Certain yearly contributions, under the name of free gifts, were paid by all the house-owners and office-holders of Nagasaki, partly as perquisites to the governor and other officers, and partly for municipal purposes. So far as the house-owners were concerned, it amounted to a regular tax, levied according to the size of the lots; but this sort of levy was said to be unknown in other cities of the empire, and at Nagasaki was much more than made up for by the surplus share of the house-owners in the duty levied on the foreign trade, which, after paying all particular services and municipal expenses, was divided among them. The only other tax was an imperial ground-rent on the house-lots—four mas (fifty cents), in the old town, and six mas (seventy-five cents) in the upper town, for every _ken_ (very nearly six English feet) of frontage, where the depth was not more than fifteen ken. On every lot exceeding that depth the tax was double. This is stated by Kämpfer to be the only town tax levied throughout the empire, whether in the towns of the imperial domain, or in those belonging to particular lords, and the city of Miyako, by a particular privilege, was exempt even from this. A municipal police, similar to that of Nagasaki, was established in all the other towns, boroughs, and villages, with this difference only, that the magistrates, though invested with the same power, were, perhaps, known by different names, and that their administration was, in general, much less strict than at Nagasaki. The adjacent country was under the control of an imperial steward (the same forming a part of the imperial domains), who collected the rent, forming, with the house-tax, the entire imperial revenue. This rent amounted to four parts in ten of the crop; whereas inferior landlords exacted six parts in ten. Grain was delivered in kind; garden grounds, orchards and woods, paid a compensation in money. We may close this account of Nagasaki with a description of the _Matsuri_, or public spectacle exhibited on the birthday of the god _Suwa_, the patron of the city, one of the occasions on which the Dutch were permitted to leave the island of _Deshima_, for the purpose of witnessing the spectacle. This festival was, and still is, celebrated at the expense of ten or eleven streets uniting each year for that purpose; so that every street is called upon thus to contribute once in seven or eight years, except that in which the courtesans reside, which must pay every year. The celebration consists in processions, plays, dances, etc., and as something new must always be got up, at least in the way of dress, it is attended with heavy expense.