The age-herald., 1900-10-07

rebel. He was beaten in the battle of Fu- shimi, and in disguise fled 10 4eqgo on tne United States war steamer Iroquoes- are two years civil war ended when the iron clad ram Stonewall was handed over to the Mikado's forces by the American minister, General Van Valkenburg.
 The pivotal event in the history of Japan. which opened the new era, was when after a memorial by Okubo, who called for the Emperor to come out from behind a screen, to tread the earth and to move the capital nearer to the scene the future events, the young Mikado came in person to the meet ings of the council of the new government.
 Most appropriately, out of Echzen Prov ince, in which the old Franklin of the young Constitution makers, Yokio Hell shiro had wrought mighty moral reforms and had lectured on political science, mak- ing liberal use of Confucius openly and of the New Testament disguisedly, came the man who drafted the first, and still the fundamental, Constitution of Japan. Huri Kinmasa penned "the Five Articles, promising that diet should be convoked, the actions of the government be decided by public opinion, the old customs belong Ing to a state of hermit seclusion should be abolished impartiality and justice as seen in nature and found out by right req son should be invited from other nations of the world to establish the new founda- tlons of the empire.
 THE ROYAL OATH
 The castle of Mic, spacious fordfca- tlon and dwelling characteristic of the old feudal days, when bows and arrows were the chief arms, was selected as the place of delbera ton. Here, on April 6, 1868, be- fore all the gods of heaven and earth, the boy Emperor took the ca tn which the men with brains, of low social rank but the true makers of Japan, put into his mouth through the ministry of the court nobles and high officers. On October 12 of the same year His Majesty received solemn inauguration amid impressive ceremonies.
 He was invested with the three regalia of Japanese sovereignty, the sword, mirror and crystal ball, all of which, in popular faith, were brought Gown from heaven and given by the sun goddess. In the next year, 1869, the capital was removed from Kioto to Tokio. The term Meij which was adopted as the designation of his reign, or of the chronological period, means enlight- ened peace, or civilization. When the writ CT was accorded audience of the Mikado, then in the old Tycoon's palace In Tokio, he saw a young man of 22, dressed in flow ing robes of red and white silk surround ed by no]bles dressed with every color of the rainbow. The throne was heavy chair of gilt and red, hanked by two Corean Hons. The imperial crown was low, black lacquered cap, with very high feath- CT of gold.
 It Is too soon yet, while in Kioto, how ever, to talk either of toleration of Chris tianity or even of the admission of citizen ship of the Eta, or pariahs, who numbered over half a million Yol<oi Heishire, the gray-haired counsellor who proposed these measures, which afterward became law, was assassinated and beheaded in the streets of Kioto, not far from the site of the present Doshish1 University, founded chiefly by American money and brains.
 Once seated at Tokio. the Emperor and his advisers felt themselves strong enough, though they expected to have to she blood In doing it, to sweep away tine whole feudal system and retire the Daimos to private life No blood was shed, and the landed nobles were utilized to make the new or ders of nobility, in which those of the old court and the feudal system were fused In one, and in which, also, were many men of low rank formerly but of conspicuous ability who have since ruled the country. With very little change-"of the mats but not of the f1oor"-the Meiji statesmen have for the most part kept their position from 1868 to 1900. They have persevered In their course until they have oduc@ted a people at first unwilling, but now ambitious to be like Occidentals and they have raised Ja- pan to a position of respect before the whole world. They did, indeed, keep back for nearly twenty-one years the fulfllment of the imperial promise to form a represent tative government. Even after the promul- gaton of the Constitution in 1889 they tried to Keep the model Prussian rather than British But at last "clan govern ment," in which the men chiefly of Sat suma and Choshiu formed a monopoly of power is over. Party government has at last triumphed, and in 1900 Japan's politi- cal system Is much more like that of Great Britain than like that of Prussia.