ENLIGHTENED GOVERNMENT
and their families—a total of some two million persons—should be suddenly deprived of means of subsistence on which they had hitherto confidently relied and which had been earned by the brave deeds of their forefathers, would have been an act of shocking inhumanity. Against such a solution of the problem public opinion would certainly have rebelled, not the less vehemently because the samurai themselves showed a noble disposition to bow to the necessity of the time. There was much to be said in favour of these men. If the privileges they enjoyed had become anomalous, it could not be denied that they gave loyal service in return, and that their lives exemplified all the qualities most prized among Japanese characteristics. Historical records and national recognition entitled them to look for sympathetic treatment at the hands of the Government, which, for the rest, they had been instrumental in setting up and whose leading spirits belonged to their order. Yet it is certain that the incongruity be- tween their position and the changing times was not altogether hidden from the samurai by selfish considerations. Many of them, seeing that no place existed for them in the new polity, voluntarily stepped down into the company of the peasant or the merchant, and many others signified their willingness to join the ranks of common bread-winners if some small aid were given to equip them for such a career.
The Government, having suffered this leaven
199
