Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/191

 driven back. But there were at that time several Japanese students of foreign affairs in Yedo. Some had been pupils of the intrepid traveller, Siebold, and some had acquired their information from books only. These men appreciated the true character of foreign civilisation, and were at once too patriotic and too courageous to subserve their conviction to considerations of personal safety. The necessity of combining the fragments of knowledge that each had been able to collect independently induced them to form a society, and in spite of the odium attaching to their action, and in spite of being called the "barbarian association" by the public, they pursued their researches unceasingly. When news reached them that the Shōgun's chief minister had issued the order spoken of above, they decided that duty to their country demanded an open protest against such a mistaken and dangerous policy. Two of the leading members compiled a volume, setting forth, in plain terms, the truth, as they conceived it, especially with regard to England. They presented copies of the book to prominent officials of the Administration, The immediate consequence of this heroic act—for it merits no lesser epithet—was that the members of the society were seized and thrown into prison. But the brochure did not fail of all effect. It strengthened the chief minister's conviction that unless the nation made a supreme effort to organise its defences, no hope of resist-