Page:The constitutional development of Japan, 1853-1881 (IA constitutionalde00iyenrich).pdf/45

463] importance. The real power in each clan lay in the hands of able men of inferior rank, who ruled their masters." From these men came the present advisers of the Emperor. Their chief object at that time was the thorough unification of Japan. Why, then, should they longer trouble themselves to uphold feudalism, this mother of sectionalism, this colossal sham?