It would seem that this upper house was created to serve as a powerful shield of the government. It contains men of wisdom and weight, and is comparatively free from party affiliations. While no financial bill can originate there, the house is above the fear of dissolution, and its actions may be characterized by a greater continuity of policy than those of the other house. "If the house of peers fulfills its functions," writes Marquis Itō in his "Commentaries," "it will serve in a remarkable degree to preserve an equilibrium between political powers, to restrain the undue influence of political parties, to check the evil tendencies of irresponsible discussions, to secure the stability of the Constitution, to be an instrument for maintaining harmony between the governing and the governed, and to permanently sustain the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people." It was an irony of fate that a dozen years after these words were written their author, at that time the premier, should find in this very organ the most stubborn opposition to his measures that any constitutional cabinet of Japan has ever experienced. The anomaly of the situation consisted in the fact that these measures had already been passed through the lower house, so that the traditionally pro-government peers were now found opposed to the combined front of the cabinet and the representatives. Nothing of the sort could have been imagined by the marquis when he first framed the great document which brought the house of peers into existence. How the deadlock thus caused was removed by a resort to another anomaly has already been described. As to the reasons for the unexpectedly determined opposition of the peers, they will be told in the next chapter.