Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 29

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Notices of Japan, No. V.

JAN.

This council of state transacts the whole business of government; decides upon ́every measure, sanctions or reverses every sentence of death pronounced by an -imperial governor, appoints to all efficient offices, corresponds with the local authorities; and upon the occurrence in any part of Japan of any affair in which ́the course to-be pursued is not clearly marked out by law or precedent, must be 'consulted, and pronounce its decree, before a single step be taken by even the highest local officers. Each councillor has his own specific department, for which, in the common routine, he alone is responsible; but the measures of which, upon any important point, must be discussed, and adopted or rejected, by the whole body of his colleagues, headed by their president.

When any proposition has been duly investigated and determined upon by the -council, the resolution taken is laid before the siogoun for his sanction. This usually follows, as a matter of course, nine times in ten without the monarch's even inquiring what he is called upou to confirm. But if, by some extraordinary accident, he should chance to trouble himself about the concerns of his empire, and, either upon rational grounds or through caprice, withhold the sanction re- quested, the proceeding consequent upon the difference of opinion between the

· monarch and his ministers is prescribed by law. The measure is not at once abandoned, as might be imagined by persons thinking of the siogoun as a despotic sovereign; it is, on the contrary, referred to the arbitration of three princes of -the blood, the nearest kinsmen of the monarch, his probable heir, in default of a son, being one, if of sufficient age. The sentence of these arbitrators, whatever it be, and whatever be the question submitted to them, is not only final, but fraught with important, and, to European minds, painful results.

Should the verdict be in favor of the council, the siogoun has no alternative; be may not revoke his previous refusal, and yield to the united judgment of his ministers and the arbitrators, but must immediately abdicate in favor of his son or other legal heir. Such an abdication, for various causes, is an act so constantly recurring, that it bears a specific name, inkio; and a regular habitation for the abdicating siogoun is as established and essential a provision of the Yedo court,

· as a jointure-house for a queen-dowager in this country. To this inferior abode the siogoun, against whose opinion the arbitrators have decided, instantly retires, - and his successor takes possession of the vacated palace.

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Should the arbitrators pronounce in favor of the monarch, the consequences are yet more serious, inasmuch as the minister who proposed and most strongly urged the obnoxious act, if not every member of the council, headed by the president-whose supreme authority should involve responsibility-is under the - necessity of committing suicide, according to the Japanese mode, by ripping him- self up. When to this always possible, if not often recurring, necessity, is added, that the whole council, collectively and individually, is surrounded by spies known and unknown, employed by superiors, inferiors, rivals, and each other, it i will be evident that these seemingly absolute ministers cannot venture upon the infraction of any law, or upon any deed of violence, of rapacity, or of arbitrary tyranny, except with the sword of Damocles, it may be said, literally as well as metaphorically, hanging over their heads.

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Turn we now to the vassal princes of the empire, whose power appears to be the chief object of apprehension to the siogoun and his council.

There were originally sixty-eight principalities, hereditary, but subject to for- feiture in case of treason. Of this penalty, advantage was taken by successive

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