LATER PERIOD
legations in Yedo and among the foreigners then beginning to come to the country under the treaties, an uneasy conviction prevailed that Japan waited only for an opportunity to repudiate her engagements.
Meanwhile, although the Prince of Mito was confined to his residence in Yedo, his partisans in Kyōtō[1] worked strenuously to procure the intervention of the Imperial Court on his behalf. It was a repetition of the often practised device, making a catspaw of the sovereign in the interests of a subject, and it partially succeeded. The Emperor was persuaded to issue a rescript which, though couched in guarded terms, conveyed a reprimand to the Shōgun for concluding a treaty without previously consulting the feudatories (as directed in a former rescript), and which further suggested that the punitory measures adopted towards the Princes of Mito and Owari might lead to domestic disturbances.
A supreme trial of strength now took place between the Shōgun and his enemies. Envoys were despatched from Yedo to offer explanations to the Imperial Court, and the leaders of the opposition mustered their forces to thwart the design. For nearly four months the issue remained in abeyance, and the envoys finally had to pretend that the Shōgun, at heart averse to foreign intercourse, only awaited an opportunity to terminate it. In consideration of such
- ↑ See Appendix, note 30.
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