ive chronicler records that on the 29th day of the 12th month
of 1857 "a meeting of all Daimios (present in Yedo) was held in the
Haku-sho-in, a large hall in the castle of Yedo. The deliberations
were not over till two o'clock on the morning of the 30th."

Soon after this the Emperor ordered the Shogun to come to Kioto with
all the Daimios and ascertain the opinion of the country. But the
Shogun did not come, so the Emperor sent his envoy, Ohara Sammi, and
called the meeting of the Daimios at Yedo in 1862, in which the noted
Shimadzu Saburo was also present.

In 1864 the council of Daimios was again held, and Minister Pruyn,
in his letter to Mr. Seward, bears witness of the proceeding: "It is
understood the great council of Daimios is again in session; that
the question of the foreign policy of the government is again under
consideration, and that the opposite parties are pretty evenly
balanced."[11]

From this time the council of Daimios was held every year, sometimes
many times in the year, till the Revolution of 1868. These examples
will suffice to show the nature and purpose of these councils of Kuges
and Daimios. Let us next consider how these councils originated.

The political development of Japan gives another illustration of one
of the truths which Mr. Herbert Spencer unfolds in his Principles
of Sociology. "Everywhere the wars between societies," says he,
"originate governmental structures, and are causes of all such
improvements in those structures as increase the efficiency of
corporate action against environing societies."[12]

Experience has shown that representative government is the most
efficient in securing the corporate action of the various members of
the body politic against foreign enemies. When a country is threatened
with foreign invasion, when the corporate action of its citizens
against their enemy is needed, it becomes an imperative necessity to
consult public opinion. In such a time centralization is needed. Hence
the first move of Japan after the advent of foreigners was to bring
the scattered parts of the country together and unite them under one
head.

Japan had hitherto no formidable foreign enemy on her shores. So
her governmental system--the regulating system of the social
organism--received no impetus for self-development. But as soon as a
formidable people, either as allies or foes, appeared on the scene in
1853, we immediately see the remarkable change in the state system of