,000l., and Great Britain 693,430l. But with the imports it was very different, for out of 5,500,000l., the value of the goods entered inwards, nearly one-half came from Great Britain. The recent expansion of trade, moreover, presents many hopeful features, for the British Consul at Yokohama reports that at no previous period in the history of that port had the prospect been brighter, its trade for 1887 having been 1,250,000l. in excess of the previous year. To mention a few particulars which indicate, perhaps, changes of national habit, it may be stated that the Japanese are substituting white sugar for brown, thereby greatly increasing the imports from Hong Kong. Of foreign wines and spirits there is an increase of 22 per cent. over the preceding year, the taste for these beverages as well as for beer growing with the adoption of a meat diet. There has also been a great demand for woollen yarn, consisting chiefly of Berlin wools and fancy yarns for "making-up," the Japanese ladies having now learnt to knit and crochet. At the same time the construction of railways in Japan by native engineers without foreign assistance has been considerably developed. During the three years ending 1886 the annual rate of construction was sixty-one miles, as compared with thirty-six in the preceding triennial period, whilst prior to 1880 it was still smaller. The mileage of railways constructed and brought into working order since 1869 has been 370, of which 209 miles are Government property, and 161 miles belong to private companies, the whole having been constructed by the Railway Department. The first waterworks in Japan constructed on the European system, under the direction of Colonel H. S. Palmer, R.E., were opened at Yokohama during the year. In contradistinction to European countries, agriculture in Japan has been in a very flourishing condition, the average crop of rice reaching about 130,000,000 bushels, and that of corn half as much, for a population now estimated at 38 millions. There are 142 public banks in the country, with 127 branches and a capital of over ten millions, and 214 private banks with a capital of three millions, besides 1,460 postal savings banks. The system of open competition for appointments in the Civil Service has been introduced, and a decree of the Mikado's, dated July 27, laid down the methods by which the appointments were to be made. Japan has been fortunate in escaping from any such catastrophe as the overflowing of the Yellow River, but on the other hand East Central Japan was convulsed by an earthquake (Jan. 15) of most unusual violence, its vibrations extending over a land area of 27,000 miles, and exciting great alarm both in Tokio and Yokohama. At the latter place the intensity of the shock was only one-third

as great as in the hilly region on the west, and occasioned but little loss of life. There, however, the effects of the earthquake were strongly marked, Professor Sekiya counting no fewer than seventy-two cracks in a distance of seven miles, one of them being 500 feet long and one foot wide. Houses were cracked, unroofed, twisted, and more or less wrecked; wells were disturbed or changed their level; and one large river was so agitated that the ferry boat could not cross for some time after the shock.

The elaborate attempts of the United States scientific expedition, under Professor Todd, to observe the solar eclipse (Aug. 19) failed through the bad state of the weather. The ruined castle of Shirakawa, 20 miles to the north of Tokio, was the spot chosen for the erection of the special instruments, for here lay the centre line of the shadow band of totality. But the sky, though clear at Tokio, was shrouded in clouds at Shirakawa, and the main purpose of the expedition, namely, the picturing of the phenomena at totality, wholly failed.

COREA.

Port Hamilton, of which possession had been taken by Sir W. Dowell in May 1885, was evacuated by the British forces early in this year (Feb. 27) and restored to Corea. No conditions were made as to the future, but the evacuation was not decided upon until the British Government had received a guarantee from the Chinese Government that no foreign Power should occupy Corean territory. The British naval authorities were moreover of opinion that the retention of Port Hamilton was a waste of money in time of peace and a source of weakness in time of war. During its occupation by the British forces a cable was laid to Hong Kong, and huts had been erected for the marines and for stores. In Seoul itself politics have been in an unsettled condition, and various intrigues have been going on. The attitude of Yuen, the Chinese Resident throughout the year, was bold and resolute, but he found himself systematically opposed and thwarted by one of the king's wives, a woman of strong will, whose influence might be traced in many recent events in Corean history. With the object of making the country independent of China, she persuaded the king to send representatives to various European countries, thereby incurring an expense which the foreign relations of the peninsula did not justify. In consequence of this step Yuen found it advisable to go to Pekin to impress upon his Government the necessity for suppressing the growing mutinous spirit among the Coreans, which aimed at shaking off the suzerainty of China. The result of his visit was that the king was informed by the Chinese Government that China, in her capacity of suzerain, would require any Ministers accredited by Corea to the courts of European treaty Powers to be accompanied by Chinese officials. This condition so cooled the zeal of the selected Corean mandarins

that they all sent in their resignations. The Chinese Government took this opportunity of laying down additional rules for the maintenance of the ancient relations of suzerain and vassal between the two countries. In view of the opening of Corea to foreign trade a Chinese Superintendent of Northern Trade would in future reside in each Corean port opened to trade to look after Chinese interests, and Li Hung Chang, the Viceroy, was to correspond directly with the king of the Hermit nation.

CHAPTER VI.

AFRICA.

EGYPT-SOUTH AFRICA-THE CONGO-MADAGASCAK.

I. EGYPT.

THE military movements in the Soudan have been of late of comparatively little importance when contrasted with the large issues involved in the military operations of recent years. At Souakim Colonel Kitchener, who had been appointed Governor in the previous year, soon began to take active measures for the suppression of the slave trade and of contraband dealing in the district. His negotiations with some of the principal sheikhs were eminently satisfactory in their result, and his policy soon began to bear fruit in the revival of legitimate trade. Reports which were received at the beginning of the year led to the belief that Abdulla Khalifa, who had been proclaimed Sultan at Khartoum, had established a great reputation among his supporters and was endeavouring to revive the commerce of his newly acquired dominions. So long as they were left unmolested the Arabs at first appeared disposed to abstain from further aggressive action against Egypt, but as the year advanced their policy underwent a change and they began to assume a more threatening attitude. In the spring and again in the autumn fighting occurred in the neighbourhood of Sarrass, in which the dervishes were unmistakably the aggressors; and, although they were repulsed in every engagement that took place, the concentration of their forces in that district in the latter months of the year gave rise to some alarm. Further south an intermittent warfare signalised the relations of the native tribes, and hostilities of a more serious nature resulted from the growing animosity between the Italian and Abyssinian troops. On Jan. 25 and the succeeding day Ras Alula, the Abyssinian commander, attacked the Italian forces at Dogali, in the neighbourhood of Massowah,