10 
liad declared openly that before six months it would have them sent home. Not 
only after six months had they not gone, but they had taken root and at the end 
cf the year doubled their numbers. They commenced by forming a nucleus of 
troops recruited in all the provinces, which were to be the framework of the 
national army. At first the troops of the southern clans, who had taken the title 
of Imperial Guards, received no instruction from the Frenchmen. But in their 
desire to receive it and with the fear of being excelled their jealousy soon broke 
out, and serious fights took place between them and the troops under instruction. 
As this feeling continued to grow, the Government sanctioned the participation 
of the former in the instruction given, but on condition of their consent to 
manoeuvre on the same ground as, and side by side with tlie other troops. This 
was a first reconciliation between the feudal and national troops, which was not 
unattended with difficulty. Tor instance, the first time about 50 artillery officers 
were assembled for a lecture, they formed 2 groups in 2 different rooms, and only 
a threat to cease the instruction prevailed to unite them in one hall. At first 
their mutual looks were anything but friendly. After 18 months the Government 
was strong enough to dismiss or at least transform this Imperial Guard, which 
after having been the instrument of the Taicoon’s fall, had now become a force 
apart in the State. Some of them were transferred to the national army ; the 
others, the reactionaries, went to swell the numbers of the discontented, who in 
1877 raised the standard of revolt under Marshal Saigo. 
The Imperial Guard was afterwards reconstituted with men drawn from every 
province of the Empire. 
First Law of Recruitment. —In 1872 the Japanese Government promul¬ 
gated this with the help of the French. Obligatory military service was 
instituted for every Japanese with three years in the active army and four in the 
reserve. All men, between 17 and 40, and not belonging to the active army or 
reserve, would compose the territorial army. 
This law naturally was only applied progressively, according to the exigencies 
of the political position and of budgetary resources. It raised every Japanese to 
the coveted honour of bearing arms and was very cleverly represented by the 
Government, not as an innovation, but as a return to the ancient laws of the 
Empire. 
Here is the text:— 
“ We Tenno (Son of Heaven) to our subjects : We believe that formerly, under 
the ancient absolute and hereditary monarchy, the organisation of the army 
reposed upon the entire people of Japan.Certainly at that time 
there was no distinction between warriors and peasants. Later, the whole of 
the military power having fallen into the hands of a single man (Shogun) the 
division into castes was effected • there was the military class and the inferior 
class, i.e ., the feudal system. 
The transformation of our Empire, begun six years ago and still continuing, is 
therefore, the great reform longed for for more than a thousand years. . . 
Between 1872 and 1876 the French created the following establishments at 
Yedo : — 
1. —A school of N.C. O’ s as a framework for all arms. At first, it also pro¬ 
duced officers. 
2. —A musketry school for infantry. It was soon discovered that with their 
unimpressionable temperaments they are good shots. Juke all yellow-skins their 
nervous system seems less developed than ours, or, what comes to the same thing 
they master it more easily. 
3. —A great military arsenal , comprising workshops for the construction of 
material, a manufacture of arms, a pyrotechnical school with a cartridge factory. 
