The Japanese find their Parliament rather unmanageable. Being the most
imitative of races, they have adopted repre- sentative institutions, and the power of making laws and con- trolling the Executive has been entrusted to a House of Commons. It appears that the Members betook themselves at once to agitation, obstructed all business systematically, refused to vote supplies even for the ordinary business of the State, and declined altogether to allow the proposed ex- penditure for the relief of the sufferers in the provinces ruined by the earthquake. The Mikado has accordingly sent them home, and though a new Parliament will probably be summoned, it will be under materially modified electoral con- ditions, the Government either intervening as it has not done yet, or decreeing a modification of the suffrage. Mean- while, the expenditure for the distressed districts has been sanctioned by Imperial decree. The Japanese differ widely from all other Asiatics, but it is in their greater resemblance to clever children, and clever children do not make the most efficient electors. They naturally love noise, and desire above all things more cake.
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