“The first consideration is that the root of the tree should be firmly planted. The root is the sovereign power; to restore the sovereign power to the Emperor is to plant the root firmly.... In the Middle Ages the military class curtailed the possessions of the Emperor.... In their mutual struggle the great swallowed up the small, the strong took possession of the weak.... The feudal Princes presented the picture of a land divided into petty kingdoms maintained by force ... so that the people of the remote districts knew not that above all there was One who was Lord of the myriads and of the millions. How can such a grief be endured? But now that the tangled machinery of the State has been renewed, the myriads and the millions, purified in the overflowing dews of the deep benevolence, will at once reverently recognize their Emperor, and the roots of the tree will be firmly planted. The roots being firmly planted, the branches and leaves will flourish luxuriantly. How much the more, now that friendly relations exist with foreign countries, should we place our divine country under the sovereign rule, and setting up our Emperor as the Head of the Universe, and restoring the singleness of the supreme power, illustrate its virtue and strength to the four seas. “Your servant Sadayasu acknowledges gratefully that, degenerate as he is, he is yet the chief of the least of all the clans. At a moment so auspicious as the present, how can he refrain from expressing his humble opinion? Cheerfully braving the punishment of the headsman’s axe, he dares to lift up his voice. If perchance your servant who offers up the lists of his lands and men to the Emperor should find favour, and his petition be graciously accepted, what happiness could equal this? He prays that the All-wise and Illustrious will take his poor request into consideration. Your servant Sadayasu, in fear and awe, bows the head once and again. Fainting and dying, he lifts his voice.” The _Kiōto Gazette_, which gave to the world these memorials, cast much in the same shape as that hoary old journalistic curiosity the _Peking Gazette_, was one of the first-fruits of the new order of things. It was a most interesting publication, full of odds and ends of quaint information, and for some months, when our withers were unwrung by any rousing excitement, I used to amuse myself by picking plums out of it and translating them for the benefit of the Legation. The memorials by the great nobles surrendering their fiefs, of which I have given specimens above, were published in the _Gazette_. I suspect that many of the announcements would excite as much curiosity among the Japanese of to-day as they did in 1869 among us. * * * * *