Taxation in Japan has a natural tendency to increase. During the years 1887–94 the annual rise was between 1¼ and 1½ per cent. at a time, when it was not affected by any unusual excitement. This was before the war. Assuming that it only advances at the rate of ¾ per cent., it is expected that by the year 1904–5 the increase will add £500,000 to the £9,800,000 of 1897–98. On the other hand, the Customs tariff, which was kept exceedingly low by the treaties with foreign Powers, has risen in consequence of the revision of these treaties, and, it is hoped, will produce an increase of £600,000. The tobacco monopoly will also, it is anticipated, produce £800,000 per annum, an absolute increase of £500,000 on the existing returns. There remains, therefore, £2,800,000 to find, which will doubtlessly be obtained from the increased receipts of the posts, telegraph, and telephones, and by the extension of the State railways now in existence, and the exploitation of those in process of construction. The recent excessive activity in commercial circles has suffered a check of late, a halt not very surprising after such a forced march. In the meantime, there is some risk that the returns of the posts and railways may not increase as rapidly as the more sanguine anticipate, for the new railways are not likely to prove as profitable as those already in existence, which pass through richer regions. During the interval 1892–96 the net railway returns to the State, without including any remarkable increase in the lengths of their lines, was doubled. By the year 1904 it is calculated that there will be 1,250 miles of rail instead of the 600 in 1897, which it is estimated will yield an increase of £550,000 upon the present returns. As to the posts, telegraph, and telephones, whose rough receipts were augmented by about 80 per cent. during the last four years, there is every reason to believe that they will in 1904–5 be £850,000 above what they are at present. Thus we have £1,400,000 added to the necessary £2,800,000. The remaining £1,400,000 will have to be taken from various other sources of taxation. The question now arises: Will the country stand further taxation without protest? The answer seems to me reassuring. The land tax before the Restoration and even to the close of the seventeenth century, as can be verified by reference to many important historical documents, was seven times more burdensome than it is at present, and was paid in kind—in rice, or other kindred products—and yielded to the daimios and the Central Government 147,000,000 bushels of rice per annum. At the price fetched by rice in 1897, when the harvest returned a fair average, the land tax should now represent about a sixth of this amount, and the total Budget of £17,300,000 anticipated for the year 1894–95 only claimed 93,100,000 bushels. If we add to these all the provincial and communal Budgets, we find not more than 127,400,000 bushels of rice. It