Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/275

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AN

ACCOUNT

OF THE

COURT AND EMPIRE OF JAPAN.

WRITTEN IN 1728.

REGOGE^[1] was the thirty-fourth emperor of Japan, and began his reign in the year 341 of the Christian era, succeeding to Nena^[2], a princess who governed with great felicity.

There had been a revolution in that empire about twenty-six years before, which made some breaches in the hereditary line; and Regoge, successor to Nena, although of the royal family, was a distant relation.

There were two violent parties in the empire, which began in the time of the revolution above mentioned; and at the death of the empress Nena, were in the highest degree of animosity, each charging the other with a design of introducing new Gods, and changing the civil constitution. The names of these two parties were Husiges and Yortes^[3]. The latter were those whom Nena the late empress most favoured toward the end of her reign, and by whose advice she governed.

1. King George.
2. Queen Anne.
3. Whigs and Tories.

The