in his letter to Mr. Seward, bears witness of the proceeding: "It is
understood the great council of Daimios is again in session; that
the question of the foreign policy of the government is again under
consideration, and that the opposite parties are pretty evenly
balanced."[11]

From this time the council of Daimios was held every year, sometimes
many times in the year, till the Revolution of 1868. These examples
will suffice to show the nature and purpose of these councils of Kuges
and Daimios. Let us next consider how these councils originated.

The political development of Japan gives another illustration of one
of the truths which Mr. Herbert Spencer unfolds in his Principles
of Sociology. "Everywhere the wars between societies," says he,
"originate governmental structures, and are causes of all such
improvements in those structures as increase the efficiency of
corporate action against environing societies."[12]

Experience has shown that representative government is the most
efficient in securing the corporate action of the various members of
the body politic against foreign enemies. When a country is threatened
with foreign invasion, when the corporate action of its citizens
against their enemy is needed, it becomes an imperative necessity to
consult public opinion. In such a time centralization is needed. Hence
the first move of Japan after the advent of foreigners was to bring
the scattered parts of the country together and unite them under one
head.

Japan had hitherto no formidable foreign enemy on her shores. So
her governmental system--the regulating system of the social