A truly memorable document, to which, on the following day, the Emperor made answer, saying that “His Majesty is filled with admiration of the loyalty” of the four Daimios. Other Daimios followed suit, the Prince of Echizen, however, raising the suggestion that there should be a public debate as to whether the present was a proper and fitting opportunity for the movement. One Daimio, following the example of the four leaders, “has the honour humbly to make a statement”—and a very characteristic statement it is. “The Emperor, having taken upon himself the task of ruling, the owls have changed their cry,[13] the grass and the trees have bent to the wind. This has been one day in ten thousand years which it has been our privilege to witness. The land girdled by the sea has beheld and wondered. Deeply should I fear to retain for my own the territory which my poor clan has received from the Emperor; therefore it is my desire to offer up my lands and my people. I humbly implore the Imperial decision. “Sd. TODA UNÉMÉ NO SHO.” (_Kiōto Gazette_ of March 10th, 1869.) I feel inclined to add extracts from a similar memorial by the Prince of Unshiu, taken from the _Kiōto Gazette_ of March 12th, 1869: “Your servant Sadayasu in his folly and worthlessness, ignorant of the laws of decorum, dares to lift up his voice in defiance of all propriety. To discuss the affairs of the Government of the Empire is a crime deserving ten thousand deaths.... Truly we may say that after an interval of seven hundred years the foundation has been laid of a reformation which shall last for ten thousand generations. The Emperor issues his illustrious commands and the millions of the people are purified in the reformation. Hence it is that your servant Sadayasu, disregarding the heinousness of the crime which he is committing, dares to offer up his humble opinion. The affairs of the Empire may be said to have their seasons ... it is to these seasons that we must direct our minds. The present restoration is such a season.