ENLIGHTENED GOVERNMENT
At this stage the leaders of the revolution found their own cohesion threatened. Shimazu Saburo, ex-Daimyō of Satsuma, took umbrage because the services of his clan in promoting the overthrow of the Shōgun and the restoration of Imperial administration had not been more fully recognised. This was the chieftain whose name had once been execrated by foreigners because of the killing of Richardson by samurai of his cortège at Namamugi, near Yokohama, on the Tokaido, and because of the subsequent bombardment of his capital, Kagoshima, by a British squadron. He held, not without justice, that the coöperation of the great fief over which he ruled had been absolutely essential to the success of the revolution, and that the place of its representatives in the new administration ought to be correspondingly prominent. Had he remained obdurate, Japan's political progress might have been arrested. But he consented reluctantly to accept for himself an office second only to that of Premier, and a serious danger was averted for the moment. This incident gave prominence to the question of clan claims, and led to such a reconstitution of the Ministry that each of the four great clans, Satsuma, Chōshiu, Hizen, and Tosa, was equally represented. Thus, for the first time, the principle of clan representation received practical recognition in the organisation of the Government. It continued to be recognised for many years, and
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