Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/250

Rh the Shōgun should come to Kyōtō to discuss the question of the nation's attitude towards foreigners; now he was directed to accept an undiscussed policy, proclaim it, and give a promise as to the time for putting it into execution.

Even to be thus flouted did not provoke the Yedo statesmen to adopt a manly and dignified course. Instead of protesting against the second edict and declining to receive it, they duly acknowledged it, and promised that its contents should be debated when the Shōgun reached Kyōtō.

In the early spring of 1863 the Shōgun set out for the Imperial city. As his cortège passed along the seashore near Kanagawa, he could see a strong squadron of British war-vessels assembled in Yokohama harbour. Being a mere boy, he probably gave himself no concern about the purpose of these vessels' presence, nor was he told that they were a demonstration to obtain from his own Government redress for the assassination committed by the Satsuma samurai, or that he himself would have travelled by sea had not his ministers apprehended the seizure of his person by the British ships. Fate could scarcely have been more ironical than she was when she contrived that the Shōgun should be cited to Kyōtō to answer for not driving out intruders by whom his own capital was openly menaced and his own movements were restricted.

This journey to Kyōtō was not undertaken in