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Rh subjects was implicit, unquestioning obedience, as to the mandates of a god. The comparatively democratic doctrines of the Chinese sages, according to whom "the people are the most important element in a nation, and the sovereign is the lightest," were ever viewed with horror by the Japanese, to whom the antiquity and the absolute power of their Imperial line are badges of perfection on which they never weary of descanting. A study of Japanese history shows, however, that the Mikado has rarely exercised much of his power in practice. Almost always has it been wielded in his name, often sorely against his will, by the members of some ambitious house, which has managed to possess itself of supreme influence over the affairs of state. Thus, the Fujiwara family soon after the civilisation of the country by Buddhism, then the Taira, the Minamoto, the Hōjō, and the Ashikaga during the Middle Ages, and the Tokugawa in modern times, held the reins of state in succession. Under these ruling families were numerous families of lesser though still high degree, the Daimyōs:—in other words, the polity was feudal. Even since the revolution of 1868, whose avowed object was to restore the Mikado to his pristine absolutism, it is allowed on all hands that at least a large share of the reality of power has lain with the two great clans of Satsuma and Chōshū, while the aim of the two clans next in influence—Tosa and Hizen—has been to put themselves in Satsuma and Chōshū's place. In 1889 there was granted a Constitution, which established a Diet consisting of two houses, and laid the foundation of a new order of things, a share in the government being thenceforth vested in the nobility and in those gentlemen and commoners whose property qualification entitles them to vote or to be voted for. Those possessing this privilege form a little over two per cent, of the total population. The members of the lower house—376 in all receive each a yearly allowance of 2,000 yen (£200). A certain measure of popular control over local affairs was also granted in 1889.

The administration is at present divided into ten departments,