Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/234

 continued existence after the fall of feudalism would be a menace to public peace as well as an anomaly. Therefore they took the steps already described, and followed them by enacting a conscription law, making every adult male liable for military service without regard to his social standing.

It is easy to conceive how painfully unwelcome this conscription law proved to the samurai. Many of them were not unwilling to commute their pensions, since their creed had always forbidden them to care for money and since patriotism demanded the sacrifice. Many of them were not unwilling to abandon the habit of carrying swords, since the adoption of foreign costume rendered such a custom incongruous and inconvenient and since it was out of touch with the times. But very few could readily consent to step down from their cherished position as the military class, and relinquish their traditional title to bear the whole responsibility and enjoy the whole honour of fighting their country's battles. They had supposed, not unreasonably, that service in the army and navy would be reserved exclusively for them and their sons, whereas now the commonest rustic, mechanic, or tradesman would be equally eligible. On the other hand, conscription having been the basis of the country's military system in the days of Imperial rule which the reformers sought to restore, they would naturally have been anxious to revert to that method of