intention to revolutionize the mode of government was the Emperor’s departure from Kioto, which had been the seat of his ancestors for twenty-five centuries, and his adoption of Yedo, thenceforth called Tokio, for his capital. To a considerable extent, freedom of the press was now guaranteed, and a number of newspapers sprung up. Books expounding European methods of thought and education were published, and many pamphlets advocating the abolition of feudalism appeared. Four of the great Daimios, or feudal lords, advocated the change. They addressed a memorial to the throne offering to restore the registers of their clans and proposing that the Mikado should resume possession of their fiefs. In conformity to this request, an edict was issued in September, 1871, summoning the Daimios to Tokio for the purpose of arranging their retirement to private life. With scarcely an exception, the order was obeyed; even the Daimios who disapproved of the measure were unwilling to oppose the resolute men who had framed the edict. The truth is that, even under the feudal system, the real power in each clan had lain in the hands of able men of inferior rank who ruled their nominal masters. These are the men who, during the last thirty years, have controlled Japan. Having first driven the Shiogoon into private life, they then compelled the Daimios to follow him into retirement. Of the men who have governed the country since 1868, not one is a Daimio by birth, and only two or three are Kuge, or court nobles. Almost all were simple Samurai, or retainers of the territorial lords. It should be mentioned that, in 1869, the Emperor returned to Kioto for a brief visit, in order to perform certain ceremonies at his father’s tomb, and, during his sojourn in the western capital, he married the present Empress, who was a princess of one of the five regent families, from which the highest officers under the Mikado have always been selected, and from which the emperors have habitually chosen their wives. We have seen that the Emperor had promised to convoke a deliberative assembly. This promise was, at first, kept to the ear, rather than the hope. A so-called Kogisho or Parliament was formed of persons representing each of the Daimiates, and designated for the position by the Daimios. It was a mere debating society, whose function was to give advice to the imperial government. How conservative the advice given by this body was may be measured by the fact that it refused to recommend the abolition of the privilege of hari-kari, or of the custom of wearing swords. This Kogisho lasted only for some months, being dissolved in the autumn of the same year in which it was created.