The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-03-25

Area, lnCludlnS fofinosa' lfseoo SqudIe miles: population 497S2,952.
 Tokio. the capital, is the fifth eity.of the world. with a population of 1Sls.6o5.
 Mutsuhito, the relgning sovereign, was born November 3, lS53. and succeeded his father February lSsL
 The civil list of the Emperor is fixed at &.5000OO a year
 By the constitution promulgated Febru- ary Il, 1889, the Emperor of Japan exer- cises the whole of the executive powers with the advice and assistance of his cabinet ministers. There is also FArivy Council, which deliberates upon important matters of state when consulted by the Emperor The sovereign can declare war make peace and conclude treaties. He exercises legislative power with the con sent of the Imperial Diet, which consists of two houses house of peers and a house of representatives. Every law re- qulres the consent of the Imperial Diet.
 By the constitution, absolute freedom of religious belief and practice is secur- ed. The chief forms of religion are shin 1olsm with r sects, and Buddhism with F sects and g creeds. Shintoism is rather an engine of government than religion, and keeps it's hold on the masses chiefly through it's being interwoyen with reverence for ancestors.
 An eminent French ethnologist de- olares the Japanese race to be six-tenths Malay, three-tenths Mongolian and one tenth mixed.
 Japan's army. on a peace footing. con ssts of SiS3O0 men; 2s, 600 horses and 10SO officers.
 In naval strength, since the war with Russia, Japan ranks fifth. Including yes scls captured from Russia, she has l2 first-class battleships; other battleships; 9 eoast-defense ships; Il armored cruisers; 62 other cruisers; % gunboats; 45 tor pedo boat destroyers; IA torpedo boats; 161 other vessels. Officers, 2S20; men, 39,- 942.
 The national debt aggregates $1,25o CO., 000.
 Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people, but farming in this land of miniatures is on a limited scale, holding Of twelve acres being considered very large indeed The average farm is about two acres. They cultivate trees for their blossoms, and the cherry and plum blos- sons of Japan are famous.
 Sericulture is another important indus try and the exports of silk amount to about one-fifth of the entire export trade
 The first theatre in Japan was opened in Yeddo in 162I
 Nippon, the Land of the Rising Sun, is the native name for Japan. Indeed. the name of Japan is a corruption pf Marco Polo's Zipangu
 The Japanese claim that their empire was founded by the first Emperor. Jimnu Tonno 6G0 B. C.. and that the dynasty formed by him still reigns. This was when Assyria, under Sardanapalus, was at the zenith of it's power shortly after the ten tribes of Israel had been borne into captivity; a century later than Ly- curgus and not quite one hundred years after the founding of Rome But on the authority of a foreign scholar who made the matter a special study, 461 B. c. is the first authentic date in Japanese his- tory.
 The history Of the Land of the Rising Sun is divsible into sr distinct periods the first. which ends with the landing of the Portuguese in 1543 is purely local; the second, which extends from 15i3 to 163S, includes the story of Father Xavier, the Jesuit missionary, the Japanese trade with Portugal, the prosecutions of the missionaries and their final expulsion from the land; the third, from 163S until 1851, has to do with the Dutch monopoly iaa of CTS which was decreed by by Iyeyasu the shogun. in 16lf; the fourth, since 1854 deals with the opening of Japan's ports to the world and her remarkable progress in civilization
 In 1853 Commodore Matthew C. Perry L. s. N, steamed into the harbor of Yeddo with a squadron of United States vessels The commodore bore d message from President Fillmore to the Japanese Emperor, enclosed in q box of gold, but he would neither see nor talk with any except the highest dignitary of the realm The governor of Uraga came aboard, was received by the captains and declared that the laws forbade any foreign communica- tion to be held elsewhere than at Nan gasakl. but to Nangasal1i the squadron would not go, so on the 1dth day of July the commissioners appointed by the sho gun received the letter at Nurihana a few miles from the town of Uraga. Or the 3lst of May of the following year the formal treaty opening commercial rela- lions with the empire was signed.
 The Samurai were the feudal warriors oi Japan, who previous to the revolution ol 1S67-S comprised about one-sixteenth ot the population there being about 1000 families Indomitable courage. ferVent patriotism and intense loyalty were theil most striking characteristics and they corresponded to the knights of medieval times. They were a class apart and in termarried among themselves and had the right to wear two swords. With the abol- ition of feudalism and shogunate this nncient order passed away.
 The Emperor may select his own sue