1906-7.] A Sketch of Japanese National Development. 341 
fifteen years after the coming of Commodore Perry. The cry of the opponents 
of the Shognnate was “ Restoration of the Imperial Government,” “ Great 
Righteousness.” “ Loyalty to the Emperor,” and with at least a large section 
of it, “The Expulsion of Barbarians.” Yet scarcely was the last of the 
Shoguns overthrown than one of the first acts of the new government was 
to grant the foreign representatives an audience with the Emperor, an 
act without precedent in our history. This so incensed the Conservatives, 
who had really believed in the cry of the expulsion of the foreigners 
under the Imperial banner, that some of them attacked the British repre- 
sentative, Sir Harry Parkes, as he was proceeding to the palace ; fortunately, 
they were prevented from doing harm by the bravery of two Samurai, who 
had been sent as guards. One of them, Goto, was afterwards a leader 
of the progressive party, who made earnest representations for a national 
assembly as early as 1874. 
I must turn back and say a few words about the education of the 
common people under the Tokugawa Shogunate. There were no provisions 
made for their education either by the Shogun’s government or those of 
the daimyos or by their own communities in cities, towns, and villages, 
where the people were allowed to enjoy a great deal of self-government in 
local matters, under their headsmen or mayors. But almost throughout the 
whole country there were private schools where elementary teaching was 
given in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Writing formed a most important 
part of the curriculum, and it was mostly through lessons in writing of 
Chinese ideographs that they learned to know them, and therefore reading 
was an adjunct to writing. The text-books from which they learned were, 
after they had mastered the Japanese alphabet, sentences in which Chinese 
ideographs were mixed with the Japanese letters ; they were mostly moral 
maxims, so that here again we have moral teaching forming an essential 
part of the education. There were other books, by means of which 
knowledge of Chinese ideographs necessary in various arts and crafts, in 
geography, and in history was given. The fees for this tuition were very 
low, and facilities of education were thus within the means of even the poor 
people. The custom of going on pilgrimages to various shrines, scattered 
throughout the country, was very useful in imparting a practical knowledge 
of geography and even of history. There was, besides, a species of enter- 
tainment, very popular in some parts of the country, notably in Tokyo, 
called story-telling, in which professional story-tellers gave accounts of 
historical events in a most graphic if not always very accurate manner. 
It would not be an exaggeration to say that these and the drama served to 
show people in general the standard of morals, especially of loyalty in men 
