During the year 1872, two legations and three consulates were established abroad. Before long, the number was increased to ten. The Japanese press quickly emerged from the realm of experiment and became a powerful civilizing force. In the course of a few years, ten daily newspapers in the capital and 200 publications in the empire, equipped with metal type and printing presses, began to flood the country with information and awaken thought. In the department of jurisprudence, also, great progress was made. Since the restoration of the Mikado to actual power, revised statutes have greatly decreased the list of capital punishments; the condition of the prisons has been ameliorated; legal processes have been improved from the viewpoint of justice, and the use of torture to obtain testimony has been entirely abolished. Law schools were established, and to accused persons was given the assistance of counsel for their defense. By the year 1874, there had been a great change for the better in the diet, clothing, and hygienic protection of the people. In the year named, there were in the empire one government hospital and twenty-one hospitals assisted by government grants, twenty-nine private hospitals, 5,247 physicians practicing according to the principles and methods of Western science, and 5,205 apothecaries. In 1875, there were 325 students in the medical colleges at Tokio and Nagasaki, and there were some twenty-five foreign surgeons and physicians in the employ of the Japanese government. Public decency was improved and the standards of Christendom approached. The sale of orphan female children to brothel keepers, the traffic in native or European obscene pictures, lascivious dances, the exhibition of nude singing girls, the custom of promiscuous bathing in the public baths, and the toleration of nakedness on the part of the rural coolies were brought to an end. Religious persecution ceased. All the native Christians who had been exiled or imprisoned in 1868-69 were set free and restored to their villages. We note, finally, that, as early as 1876, the fulfillment of the promise made by the Mikado in 1868, that “intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world,” had been so far fulfilled that 400 foreigners from many Western countries had been invited to occupy posts in the government civil service. In 1870, there had been not ten Protestant Christians in the empire. By May, 1876, there were ten Protestant churches, with a membership of 800 souls. In March of the year just named, Prime Minister Sanjo issued a proclamation abolishing the custom of wearing two swords. This measure, which had been first advocated by Arinori Mori in 1870, now became law throughout the land. It was in August, 1876, that the commutation of the hereditary pensions and life incomes of the Samurai, which previously had been optional, was made compulsory. This act forced the privileged classes to begin to earn their bread. In the same month, the