The following statement gives a comparative view of the export trade at the port of Kanagawa from 1860 to 1862 :

According to private reports,* the shipping in the year 1863 showed an improvement over that of the year 1862, the departures for 1862 having been 97 vessels of 35,496 tons, against 168 vessels of 61,260 tons in 1863. The arrivals during 1863 were, according to nationality-British, 100 vessels, of 34,790 tons; American, 40 vessels, of 21,102 tons; Dutch, 13 vessels, of 3,464 tons; Prussian, 8 vessels, of 2,310 tons; French, 7 vessels, of 2,156 tons; and 2 Russian vessels, of 598 tons. The six clearances direct for Great Britain in 1862 rose to 15 in 1863, in which year 100 British ships cleared from Kanagawa; about four-fifths of the entire trade was conducted under the British flag. The exports amounted to 2,638,5037. The imports reached 811,1467., to which may be added five British merchant steamers, sold for 175,000l., none of them considered capable of effective adaptation to warlike purposes. There remained a balance of trade in favour of Japan of 1,652,3571., paid in cash and in large supplies of munitions of war; but the amount of the latter cannot be ascertained, it being an object with the government to throw a veil over the transactions. The import tables comprise goods arriving under the British flag to the value of 635,731., including camlets, long ells, flannel lastings, &c., of the value of 237,6197., and cotton manufactures, 73,2611. The goods exported under the British flag amounted in value to 2,149,2917.. The exports included 19,609 piculs of raw silk of the value of more than 1,000,000l.—an increase of 3,937 piculs over 1862. A very considerable portion of the supply was believed to remain still in store, ready to be brought forward when the obstacles presented by the government should be surmounted. The export of tea increased to above 6,000,000 lbs. A remarkable feature was the sudden development of the trade in cotton from 4,616 piculs in 1862 to 46,697 in 1863.

The number of foreigners settled in Japan is as yet very small. At the end of the third year that the ports had been opened, the foreign community at Kanagawa consisted of fifty-five natives of Great Britain; thirty-eight Americans; twenty Dutch; eleven French; and two Portuguese; and in the latter part of 1864 the permanent foreign residents at Kanagawa had increased to 300, not counting soldiers, of which number 140 were British subjects, and about 80 Americans and 40 Dutch. At Nagasaki, the number of foreigners at the same period was 39, with a greater proportion of Dutch. The port of Hakodadi, in the north of Japan, was deserted, after a lengthened trial, by all the foreign merchants settled there, it having been found impossible to establish any satisfactory intercourse with the natives. Hakodadi is situated on an island, where there is little

* Japan Commercial News, published at Yokohama, June 1, 1864.

or no cultivation, separated from the continent of Niphon by the Sangar Straits. No Japanese can enter Hakodadi, or have commercial intercourse with any foreigner, without permission from the officials, who claim a large percentage on the business transacted.* There is an edict of 1637 still in force in the whole of Japan, which makes it a capital offence for natives to travel into other countries. Japanese seamen, even when accidentally cast on foreign shores, are on their return subjected to a rigorous examination, and sometimes imprisonment, to purify them from the supposed pollution contracted abroad. The Dutch, who were the first permitted to visit the empire after the expulsion of the Portuguese, had their earliest factory on the island of Firato; but they were removed, in 1641, by the emperor's orders, to Nangasaki, where, in common with the Coreans and Chinese, they are allowed to bring their goods for sale; but the number of vessels allowed to come each year, and the quantity of each description of wares to be sold, are strictly defined : and the residents in the factory are restricted to 11 only. The ships, immediately on their arrival, are minutely searched, and the crews are kept, during their stay in port, completely secluded from the natives, on the small island of Djesima, close to the harbour. All the business transactions are conducted by the Japanese, who also unload and reload the vessels.†

Tilley, Henry Arthur, Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific, London, 1861, pp. 71-7.

† Hogendorp, Coup d'Eil sur l'Isle de Java et l'Archipel. des Indes, pp. 385-400.

IV. AUSTRALASIA.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Constitution and Government.

THE Constitution of New South Wales, the oldest of the Australasian colonies, was proclaimed in 1848. It vests the legislative power in a Parliament of two Houses, the first called the Legislative Council, and the second the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Council consists of twenty-one members nominated by the Crown for the term of five years; and the Assembly of seventy-two members, elected in eighty-nine constituencies. To be eligible, a man must be of age, a natural-born subject of the Queen, or, if an alien, then he must have been naturalised for five years, and resident for two years before election. There is no property qualification for electors. The executive is in the hands of a governor nominated by the Crown.

Governor of New South Wales.-Sir John Young, Bart., K.C.B., born 1807; educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, B.A., 1829; called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, 1834; M.P. for the county of Cavan, 1831-55; Lord of the Treasury, 1841-44; Secretary of the Treasury, 1844-46; Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1852-55; Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, 1855-59; created K.C.B. Feb. 1859; appointed Governor of New South Wales, 1860.

The governor, by virtue of his office, is commander-in-chief of all the troops in the colony. He has a salary of 7,000l. In the exercise of the executive he is assisted by a Cabinet of five ministers, called respectively, the Principal Secretary, the Colonial Treasurer, the Secretary for Public Works, the Secretary for Lands, and the Attorney-General. The principal secretary has a salary of 2,000Z., and the other ministers of 1,500l. The Cabinet is responsible for its acts to the Legislative Assembly. The statute laws of Great Britain are in force throughout New South Wales.

Revenue and Population.

The principal part of the public revenue, to the amount of nearly one-half, is derived from customs duties, chief among them the import duties on spirits. The other sources of income consist of

miscellaneous receipts, the most important of which are from land sales and rents of land. Direct taxation does not exist. The total amount of the public revenue and expenditure, in each of the years 1861, and 1862, was as follows :—

The following were some of the principal sources of the revenue of 1862 in round numbers:

In the financial estimates for 1864, which were laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly in the session of 1863, the amount chargeable on revenue required for the year 1864 was stated at 1,563,990l., the corresponding appropriations for the year 1863 having amounted to 1,452,1387. It was proposed to raise by loan 1,044,970l., of which 928,000l. to be expended for railway works. The debt of the colony, on January 1, 1861, amounted to 3,830,2307., entirely incurred for railways and other public works.

New South Wales was first colonised by convicts in 1788. In May, 1787, six transports and three store-ships, convoyed by a frigate and an armed tender, sailed from England with 565 male and 192. female convicts, under the command of Captain Phillip. He arrived at Botany Bay on January 20, 1788, but, discovering. Port Jackson by accident, he removed his fleet to it. In 1789 a harvest was first reaped at Paramatta. In 1790 the first grant of land was made to a convict. In 1793 there were 1,200 bushels of surplus wheat grown in the colony, and purchased by Government. In 1788 the whole population, including the Government establishment and convicts, amounted to 1,030. In 1803 the first newspaper was printed. In 1810 the population, free and felon, amounted to 8,293. There were at the same period 97,637 acres of land granted, and there were in the colony 1,114 horses, 11,276 horned cattie, 34,550 sheep. In 1821 the population increased to 29,783, and in 1828 to 27,611 males and 8,978 females: total 36,598. Of this number, 14,156 were male, and 1,513 female convicts; and 5,302 males, and 1,342 females, free by servitude.

The number of emigrants which arrived in the colony in the twelve years 1829 to 1840 amounted to 41,794. During the years 1841 and 1842 the number of emigrants was 30,224. The population of Sydney, in 1833, was 16,233; and in 1836, 19,729. In 1840 it amounted to 29,973; and in 1845-46, to 38,358. The