Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/263

 years immediately prior to the opening of the first parliament, an anti-Government propaganda was incessantly preached from the platform and in the press.

Meanwhile the statesmen in Tōkyō steadily pursued their path of progressive reform. They recast the Ministry, removing the Court nobles, appointing one of the young reformers (Itō Hirobumi) to the post of Premier, and organising the departments on the lines of a European government. They rehabilitated the nobility, creating five orders—prince, marquis, count, viscount, and baron, —and granting patents to the men who had taken leading parts in the Restoration. They codified the civil and penal laws, remodelling them on Western bases. They brought a vast number of affairs within the scope of minute regulations. They rescued the finances from confusion and restored them to a sound condition. They recast the whole framework of local government. They organised a great national bank and established a network of subordinate institutions throughout the country. They pushed the work of railway construction and successfully enlisted private enterprise in its cause. They steadily extended the postal and telegraphic services. They economised public expenditures so that the State's income always exceeded its outlays. They laid the foundations of a strong mercantile marine. They instituted a system