We can only regard with great regret the severance of the connection between the Japanese Government and the Oriental Bank with respect to the Imperial Mint at Osaka, and the consequent termination of the agreements with the foreigners who have been instrumental in making that institution success. What may have been the private grounds for this rupture, we, of course, have not the requisite means of judging, but to the public the connection was a guarantee of the quality of the coins issued, which will now be wanting. There is no evidence that the connection cost the Government any exorbitant sum, or that the Bank took undue advantage of the assistance undoubtedly, lent bits name. Evenif there were, it is unlikely that complaints made through her Majesty's Minister would have failed to be attended to, for if the name of the Oriental Bank, as connected with the Mint, was a tower of strength to that institution, it is also to be remembered that in many ways the connection was likewise a source of legitimate profit to the Bank. We may fairly assume, therefore, that some other and external cause has been at work to produce the present rupture, and but two alternatives readily offer themselves. One, that the Japanese, in their overweening conceit of their own attainments, desire to make a display of their ability to work so delicate an organisation as 2 Mint; and the other, that in some degree the action of the Japanese in establishing a Mint at all has not been altogether consonant with the views of some of the powers with whom she holds diplomatic relations. We have little doubt that in some measure the former feeling has had some effect in Japanese councils, but the long continued reluctance to issue a silver dollar, and the fact that the silver dollar is not even now a legal tender at the ports open to trade, seem to lend some support to the latter view. Of late, changes in the laws forbidding the export of silver from Mexico in any other form than coin, have had more or less effect in reducing the supply of those coins available for the trade of the Far East. On the other hand, the United States Government, with its trade dollar, not a legal tender, but a stamped piece of metal of defined weight and purity, has stepped in to supply the demand. The purity of the Japanese coin and its general appearance were quite up to that of the American one; and the conduct of the Mint, under the experienced and responsible directorship of Major Kinder, was a guarantee thatits excellence would be maintained. So keen has been the competition to take the place of the Mexican dollar, that the American Government has raised the weight of the new dollar from 4124 grains, the standard of the currency dollar, to 420, while the Japanese Government adopted the standard of 415 grains, or almost identically the same as the Mexican, The report issued for the year ending the 81st July last, explains this diffi culty, and points in the direction of the advisability of the Japan Government following the example of the American in the issuing of a special coin. The adoption of gold as the standard has prevented the silver yen being declared a legal tender, and in consequence, at the ports, and as a coin for foreign exchange, it has had to enter into competition with the old established Mexican dollar and the American Trade dollar, of greater weight, and both of which the Govern. ment was bound by treaty to accept at their standard value. There seemed some sign that the silver dollar would take the place of the older coin; and it is accordingly rumoured that influences have been at work to retard as far as possible its issue, and that these influences have finally succeeded in procuring the severance of the connection between the Mint and the Oriental Bank, which has hitherto been the mainstay of the former, and the cause of its undoubted success. As we stated at the head of this article, we cannot bub regret the severance of this connection. We know and can appreciate the temptations in the way of a Gov. ernment like the Japanese to debase its coin. It has done so before, and from the peculiar nature of that Government, and its influence over its people, has been able to do so with a suocesa unknown elsewhere. Evenatthe present moment, unconvertible paper bearing the Government stamp is actually at a premium as compared with the standard
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.