ENLIGHTENED GOVERNMENT
ceived in commutation of their pensions, and the result had been disastrous in almost every case. It was well understood, therefore, that the property qualification imposed by the election law would exclude the great bulk of the former samurai from the lists of voters or candidates; and such indeed proved to be the case, for among the three hundred members of the first House of Representatives only one hundred and ten were found to belong to that class.[1] In short, legislative power was entrusted to men who had never, since the foundation of the Empire, enjoyed such a privilege nor had ever been thought fit to enjoy it. Thus the reflecting section of the nation appreciated and approved the limitations provided by the election law, and would even have had them stricter were that possible. But of course that view was not taken by political agitators. The sequence of events may be interrupted here so far as to say that the Lower House at once set itself to introduce measures for the extension of the franchise, and was uniformly opposed by the House of Peers, which in this matter, as in all others, showed itself strongly opposed to radical tendencies. After a struggle lasting nearly ten years, the Government, judging that the time had come for further concessions, introduced a bill lowering the tax qualification to ten yen for electors, dispensing with it altogether in the case of candidates, providing for secret ballots, extend-
- ↑ See Appendix, note 28.
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