The birthday of the Mikado, who will henceforth rank among
the great Sovereigns of the world, fell on Thursday, the 3rd inst. His Majesty was born in 1852, he is therefore fit by-two years old, and we know few political problems more interesting or more obscure than his precise position within his own dominions. He is theoretically an absolute Sovereign, who, though he usually works in questions of taxation and new legislation through a Parliament, can if he pleases issue a decree having the force of law; but he is something besides. By right of his semi-divine descent and the prescription of two thousand years, he is a kind of Pope, and when he speaks officially can, and does, not only secure obedience, but willing, and, so to speak, convinced, obedience from his subjects. He could, for example, altar the national creed,—a proposal which we have reason to believe was once very seriously debated among the inner group whose advice he usually takes. He holds, therefore, a position unique among the sons of men in our day, in that he can send out a powerful fleet or a most formidable army, and also by proclamation change religious opinions among his subjects. The early Caliphs could do something of the same kind, but they were hampered by the fact that their divine law was a written one, and beyond alteration.
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