increased from 514,610 in the year 1873 to 2,629,648 in the year
1874--an increase of 411 per cent in one year--"a fact which speaks
volumes for the progress of civilization."[7]

These newspapers were soon to become the organs of political parties
which were in the process of formation. The most prominent among these
political societies was the _Ri-shi-sha_, which finally developed
into the present Liberal party. At the head of this party was Count
Itagaki, a man of noble character and of marked ability, who had
rendered many useful services to the country in the time of the
Restoration and had for some years been a member of the cabinet, but
who in 1875 resigned his office and became "the man of the people." He
and his party contributed greatly to the development of constitutional
ideas. Whatever may be said as to the extreme radicalism and childish
freaks of the rude elements of this party, the presence of its sober
members, who sincerely longed to see the adoption of a constitutional
form of government and used only proper and peaceful means for the
furtherance of their aim, and boldly and frankly told what they deemed
the defects of the government; the presence of such a party in the
country, whose masses knew nothing but slavish obedience to every
act of the government, was certainly a source of great benefit to the
nation at large.

In 1873, Count Itagaki with his friends had sent in a memorial to the
government praying for the establishment of a representative assembly,
but they had not been heeded by the government. In July, 1877, Count
Itagaki with his Ri-shi-sha again addressed a memorial to the Emperor,
"praying for a change in the form of government, and setting forth the
reasons which, in the opinion of the members of the society, rendered
such a change necessary."