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aristocratic class, and that the first struggle of the commons was to force the knowledge from them, a struggle which ended in these codes being reduced to writing and promulgated. Had writing been unknown in Japan at this epoch, the parallel would have been complete; the only difference is, that in the one case the laws were unknown, because not written; in Japan, though written, they were yet to be unknown. The explanation of the matter is to be found in the fact that early communities custom has absolute away. The magistrates are, as Iyeyas says, reflectors of the mode of Government, they do in reality what English judges do in theory—interpret, not make, the law. Any additions made to the old customs, (as in the case before us) were to reach the multitude, as it were, by filtering down to them through the magistrates, who alone would be conscious that they were new: to the multitude they would only be slight modifications of the customs they had always observed. And indeed regarded as a code of laws, this seems to have been the character of the work before us. Iyeyas only claims to be a transmitter, not a framer, of the law; his work is rather a compilation, than a creation, a selection from old, not a series of new laws.
3.—If then in so far as it is a code of laws the originality of the Legacy of Iyeyas does not appear, the question then remains in what respects the genius of Iyeyas has manifested itself? For there can be no doubt that the Shogunate after his time was a very different thing from that it was before it. The Legacy of Iyeyas is original in so far as it contains maxims of government in accordance with which the successors of Iyeyas were to rule. It is this aspect which modern historians have thrown into most prominence,—a circumstance which renders a detailed account of his policy unnecessary here. I shall only mention what I consider the leading principles. The position of the Shogun to the Mikado was to be one of reverential homage. The Shoguns were in no way to interfere with the Mikado’s theoretical
