to this rescript the Tokugawa officials were treated with such
harshness that Keiki found it impossible to calm their indignation;
it culminated in an abortive attack upon Kyoto. Thereupon, Keiki
retired to Yedo, which city he subsequently surrendered
unconditionally. But all his former adherents did not show themselves
equally placable. An attempt was made to set up a rival candidate for
the throne in the person of the Imperial lord-abbot of the Ueno
monastery in Yedo; the Aizu clan made a gallant and unsuccessful
resistance in the northern provinces, and the shogun's admiral,
Yenomoto (afterwards viscount), essayed to establish a republic in
Yezo, whither he had retired with the Tokugawa warships. But these
petty incidents were altogether insignificant compared with the great
event of which they were a sequel.

THE MEIJI GOVERNMENT AND FOREIGN INTERCOURSE

The year-name was now changed to Meiji (Enlightened Government), from
January 1, 1868, a term fully justified by events. One of the
earliest acts of the new Government was to invite the foreign
representatives to the Imperial city, where the Emperor himself
received them in audience, an act of extreme condescension according
to Japanese canons of etiquette. Thereafter, an Imperial decree
announced the sovereign's determination to cement amicable relations
with foreign nations, and declared that any Japanese subject guilty
of violence to a foreigner would be acting in contravention of his
sovereign's commands, as well as injuriously to the dignity and good
faith of the country in the eyes of the powers with which his Majesty
had pledged himself to maintain friendship. So signal was the change
that had taken place in the demeanour of the nation's leaders towards
foreign intercourse! Only two years earlier, the advent of a squadron
of foreign war-vessels at Hyogo had created almost a panic and had
caused men to cry out that the precincts of the sacred city of Kyoto
were in danger of desecration by barbarian feet. But now the Emperor
invited the once hated aliens to his presence, treated them with the
utmost courtesy, and publicly greeted them as welcome guests. Such a
metamorphosis has greatly perplexed some students of Japanese
history. Yet the explanation is simple. The Kagoshima and Shimonoseki
expeditions had taught Japan that she was powerless in the face of
Western armaments; she had learned that national effacement must be
the sequel of seclusion, and, above a