It was the little rift within the lute caused by the inability of some of its members to see eye to eye with Marquis Ito that ultimately brought about the fall of the last Ito Cabinet, which was in office from October 1900, to May 1901, and then received his Majesty’s permission to dissolve itself, the Minister-president announcing his intention of retiring from political life, a resolution which was strenuously combated by all his adherents, who besought him to reconsider his decision. On the plea that his health would be the better for a sea voyage, however, the Marquis contrived to secure that rest from the cares of statesmanship which he had fairly earned, and he came to Europe once more at the close of the year, arriving in London on Christmas Day 1901, for a brief stay in the British metropolis which, as he observed, he had first visited as long ago as the year 1863. On this occasion his object was to gather information and ideas, as he declared, and his tour was devoid of all political significance. The journey from capital to capital in the Occident was not, however, undertaken exclusively, it was thought, for pleasure, nor was it believed in a general way that the veteran statesman had travelled many thousands of miles without having an adequate purpose, though he chose not to disclose it. His wishes were respected, and during his sojourn in London, though he was the guest of the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, and was received in audience by King Edward at Marlborough House, it was accepted as sufficient that he had, as it was described, come to England for purposes of private study, though necessarily the knowledge that he sought to acquire could not fail to be of service eventually to Japan, on account of the prominent position which the Marquis has of late years continuously occupied in his own land. The Lord Mayor in a felicitous speech (3rd January 1901), gave utterance to British opinion at large when he declared that the career of his guest had been one almost unequalled in truth, and indeed in fiction. “The incidents of that career,” said the Lord Mayor (Sir Joseph Dimsdale), “do not only represent the achievements of a great character, of a wonderful brain, an indomitable will and public spirit: but they have carried with them from year to year the destinies of an empire which it is hardly too much to say has been created in a few decades. Whether we look to the growth of civilisation, the increase of political and commercial relations, the spread of science, or the establishment of constitutional freedom, we are amazed at the almost fabulous progress of Japan in the last forty years. The promotion of all that may be placed to the credit of our honoured guest.” The marquis spoke in his own language in making his reply, the following translation being given there and then by his travelling companion Mr Tsudzuki:—
“In thanking you for the high honour done me, and for the eulogy of my country, I regret that I do not feel entitled to the praise that has been showered upon me. The progress of Japan in the past is entirely due to the powerful guidance of her sovereign and the loyal patriotism of her people. All that I have done for my country does not exceed the limits of having served as one of the links in the harmonious co-operation of advancing civilisation. I am unworthy of the high opinion which his lordship has been good enough to express of me. I think it may not be out of place to give expression to my profound satisfaction at the cordial relations which have existed for nearly a century between England and Japan. It was the English people who were the first to come to our shores as the harbingers of civilisation. Who could compute now the number of Japanese who speak the English language or the closeness of the relations which now exist? I was one of the first Japanese to come to this country thirty-eight years ago—a country equally hospitable then as now. Since then how many of our countrymen have been studying in England in commerce, education, industries, the navy, and in the venerable institutions of education and learning? And how many of your institutions—social and political—have served as models in our task of assimilating Western civilisation? I need not remind you that we have never failed in our profound admiration of England and English ideas, and its excellent self-governing institutions. And how many of your countrymen have lent us a helping hand in the education and regeneration of our land, as tutors, professors, and as employees in the different branches of our public life, and, above all, in commerce, as constantly intermingling with the ever-increasing network of peaceful relations between the two countries? I believe that the focus of international competition is moving steadily towards the Pacific Ocean, and pledged as we are, not only by our historic relations with the west, but also the east, we are destined to play an ever-increasing part in the development of that portion of the globe. It is only natural for me to believe and sincerely hope that the continuance of those friendly feelings and sympathies which have existed in the past shall be daily more strongly cemented. With these hopes and convictions I trust I may be excused if I construe this hospitality as one of the many tokens of the continuation of our past friendship.”
At the dinner given the evening prior to his departure for Paris, on his way home, the Marquis was the recipient from Lord Lansdowne on behalf of the King, of the order of Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Bath.
On his way to London the Marquis had passed through Russia, where he was received in special audience by the Tsar, and Count Lamsdorff gave a Ministerial Banquet in his honour. From St Petersburg he travelled to Germany, Italy, and Belgium, receiving at Potsdam a decoration from the Kaiser, at a banquet specially arranged, the tour through Europe being one of unalloyed satisfaction to the veteran statesman, and of exceptional value to his country, in that he obtained information at first hand regarding the status of political parties, and added to his store of knowledge on subjects connected with the science of constitutional government, which is one of the many matters on which he is privileged to be the trusted adviser of his sovereign, in virtue of his position as President of the Council.
In this necessarily imperfect sketch of the strenuous life of Marquis Ito I have touched mainly on his public career, leaving to the last any reference to the simplicity and usefulness of his private life in town and country, the one permeated with the anxieties and perplexities of a statesman’s daily round of duty, the other a restful freedom from political worry always to be secured in his seaside villa at Oiso. In a measure the Marquis may be said to have made Oiso, for it was not until he had a house built there, within sound of the waves of the Pacific, that the wayside village and posting station of ancient times became known as a health resort and acquired a certain notoriety as a convenient seaside bathing-place. Oiso will never be a Brighton or an Eastbourne, perhaps, but it has a pretty collection of villa residences close to the shore, and it has for a background the peerless Fujiyama, while the Pacific billows rattle the shingle on its extensive beach. Here it is that the veteran statesman is visited by his life-long friends, those “elder statesmen” of the new regime who recognise in him their experienced chief and are by the nation regarded, in the main, as its safest guides and counsellors in all that appertains to the welfare of the country.
It is here that he seeks repose when jaded with the cares of office, for although he no longer heads a Ministry, and is therefore exempt, it might be imagined, from the storm and stress of party politics, his advice is as much sought and valued as it ever was, and his presence in the capital is often indispensable to the adjustment of matters of the highest national importance. According to Western ideas the Marquis is not a wealthy man,—as Premier his salary was less than a thousand pounds a year,—but on the other hand his tastes are not expensive, and like the vast majority of his countrymen he lives a frugal, almost abstemious, life in which neither the pleasures of the table nor the dissipations of society have any share. He is essentially a man of active habits, and betrays in no marked degree the weight of years or the strain of his long-continued and invaluable services to his nation. He feels a justifiable pride in the achievements of the Japanese army and navy, for he was among the first to perceive that if Japan would take her stand among the powers of the world she must provide herself with, first of all, the means to add weight to her arguments in the council. In some respects the most critical period of Japan’s development was from 1892 to 1896, which covered the war of 1894-5 with China, and throughout this term the hand of the Marquis was on the helm, steering the ship of State through the exceedingly troubled waters produced firstly by the war itself and secondly by the oppressive action of three European powers which deprived the victor in the struggle of the fruits, in no small degree, of the victories achieved. Japan had then to stomach an affront which she could never forgive, and Ito has lived to see the day when by the might of her sons Japan has been avenged. Not completely, perhaps, in the opinion of some, but sufficiently so to justify the adoption of the policy which he advocated, for,—come what may,—his country has obtained a place in the front rank of naval and military powers of which the future, be it favourable or unfavourable, can by no means wholly deprive her. His patient courage and determination in the hour of trial have extorted admiration on all sides. His sober judgment and wise discretion in the conduct of affairs of State have won for him the entire confidence and regard of his countrymen wherever they are to be found. His adaptability has ever been one of his distinguishing characteristics. In his choice of a model he has confined himself to no one country or system but has framed his progressive measures, whether of naval or military organisation, of public works, or of administrative improvement, with an absolute freedom from bias that has enabled him to secure for his nation in all cases that which is most suited to its needs, and which in actual practice has proved the most beneficial throughout.
In his grand conception of a reformed and reinvigorated Japan under a written constitution and codified laws based upon the best that could be gleaned of Occidental modes of procedure, the Marquis Ito was instrumental in conferring upon his country a series of benefits such as by no ordinary combination of fortuitous circumstances could it have obtained in the lifetime of an individual, however exalted. His early visit to the Occident afforded him an insight into methods of government which had borne the test of time, and by his accurate judgment and skilful interpretation of the demands of a people who were yearning for enlightenment and freedom he gauged to perfection the possibilities of a wholesale adaptation of Western arts and sciences to the requirements of his own land. Among the lessons learned in the course of an extended tour through Europe and America by the Iwakura Embassy in 1872 had been the imperative need of adopting measures of defence against the even then palpably inimical designs of Russia in regard to Japan’s position. If the travellers had been deeply impressed with the power and wealth of the Occidental nations they were not less convinced by what they saw of the need of an efficient system of national protection by sea and land. In his representations to his sovereign the future Premier dwelt then, there is reason to believe, on the advantages of a policy of preparation for eventualities such as in recent times has borne good fruit in a hundred ways. It is to the Marquis Ito Hirobumi more than to any other individual statesman that the honour belongs of having brought his country, subject to the guidance of a wise and revered monarch, through a period of unexampled peril in respect of its domestic condition, and of frequent crises in its foreign relations. Troubles have lately arisen owing to the action of one of the Great Powers, and for which Japan is in no sense to be held responsible, by which the efficiency of her naval and military organisations was for a year and a half subjected to the most severe tests, but the final results were of a character to still further elevate the status of the country among the nations of the earth and to confirm its claim to consideration as the most potent, enlightened, and progressive of any in the Orient.
Korea, by the terms of the Peace Settlement of 1905, has come under the protection of Japan, and Marquis Ito has assumed the duties of Resident-General; the speedy development of the peninsula under Japanese auspices may therefore be looked for. Already there is a large Japanese population, and both Korean and Japanese children attend the Japanese schools at Seoul, where special attention is given to physical drill. The photograph shows the girls exercising with the naginata, a weapon which the daughters of samurai were taught in the olden time to wield most effectively.