In 1900 he took office for the fourth time as Minister-president, with Baron Suyematsu, so well known in Europe of recent years for his contributions to the literature of the day and for his reasoned and fearless championship of his country’s cause on the lecture platform and elsewhere, as the Minister of the Interior. In this Cabinet was Mr Takaaki Kato, formerly Japan’s representative at the Court of St James, who held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, General Viscount Katsura, now Premier, was Minister for War, and Admiral Baron Yamamoto was Minister for the Navy, a position which he occupied under successive administrations, from 1899 until January 1906. In 1900 Marquis Ito associated himself with the doctrines of party government, and an immense step was taken in that direction by the formation of a political body named the Sei-Yu-kai, pledged to the adoption and support of Constitutional methods. His views on the duty of a political party were set forth in a manifesto at the time and may with advantage be introduced here:— “If a political party aims, as it should aim, at being a guide to the people, it must first commence with the maintenance of strict discipline and order in its own ranks, and above all must shape its own conduct in accordance with an absolute and sincere devotion to the public interests of the nation. It must, moreover, avoid falling into the fatal mistake of conferring posts on persons of doubtful qualifications merely because they happen to be members of its own political organisation.”