Directory_and_Chronicle_1896 — Page 418

8

JAPAN

Courts at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Miyagi, and Hakodate, over which the Daishin In presides at Tokyo.

Previous to the last change of Government, which restored the ancient Imperial régime, the administrative authority rested with the Shogun (Military Commander) whom foreigners were at first led to recognise as the temporal sovereign, and with whom they negotiated treaties of peace and commerce. The Shogunate was founded in 1184 by Yoritomo, a general of great valour and ability, and was continued through several dynasties until 1869, when the Tokugawa family were dispossessed of the usurped authority. Under the Shogun three hundred or more Daimios (feudal princes) shared the administrative power, being practically supreme in their respective domains, conditionally upon their loyalty to the Shogun; but their rank and power disappeared with the Shogunate. On the 7th July, 1884, however, His Majesty issued an Imperial Notification and Rescript rehabilitating the nobility, and admitting to its ranks the most distinguished civil and military officials who took part in the work of the Restoration. The old titles were abolished, and have been replaced by those of Prince (Ko), Marquis (Ko), Count (Haku), Viscount (She), and Baron (Dan).

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

The budget estimates for the year ending 31st March, 1896, gave the revenue as 890,194,657 and the expenditure as $89,180,518. The domestic debt of Japan at the beginning of 1894 amounted to about $270,000,000 and in September of that year a war loan of $30,000,000 was raised. The foreign debt is under $5,000,000.

ARMY AND NAVY,

The armed force of Japan is divided into the Standing Army, the Reserve, and the Militia, and the troops into five classes. When on a peace footing the Army numbers 69,090 men, and on a war footing 267,896 men. They are stationed in various parts of the Empire, which is divided into six military districts, having headquarters at Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto. Each of these military districts contains in time of peace 4 battalions of Infantry, 1 regiment of Cavalry, 2 batteries Artillery, 1 regiment of Engineers, and 1 regiment of Transport Corps. Camps are estab- lished in 56 places. Not included in the above are the Imperial Guard composed of 5,336 picked troops, which bring up the strength of the regular army, in time of peace, to some 74,426.

The navy of Japan consists of one barbette ship, one ironclad frigate, three steel coastguard ships, ten steel cruisers, nine steel gunboats, three composite sloops, one torpedo gunboat, a number of wooden vessels, and fifty-five torpedo boats. There are also in course of construction in England two first-class ironclad battle ships each of 13,411 tons, to steam 18 knots, carrying four cannon and thirty-four quick-firing guns; and in Japan one steel despatch boat of 1,800 tons, with a speed of twenty knots, and carrying twelve quick-firing guns, and one steel cruiser of 2,800 tons, with a speed of 193 knots, and carrying twenty quick-firing guns and four machine guns. The most powerful vessel at present in the navy is the barbette ship Chingen, formerly the Chinyuen, captured from China in 1895; her displacement is 7,335 tons, her speed 14 knots, and her armament, which is now undergoing some alteration, consisted formerly of four 303 cm. Krupp guns, two 15 cm. Krupp guns, and eight machine guns. The steel coastguard ships Itsukushima and Matsushima, built in France, and Hashidate, built in Japan, are sister vessels; they have a displacement of 4,278 tons with engines of 5,400 horse-power, and their armament consists of one powerful gun (65 tons) and twenty-nine quick-firing guns in the case of the Itsukushimit and twenty- seven in the others. The next largest vessel, the ironclad frigate Fuso, has a displacement of 3,779 tons with engines of 3,932 horse-power. from 7 inches to 9 inches in thickness, while the armament consists of four 15-ton and two 53-ton steel breechloaders by Krupp, so arranged as to command every point of the horizon, and five machine guns. The ironclad corvette called the Kongo has a displacement of 2,800 tons, with engines of 2,500 horse- power, and a belt of armour 4 inches thick. The armament consists of 11 Krupp guns, capable of throwing steel shells of 124 pounds. The lige is a sister ship to the Kongo. The protected cruiser Haiyen, of 2,108 tons and carrying three Krupp, six quick-firing, and six machine guns, was captured from China in 1895. The steel cruiser Tsukushi steams 16 knots an hour, and carries two 25-ton breechloading guns, one in the bow and stern respectively. The Nania and Takachiho, having each a displacement of 3,709 tons, built by Messrs. Armstrong & Co. in England in 1886 are fast and powerfully armed cruisers. They steam 18 knots an hour and carry two 25-ton breechloading guns besides machine guns. Another steel cruiser, the Chiyoda, built on the Clyde, arrived in Japan in 1890. She is a vessel of 2,450 tons, and

The armour is