Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/201

 It is possible that if even then the Yedo Court had boldly avowed and justified its act, the nation would have acquiesced, however unwillingly, for the anti-foreign cry had not yet acquired any volume, and no one was prepared to assume the responsibility of making a public protest. But the Yedo Court acted a disingenuous part. Instead of revoking its warlike instructions and frankly disclosing the nature of the agreement just concluded, it published a deceptive account of the latter and virtually confirmed the former. It adopted, in short, the most effective method of bringing ultimate embarrassment upon itself, and of fomenting the nation's antipathy towards the strangers to whom a promise of friendly intercourse had just been given.

For a time, however, this policy of pretence succeeded, especially as it was accompanied by genuine and striking measures of reform. Vigorous preparations for coast defence were made. A military school was established in Yedo and a naval in Nagasaki. Many administrative abuses were abolished. The official door was thrown open to men of talent and competence, irrespective of birth. The finances were reorganised in a manner at once courageous and intelligent. In short, the Shogunate, then under the direction of one of the ablest statesmen that ever directed its policy, Abe Masahiro, feudal chief of Ise, evinced a spirit of earnestness and resolution that won general praise. The anti-foreign voices be-