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324 MONDA TEE SAMUKAl.
Premier li also thought that in this case the end
justified the means, and so used " "
the tyrant's plea
which, as history shows, is not restricted to any age,
climate, or country. In England when the people
in parliament disagree with the policy of the queen's
ministers, they move a vote of censure and the ministers
resign. In the United States when the people
are opposed to an administration, they go to the polls
on election day and vote in another platform, and
change the national policy with their servants; or
in congress they rebuke the president by passing
their bill over his veto. In old Japan, the apparatus
of parties polls, elections, and congress
was lacking. The assassination of the Premier li
was simply the old samurai way of moving a vote
of censure. It was the swift, barbarous way of
pretending to stand in Heaven's place and so using
the sword. The samurai hated the priests, but they
outdid the priests in claiming to be the vicars of
Heaven.
This state of things could not last long, and li,
little as he or his friends may have then suspected,
was destined to be an instrument of Providence in
guiding the nation toward constitutional and representative
institutions. The great prince of Choshiu
addressed a letter to the bakufu urging that the
Tycoon should proceed to Kyoto and call a congress
of all the daimios in order to get the opinions of the
nation. The Throne and the Camp, Court and
Bakufu ought to act in concert, in which case the
public opinion could be easily known. The imperial