The first change raised the status of the King and the Royal Family to that of the Imperial Family of China. After this, it was enacted, following on the King’s Oath of January, 1895, that the Queen and Royal Family were no longer to interfere in the affairs of State, and that His Majesty would govern by the advice of a Cabinet, and sign all ordinances to which his assent is given. The Cabinet, which was, at least nominally, located in the Palace, had two aspects—a Council of State, and a State Department, presided over by the Premier.

I.—As the Council of State

The members of the Cabinet or Ministers of State were the Premier, the Home Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Finance Minister, the War Minister, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Industry. A Foreign Adviser is supposed to be attached to each of the seven Departments.

Ministers in Council were empowered to consider—the framing of laws and ordinances; estimates and balance-sheets of yearly revenue and expenditure; public debt, domestic and foreign; international treaties and important conventions; disputes as to the respective jurisdictions of Ministers; such personal memorials as His Majesty might send down to them; supplies not included in the estimates; appointments and promotions of high officials, other than legal or military; the retention, abolition, or alteration of old customs; abolition or institution of offices, and, without reference to their special relations to any one Ministry, their reconstruction or amendment; the imposition of new taxes or their alteration; and the control and management of public lands, forests, buildings, and vessels. All ordinances after being signed and sealed by the King required the countersign of the Premier.

The second function of the Cabinet as a Department of State it is needless to go into.

A Privy Council was established at the close of 1894 to take the place of the Deliberative Assembly which had collapsed, and is now empowered, when consulted by the Cabinet, to inquire into and pass resolutions concerning:—

I. The framing of laws and ordinances.

II. Questions which may from time to time be referred to it by the Cabinet.

The Council consists of a President, Vice-President, not more than fifty Councillors, two Secretaries, and four Clerks. The Councillors are appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Premier, and must either be men of rank, or those who have done good service to the State, or are experts in politics, law, or economics. The Privy Council is prohibited from having any correspondence on public matters with private individuals, or with any officials but Ministers and Vice-Ministers. The President presides. Two-thirds of the members must be present to form a quorum. Votes are given openly, resolutions are carried by a majority, and any Councillor dissenting from a resolution so carried has a right to have his reasons recorded in the minutes.

In the autumn of 1896 some important changes were made. A Decree of the 24th of September condemned in strong language the action of “disorderly rebels, who some three years ago revolutionized the Constitution,” and changed the name of the King’s advising body. The decree ordained that the old name, translated Council of State, “should be restored, and declared that new regulations would be issued, which, while adhering to ancient principles, would confirm such of the enactments of the previous three years as in the King’s judgment were for the public good.” The Council of State was organized by the first ordinance of a new series, and the preamble, as well as one at least of the sections, marks a distinctly retrograde movement and a reversion to the absolutism renounced in the King’s Oath of January, 1895.[45] It is distinctly stated that “any motion debated at the Council may receive His Majesty’s assent, without regard to the number of votes in its favor, by virtue of the Royal prerogative; or should the debates on any motion not accord with His Majesty’s views, the Council may be commanded to reconsider the matter.” Resolutions which the King approves, on publication in the Gazette, become law.