Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/213

 for the purpose of conducting State affairs in conformity with public opinion. The Emperor complied of course. A youth of sixteen, he did not think of exercising any discretion in opposition to the men that had restored him to power. It is certain that neither in the mind of His Majesty when he swore that oath nor in the hearts of his advisers when they framed it, did any conception exist of government by the people for the people. That construction grew out of events wholly unforeseen at the moment. But it is equally certain that had not the advocates of parliamentary institutions been able, in later years, to derive a mandate from the somewhat ambiguous language of the Imperial oath, the success of their agitation would have been long deferred. Thus it results that in distrust of Satsuma's aspirations is to be sought the foundation of Japanese Constitutional Government.

The necessity of abolishing feudalism and mediatising the fiefs did not enter into the original programme of the revolutionary leaders. Their sole aim was to unify the nation and place it under one supreme ruler who should administer as well as govern. The fiefs might continue to exist under such a ruler, as they had existed under the Tokugawa Shōguns. But close examination of the problem soon showed how far the practical logic of national unification must lead. Looking for models in the pages of their country's annals, the reformers found that the genuine exercise of