Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/271

Rh none of its charges could have been substantiated, nor can any meed of disinterested patriotism be accorded to those that compiled it.

The procedure of a Court capable of framing such harsh edicts can easily be inferred. All officials connected with the Tokugawa or suspected of sympathy with them were ruthlessly expelled from office in Kyōtō, and the Shōgun's troops were deprived of the custody of the Palace gates by methods which verged upon the use of armed force. In the face of such provocation, Keiki's earnest efforts to restrain the indignation of his vassals and adherents failed. He was obliged to lead them against Kyōtō. One defeat, however, sufficed to restore his resolution against bloodshed. He retired to Yedo, and subsequently made unconditional surrender to the forces of his enemies, now known as the "Imperial Army." This part of the story need not detain the reader. The Yedo Court consented to lay aside its dignities and to be stripped of its administrative authority, but all the Tokugawa vassals and adherents did not prove equally placable. There was resistance in the northern provinces; there was an attempt to set up a rival candidate for the Throne in the person of an Imperial Prince who presided over the Uyeno Monastery in Yedo; and there was a wild essay on the part of the admiral of the Shōgun's fleet to establish a republic in the island of Yezo. But these were mere ripples on the surface of the broad stream which set towards