JAPAN
stability, the immediate obstacles to parliamentary cabinets were removed. Not only did the "Constitutionalists" command a large majority in the Lower House, but they also possessed a sufficiency of men who, although lacking ministerial experience, might still advance a reasonable title to be entrusted with portfolios. Immediately the Emperor, acting on the advice of Marquis Itō, invited Counts Ōkuma and Itagaki to form a Cabinet. It was essentially a trial. The party politicians were required to demonstrate in practice the justice of the claim they had been so long asserting in theory. They had worked in combination for the destructive purpose of pulling down the so-called "Clan Statesmen;" they had now to show whether they could work in combination for the constructive purpose of administration. Their heads, Counts Ōkuma and Itagaki, accepted the Imperial mandate, and the nation watched the result. There was no need to wait long. In less than six months these new links snapped under the tension of old enmities, and the coalition split up once more into its original elements. It had demonstrated an unexpected proposition, namely, that the sweets of office which the "Clan Statesmen" had been so vehemently accused of coveting, possessed even greater attractions for their accusers, who during their six months of power seemed to have been largely occupied either in devising new posts or disputing for the tenure of those already existing.
248
