JAY, JOHN JERSEY, EARLS OF JAY, WILLIAM JERSEY JAY JERSEY CITY JEALOUSY JERUSALEM JEAN D'ARRAS JERUSALEM, SYNOD OF JEAN DE MEUN JESI JEANNETTE JESSE JEANNIN, PIERRE JESSE, EDWARD JEBB, JOHN JESSE, JOHN HENEAGE JEBB, SIR RICHARD CLAVERHOUSE JESSEL, SIR GEORGE JEBEIL JESSORE JEBEL JESTER JEDBURGH JESUATI JEEJEEBHOY, SIR JAMSETJEE JESUITS JEFFERIES, RICHARD JESUP, MORRIS KETCHUM JEFFERSON, JOSEPH JESUS CHRIST JEFFERSON, THOMAS JET JEFFERSON CITY JETHRO JEFFERSONVILLE JETTY JEFFREY, FRANCIS JEFFREY JEVER JEFFREYS, GEORGE JEFFREYS JEVEROS JAPAN, [_Continued from volume XV slice II._] Japan's Claim for Judicial Autonomy. After the abolition of the shogunate and the resumption of administrative functions by the Throne, one of the first acts of the newly organized government was to invite the foreign representatives to Kioto, where they had audience of the mikado. Subsequently a decree was issued, announcing the emperor's resolve to establish amicable relations with foreign countries, and "declaring that any Japanese subject thereafter guilty of violent behaviour towards a foreigner would not only act in opposition to the Imperial command, but would also be guilty of impairing the dignity and good faith of the nation in the eyes of the powers with which his majesty had pledged himself to maintain friendship." From that time the relations between Japan and foreign states grew yearly more amicable; the nation adopted the products of Western civilization with notable thoroughness, and the provisions of the treaties were carefully observed. Those treaties, however, presented one feature which very soon became exceedingly irksome to Japan. They exempted foreigners residing within her borders from the operation of her criminal laws, and secured to them the privilege of being arraigned solely before tribunals of their own nationality. That system had always been considered necessary where the subjects of Christian states visited or sojourned in non-Christian countries, and, for the purpose of giving effect to it, consular courts were established. This necessitated the confinement of foreign residents to settlements in the neighbourhood of the consular courts, since it would have been imprudent to allow foreigners to have free access to districts remote from the only tribunals competent to control them. The Japanese raised no objection to the embodiment of this system in the treaties. They recognized its necessity and even its expediency, for if, on the one hand, it infringed their country's sovereign rights, on the other, it prevented