other hand, the latter's _pourparlers_ with the British government were also continually intimated to the marquis during his tour. Probably his negotiations at St. Petersburg were less successful, while the cabinet's agreement with Great Britain was more readily concluded than he had expected. Immediately after his return to Japan the tactful statesman somewhat checked political gossip by intimating his agreement with the cabinet in its British policy. The formation of the alliance must have had some bearing on the success of the Japanese government in floating the fifty million _yen_ ($25,000,000) public bonds at London in the autumn of 1902, which had been rejected a year before from the financial market of New York. The income of this foreign loan was not devoted to new public works, but employed to refill the deficiencies of the old accounts. Aside from these successes, the path of the Katsura cabinet was thorny. It could count upon no partisan support in the lower house, nor could its personnel and prestige command high respect. Its main strength lay in its remarkable unity, silence, tact, and apparent fairness. The last quality was manifested anew in its impartial attitude during the general election for the seventeenth diet. The previous diet was the first in its history that had served its full term of four years without dissolution, and the present election saw the first operation of the new election law. Of the 376 elected representatives, the Constitutional Political Association returned the absolute majority of 192, while the Progressives numbered about 80. The house contained entirely new members to the number of 227, but aside from this one fact, no particular faction had made any appreciable gain or loss, so that the _status quo_ of all the parties was in fact maintained. Once convened, however, the conduct of the house demonstrated how precarious therein was the condition of the cabinet. The opposition of the house would probably not have been so precipitate had not the interest dear to eight-tenths of the representatives been directly assailed by the government's proposition to retain the increased rate of the land tax, which, as will be remembered, had been intended to return in 1904 from 3.3 to 2.5 per cent.