The crisis in Korea and Manchuria was, in the meanwhile, advancing with tragic certainty, until the apparently insignificant cabinet was called upon to lead the nation through the greatest trial of its life. The war with Russia, as we shall see in a later chapter, broke out in February, 1904, followed by nineteen months of the vast campaign and the brilliant victories of the Japanese army and navy. The existence of the war, of course, again united the entire nation, and completely changed the conditions of Japan's domestic politics, which might otherwise have made a prolonged life unendurable to the cabinet. Its financial measures were supported by the diet, not without amendments, but on the whole with practical unanimity. The 156 million _yen_ of the extraordinary war expenditures disbursed under an imperial ordinance of December 28, 1903, were willingly sanctioned by the twentieth session of the diet in March, 1904. It also passed the new tobacco manufacture monopoly law elaborately drafted by the government, and approved the extraordinary war expenditures for the fiscal year 1904-1905, amounting to 420 million _yen_. This last act not only involved the raising of the public and temporary loans and exchequer bonds to the amount of 131 millions, but also an increase in tax rates and the imposition of new consumption taxes on woolen textiles and kerosene oil. The next session of the diet also met the requisitions of the government by further increasing the tax rates and creating newer taxes, and approving 571 millions of new national loans and 63 millions to be transferred from funds under the so-called special accounts, making the total war expenditures of the second period 780 million _yen_. The grand total of the war cost approved by the diet in the two sessions thus aggregated 1356 millions. This amount became inadequate, as the army in the field, especially after the battle of Mukden, in February-March, 1905, was increased to an unprecedented magnitude. A new foreign loan for 30 million pounds floated, in July, in London, New York, and Berlin, brought the figure up to 1656 million _yen_. Fortunately, the rice crop for 1904 was unusually good; an early control of the sea held open the highways of Japan's Eastern trade; the reduction of local impositions and expenditures counterbalanced the rise in national taxes; and the savings and general financial endurance of the people at large proved unexpectedly great. The unforeseen successes of Japan's arms also contributed to the temporary prestige of the cabinet.