y part of that prodigious debt left on his kingdom by the former war,
which might have been done by any tolerable management, in twelve years
of the most profound peace; he left his empire loaden with a vast
addition to the old encumbrance.

This prince, before he succeeded to the empire of Japan, was king of
Tedsu,[206] a dominion seated on the continent, to the west side of
Japan. Tedsu was the place of his birth, and more beloved by him than
his new empire; for there he spent some months almost every year, and
thither was supposed to have conveyed great sums of money, saved out of
his Imperial revenues.

There were two maritime towns of great importance bordering upon
Tedsu:[207] Of these he purchased a litigated title; and, to support it,
was forced not only to entrench deeply on his Japanese revenues, but to
engage in alliances very dangerous to the Japanese empire.[208]

Japan was at that time a limited monarchy, which some authors are of
opinion was introduced there by a detachment from the numerous army of
Brennus, who ravaged a great part of Asia; and, those of them who fixed
in Japan, left behind them that kind of military institution, which the
northern people, in ensuing ages, carried through most parts of Europe;
the generals becoming kings, the great officers a senate of nobles, with
a representative from every centenary of private soldiers; and, in the
assent of the majority in these two bodies, confirmed by the general,
the legislature consisted.

I need not farther explain a matter so universally known; but return to
my subject.

The Husige faction, by a gross piece of negligence in the Yortes, had so
far insinuated themselves and their opinions into the favour of Regoge
before he came to the empire, that this prince firmly believed them to
be his only true friends, and the others his mortal enemies.[209] By
this opinion he governed all the actions of his reign.

The emperor died suddenly, in his journey to Tedsu; where, according to
his usual custom, he was going to pass the summer.

This prince, during his whole reign, continued an absolute stranger to
the language, the manners, the laws, and the religion of Japan; and
passing his whole time among old mistresses, or a few privadoes, left
the whole management of the empire in the hands of a minister, upon the
condition of being made easy in his personal revenues, and the
management of parties in the senate. His last minister,[210] who
governed