“Being on the point of visiting our eastern capital, we have convened the nobles of our Court, and the various Princes, in order to consult them upon the means of establishing the foundations of peaceful government. Laws and institutions are the basis of government. The petitions of the people at large cannot be lightly decided. It has been reported to us that brief rules and regulations have been fixed upon for the Parliament, and it seems good to us that the House should be opened at once. “We expect you to respect the laws of the House, to lay aside all private and selfish considerations, to conduct your debates with minuteness and firmness; above all things, to take the laws of our ancestors as a basis. Adapt yourselves to the feelings of men and to the spirit of the times. Distinguish clearly between those matters which are of immediate importance and those which may be delayed; between things which are less urgent and those which are pressing. In your several capacities argue with careful attention. When the results of your debates are communicated to us it shall be our duty to confirm them.” It will be seen that this Imperial message contains, especially in the last sentence, something more than a promise of constitutional government, while reference to the spirit of the times is all the more remarkable considering the source from which it comes. The first subject of debate was upon the position of the cadet branches of the great princely houses. It was proposed that in the event of the heads of such cadet branches being attainted of treason or crime, their properties should return to the elder branch and the guilty person alone be rendered responsible. If the property of an attainted cadet branch were held of the Crown, and not of the elder branch, then the property should revert to the Crown. The institution of the Parliament was followed by the production of a newspaper called the _Kogishō Nisshi_ or “Journal of Parliament.” It shows that, however crude and elementary the debates might be, the institution gave opportunities such as had never existed before of ventilating important subjects and publishing the discussions for the instruction of the people. It also gave the Government the chance of issuing from time to time papers of questions, the object of which was the political education of the members themselves. One of these papers was so remarkable that I have no hesitation in giving my translation of it here _in extenso_. (Blue Book, Japan, No. 3. 1870.) (Translation.) Seventeen subjects of inquiry as to the means of washing away the Shame of Our Country in regard to foreign relations. MEMORANDUM ON THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OF JAPAN, DRAWN UP BY THE FOREIGN OFFICE.