The oft-referred-to and Peace Presorvation Count Ito gladdene Christmas Day of in force on the 13 quence of reckless gud threatening attitude of bands of soshi. The immediate result was the banishment from the capital for a period of two yenrs of some sixty-seven of the more notorious and desperate. More were anid to be likely to follow. Up to the present, however, nothing further appears to have been done, The deported men retired to various places, several coming to Yokohama and Kenagawa. There was some talk of arranging public meetings here, but. nothing has been accomplished in this direction yet apparently. It is certainly a very regrettable coincidence that within a few days of the Diet's reavlving' upon obtaining the rescinding of these celebrated tions, members of the Diet should be made the victims of homtle atncke necessitating application for police protection. It would really almost seem as if some bitter and unscrupulous opponent of the popular assembly had bribed or otherwise induced a lot of reck-Jeas and resolute youths to so harass certain of the Representatives as to engender fear for their bodily safety. There certainly is something remarkable in the combination of circumstances which led ulti to the diversion of enmity from the mem of the Government to the members of the LowerHouse of the Diet. Neitherthe Government nor the Diet can be fairly said to have changed front or adopted a policy peculiarly distasteful to the public at large, and the soshi claim, if they claim anything, to be safe-guarding the interests and views of the public. Very naturally, the Tokio papers have not been slow to discuss the situation. The majority, so far as one can judge, uphold the decision of the executive in re-enforcing the Peace Regulations, recognising the undoubted fact that the son time had arrived for prompt and energetic repressive measures of some sort. If the leading journals would probe this soshi question to the bottom, and expose the rings of the influence and power of the men who subsist in comfort though devoid of visible means of support, and who habitually ignore their own real interests in their blind pertinacity, they would be doing a service second to none which it is possible for them to perform to-day. That there are secret springs, and unfortunately secret springs i is the generally accepted opinion.
Yokohama was thrown into quite state of excitement this morning by. the report of the destruction by fire of the Houses of the Imperial Diet. Both the Gazette and Advertiser confirmed the intelligence, but by some strange oversight the Mail distinguished itself by werely reporting a large conflagration in the vicinity of the Diet. Nothing was seid which could be construed into confirmation of the ominous rumours in general circulation amongst the Japanese as well as forei nts. Several, reluctant to credit the neo, accepted the Mail's paragraph as evidence of the untrustworthiness of the earlier reports, only however to find later day the correctness of the nei The fre broke out, ie isbelioved, in or near the main entrance to the House ut Representatives at 1.10 a.m. to-day. The cause is said to be connected with the electric light ing tus, ti it seems incredible. The erect catho of the outbreak. will pro: bably never be revealed. Of course there are numerous rumours in circulation, and equally of evurse, the soshi figure prominent. ly in mos: of them, The Diet resumes its ings to-morrow, I was informed in Tokio the Poors meeting in the large the Rokumeikan and the Representatives in the hall of the old Engineering College.
20th January.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.