attitude of Marquis Itō and his party, which controlled an absolute majority in the lower house? To answer this question is again to describe another turning point in the remarkable career of this statesman. It was made known early in the season, and no partisan view could well refute, that the marquis was in sympathy with the cabinet so far as its naval programme was concerned, which he was reported to have deemed even too moderate. As regarded the land tax question, however, which he had once in the past years considered it wise to increase even to four per cent., he now, either from conviction or from policy, assumed an attitude of unusual deliberation. Nothing could have been more disastrous to the cabinet, and more decisive for the termination of his career as a party leader, than his studied reticence about this important problem. The "whips" of his party deliberately overrode him, and ordered its long expectant local branches, soon after the general election, to forward to the headquarters resolutions against both the naval extension and the retention of the increased land tax. Resolutions accordingly poured in thick and fast. At the same time, the marquis was flooded with personal appeals to him to come out squarely against the unpopular government. It is plain that the action of his subordinates was calculated to intimidate him more than the cabinet. His authority as the president of the Constitutional Political Association had been ignored, and he yielded, perhaps in order to save others' and his own dignity. Shortly before the opening of the diet, on November 26, the marquis, after a deliberation lasting four weeks, conveyed to Premier Katsura his opinion, reiterating that the naval expansion was necessary, that the burden of the increased land tax was not particularly onerous, but that he did not think it politic at present to prolong the term of the increase, and, finally, that the naval expenditure might be met by postponing or suspending some of the less urgent public works. After further conferences, the premier, on December 3, personally assured the marquis of his sense of gratitude for his counsel, but firmly announced that, inasmuch as the budget had been sanctioned by his majesty, and as it would be unwise for the cabinet to resign on the eve of the meeting of the diet, it remained for him to make an effort to carry through his proposed plan. After this friendly ultimatum was pronounced the outcome of the measure could hardly be doubted, for the presence of the common enemy speedily brought about a temporary alliance of the Associationists and the Progressives. The irresistible coalition found its first opportunity to assail the cabinet when the latter made an imprudent but sincere move to connect three things--the budget, the navy bill, and the land tax measure--declaring the absolute necessity of upholding them together and the impossibility of an alternative course of action. The