respect the laws of the House,
to lay aside all private and selfish considerations, to conduct your
debates with minuteness and firmness; above all things, to take the
laws of our ancestors as 'basis,' and adapt yourselves to the feelings
of men and to the spirit of the times. Distinguish clearly between
those matters which are of immediate importance and those which may
be delayed; between things which are less urgent and those which are
pressing. In your several capacities argue with careful attention.
When the results of your debate are communicated to us it shall be our
duty to confirm them."

The Kogisho was composed mostly of the retainers of the Daimios, for
the latter, having no experience of the earnest business of life,
"were not eager to devote themselves to the labors of an onerous and
voluntary office." Akidzuki Ukio No Suke was appointed President of
the Kogisho.

The object of the Kogisho was to enable the government to sound public
opinion on the various topics of the day, and to obtain the assistance
of the country in the work of legislation by ascertaining whether the
projects of the government were likely to be favorably received.

The Kogisho, like the Councils of Kuges and Daimios, was nothing but
an experiment, a mere germ of a deliberative assembly, which only time
and experience could bring to maturity. Still Kogisho was an advance
over the council of Daimios. It had passed the stage resembling a
mere deliberative meeting or quiet Quaker conference, where, for hours
perhaps, nobody opens his mouth. It now bore an aspect of a political
club meeting. But it was a quiet, peaceful, obedient debating society.
It has left the record of its abortive undertakings in the "Kogisho
Nishi" or journal of "Parliament." The Kogisho was dissolved in
the year of its birth. And the indifference of the public about its
dissolution proves how small an influence it really had.

But a greater event than the dissolution of the Kogisho was pending
before the public gaze. This was the abolition of feudalism, which we
shall consider in the next chapter.

[Footnote 1: The Mikado's Empire. Griffis, p. 301.]

[Footnote 2: American Executive Document, Diplomatic Correspondence,
1867, Part II., p. 78, 2d Sess. 40th Cong. See also Bosin-Simatsu,
Vol. I., p. 2.]

[Footnote 3: American Executive Document, Diplomatic Correspondence,
Vol. I., 1868-69, p. 620, 3d Sess. 40th Cong.]

[Footnote 4: American Executive Documen