Wart China is busy polishing up Ler} ud.fortifying an impending ig tore happily employed)
ig herself with a titled. ar tooraoy imbich no.doubt: will.play an} simpottant part in the constitution of. the fature. For the last fiftesi years, tiore Jupan has propane the; anomalous, qpeotacle of an Emperor' mithont 'a-nobility. The: highest subject: Prinoea, no more than inthe" ta next to the Im, rial Mr."; the -politioal voonatitation simibled ouo'of those Aream-imagos of, jewish prophecy composed half: of iron and shelf of clay,.aud seemed an 1 ariatooraoy, "though ite title. more or'less Gonnected with the tooracy, like the dynasty, wae anid la the very oldest in the world. For bs it not forgotten that the pre-gent movement is' not the' creation brand-new order of nobility, bat simply the revival of a dormant aid the sneers of 'a Yokohama Vat' the 'e ty-whidli, in the eyes of.ita jaundiced editor, line prompted the establishment of a Bram-<inagem peerage, are otitirely misplaced. Tes "clearly dnomaloits thata deposed Ki ould be kno for ance, such as the simply aa Mr. Shioto; that the late "Byooon, with whom' we formerly con. claded Treaties as with an independent and who represents one of the oldest semi-royal families in Asin—for those of Earope are comparative par venue in point of time—shonla si tothe level of simple plebeian; and that the representatives of the Princely Houses of Sateuma and Nagato should ed iv rank or status The groat bulk ly-organised peerage will, in foot, consist'of the old nobility of Japan, haw orations being, comparatively speaking, extremely few. Tha éliould: be some new peerages course, a neces ly.. The Government of the country is in the hands of a yéungor {genoration, of.men than those who supported the 'Tyooonate; and, as the one point out in his Deoree, not, 'Shonia be eonfetred on the: igliborn that eapedial' honour
: descendants.of; illustrious ancestors who have achieved great and noble deeds, "but "it is no less fitting "that particular, hotiour should be paid to'
ivil and mili officers who wished themselves by supporting oration: to" power ofthe Mikado.
measure the two classes the old and the new, will I be hearing of the establishment ofan Upper House of Parliament in Japan while efforts are being made to diseatabilish the corresponding institution in Great Brilaiu. The titles appertaining to the Five Orders of Nobility lave been wisely adapted from the convenient system which is common to both China and the West, the honorific appellations of Old Japan being simply uutranslateable into any other" 'These, we presume, and refer to offices con-the Imperial Household. It would be impossible, as the Japan' Mull puts it, to talk currently of such. and-such a statesman as the Chrysan. themum Apartment, or the Great Corridor, or the Goose Chaniber. From.
wi logical point of view these be very interesting, but they are emiinenily unfitted for current use in the ilineteenth century, "The Em-beroe has "therefore decided that his, nobles shall be divided into kung, hou, ts2, and nan, which are usually and correctly Englished as duke,' marquis, ount, and baron. Whether these equivalents will be formally recognised by the Japanese Government itself we do not know for certain, but it is scarcely likely that some definite trans. lation will not be adopted officially. At present there seems difference of opinion as to the best equivalents for two out of the five titles. The Japan Mail discards "duke" as the equivalent of ug, avd "earl" 95 the equivalont.of po, in'favour of "prince ".and "count" respsotively, onthe ground, apparently, that the'corresponding Japanese words have @ territorial signification which would be inapplicable to noblemen withontestates. But as the question turns apon the English' words and not upon the Japanese, we do tot seo the pociso force of this objection. The ental nomenclature is certainly the most discredited of all, and it would certaitily create much confusion if; panese kung mere spoken of as " pri in face of the fact that there aro.many Imperial princes or wangs who taken part. in political and social life.' Avlist of the revivals and creations: ia.given by the. Japan papers, but they do not-agree in-some particulars, For inalanc, the Gazette says that H. Induyé is to be created a mari while the Afail and the Nichi Ni Shimbun, both much better author is'rauk a step lower. "The Tycoon is appsrently''to be' inde, premier Dake, or, Prince; the Houses of, Satauma, Sanjo, Imakure, and Negate are also created dukedoms, " Lhe: represetitatives of "Kido, Okubo—tho former' anibassador to" Peking, wards murdered—and Nakayama, created marqaises; Messrs, Ito,: Saig: Kuroda; Shimidzit—nepliew of the T'ycoou—Terashima, "Dale, Yauagiwara and otlers'receive the'rank of counts; while many of the best-known.representatives of Japan -in foreign -States appear to have been passed over.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.