Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/195

 cials were unable to assert themselves against the Governors and District Headmen acting in collusion, and it was therefore deemed expedient to make the two last mutually independent by restoring its hereditary character to the office of Headman. The expedient did not achieve its purpose. No expedient could have been serviceable under the conditions that existed; namely, powerlessness on the Court's part to give effect to its mandates, exceeding imperfection of communications, and large opportunities for profitable dishonesty. The Court had long ceased to possess any military force of its own. Having no standing army, it relied for protection solely on guards temporarily drafted from the provincial levies. The nation's perception of this weakness might have been postponed had not the rebellion of the autochthons in the north occurred. But the subjugation of these semi-savages defied the resources of the Court for twenty-two years, and was effected at last by the troops of the Bando provinces whom the Emperor Kwammu had caused to be organised. Here, then, was an object lesson not to be misinterpreted. The power of the sword obviously lay with the provinces, and the Court nobles showed their appreciation of the fact by cementing alliances with the Bando captains. Now the State derived its revenue chiefly from taxes levied on the land, and if a provincial governor reported that drought, tempest, or inundation had impaired or destroyed