“After our independence is restored, it is urgent and pressing that we reform our military institutions, the naval sciences, as well as all branches of industry. We should find out the great advancements and developments of arts and sciences in other countries. The whole nation must devote life and soul to the benefit of our state, and we must learn and study the interior arrangements of foreign lands, in order that the commerce of our country may flourish in this important age. I think all this ought to have been done long since; but nothing of the kind is to be found in the edicts which have appeared so often during the last seven years. “Inventions and improvements pass on with rapidity, and the time is now come to make all these changes and improvements; but if our attachment to old customs causes us to postpone these measures of such great importance, if these changes are later suddenly forced by circumstances upon the inhabitants, a very bad impression will be produced, creating disorder and confusion. These are reasons why they should be effected now calmly and gradually. I think that the Mikado will not be disinclined to this, and therefore I wish that the Shiogoon should act under the orders of the Mikado, and not conclude matters by his own authority. He ought to let these designs be known to all the Daimios in the name of the Mikado; then there will be a general quiet restored; then the dormant soul of the whole nation will awake, and will be united in power and in independence; and then it will display its force and strength to the other five portions of the universe without anxiety and fear for our own country. “I do not write these my sentiments to aid you in your negotiations, as they may be of little or no use to you, and only like a drop of water falling into the ocean; but to show my gratitude for the favors of the Shiogoon, which my ancestors have enjoyed during centuries.” The aim of the party opposed to the policy of the Shiogoon and the admission of foreigners seems to have been to poison the mind of the Emperor against the young Shiogoon, and to embroil the country in a war, by setting the one against the other. The letters from the Emperor which have been obtained prove this. The following letter was conveyed by Shimadzu Saburo from the Emperor to the Shiogoon about October, 1862: