Trade and Commerce. By the treaties made with several European Governments—with Russia in October 1857, and with Great Britain, France, and the United States in July and August 1858-the three Japanese ports of Nagasaki, Kanagawa, and Hakodadi were thrown open to foreign commerce. At the last-named port, commercial intercourse was attempted in the years 1859-60, but did not succeed. The total value of imports and exports in the vessels of the four nations trading with Japan, at the port of Nagasaki, was as follows in the year 1861: Of greater commercial importance than the foregoing. is the port of Kanagawa, hitherto the chief station of commercial intercourse with Japan. The following statement gives the value of the imports and exports, and of the imports and exports in British vessels, at the port of Kanagawa, in each of the years 1860 and 1861 :— Subjoined are the quantities and value of the principal articles imported into Kanagawa, in each of the years 1860 and 1861: The subjoined table shows the quantities and value of the principal articles exported from Kanagawa, in each of the years 1860 and The number and tonnage of vessels, of each nation, which entered and cleared at the port of Kanagawa, was as follows: The subjoined table gives the number and tonnage of vessels, of each nation, distinguishing those with cargoes and in ballast, which entered and cleared at Nagasaki, in the years 1860 and 1861 :— Nationality of 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. At Nagasaki, the number of foreigners, at the same period, was thirty-nine, 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. Centuries of isolation appear to have made the people of Japan entirely independent of the outer world, and of the immense trade and commerce of western civilisation. III. AUSTRALASIA. NEW SOUTH WALES. Constitution and Government. THE Constitution of New South Wales, the oldest of the Australian 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. February 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 2,000l., 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 |