wise course.

These local assemblies have not only been good training schools for
popular government, but also proved reasonably successful. They hold
their sessions every year, in the month of March, in their respective
electoral districts, and there discuss all questions of local
taxation. They may also petition the central government on other
matters of local interest. The members must be males of the full age
of twenty-five years, who have been resident for three years in the
district and pay the sum of $10 as a land tax within their district.
The qualifications for electors (males only) are: an age of twenty
years, registration, and payment of a land tax of $5. Voting is by
ballot, but the names of the voters are to be written by themselves on
the voting papers. There are now 2172 members who sit in these local
assemblies, and it was from the more experienced members of
these assemblies that the majority of the members of the House of
Representatives of the Imperial Diet, convened for the first time last
year, were chosen.

The gulf between absolute government and popular government was thus
widened more and more by the institution of local government. The
popular tide raised by these local assemblies was swelling in volume
year by year. New waves were set in motion by the younger generation
of thinkers. Toward the close of the year 1881 the flood rose so high
that the government thought it wise not to resist longer. His Imperial
Majesty hearing the petitions of the people, graciously confirmed and
expanded his promise of 1868 by the famous proclamation of October 12,
1881:

"We have long had it in view to gradually establish a constitutional