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CHAPTER II.

A PERSONAL EPISODE IN HISTORY.

SITTING one day in the European drawingroom of Mr. Inouyé's counting-house (which, after all, has its conveniences in the matter of chairs), the Foreign Minister told me the story of his life, which is also, in a great measure, the story of the life of the new Empire of Japan. In 1864 Japan was in those throes which surely presaged a new birth of one kind or other, most probably of revolution and rapine. At Tokio the Tycoon reigned, but scarcely governed; at Kioto the Mikado reigned, but in no sense governed. The ancient and curiously solemn farce of dual majesty still prevailed. The Mikado's person and authority were sacred-too sacred for contact with mundane affairs. He lived in his palace surrounded by all the attributes of imperial majesty. His name was revered throughout all the provinces. In theory his power was

unlimited. He could do almost anything but direct the destinies of the nation of which he was the titular head. He could create a new deity, who would presently have his shrines, his priesthood, and his throng of worshippers. But he could not move a regiment of soldiers.

The Tycoons, who had commenced to be Cromwells, whilst not destroying the kingship, had long usurped imperial state, and, in recent relations of foreign Powers, had used the title of majesty. So dark were the internal affairs of Japan to the foreigner that the shadowy emperor interned at Kioto was possibly, after some vague efforts to comprehend his position, absolutely ignored, and foreign treaties were contracted with "his Majesty the Tycoon." It was the existence of these treaties, and the prospect of further and closer intercourse with the scorned and hated foreigner, that accounted for the hot blood now seething in Japan, and threatening to find outlet somewhere, against the foreigner if possible, if not against the usurper who had so far forgotten his duty to the empire as to traffic with foreigners.

In 1854 a treaty had been made with the United States, very narrow in its scope, but illimitable in its consequences. It had been signed at the instance or on the insistence

of Commodore Perry, and bound the Japanese Government to afford succour and protection to seamen and vessels of the United States. If the Japanese Government failed therein, or could, in any plausible manner, be held to have failed, Commodore Perry or some one like him, at the head of a fleet of ironclads, would appear off Nagasaki, bombard the town, and perhaps land troops. The Tycoon, in entering into a pledge with a foreign Power, had given that Power the right to enforce its fulfilment.

In 1858 Great Britain had wrung another treaty out of the Tycoon-one much wider in its scope than that conceded to the United States. The foreigner had already obtained a foothold on the sacred shores of the empire. He lived at Yokohama, built houses, carried on trade, and if any two-sworded man were, in an excess of patriotism, to chop off his head, instead of being protected and advanced in favour, he was tried for murder. The foreigners were asking for more open ports. Fresh treaties were talked of, and nothing in the previous conduct of the Tycoon justified the hope that they would not be granted.

The old nobles of Japan saw this degradation and threatened destruction of their country with troubled breasts and growing anger.

They were the real rulers of Japan, though for convenience' sake, and with the object of preventing one or other of their fellows from usurping the emptied throne, they were content to do homage to the Tycoon. But when he thus proved faithless to all traditions of the country, some of them resolved to assert the personal independence which had always existed in fact. Foremost amongst these hot-headed chieftains was the Prince of Chosiu. He swore a great oath that, let the Tycoon do what he pleased and make such treaties as he thought fit in Tokio, the province of Chosiu should be held free from the contaminating touch of the foreigners. If the foreigners entered his territory, they should incontinently be slain. If foreign ships appeared off his coasts, they should be fired upon; to which end he built and armed forts.

Amongst his retinue were two young men of twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, one named Ito and the other Inouyé. They were of the samurai class, and their sagacity and courage had, even at this early age, raised them high in the counsels of their prince. They were daring enough to offer him advice, and when he talked of keeping the foreigners off with his puny forts, they gloomily

shook their heads. They had seen British ships at anchor in Yedo Bay, and had heard the roar of their guns.

"If," they said to the hot-headed chieftain, 'you should succeed in driving off an English vessel by the fire from your forts, what then? Within a week or two, others of greater strength would steam up, and in an hour you would not have a stone standing on another. The only thing to do is to beat England on her own ground: we must learn to sail ships and fight them, and with a fleet of our own we shall be able to keep our coast inviolate."

The prince listened to reason from these young but trusted counsellors, and a notable scheme was hatched. These two men, with three others of the same age and standing, were to go to England, to spy out the land, master the great secret of naval supremacy, bring it back to Japan, straightway create a fleet, and then let England, the United States, and France look out.

The first difficulty in realization of this plan barred the start of the young patriots. It was at this time a capital offence for any Japanese to attempt to leave the country without the permission of the Tycoon. The Tycoon, however, was not a man to be trusted.

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