material improvement they learned to
understand their rightful privileges, which for ages have been denied
them."[3]

Count Inouye, the ex-Minister of State for Agriculture and Commerce,
in his memorial to the government in 1873, said: "The people of
European and American countries are for the most part rich in
intelligence and knowledge, and they preserve the spirit of
independence. And owing to the nature of their polity they share in
the counsels of their government. Government and people thus mutually
aid and support each other, as hand and foot protect the head and eye.
The merits of each question that arises are distinctly comprehended
by the nation at home, and the government is merely its outward
representative. But our people are different. Accustomed for ages to
despotic rule, they have remained content with their prejudices and
ignorance. Their knowledge and intelligence are undeveloped and their
spirit is feeble. In every movement of their being they submit to the
will of the government, and have not the shadow of an idea of what 'a
right' is. If the government makes an order, the whole country obeys
it as one man. If the government takes a certain view, the whole
nation adopts it unanimously.... The people must be recalled to life,
and the Empire be made to comprehend with clearness that the objects
which the government has in view are widely different from those of
former times."[4]

If the passages quoted illustrate statesmen's zeal to introduce
western civilization, and to educate the people gradually to political
freedom and privileges, their actions speak more eloquently than their
words. In order to crush that social evil, the class system, which
for ages had been a curse, the government declared all classes of men
equal before the law, delivered the _eta_--the class of outcasts--from
its position of contempt, abolished the marriage limitations existing
between different classes of society, prohibited the wearing of
swords, which was the peculiar privilege of the nobles and the
Samurai; while to facilitate means of communication and to open the
eyes of the people to the wonders of mechanical art, they incessantly
applied themselves to the construction of railroads, docks,
lighthouses, mining, iron, and copper factories, and to the
establishment of telegraphic and postal systems. They also codified
the laws, abolished the use of torture in obtaining testimony,
revoked the edict against Christianity,