ve greatly hurt the tender feelings of honor
which were so prominent a part of samurai character. The financial
relations were purely those of honor and trust.

Under this general method, large sums of money were expended by the
American Board for homes for its missionaries in various parts of
Japan, and especially in Kyoto. Here was the Doshisha, which grew from
a small English school and Evangelists' training class to a prosperous
university with fine buildings. Tens of thousands of dollars were put
into this institution, besides the funds needful for the land and the
houses for nine foreign families. An endowment was also raised, partly
in Japan, but chiefly in America. In a single bequest, Mr. Harris of
New London gave over one hundred thousand dollars for a School of
Science. It has been estimated that, altogether, the American Board
and its constituency have put into the Doshisha, including the
salaries of the missionary teachers, toward a million dollars.

In the early nineties the political skies were suddenly darkened. The
question of treaty revision loomed up black in the heavens. The
politicians of the land clamored for the absolute refusal of all right
of property ownership by foreigners. In their political furore they
soon began to attack the Japanese Christians who were holding the
property used by the various missions. They accused them of being
traitors to the country. A proposed law was drafted and presented in
the National Diet, confiscating all such property. The Japanese
holders naturally became nervous and desirous of severing the
relationships with the foreigners as soon as possible. In the case of
corporate ownership the trustees began to make assumptions of absolute
ownership, regardless of the moral claims of the donors of the funds.
In the earlier days of the trouble frequent conferences on the
question were held by the missionaries of the American Board with the
leading Christians of the Empire, and their constant statement was,
"Do not worry; trust us; we are samurai and will do nothing that is
not perfectly honorable." So often were these sentiments reiterated,
and yet so steadily did the whole management of the Doshisha move
further and further away from the honorable course, that finally the
"financial honor of the samurai" came to have an odor far from
pleasant. A deputation of four gentlemen, as representatives of the
American Board, came from America especially to confer with the
trus