A Chapter from Japanese History 



227 



servative, anarchistic, and destructive 

 spirit pervaded all classes of the people. 

 The Samurai of different Daimios sev- 

 ered their allegiance with their former 

 lords in order to carry out their own 

 conviction by the use of swords and vio- 

 lent means. Misunderstandings, jeal- 

 ousies, and intrigues were rampant, and 

 assassinations were of common occur- 

 rence. In a word, the whole Empire 

 was in a state of chaos. To tame these 

 unruly elements, to infuse order and 

 harmony among them, and to graft on 

 them an order and regime entirely for- 

 eign to the soil, and to develop them to 

 the condition in which they are now 

 within the short space of the last 37 

 years is the grandest of the achieve- 

 ments that man has ever accomplished. 



SOME OF THE PROMOTERS OF THE 

 GREAT CHANGE 



The men who conceived and achieved 

 this unique revolution were chiefly 

 Samurai of inferior grade, without offi- 

 cial rank or social standing. The most 

 prominent of them do not exceed 55 in 

 number, and among them only 13 are 

 aristocrats ; but these latter played only 

 a secondary part in the movement, with 

 the exception of Sanjo and Iwakura. 

 The other 42 men were all young Samu- 

 rai. The average age of the 55 men did 

 not exceed 30 years. 



The four great clans of southern 

 Japan — Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and 

 Hizen — promoted the revolution, and 

 the prominent persons of the present era 

 came chiefly from the Samurai of these 

 four clans, and more particularly from 

 those of Satsuma and Choshiu. Many 

 great statesmen of this period have al- 

 ready departed from this world, but such 

 names as Saigo, Okubo, Kido, Iwakura, 

 and Sanjo cannot justly be passed over 

 without mention. Still alive and actively 

 taking part in the affairs of state are 

 Marquis I to, who was one of the younger 

 members among the promoters of the 

 revolution and a statesman of the great- 



est constructive genius of the Meiji era, 

 whose name is connected with nearly 

 every great work in the history of new 

 Japan, and whose legislative career is 

 crowned by the drafting of the consti- 

 tution ; Marquis Yamagata, to whom 

 the nation is indebted for the organiza- 

 tion of the efficient army now fighting 

 in Manchuria and to whom was en- 

 trusted the chief command of the Im- 

 perial army against China in 1894; Mar- 

 quis Oyama, a most genial, loyal, and 

 brave general and statesman, now lead- 

 ing the Imperial army in Manchuria ; 

 Count Inouye, a resourceful, undaunted, 

 strong-willed statesman, who held the 

 portfolio of foreign affairs for nearly ten 

 years at the most troublous time of 

 Japan's foreign relations ; Count Mat- 

 sugata,an eminent financier, whose name 

 has covered the title page of the history 

 of the gold-standard system of Japan ; 

 Count Okuma, now leader of the pro- 

 gressive party and a politician of the 

 most subtle, versatile, and vigorous in- 

 tellect ; Count Itagaki, formerly leader 

 of the liberal party and the most ardent 

 advocate of the constitutional govern- 

 ment. The careers of these men are full 

 of incidents most entertaining and in- 

 structive, but I have no time to dwell 

 upon them here. 



HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR MUTSU- 

 HITO 



It would be improper to close this 

 speech without some allusion to our 

 most beloved and revered sovereign, 

 who was suddenly called to the actual 

 duties of the head of the nation at the 

 age of sixteen and at the most turbu- 

 lent period in Japan's history. During 

 the last thirty-seven years of his most 

 marked and enlightened reign he has 

 given the nation the enjoyment of all 

 the best fruits of the civilization of the 

 West, and, above all, has raised the 

 country, in the face of the immense ob- 

 stacles, from the position of an insignifi- 

 cant oriental state to that of a formid- 



