ENLIGHTENED GOVERNMENT
of local assemblies. Ōkuma's secession in 1881 was followed by an edict announcing that a national assembly would be convened ten years later. The formation of the Progressist Party, which included in its ranks many men of substance, social standing, and political importance, was an event too significant to be misinterpreted.
The political parties having now virtually attained their ostensible object, might have been expected to desist from farther agitation. They could not hope to hasten the advent of parliamentary institutions, since the date was definitely fixed, nor could they quarrel with the Government's constitutional principles, for of these no intimation had yet been given. But in truth the ultimate aim of their opposition was not the setting up of a parliament so much as the pulling down of the "clan statesmen." A national assembly commended itself to them mainly as a means to that end, and consequently, after securing the promise of a parliament, their next task was to excite anti-official prejudices among the future electors. They worked assiduously and they had an undisputed field, for no one was put forward to champion the Government's cause. Frank criticism has been directed against that singular forbearance on the part of the statesmen in power. It has been asserted that in order to ensure the smooth working of the parliamentary machine which they had promised to create, they should not have wholly abandoned to their
231
