These, friends possibly did not know that some
of the four had been protagonists in the burning down of the
British Legation on Gotenyama a few months before, and they
certainly could never have suspected that the real mission of the
four youths was to master the secrets of Western civilization
with a sole view of driving the Western barbarians from the
sacred soil of Japan. Prince Ito and Marquis Inouye--for they
were two of this venturesome quartette--have often told of their
rapid disillusionment when they reached London, and saw these
despised Western barbarians at home. On their return to Japan
they at once became the apostles of a new doctrine, and their
effective preaching has had much to do with the pride of place
Dai Nippon now holds among the Great Powers of the world.
The two students who went to China in 608 A.D. "rendered even more
illustrious service to their country perhaps than Ito and Inouye have
done. For at the Revolution of 1868, the leaders of the movement harked
back to the 645-650 A.D. period for a good deal of their inspiration,
and the real men of political knowledge at that time were the two
National Doctors."
Politically, what was done in 645 A.D. and the period immediately
following was not unlike what was done in France by Louis XI and
Richelieu--curbing of the great nobles and an exaltation of the
sovereign, with a substitution of civil justice for military anarchy.
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