JAPAN
the Chinese Government properly devolved the duty of punishing its subjects, the Formosans. But as the Chinese Government showed no inclination to discharge the duty, Japan took the law into her own hands. She would never have done so, however, had she not hoped to placate thereby the Satsuma samurai. The Riukiu islands had been for centuries an appanage of the Satsuma fief, and the Government, in undertaking to protect the islanders, not only showed consideration for the discontented clan, but also acceded to the samurai's wish for an over-sea campaign. From a military point of view the expedition was successful. But little glory was to be gained by shooting down the semi-savage inhabitants of Formosa, and, whatever potentialities the expedition might have possessed with regard to domestic politics were marred by the bad grace shown in undertaking it and by the feebleness of its international issue. For on the very eve of the sailing of the transports that carried the expeditionary force, the Tōkyō Government, swayed by foreign councils, had sought to arrest the departure of the vessels, thus dissociating itself from the enterprise. And after the troops had done their part expeditiously and thoroughly, the same Government sent an ambassador to Peking with instructions to contrive a peaceful solution under all circumstances, thus losing credit with the samurai whom it had hoped to placate.
A year after the return of the Formosa expedi-
210
