Some talk on superstition--A remark on earrings--Japanese troops after
the war; no fear of Chauvinism--Generals and officers--How the system of
the hereditary military service was abolished and the new system was
introduced--Its history--Japan after the war--Views given to the
American press--Mr. Seppings-Wright and his views on the Japanese
character--The Japanese navy and its history--Origin of the shipbuilding
yards--The difficulty of a thorough reform in China and Russia--How
Japan managed to bring about the consummation of the great reform--The
feudal system was a great help--Explanation of the Japanese feudal
system and the clans--The re-shuffling of the feudatories under the
Tokugawa régime--Difference of grandeur of the feudatories--Exceptional
formation of the Satsuma clan--Financial system of the Shogunate
--Finance of the Imperial Government at the beginning of the Great
Change--How the affairs of the governments of the feudatories were
wound up--The old system of taxation--Thorough reform--The old notion of
land tenure