Untitled

ADMINISTRATION. 473
ADMINISTRATION.
The only representative institution is that of the provincial assemblies, which
bears some analogy to the Russian Zemstvo, on which it has been modelled. But
the electors must belong to the proprietary classes, and pay at least twenty shillings
of taxes. None are eligible unless they pay forty shillings, and have resided for
three years in the district. The deliberations of the assemblies thus elected are
limited to the discussion of the taxes and local expenditure, and the session is
limited to one month in the year.
The ministerial department is modelled on that of European constitutional
governments. The supreme council is presided over by a Prime Minister, assisted
by a Vice-President, and comprises the secretaries of all the chief administrative
branches Interior, Foreign Office, Finance, War, Navy, Education, Board of
Works, Justice, Imperial Household, to which has recently been added a Board of
Trade and Agriculture. Below the Ministerial Council is the legislative body,
which prepares the laws under the presidency of a prince of the blood, and submits its
labours to the ministers without further right of intervention. On some special
occasions the Government also summons an assembly of the provincial functionaries,
to consult them on the question of imposts. But over the deliberations of this
body the prefect exercises a power of veto.
In this
country, where the communes enjoy merely a fictitious autonomy,
although the mayors are elected by the heads of families, the administrative
hierarchy comprises altogether seventeen ranks, divided into the three categories of
the Shoknin, Sonin, and Hannin. Till recently the Church was connected with the
State by means of a public grant, which in the year 1879 amounted to 27,000 for
the " temples of the gods." But the expenses of public worship
are now left
entirely to the devotion of the faithful. The " Colonies," that is, the outlying
dependencies of Yeso and the Kurile Islands, were hitherto administered by a special
department ; but this so-called Kaitakttzi, or colonial department, has now been
replaced by a company, which is virtually invested with a commercial monopoly.
The ancient laws of Japan, modelled on the Chinese jurisprudence of the Ming
and T.sing dynasties, and on the decrees or " Hundred Laws " of Yeyas, have been
codified since the revolution of 1868. But while their severity has been greatly
mitigated, certain actions, formerly regarded as indifferent, are now subject to
IM nalties. Thus the head of the family has been deprived of the absolute power he
heretofore enjoyed over his children, and the formerly widespread practice of sell-
ing liis female issue can no longer be exercised with impunity. Woman also,
whom the ancient jurisprudence regarded as destitute of all rights except when
defended by her husband or father, has also now acquired a legal status as a respon-
sible human being. The pillory as well as torture has been abolished, although
according to the accounts of foreigners the latter is still practised under the
relatively mild form of the lash. Murderers, rebels, highwaymen, and dealers in
opium are liable to capital punishment by hanging or beheading, although the
courts have seldom occasion to inflict this sentence. Compared with the prisons of
ca