JAPAN
sidered purchasable, and in many instances the reservation as to public interest received no respect whatever.
The disruption of the Constitutional Party after a ludicrously brief period of cohesion showed that the Liberals and the Progressists could never hope to work together, and as events had already proved that neither of them was competent to undertake the administration alone, it thenceforth became the unique aim of both alike to join hands with the "Clan Statesmen," towards whom they had originally displayed such implacable hostility. Marquis Itō received special solicitations, since he would bring to any political party a vast accession of strength, not only in his own person and in the number of friends and disciples certain to follow him, but also in the confidence of the Emperor, which he possessed above all the statesmen of the era. But Marquis Itō declined to be absorbed into any existing party or to adopt the principle of parliamentary cabinets. He was willing to form a new association, but he stipulated that it must consist of men sufficiently disciplined to obey him implicitly and sufficiently docile to accept their programme from his hands. To the surprise of the nation the Liberals agreed to these terms. They dissolved their Party, and enrolled themselves under Marquis Itō in the ranks of a new organisation which did not even call itself a "party,"—its designation being Rikken Seiyu-kai (Association of friends of the
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