“However, if you (the Daimios) have any particular ideas on the subject, you may state them without reserve."[2]

The resignation of the Shogun was accepted by the Emperor by the following imperial order, issued on the 10th day of the 12th month:  “It has pleased the Emperor to dismiss the present Shogun, at his request, from the office of Shogun.”

As to the full intent and motive of the Shogun in resigning his power, let him further speak himself.  In the interview of the British minister, Sir Harry S. Parkes, and the French minister, M. Leon Koches, with the Shogun, it is stated that he said:  “I became convinced last autumn that the country would no longer be successfully governed while the power was divided between the Emperor and myself.  The country had two centres, from which orders of an opposite nature proceeded.  Thus, in the matter of the opening of Hiogo and Osako, which I quote as an example of this conflict of authority, I was myself convinced that the stipulations of the treaties must be observed, but the assent of the Emperor to my representations on this subject was given reluctantly.  I therefore, for the good of my country, informed the Emperor that I resigned the governing power, with the understanding that an assembly of Daimios was convened for the purpose of deciding in what manner, and by whom, the government in future should be carried on.  In acting thus, I sunk my own interests and power handed down to me by my ancestors, in the more important interests of the country.[3]....

“My policy, from the commencement, has been to determine this question of the future form of government in a peaceful manner, and it is in pursuance of the same object that, instead of opposing force by force, I have retired from the scene of dispute.....

“As to who is the sovereign of Japan, it is a question on which no one in Japan can entertain a doubt.  The Emperor is the sovereign.  My object from the first has been to take the will of the nation as to the future government.  If the nation should decide that I ought to resign my powers, I am prepared to resign them for the good of my country.....

“I have no other motive but the following:  With an honest love for my country and the people, I resigned the governing power which I inherited from my ancestors, and with the mutual understanding that I should assemble all the nobles of the empire to discuss the question disinterestedly, and adopting the opinion of the majority, decide upon the reformation of the national constitution, I left the matter in the hands of the imperial court."[4]

Thus was the Shogunate overthrown and the Restoration effected.  The civil war which soon followed need not detain us, for the war itself had no great consequence as regards the constitutional development of the country.

Let us now consider the form of the new government.  It is essentially that which prevailed in Japan before the development of feudalism.  It is modelled on the form of government of the Osei era.