The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-05

cial consideration he enjoyed, and the pleasant circumstances of his existence ought to have effectually dissuaded him from an act of sanguinary violence, involving separation from his Wlte ana children, ruin for his house. and tel- on's death for himself. His statement of motives, while not dwelling upon the sacrifices he was about to make, SHOWS that he appreciated it, and that the pain was not alleviated by fanatloal zeal, Then there is the fact that the murder was committed in open day and in the immediate presence of live persons, al friends of the victim.
 Usually the assassin seeks to waylay his enemy or to gain private access to him. But Iba Sotaro went to cham Der where he expected to find MT. Hoshi seated or standing among number of colleagues, and in going thither all his motives must have been orderly, and his nien perfectly calm up to the very instant of delivering the at tack. Such quiet possession in the preliminary stages contrasts Vivldly with the fierce energy of the act itself five powerful stabs delivered with un- erring aim and lightning rapidity from every side of the victims body before any of those seated at the same table could stretch out hand to interfere. It is here, indeed, that partial eX- planation of the crime may be found. Iba Sotaro's family enjoyed for many generations the hereditary right Of fur- nishing a teacher of sWordSmanship to the Court of the Toku-gawa Shoguns. His father had been a celebrated fenc- er his elder brother-who fell fighting at Hollodate in 1868 on the occasion of the Enomoto rebellion-had been equally famous, and Sotaro himself was an accomplished swordsnlan. Knowledge that he possessed skill of fence, without which the deed could never be achieved doubtless helped to persuade the man that special mis- sion devolved on him in the matter, and the traditions of such family would naturally lay stress upon a samural s duty to immolate himself at any mo- ment on the altar of public good. Japan has many men of the same temper and convictions, and their presence is un- questionably danger, for to firm faith in each individuals heaven-sent mandate to redress wrongs by any and every means they add the essential condition that justification consists in their own readiness to die for the cause they champion. In the Occident the po- | litical assassn's aim with the bomb or l the pistol is disturbed by solicitude for | his own ultimate escape. In Japan tfe | consequences of the act are wholly sub | ordinated to it's achievement.
 | Mr. Hoshi Toru was in his fifty first year. His career had been very check cred When only twenty-two his abili- l ties were recognized, and from hum ble station he was raised to the post of assistant inspector of customs at Yokohama. In that office his attempts | to check the illegal use of private land | ing places by foreign residents involved | him in a controversy with Sir Harry Parlzes, which ended in the youthful re- formers loss of his position as penal l ty for writing the title of her late Majesty with an unsuitable ideograph. Subsequently, he studied law in Eng land, eating his dinners at the temple, and on his return to Japan he entered the political lists vigorously against the government and experienced several vicisstudes. He published two news papers, both of which were suppressed as calculated to disturb the peace. He was thrown into prison for speech | bringing officials into contempt ms name being at the same time removed | from the list of barristers He was ex-
 pelled from Tokio under the provisions of the peace preservation law. Enter ing the Diet, he was elected to the inn | of ,oraciSont nf thn House of Representatives, and was expelled from the House two years later, only to be returned again immediately by hi' constituency. His singular astutenesS had shown him from the first that ar implacable struggle against the "Clar Statesmen must end in the discomht'
 ure of the political parties, and the
 "Clan Statesmen" on their side, recog ,nized in him the necessary link betweer
 the parties and themselves.
 They sent him to Washington as min lister in order to free him from incon
 venient ties, and in 1898 he hastenet lback to effect a separation of the Llp
 erals and the Progressives, who hat
 united against the government. Ffoh that time he became the most promin
 ent figure in the political arena, dic ltator yielding almost autocratic power tMany scandals attached to his name and it is certain that he built up hi fortune with suspicious rapidlty. HI town avowed creed indicated peculia
 view of the rights and privileges attach
 ing to political influence, and the out
 cry raised against him was too vehemen
 and widespread to be quite fictitious | rannupiza6 the
 pediency. last December of resignlns
 his portfolio of communications in tn
 Ito cabinet, and not a few onlooker
 would have been glad to see him per
 manently discredited, for they regarded
 him as a Japnesae exponent or tn
 worst features of New York politics
 He remained, however leader of hi
 party in the Diet and president of tn
 Tokio City Assembly, nor ldid his in
 flence suffer from diminution whateve (Jrndoubtedly he must be written doWl
 as one of the strongest men of his era
 probably of any era, in Japan. But al
 though he could win followers, he coult
 not make friends. A cold, imper1ou
 manner. combined with almost bruta infexibility of purpose, and an untor
 trnate proneness to forget beneflts
 often shocked his most ardent admir- CTS. Considering his very excepttona intellectual gifts and his great force O