The 1st of January, 1868, was really the birthday of the new dispensation. Up to this time, for many months, the country had been in a fever of unrest; there had been plots and counterplots, conspiracies and intrigues of which I have tried to give some indication, though their details would fill volumes; there had been the resignation, or sham resignation, of the Tycoon; there had been a gradual massing of troops near Kiōto: the Prince of Chōshiu, who had been in disgrace, had been forgiven, save the mark! by the Tycoon, and the Prince of Aidzu was said to have resigned the guardianship of the palace as a sign of his resentment of this leniency—but the report was not true, as will be seen presently: the witch’s cauldron was seething and boiling, but so far the peace had not actually been broken; the Daimios were still protesting that their object was only to curb the Tycoon and restrain an overwhelming power which had been abused. We began to feel that the dogs of war were loose. We learned that the Prince of Satsuma had proposed the abolition of the Tycoon and the other old officers of State, substituting for them something analogous to a Constitutional Government with Secretaries of State and the whole machinery of an executive; a proposal in which we could not but recognize the reflection of hints which, at his request, Satow and I had given to Gotō Shōjirō. Satsuma’s views met with great opposition, many men dreading such Radical ideas as perhaps likely to end by threatening the kingship of the Mikado himself. Our informant said that this was no matter for argument, it must be decided by war. The Tycoon, he admitted, would raise no difficulties, being bent on preserving the peace of the country at whatever cost to himself. But he could not control his people. Things were now moving at lightning speed and every day brought some new development. Rumours came flying fast and furious—some true, some garbled, some false—but all pointing in one direction. On the 7th of January an official of the Bakufu came to tell us that the Tycoon had left Kiōto and was on his way to Ōsaka to have an interview with M. Roches. This naturally was a mere pretext; as a matter of fact he was leaving Kiōto because his office had come to an end. The Aidzu men who had charge of the nine gates of the Mikado’s palace had been ousted by Imperial command and the sacred precincts and the Emperor himself were in the hands of the coalition Daimios. Practically the end had come.