the large majority of the Anglo-Saxon tradesmen visiting Japan
in the early days of her renewed intercourse had nothing whatever in
common with the men described in the above despatch.

KYOTO

In order to follow the sequence of events, it is necessary to revert
to Kyoto, which, as the reader will have perceived, was the centre of
national politics in this troublous era. An incident apparently of
the greatest importance to the Bakufu occurred in 1861. The shogun
received the Emperor's sister in marriage. But the auspicious event
had to be heavily paid for, since the Bakufu officials were obliged
to pledge themselves to expel foreigners within ten years. This
inspired new efforts on the part of the conservatives. A number of
samurai visited Yokohama, and promised death to any Japanese merchant
entering into transactions with the aliens. These conservatives
further announced the doctrine that the shogun's title of sei-i
(barbarian-expelling) indicated explicitly that to expel foreigners
was his duty, and the shogun's principal officials were so craven
that they advised him to apologize for failing to discharge that duty
instead of wholly repudiating the extravagant interpretation of the
anti-foreign party.

Encouraged by these successes, the extremists in Kyoto induced the
sovereign to issue an edict in which, after speaking of the
"insufferable and contumelious behaviour of foreigners," of "the loss
of prestige and of honour constantly menacing the country," and of
the sovereign's "profound solicitude," his Majesty openly cited the
shogun's engagement to drive out the aliens within ten years, and
explicitly affirmed that the grant of an Imperial princess' hand to
the shogun had been intended to secure the unity required for that
achievement. Such an edict was in effect an exhortation to every
Japanese subject to organize an anti-foreign crusade, and it
"publicly committed the Bakufu Court to a policy which the latter had
neither the power to carry out nor any intention of attempting to
carry out."

But at this juncture something like a reaction took place in the
Imperial capital. A party of able men, led by Princes Konoe and
Iwakura, had the courage to denounce the unwisdom of the extremists,
at whose head stood Princes Arisugawa and Sanjo. At that time the
most powerful fiefs in Japan were Satsuma and Choshu. Both were
hereditarily hostile to the Tokugawa, but were mutually separated by
a difference of opinion in t