with the idea that it was only once in a way,
he proceeded on his journey. But what was
his astonishment when, after riding about
a mile, they were stopped by a similar
obstacle? In fact, he soon discovered that
these stations were planted all over the
country at distances of two or three
kilomètres apart. At each of them they were
stopped and had to produce a kind of receipt
which had been given them at the previous
barrier. Sometimes this exempted them
from paying again, but at every second or
third station a new payment was necessary.
As the national dress consists of a great
number of loose gowns of silk, or cotton, or
oilskin, fastened round the waist by a girdle
tied in numerous knots, and as money is
always carried in the loose sleeves of the
innermost gown, which are sewn up so as
to form pockets, the ceremonies of untying,
and unfolding, and hunting for cash in the
recesses of the dress, become rather tedious
by frequent repetition, especially during
the violent storms of hail and lightning
which prevail in the islands. Sometimes,
too, a fretful or vicious horse will insist
on charging the gate, and many fatal
accidents have thus taken place. In the
vicinity of populous towns, where the traffic
is very great, the crowds of horsemen,
and palanquins, and elephants, and droves
of oxen, swine, and buffaloes, all of
which have to pay the tax, cause the
greatest confusion at every stopping-place.
An inconvenience, says M. Gobemouche,
that would be intolerable in any country
where wheeled carriages are commonly
employed.

This tax, the Père Canardeur was
informed, professed to be collected for the
maintenance of the roads. But roads have
existed in Japan for many hundred years,
while this system of taxation is comparatively
novel. Neither the ancient laws of
the Dairo dynasty, nor the enactments of the
great king Tay Koy, who reigned about
three hundred years ago, make any mention
of it. On the contrary, they provide that
roads should be made and maintained by the
proprietors of land in the districts through
which they pass. But these proprietors,
impatient of the burden, prevailed on one of
the later emperors to lay this tax upon
passengers. Had they carried out their
object by imposing a tax upon animals of all
descriptions, to be levied once in the year,
the people would probably have submitted
to it quietly. But the perpetual annoyance
of the present system must always make it
unpopular. It is as if an European state,
instead of collecting a duty on tea at the
port of entrance, were to impose a tax
of a half-penny on every cup drank, and
were to send an official to every tea
party to count the cups and collect the half-
pence.

The number of officials, too, who are
necessary to carry on the business, greatly
increases the absurdity of the whole affair.
The management is generally in the hands
of the quans or mandarins of the fifth class,
who possess most of the land, and who derive
part of their revenue from the tax, in return
for having contributed towards the establishment
of the roads. These petty lords let
out the proceeds to a publican. He employs
men to collect for him, and spies to see that
all that is taken at the barriers is brought
to him, and informers to catch any one who
evades passing by the barrier. Considering
the number of barriers and houses to be
kept up, and the number of publicans, and
spies, and informers, to be fed at the cost of
the public, we may well believe that,
out of every thousand pounds of copper
collected, two hundred and fifty go in
expenses. A result even more satisfactory
than that obtained in the States of the
Pope, where little more than one fifth of
the revenue sticks to the fingers of the
officials.

It is true that there are some exemptions
from the tax, at least in theory, and in the
neighbourhood of towns there are many
roads not subject to it. But the publicans
are careful not to admit the exemptions, and
not to let any one use the other roads with
impunity, unless he first pay at one of their
stations. Hence disputes are continually
arising. But, as the tribunal for settling
these disputes is the yamun, or meeting of
the provincial mandarins, who are at the
same time generally the managers of the
impost, it is easy to see which party is likely
to be successful. And, as every great abuse
has its little abuses, which cluster about it like
the parasites on Sydney Smith's famous blue-
bottle; so the spies and informers exercise
a petty tyranny on their own account, and
extort small sums by threatening to accuse
people of evading payment.

Altogether, one can hardly imagine any
system more subversive of justice and honesty.
Indeed, the Jesuit's statements have met with
but slender belief in his own country. "We
venture to affirm" (this sentence is translated
from the Journal des Chemins de Pierre)
"that the worthy Canardeur's notorious
facility of belief has been imposed upon. The
ridiculous impediments to free vehicular
circulation which he describes, could only be
endured by a people reduced to the lowest
state of besotted slavery." A German critic,
also, occupies four hundred and seven pages
of a celebrated Review devoted to light
literature, to prove that such a state of
things is simply impossible. These critics, it
is plain, were themselves deceived in
consequence of their never having crossed the
Straits to the country typified by the trust-
worthy Jesuit under the name of Japan; to
which, as is well known, his Propaganda
specially accredited him (disguised, in fact, but
as a cattle-driver), for the purpose of converting