In the opening years of the Tokugawa administration an uncompromising policy was pursued. Even such a puissant _tozama_ noble as Fukushima Masanori, and such a loyal feudatory as Honda Masazumi, who had assisted in the first organization of the shōgunate, had their estates confiscated by way of punishment for violations of the law, while several other important nobles were deprived of their territories on the ground of incompetence to govern them. The principle of succession was enforced with especial strictness among the _samurai_. If a man died without direct male issue his family was declared extinct, and were he a noble, his estate reverted to the shōgunate. Subsequently the severity of this system was modified and adoption began to be permitted, to the great satisfaction of the feudal chiefs and the military class in general. But in the early days the reins of administration were held so unflinchingly that even consanguinity with the shōgun did not save from condign punishment a nobleman who failed in respect for the law. Degradations and removals from one province to another were frequent forms of punishment for slight breaches of law. The autonomy of each individual fief was complete within itself. The feudal barons, whether large or small and whether their relations with the shōgunate were close or remote enjoyed the privilege of governing the districts under their control in whatever manner they pleased, entirely independent of the administration in Edo. This applied to financial, military, judicial, educational, industrial, and all other matters, the central government reserving to itself only the right of declaring war or concluding peace, of coining money and of repairing or constructing roads. But while, on the one hand, this principle of non-interference was strictly observed, any dangerous independence that it might have developed was effectually obviated by another device, namely, that of requiring the sojourn in Edo of every feudal baron at fixed intervals and for a fixed period. This was one of the most remarkable measures conceived by the Tokugawa. The policy itself had been formulated in the time of Iyeyasu, but it did not come into operation until 1635, under the third shōgun, Iyemitsu. Each feudal chief was compelled to spend a part of every second year in Edo, the dates of setting out from his province and of leaving Edo on his return journey being fixed by the shōgunate. Nothing could have been simpler than this device; nothing more efficacious in establishing and preserving the Tokugawa sway. Probably no factor in the Tokugawa system contributed more materially to the unprecedented duration of domestic peace throughout two centuries and a half. It was not until 1862, a few years before the fall of Edo, that this astute policy was allowed to fall into abeyance. Further, during the first part of the Tokugawa shōgunate the feudal barons were obliged to leave their sons in Edo as pledges of their own good behavior.