--'Well, Japan has been swayed by a feudal system before the great change of the present régime. That fact helped our success to an extent that one cannot easily imagine. Of course, there was a possibility of procrastination of the old system, if the reform movements had miscarried; but when the winds blew in the right direction, that very fact became the most important factor in conveying our ship of state to the harbour where it wished to go. To explain in less metaphorical language: the introduction of a great political reform in a country against an existing government is most difficult. A revolution with a tremendous force like that of France must be regarded as an exceptional case, but ordinary revolutionists seldom succeed in overthrowing existing governments and introducing better and more progressive ones on a firmer basis. When, on the other hand, the existing government is only obliged to introduce some reform by external influence, the reform it introduces cannot be very radical and thorough. With our great movements previous to 1867 the matter was taken up by several powerful feudal lords. Naturally, there had been several precursory movements against the Shogunate by the bands of zealous patriots gathered here and there, but the Shogunate had no difficulty in suppressing them. The revolt against the Shogunate became grave only when some powerful feudal lords with their clans assumed an antagonistic attitude. As you know, our clans were, in fact, autonomic principalities, as far as our own country was concerned, and therefore, when a prince and his government decided to take a certain step in one way or other, it was an act of state, however small it may have been, and not the act of a gathering of private individuals. It follows, therefore, that when a great feudal lord became an open enemy of the Shogunate, his opposition was an organised power. When, therefore, Chosiu took up the cudgels against the Shogunate, the latter found a formidable foe; and when, further, Satsuma and others began to sympathise with Chosiu, the Shogunate began to totter, and in the course of a few years came to an end. If it had not been on account of the existence of a feudal system, such phenomenal change would have been most difficult. Of course, there were several other causes which gave facility to that great change. The system of the Shogunate had existed in Japan over seven hundred years, but the family which held in its hands the authority of the Shogun changed from time to time. The family which ruled Japan as Shogun for the longest time before the Tokugawa, viz. the last Shogunate, was the Ashikaga family, which lasted two hundred and forty years, with sixteen Shoguns in succession. Next to the Ashikaga family was the Hojio family, which, though not actual Shoguns, exercised the actual power of the Shogunate for one hundred and thirty-four years, with nine representatives in succession.