son Osin, better known by his posthumous title of Hatchimang, was at the head of his army. But where there is no enemy to fight the post of commander-in-chief soon falls into abeyance. Japan has long been in this position--of having no enemy to watch or to attack. Such a position entails, almost of necessity, the creation of a duality or double power. The weak condition to which the imperial court descended, after it had been denuded of its power, and after the command of its armies had fallen from the hands of scions of the blood-royal into those of other families, was followed by convulsions, civil wars, and bloodshed, till the people returned to a state of ignorance, and the fields to barrenness; but this seems only a consequence of having no enemy, no near neighbor with whom, by a process of constant watching and battling, as in Europe, the sinews of a nation are strengthened, and national feeling is concentrated into a unity. The annals of the emperors show that, for long after the time of Zinmu, his successors took an active part in the politics, the wars, and the intrigues of the state. It is not a matter of wonder that the hands which held the scepter should have become feeble during the fierce civil wars which raged in the sixteenth century. The country would seem to have been driven by necessity to have two emperors--or at least, two opposing interests; and when the hereditary commander-in-chief had in turn become a nonentity, one adventurer after another started up--first, Nobunanga; secondly, Taikosama; thirdly, Iyeyas, all able men. The first battled with the Buddhist priesthood, the second turned his arms against Corea, the third, the ablest of all, devised that dual system of seemingly divided empire, by which the power of the executive remained in the hands of the Shiogoon at Yedo, while the source or fountain of honors remained with the Emperor in Miako. The configuration of the islands prevents their being cut into two empires; it remained for Iyeyas to devise a dual system by which peace has been preserved in a remarkable way for two hundred and fifty years.