years of life in Japan, mingling among the progressive men of the
empire, that the reading and study of books printed in the Japanese
language have done more to transform the Japanese mind and to develop
an impulse in the direction of modern civilization than any other
cause or series of causes."

Meanwhile, great changes were affecting law and religion. Here it
is sufficient to observe that the old law which had been hitherto
altogether arbitrary--either the will of the Emperor or of the
Shogun--was revised on the model of the Napoleonic code and soon
published throughout the land. The use of torture to obtain testimony
was wholly and forever abolished.

With the incoming of Western science and Christianity, old faiths
began to lose their hold upon the people. The new religion spread
yearly. Missionary schools were instituted in several parts of the
country. Christian churches were built in almost all of the large
cities and towns, and their number increased constantly. Missionaries
and Christian schools had no inconsiderable influence in changing the
ideas of the people.

Such, in brief, have been the changes in the industrial, social and
religious condition of Japan from 1868 to 1881. After this study we
shall not much wonder at the remarkable political change of Japan
during the same period, which I shall endeavor to describe in the next
chapter.


[Footnote 1: The American Commonwealth, Bryce, Vol. I., p. 7.]