, and thus the situation was often saved from apparently
pressing danger. The war with China (1894-1895) greatly enhanced the
Diet's reputation; for all the political parties, laying aside their
differences, without a dissenting voice voted funds for the
prosecution of the campaign.

POLITICAL PARTIES

During several years the House of Representatives continued to be
divided into two great parties with nearly equally balanced
power--the Liberals and the Progressists, together with a few minor
coteries. But, in 1898, the Liberals and Progressists joined hands,
thus coming to wield a large majority in the lower house. Forthwith,
the Emperor, on the advice of Prince Ito, invited Counts Okuma and
Itagaki to form a Cabinet. An opportunity was thus given to the
parties to prove the practical possibility of the system they had so
long lauded in theory. The united parties called themselves
Constitutionists (Kensei-to). Their union lasted barely six months,
and then "the new links snapped under the tension of the old
enmities."

A strange thing now happened. The Liberals invited Prince Ito to be
their leader, and he agreed on condition that his followers should
obey him implicitly. A new and powerful party was thus formed under
the designation of Friends of the Constitution (Rikken Seiyukai).
Thus, the Liberals not only enlisted under the statesmen whose
overthrow they had for nearly twenty years sought to effect, but also
they practically expunged from their platform an essential article of
faith--parliamentary cabinets. Another proof was here furnished that
political combinations in Japan were based rather on persons than on
principles.

As for the new party, even Prince Ito's wonderful talents and
unequalled prestige failed to hold successfully the reins of the
heterogeneous team which he had now undertaken to drive. The House of
Peers opposed him on account of his association with political
parties, and he at once resigned the premiership. The party he had
formed did not, however, dissolve. Prince Ito, indeed, stepped out of
its ranks, but he was succeeded by his intimate friend, Marquis
Saionji, one of Japan's blue-blooded aristocrats, and to him the
Constitutionists have yielded implicit obedience ever since. For the
rest, it is impossible to foresee what the outcome of the
parliamentary system will be in Japan. Up to the present the
principal lesson learned by politicians seems to have been the value
of patience. T