the future premier again visited England, accompanied by a staff of
qualified assistants, to glean all the additional particulars regarding
the principles and practical operation of European constitutions and
parliamentary institutions, and the mass of detail thus gathered was
carefully considered on the return of the mission to Tokio, by a
well-staffed bureau presided over in great measure by the statesman with
whom it had come to be identified in respect of its deliberations. Of the
process by which the committee thus formed arrived at its conclusions,
what were the systems deliberated upon, the arguments pro and con
employed to ensure their adoption or rejection, little has ever been made
public, but that there was no lack of careful consideration of every
detail is to be comprehended from the fact that eight years were in
all consumed in the work, the proclamation of the Constitution bearing
date, as we have already seen, the 11th of February 1889. While the
provisions of this Edict gave birth to representative bodies, the utmost
anxiety was evinced to safeguard the executive from any encroachments on
its legitimate sphere by those bodies, as though the outcome of their
profound researches into the principles of representative government in
Europe had been a conviction on the part of the examining committee that
disadvantages were to be recognised, in relation to the benefits, in a
proportion which it was impossible wholly to ignore.
The prerogatives of the Crown had to be secured from excessive
interference by the governed,—the government must be absolutely free to
employ all the nation’s resources. Without this clear perception of the
attributes of sovereignty at the outset, it might have been difficult
to have brought all Japan’s strength to bear in the critical situations
which have in later years arisen. As matters stand, however, the direct
rule of the sovereign, though in some respects the idea of limited
monarchy is preserved, remains practically unfettered, and the supreme
control rests in the Emperor’s own hands. The Cabinet being responsible
to the Ten-shi himself, may continue to conduct the affairs of the
nation until it pleases him to signify a wish for its resignation, in
spite of adverse votes on its policy that may be passed in both Houses,
a provision which places it above the exigencies of party strife, and
secures at all times its complete independence of action.
The prefectural assemblies, which were designed to pave the way for
organised self-government through representative bodies on the western
model, continued to meet in the provinces and to constitute a very
useful training for the people in the principles of local administration
and the formation of public opinion. The functions of these provincial
parliaments were definitely laid down in a special ordinance in the
year 1888, a few months before the assembly of the first Diet, so that
there should be no conflict in regard to the respective powers of these
institutions. A notable step had been taken four years previously in
the reorganisation of the aristocracy on a system akin to the Chinese
but accommodated to the methods of the Occident. There had been from
ancient times in the Chinese Empire certain well-defined grades of the
aristocracy, and in a modified form the titles so conferred had had their
equivalents in Japan, so that it became necessary merely to revive the
system under modern conditions. The degrees of nobility thus reintroduced
were Ko = prince, Ko = (with a different symbol) marquis, Haku = count,
Shi = viscount, and Dan = baron, corresponding to the Kung, Hou, Po,
Tzu, and Nan of the Chinese, the European equivalents for these titles
being adopted by imperial ordinance from the year 1884. It has often
been supposed that Japan copied the Western forms in reorganising her
nobility, but the truth is that she officially recognised the European
ranks under their Chinese equivalents, just as her scientific terminology
is based upon the ideographs which have been employed in China for tens
of centuries to represent substances of which the inhabitants of that
land were cognisant though they lacked the enterprise to turn their
knowledge to practical account. Chinese, as a language, has been to
Japanese what Latin and Greek have been to English, the never-failing
fount from which it was feasible to draw as occasion might require a term
to suit the needs of scientific advancement. There had been princes,
court nobles, and a hereditary aristocracy in Japan from times out of
mind, the new feature introduced was the adjustment of mediæval titles
of nobility to the requirements of a later age. Under this arrangement
it became possible to group the former feudal magnates according to the
relative positions that they had occupied while in possession of their
estates, and simultaneously to raise to commensurate rank those who
had become distinguished by their services to their country. Honours
were to be conferred solely by the sovereign, and while he confirmed
in this respect in their inherited privileges the members of the older
aristocracy the Emperor raised to a status of equal title to respect
those who had served him in the reconstitution of his empire on a
basis of unexampled prosperity. On Ito Hirobumi his Majesty conferred
the rank of Count. A similar honour was bestowed on his colleague and
fellow-countryman Inouye Kaoru, and on many more. The former feudal lord
of the Hizen province, for example, took his place in the new peerage as
Marquis Nabeshima. The court noble Iwakura, who had headed the mission to
Europe and America, became a Prince. The great shipbuilder, Iwasaki, who
by his enterprise had done yeoman service to the nation in establishing
this valuable industry at Nagasaki, became a baron.
It was in 1885 that Count Ito, as he had now become, by the favour
of the sovereign, under the provisions of the law creating a Peerage,
formed his first Cabinet, in accordance with the resolution arrived at,
by the Emperor in Council, to introduce this vital change of system in
respect of the political organisation of the Empire. The Supreme Council
of the nation thenceforward became composed of the heads of the various
departments of State, with a Minister-president at its head. The Count,
as in duty bound, took his place as the first to occupy the presidential
office, and around him were grouped the foremost men of his party, in
which the Sat-Cho element as it was termed, predominated. Sat-Cho is
a compound word evolved from the names of the two great clans of the
south, Satsuma and Choshiu. The first syllables are seen to be united in
the compound, a term which has for many years been employed in Japan to
signify the ascendency enjoyed in the political affairs of the New Japan
by the representatives of the two clans indicated. Satsuma and Choshiu
have always, under the later regime, shone conspicuously in the annals
of the navy and the army having been the pioneers in the introduction of
modern naval and military science. The Ministers who formed the First
Cabinet of Japan were:—
Count Ito Hirobumi: Minister-President.
Count Inouye Kaoru: Foreign Minister.
Marshal Yamagata: Home do.
Count Matsukata: Finance do.
Marshal Oyama: War do.
Marquis Saigo (late): Navy do.
Viscount Mori (late): Education do.
Admiral Enomoto: Communications do.
The Privy Council, of which the special function is to advise the
sovereign whenever it may be his pleasure to consult it, was established
in 1888, and Count Ito became its first president, having resigned his
post of Minister-president of State to take up this more important
office. The expression is used advisedly, because in Japan, where the
prerogatives of the sovereign place him nearly on a level with those
rulers whose sway is absolute and autocratic, the Privy Council occupies
a position of responsibility that is not shared even by the Cabinet,
in those crises that must at times occur in the life of a nation. To
the Privy Council in Japan belong all those surviving Elder Statesmen,
as they are with fitting respect designated, who have helped to make of
Japan the marvellous success as a world power that she has become. In the
formation of the Japanese Privy Council we may trace a close resemblance
to that body which discharges somewhat similar functions in Great
Britain. The original idea was not improbably imbibed by Count Ito during
his study of European systems of Government, but in Japan the plan is
extended to admit of the adoption of an ever-widening field of selection.
The Emperor may summon whom he may think fit among his people to aid him
in his deliberations, and in his wise choice of counsellors he has been
guided by the evidence afforded of sterling ability or rare virtue rather
than by affluence or the world’s esteem. The Privy Council may boast a
membership exclusively of patriots, proved in the fire, men who have in
reality sought above all things their country’s welfare, the advancement
of their ruler’s legitimate interests and the maintenance of his rights
and prerogatives unimpaired. He is able as a result to invest them with
his complete confidence in the hour of trial. It was to the Privy Council
that was entrusted the solemn duty of finally deliberating upon the draft
to be submitted to the Emperor of the new Constitution, prior to its
adoption in February 1889, and it is obvious from the character of its
members that in this body his Majesty has been able to repose the utmost
confidence at critical periods in the life of the nation.
The first Ito Cabinet remained in office until 1888, and when it was
replaced by a Ministry of which Count Kuroda was the President, Count Ito
at the express command of the sovereign, continued to retain office as
a Cabinet Minister, but without holding any portfolio. In 1892 he again
formed a Cabinet of which he was the Premier, and this lasted four years,
through all the storm and stress of the war with China, in 1894-5, only
in the year following going out of office on the conclusion of peace. In
April 1895, occurred the famous meeting at Shimonoseki to arrange the
terms for a cessation of hostilities, when Japan was represented by Count
Ito Hirobumi and China by Earl Li Hung-chang. The document as eventually
drawn up is too long for quotation in its entirety, but in its main
provisions it covered a wide field, the opportunity being seized by Japan
to insist on the opening of additional ports in China to foreign trade, a
service to the rest of the world which has perhaps been less appreciated
than Japan had a right to expect at the time. Under this treaty of
peace China definitely recognised the full and complete independence
and autonomy of Korea and agreed to the cessation of ceremonies and
formalities and the payment of tribute derogatory to such independence.
China ceded to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the following
territories, together with all fortifications, arsenals, and public
property thereon:—
(_a_) That part of the province of Feng-tien (Southern
Manchuria), south of a line drawn from the mouth of the
Yalu upstream to the mouth of the An-ping, thence to
Feng-hwang-cheng and on to Hai-cheng, thence to Ying-kow
(Newchwang) including the towns and places named.
(_b_) The island of Formosa, and adjacent islets appertaining
thereto.
(_c_) The Pescadores group, that is to say all islands between
longitude 119° and 120° E. and between 23° and 24° N. latitude.
The indemnity was fixed at 200,000,000 taels, payable in eight
instalments. Wei-hai-wei was to remain in the occupation of the Japanese
forces as a guarantee of the faithful performance of the stipulations of
the agreement.
In the Liao-tung Convention signed at Peking on behalf of their
respective countries by Baron Hayashi Tadasu and Earl Li on the 8th
November 1895, the Third article of the Shimonoseki Treaty was abrogated,
and a sum of 30,000,000 taels added to the monetary indemnity.
Mention has here been made of the boundaries in Liaotung province of the
region which was to have become part of the Japanese Emperor’s dominions.
Had that bargain been carried out Russia, who had long before fixed her
gaze upon the fortress of Port Arthur, would have had to abandon the
hope of ever acquiring the coveted spot, and accordingly with the view
of preventing its transfer to Japan she thought fit to address to the
Government of Tokio, with the consent and approval of France and Germany,
the subjoined remonstrance:—
“The Government of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias,
in examining the conditions of peace which Japan has imposed on
China, finds that the possession of the peninsula of Liao-tung,
claimed by Japan, would be a constant menace to the capital of
China, would at the same time render illusory the independence
of Korea, and would henceforth be a perpetual obstacle to the
permanent peace of the Far East. Consequently, the Government
of his Majesty the Emperor would give a new proof of their
sincere friendship for the Government of his Majesty the
Emperor of Japan by advising them to renounce the definitive
possession of the peninsula of Liao-tung.”
As Minister-President of State it fell to the lot of Count Ito, on the
receipt of this historic document, to advise his Japanese Majesty to
comply with the recommendation therein set forth, and to incur all the
odium that attached in Japan itself to what was looked upon by the less
thoughtful of the population as an abject surrender to the aggressive
European Powers which were leagued in an unholy intrigue to deprive Japan
of the legitimate fruits of her victory over China. For a time Count Ito
went in danger of his life, for there are not rarely to be found those
in Japan who are willing to regard themselves as the appointed agents of
the gods for the punishment of what they deem to be an indignity brought
upon the nation, no matter what the circumstances may have been. But that
the Minister went well guarded at the express command of his sovereign in
these days of uncommon excitement he might have shared the fate of other
true patriots whose history is briefly recorded in this volume.
By his imperial master the Minister-president of the day, however, was
throughout praised for the part which he took in respect of the war and
of the settlement reached on its conclusion, and a signal mark of his
Majesty’s favour was given in the statesman’s elevation to the rank of
Marquis in connection with these notable events.
In 1897 Marquis Ito visited Great Britain for the fourth time, the
occasion being the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The representative
of the Ten-shi was Admiral his Royal Highness the Prince Arisugawa, so
well known in the British Navy, he having served his apprenticeship to
the sea in H.M.S. _Iron Duke_, after a course of education at Greenwich
Naval College. Marquis Ito was for some weeks in London in the summer
of that year, and paid a fifth visit to this country in 1900, to which
reference will be made later on.
In the year 1898 the Marquis headed a ministry which included:—
Count Inouye: Finance Minister.
Baron Nishi: Foreign do.
Viscount Yoshikawa: Home do.
General Katsura: War do.
Marquis Saionji: Education do.
and the late Marquis Saigo: Minister for the Navy.
In 1900 he took office for the fourth time as Minister-president,
with Baron Suyematsu, so well known in Europe of recent years for his
contributions to the literature of the day and for his reasoned and
fearless championship of his country’s cause on the lecture platform
and elsewhere, as the Minister of the Interior. In this Cabinet was Mr
Takaaki Kato, formerly Japan’s representative at the Court of St James,
who held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, General Viscount Katsura,
now Premier, was Minister for War, and Admiral Baron Yamamoto was
Minister for the Navy, a position which he occupied under successive
administrations, from 1899 until January 1906.
In 1900 Marquis Ito associated himself with the doctrines of party
government, and an immense step was taken in that direction by the
formation of a political body named the Sei-Yu-kai, pledged to the
adoption and support of Constitutional methods. His views on the duty of
a political party were set forth in a manifesto at the time and may with
advantage be introduced here:—
“If a political party aims, as it should aim, at being a guide
to the people, it must first commence with the maintenance
of strict discipline and order in its own ranks, and above
all must shape its own conduct in accordance with an absolute
and sincere devotion to the public interests of the nation.
It must, moreover, avoid falling into the fatal mistake
of conferring posts on persons of doubtful qualifications
merely because they happen to be members of its own political
organisation.”
It is probable that when this Association was formed its founder intended
that it should be a party of such wide scope that it would embrace all
the then contending factions, and that thus while seeking to promote
the principles of party government it would at the same time do away
with the friction that was so much to be deplored. Nominally it did
unite the factions under one leadership, but, sad to say, the friction
in great part remained, and dissension was still rife within the party,
to the manifest impairment of its capabilities for the attainment of
the general weal. By Marquis Ito it has always been claimed that the
Constitution was not a matter of agreement between the sovereign and his
subjects, but a magnanimous grant of privileges to them by the Emperor
purely on his own initiative, and it is not for the people, therefore,
to question any of its provisions. Its sole aim, regarded from this
lofty standpoint, is the substantial progress and well-being of the
country, and it was because the leaders of political parties became too
eager in their strife for the possession of power, to the detriment of
their usefulness as regarded the advancement of the nation, that the
idea of forming the Sei-yu-kai arose in the first place. Marquis Ito
in former years was stoutly opposed to the theory of party government,
and though he headed the association with which he was for two or three
years closely identified, it may be held with some show of reason,
perhaps, that he was never entirely enamoured of the system, for he has
often alluded to the mischief which the friction inseparable from party
rule is apt to create as altogether regrettable, and calling for the
introduction of some form of administration of the country’s affairs
that should be free from the drawbacks which he recognises and deplores.
Marquis Ito, in truth, assents to the proposition that party government
has its advantages as well as its disadvantages, but he is by no means a
whole-souled convert to the doctrine that it is the best that could be
devised for Japan. He aims at something higher and nobler, and though he
is prepared at all times to admit that excellent work has been done in
the thirty-eight years of his present Majesty’s reign, he would ascribe
the national progress to the circumstance that the people have acted
together under the guidance of the Imperial Oath, taken at the beginning
of the Mei-ji era, when the present ruler ascended the throne, in which
it was proclaimed that “a deliberative assembly should be formed; that
the uncivilised customs of former times should be abandoned; that the
impartiality and justice displayed in the workings of nature should
be adopted as a basis of action; and that learning should be sought
throughout the world in order that the foundation of the Empire should be
firmly established.” There has never been discernible any slackening of
the marvellous energy with which Japan entered upon the quest of those
most commendable objects, and the only tendency towards reaction that
the most uncharitably disposed of critics has been able to discover was
in reality nothing more than a desire, and that most temperately and
dispassionately expressed, for the preservation of the national spirit,
at a moment when it appeared to be in some danger of undergoing temporary
eclipse. In Europe constitutional government has been the growth of
centuries, but to Japan it is still comparatively new. Even in the West
the personal element is by no means obliterated, and it is unlikely that
Japanese politicians would be found wholly capable of eliminating that
element and of giving to the world an example of a perfect civilisation
in which individual ambitions and the jealousies of cliques should
become completely subordinated to love of country and zeal for public
welfare. Nevertheless much has been accomplished in the direction of
the elevation of political life to a high standard of purity, far above
the sordid and despicable strivings for place and power that too often
disgrace those countries of the Occident which ought to be foremost in
setting the despised Orient a good example. It is a wise provision of
the Japanese Constitution, if we may judge by results, that renders
it impossible for the Cabinet to be affected by an adverse vote in
Parliament, the appointment or dismissal of Ministers remaining the sole
prerogative of the sovereign, as when once a Ministry has been invested
with the imperial authority to perform its functions it holds a place
removed from interference by party considerations with its deliberations,
and from any unwarrantable intrusion, by even the members of its own side
in the Diet, upon its complete privacy and abstraction from political
concerns during its discharge of its duties to the State. There may be
those in Europe who will yearn for the freedom which the observance of
such a rule as this implies, and will be prone to regard the Japanese as
a people who have found a way to improve upon the systems which served
them to some extent as models for their modernised institutions.
It was the little rift within the lute caused by the inability of some of
its members to see eye to eye with Marquis Ito that ultimately brought
about the fall of the last Ito Cabinet, which was in office from October
1900, to May 1901, and then received his Majesty’s permission to dissolve
itself, the Minister-president announcing his intention of retiring from
political life, a resolution which was strenuously combated by all his
adherents, who besought him to reconsider his decision. On the plea that
his health would be the better for a sea voyage, however, the Marquis
contrived to secure that rest from the cares of statesmanship which he
had fairly earned, and he came to Europe once more at the close of the
year, arriving in London on Christmas Day 1901, for a brief stay in
the British metropolis which, as he observed, he had first visited as
long ago as the year 1863. On this occasion his object was to gather
information and ideas, as he declared, and his tour was devoid of all
political significance. The journey from capital to capital in the
Occident was not, however, undertaken exclusively, it was thought, for
pleasure, nor was it believed in a general way that the veteran statesman
had travelled many thousands of miles without having an adequate purpose,
though he chose not to disclose it. His wishes were respected, and during
his sojourn in London, though he was the guest of the Lord Mayor at the
Mansion House, and was received in audience by King Edward at Marlborough
House, it was accepted as sufficient that he had, as it was described,
come to England for purposes of private study, though necessarily the
knowledge that he sought to acquire could not fail to be of service
eventually to Japan, on account of the prominent position which the
Marquis has of late years continuously occupied in his own land. The
Lord Mayor in a felicitous speech (3rd January 1901), gave utterance to
British opinion at large when he declared that the career of his guest
had been one almost unequalled in truth, and indeed in fiction. “The
incidents of that career,” said the Lord Mayor (Sir Joseph Dimsdale), “do
not only represent the achievements of a great character, of a wonderful
brain, an indomitable will and public spirit: but they have carried with
them from year to year the destinies of an empire which it is hardly
too much to say has been created in a few decades. Whether we look to
the growth of civilisation, the increase of political and commercial
relations, the spread of science, or the establishment of constitutional
freedom, we are amazed at the almost fabulous progress of Japan in the
last forty years. The promotion of all that may be placed to the credit
of our honoured guest.” The marquis spoke in his own language in making
his reply, the following translation being given there and then by his
travelling companion Mr Tsudzuki:—