shogun he was created regent. He was a man of
great resolution and unscrupulous in the measures by which he attempted to
carry out the policy to which he was committed. By his enemies he was
called the "swaggering prime minister (_bakko genro_)." Assured that the
foreign treaties could not be abrogated without dangerous collisions with
foreign nations, he sought to crush the opposition which assailed them.
The daimyo of Mito, who had been the head of the anti-foreign party at
Yedo, he compelled to resign and confined him to his private palace in his
province. Numerous other persons who had busied themselves with
interfering with his schemes and in promoting opposition in Kyoto, he also
imprisoned.

Suddenly on the 23d of March, 1860, Ii Kamon-no-kami was assassinated as
he was being carried in his _norimono_ from his _yashiki_ outside the
Sakurada gate to the palace of the shogun.

The assassins were eighteen _ronins_ of the province of Mito, who wished
to avenge the imprisonment of their prince. They carried the head of the
murdered regent to the Mito castle, and after exhibiting it to the
gloating eyes of the prince, exposed it upon a pike at the principal gate.

The death of the regent was an irreparable blow to the government. There
was no one who could take his place and assume his _role_. His loss must
be reckoned as one of the principal events which marked the decadence of
the shogun's power.

CHAPTER XIV. REVOLUTIONARY PRELUDES.

The outrages which now succeeded each other with terrible frequency were
not confined to the native members of the opposing parties. Foreigners,
who were so essentially the cause of the political disturbances in Japan,
were particularly exposed to attacks. On the 14th of January, 1861, Mr.
Heusken, the secretary and interpreter of the American legation, when
riding home at night from the Prussian legation in Yedo, was attacked by
armed assassins and mortally wounded. The object of this murder is
supposed to have been the desire of one of the ministers of foreign
affairs to take revenge on Mr. Heusken,(281) for his activity in promoting
foreign intercourse.

The weakness and the fears of the government were shown by the warning,
which they sent to the foreign ministers to avoid attending the funeral of
Mr. Heusken, lest further outrages might be committed. They did attend,
however, and no disturbances occurred. It only remains to mention that Mr.
Harris subsequently made