again proved abortive. In 1879, however, an agreement was concluded with the United States of America, the latter agreeing to a revised treaty by which Japan's tariff and judicial autonomy was to be restored and her coastwise trade reserved, with the proviso, however, that the revised treaty should not go into force until a similar instrument had been concluded with the other powers. In 1880 Inouye Kaoru, minister for foreign affairs, opened negotiations with the plenipotentiaries of the European powers in Tōkyō, but the proposed revision having been improperly disclosed to the public, the negotiations were suspended. Renewed shortly afterward, they were brought within apparent reach of conclusion in 1887, after long and weary discussions. But in the meanwhile public opinion in Japan had been growing more and more impatient of the treatment meted out to the empire by foreign states, and more and more sensible of the rights appertaining to an independent country. On the other hand, the rivalry of foreign powers, the diversity of their interests and the difficulty of dealing with them all together, had involved the introduction of many irksome and humiliating conditions into the draft of the revised treaty, and when it was published in 1887 it provoked opposition that caused its abandonment, Count Inouye retiring from office. He was succeeded by Count Ōkuma Shigenobu, who reopened the negotiations, but was enabled, owing to Japan's improved position _vis à vis_ the outer world, to insist on conducting them independently with each power, thus avoiding the insuperable difficulty of simultaneously placating seventeen states all influenced by more or less divergent interests. A revised treaty, on lines more favorable to Japan than the former draft had been, was now concluded and signed by America and Germany. But no sooner were its provisions published than the nation again became excited, especially on account of an article providing that foreigners, as well as natives, should be appointed to the Japanese judiciary. The cabinet decided to again suspend the negotiations, and a fanatic threw a bomb at Count Ōkuma which wounded him severely, necessitating the amputation of his right leg. Some time afterward he retired from office, together with the minister president, Count Kuroda, and in 1889 Count Yamagata became minister president, Viscount Aoki taking the portfolio of foreign affairs. The latter, together with Count Gotō, minister of communications, and Count Saigō Tsugumichi, minister of home affairs, were appointed joint plenipotentiaries for the purposes of treaty revision. But in 1891 Count Yamagata and Viscount Aoki retired, the latter being succeeded by Viscount Enomoto, who, in 1892, gave place to Mutsu Munemitsu. It was under the foreign ministry of the latter that, in 1894, Great Britain took the lead of all other powers to conclude a revised treaty with Japan, which went into effect on July 17, 1899, and which removed the