Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/256

 peditiously. In the spring of 1878 the great Minister, Ōkubo Toshimitsu, was assassinated. Uniformly ready to bear the heaviest burden of responsibility in every political complication, Ōkubo had stood prominently before the nation as Saigo's opponent. He fell under the swords of Saigo's sympathisers. They immediately surrendered themselves to justice, having taken previous care to circulate a statement of motives, which showed that they ranked the Government's failure to establish representative institutions as a sin scarcely less heinous than its alleged abuses of power. Well-informed followers of Saigo could never have been sincere believers in representative institutions. These men belonged to a province far removed from the scene of Saigo's desperate struggle. But the broad fact that they had sealed with their life-blood an appeal for a political change, indicated the existence of a strong public conviction which would derive further strength from their act. The Government determined to accelerate its pace. It did not act under the influence of terror. The Japanese are essentially a brave people. Throughout the troublous events that preceded and followed the Restoration, it is not possible to point to one leader whose obedience to duty or to conviction was visibly weakened by prospects of personal peril. Ōkubo's assassination did not alarm any of his colleagues; but they understood its suggestiveness, and hastened to give effect to a previously formed resolve.