The full contents and import of the agreement of this alliance will be discussed later in connection with the diplomatic history of Japan. In short, it declared unequivocally that the two governments were for peace and order and against territorial aggressions in China and Korea; and that, if one of them should be compelled to go to war with a third power in order to protect its now vested interests in those countries against the threatening conduct of the enemy, the other party would be neutral and make efforts to prevent other powers from joining in hostilities against its ally; but that if any other power or powers should join in war against the ally, then the other party should come to its assistance, and conduct the war in common. It may well be imagined with what enthusiasm the news was received by both friends and foes of the cabinet in the two houses of the diet, as it was there for the first time made known to the world on February 11, when even the peers broke their usual decorum and applauded. Nothing could have strengthened the position of the Katsura cabinet more than this successful culmination of a series of negotiations carried on in absolute secrecy with a great power whose policy of "splendid isolation" had seemed to be traditional. It would be only fair to say, however, that but for the international fame which Japan had won for herself in the Chinese war of 1894-1895 and latterly in the North China campaign of 1900, coupled with the tact and influence of Viscount Aoki and Mr. Katō, former Japanese ministers at London, even the increased common interests of the two powers in the East and the combined effort of Baron Komura, the foreign minister, and Viscount Hayashi and Sir Claude MacDonald, the respective representatives of the two governments at London and Tōkyō, would not perhaps have been sufficient to bring about the consummation of the great diplomatic enterprise. It was even suspected in some quarters that Germany also may have been instrumental in promoting the new alliance, as her well-known policy of setting England and Russia against each other for her own benefit would be best served in the Far East by wedding England to the inveterate object of Russia's jealousy. A more interesting question for us here regards the position in this affair of Marquis Itō, who had recently held conferences with the Russian foreign minister, Count Lamsdorf, at St. Petersburg, and had just been honored by Edward VII. of England with a Grand Cross of Bath. Whether the former fact indicated his preference for a Russian _entente_, or whether the latter was a conclusive evidence of an eminent service he had rendered toward the successful conclusion of the British agreement, has been a matter of much speculation. There exists authoritative evidence to show as conclusively that his negotiations with Lamsdorf had been carried out with the full knowledge of the Katsura cabinet, as to prove that, on the