The past year has therefore been discouraging one for the friends of constitutional government in Japan. No foreigner can see exactly what is taking place, however, or exactly what forces are at work, so that it is difficult to pass judgment. To an outsider nothing is so surprising as the dreadful ructions that break out in Japanese Cabinets apropos de bottes, but a very intelligent publicist here has assured me that the ostensible cause of the ruptures is very seldom the real cause. Marquis Ito would not have resigned his high position if he had only had one insubordinate follower to deal with; he had in reality many more difficulties to contend with and this sort of thing is what makes mo think that constitutional government has not so far been any great success in this country.
Business.
Business was not good in Japan during the first half of the year under review, as T have already pointed out; but towards the close of the year, matters improved considerably owing to a satisfactory rice harvest, a good silk market, the gradual disappearance of unsound enterprises, and the excess of exports over imports.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.