Excerpt from The Constitutional Development of Japan: 1853-1881 The constitutional movement Of Japan began in a Spon taneous agitation Of the whole body politic when the nation was irritated by the sudden contact with foreigners. The sense Of national weakness added a force to this agitation. Had not the eeigners come, the Restoration might have been effected, feudalism might have been abolished, but the new Japanese constitution would hardly have seen the day. Had the government Of Japan at the time Of the advent Of foreigners been in the strong hand of a Taiko or an Iyeyasu, the rulers might have been greatly exercised by the extraor dinary event, but public Opinion for reform would hardly have been called forth, and the birth of constitutional liberty would long have been delayed. AS the vices Of King John and the indifference and ignorance Of the first two Georges Of England begat the strength and hope Of the English Par liament, so the public Opinion Of Japan sprouted out Of the ruins Of the Shogunate regime. We must therefore seek for the beginning of the Constitutional Movement Of Japan in the peculiar circumstances in which she found herself between 1853 and 1868. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.