The first election under the Constitution took place (whether designedly or accidentally, I know not), by a curious coincidence, on _July 4_, 1890; and the first session of the Imperial Diet opened on November 29, 1890. On December 2 the House of Peers received the first bill ever presented to a National Assembly in Japan; and on December 4 the first Budget (for 1891) was laid before the House of Representatives by Count Matsukata, Minister of Finance. Some notice must be taken of the rights and duties of subjects under the Japanese Constitution. All such persons are eligible to civil and military offices; amenable to service in the army and the navy, and the duty of paying taxes, according to law; have the liberty of abode, inviolate right of property, right of trial by law, and freedom of speech, writing, publication, public meeting, association, and religious belief, “within the limits of law”; cannot be arrested, detained, tried, or punished, “unless according to law,” and can claim inviolate secrecy of correspondence. Moreover, “the house of no Japanese subject shall be entered or searched without his consent,” except in due process of law. All subjects may also present petitions, “by observing the proper forms of respect.” The freedom of religious belief is granted “within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects.” These “rights” are old to Anglo-Saxons, but new to Japanese. Now we often see and hear rather uncomplimentary statements about the Imperial Diet, political parties, cabinet ministers, and Japanese political affairs in general, and are even told that Japan is only “playing” with parliamentary and representative institutions, that her popular assemblies are mere “toys,” her constitutional government is all a “farce,” and her new civilization is nothing but a “bib.” Such criticisms, however, result either from ignorance or from a wrong point of view. It is undeniably true that, viewed from the vantage-ground attained by popular institutions and constitutional government in many Occidental nations, Japan is still lagging behind. It is not fair, however, to judge her by our own standards; the only just way is to estimate carefully the exact difference between her former and her present conditions. This the author has tried to do elsewhere in a pamphlet[96] on “Constitutional Government in Japan,” in which he has given a sketch of the workings of the Japanese Constitution during the first decade, or period, of its history. From that he quotes the following conclusions:—