In his grand conception of a reformed and reinvigorated Japan under a written constitution and codified laws based upon the best that could be gleaned of Occidental modes of procedure, the Marquis Ito was instrumental in conferring upon his country a series of benefits such as by no ordinary combination of fortuitous circumstances could it have obtained in the lifetime of an individual, however exalted. His early visit to the Occident afforded him an insight into methods of government which had borne the test of time, and by his accurate judgment and skilful interpretation of the demands of a people who were yearning for enlightenment and freedom he gauged to perfection the possibilities of a wholesale adaptation of Western arts and sciences to the requirements of his own land. Among the lessons learned in the course of an extended tour through Europe and America by the Iwakura Embassy in 1872 had been the imperative need of adopting measures of defence against the even then palpably inimical designs of Russia in regard to Japan’s position. If the travellers had been deeply impressed with the power and wealth of the Occidental nations they were not less convinced by what they saw of the need of an efficient system of national protection by sea and land. In his representations to his sovereign the future Premier dwelt then, there is reason to believe, on the advantages of a policy of preparation for eventualities such as in recent times has borne good fruit in a hundred ways. It is to the Marquis Ito Hirobumi more than to any other individual statesman that the honour belongs of having brought his country, subject to the guidance of a wise and revered monarch, through a period of unexampled peril in respect of its domestic condition, and of frequent crises in its foreign relations. Troubles have lately arisen owing to the action of one of the Great Powers, and for which Japan is in no sense to be held responsible, by which the efficiency of her naval and military organisations was for a year and a half subjected to the most severe tests, but the final results were of a character to still further elevate the status of the country among the nations of the earth and to confirm its claim to consideration as the most potent, enlightened, and progressive of any in the Orient. Korea, by the terms of the Peace Settlement of 1905, has come under the protection of Japan, and Marquis Ito has assumed the duties of Resident-General; the speedy development of the peninsula under Japanese auspices may therefore be looked for. Already there is a large Japanese population, and both Korean and Japanese children attend the Japanese schools at Seoul, where special attention is given to physical drill. The photograph shows the girls exercising with the _naginata_, a weapon which the daughters of samurai were taught in the olden time to wield most effectively. VII PRINCE IWAKURA TOMOMI