This disestablishment of Shintō is another instance of the peculiar method by which reforms, whether political, social, or moral, are usually accomplished in Japan. In Occidental nations political reforms have been initiated by the people, by the power of public opinion; and popular rights have been wrested by the ruled from the unwilling rulers, whether feudal barons or monarchs. But in Japan all the political and social reforms of the last few decades have been imposed by the ruling classes upon the indifferent people. It is probably true that the great mass of the Japanese care very little, if any, whether their government is an absolute or a constitutional monarchy; know scarcely anything about the cabinet, the Imperial Diet, the new codes, and such things; and are contented with the old customs, costumes, ceremonies, and religions. They are not like that Irishman who, when he was asked, immediately upon landing in New York, to which party he belonged, promptly replied, “I’m agin the government.” The common people of Japan go to the other extreme and are always “for the government”; that is, they favor the established order, whatever it may be, and do not want any disturbance. Or it may, perhaps, be nearer the truth to say that they keep “the noiseless tenor of their way,” regardless of what changes may be transpiring in social and political Japan. But, although they are natural conservatives, they are, nevertheless, able to adapt themselves gradually to the new order of things, as soon as these are firmly established. Now this disestablishment of Shintō has not come about, as idolatry has often been overthrown in the isles of the sea, in accordance with the demands of the people, who had learned better from the teachings of Christianity and modern science; but it has been carried out somewhat as a political measure by the government, and the people must still be educated up to an understanding of the new status of Shintō.