Representations were made most cautiously to one daimio after the other, and Kido drew up a paper in the form of a memorial to the Emperor, which the feudal chiefs were asked to subscribe to, and to which four of them at once appended their seals, they being those who had been most active in bringing about the situation which culminated in the fall of the Shogun from power. The very essence of this epoch-making document, conveying an unequivocal renunciation of their possessions and entire submission to the imperial will by the leading daimios throughout the land, was patriotic devotion to the sovereign and repose in his wisdom and virtue as their restored monarch. “We hereby offer up our possessions, our men, and ourselves to his Majesty,—let the imperial commands issue for the remodelling of the clans,—let everything henceforward be done exclusively in his sovereign name, and let the internal affairs of the country be so regulated and placed on a true and safe basis that the empire shall be able eventually to take its place side by side with the other enlightened countries of the world.” Such was the tone and in great measure the phraseology employed when the grandees of Japan spontaneously relinquished their positions as lords of the soil and unconditionally bowed themselves before the throne in readiness to conform to their ruler’s mandate, relying implicitly, for their future, on his justice and benevolence. To Kido Koin, in the first place, must be assigned the credit of this truly diplomatic triumph, and in a second place to Okubo. Though Choshiu was willing, it would have been impossible without the approval of Satsuma to carry the proposal through, nor would it have been probable that some, at all events, of the less prominent daimios could have been induced to renounce their all but for the brilliant example set them by the powerful barons of the first rank (kokushiu) of the south.