ief. With considerable difficulty he was satisfied by his
own appointment to an office second only to that of prime minister.
This incident led, however, to an agreement under which each of
the great clans, Satsuma, Choshu, Hizen, and Tosa, should be
equally represented in the Government. Thus, the "principle
of clan-representation received practical recognition in the
organization of the Government. It continued to be recognized for
many years, and ultimately became the chief target of attack by
party-politicians." It was further arranged, at this time, that each
of the above four clans should furnish a contingent of troops to
guard the sovereign's person and to form the nucleus of a national
army.

ABOLITION OF LOCAL AUTONOMY

It being now considered safe to advance to the next stage of the
mediatization of the fiefs, the Emperor issued an edict abolishing
local autonomy; removing the sometime daimyo from their post of
prefectural governor; providing that the local revenues should
thereafter be sent into the central treasury; declaring the
appointment and dismissal of officials to be among the prerogatives
of the Imperial Government; directing that the ex-feudatories should
continue to receive one-tenth of their former incomes but that they
should make Tokyo* their place of permanent residence, and ordaining
that the samurai should be left in continued and undisturbed
possession of all their hereditary pensions and allowances.

*Yedo was now called Tokyo, or "Eastern Capital;" and Kyoto was named
Saikyo, or "Western Capital."

These changes were not so momentous as might be supposed at first
sight. It is true that the ex-feudatories were reduced to the
position of private gentlemen without even a patent of nobility. But,
as a matter of fact, the substance of administrative power had never
been possessed by them: it had been left in most cases to their
seneschals. Thus, the loss of what they had never fully enjoyed did
not greatly distress them. Moreover, they were left in possession of
the accumulated funds of their former fiefs, and, at the same time,
an income of one-tenth of their feudal revenues was guaranteed to
them--a sum which generally exceeded their former incomes when from
the latter had been deducted all charges on account of the
maintenance of the fiefs. Therefore, the sacrifice they were required
to make was not so bitter after all, but that it was a very
substantial sacrifice there can be no quest