In 1890 Count Inouye became a Lord-in-waiting, which office had never previously been filled by other than a member of the old Court nobility, and in bestowing this unusual honour on one of the Elder Statesmen the Emperor gave signal proof of his appreciation of Count Inouye’s matured judgment and ability.
By 1892 a disruption of the Cabinet had become inevitable, and at the Election of February the Opposition gained a victory, which brought about the return of Count Ito to power, and with him Count Inouye, in his old position at the Foreign Office. On the 1st of December he made a memorable speech in the House of Representatives in reference to the necessity of increasing the naval armaments of the empire,—a speech which was remarked upon both inside the House and out of it as having been one of his most telling efforts,—powerful in argument, lucid in theory, convincing in its array of facts. It was the prelude to a request from the Finance Department for a credit of 16,000,000 yen, to be spread over a period of seventeen years, and which the Diet forthwith granted.
During the subsequent war with China Count Inouye continued to be a leading member of the Government, but in 1897 he was in opposition to the Coalition Cabinet of Counts Okuma and Itagaki, and when that was succeeded by the Administration of Marquis Yamagata he still remained out of office. But towards the close of the year 1900 a ministerial crisis arose which resulted in the overthrow of the Yamagata Cabinet and its place was taken for a brief space of time, scarcely seven months in all, by a Ministry of which Ito (now Marquis) was the Premier. Contrary to expectation, the post of Finance Minister in this was allotted to Viscount Watanabe, who had previously served as Vice-minister with both Count Inouye and Count Matsukata, though it was commonly believed that Count Inouye had been invited to accept the post. Whatever may have been the real situation at this time, it is a fact that there had been eleven different Cabinets between December 1886 and the end of 1900, the collapse in every case having been due to internal dissension rather than to external pressure, and this may be accepted as an indication of the difficulty which was experienced by statesmen of even the front rank to unite on a general scheme of domestic as distinguished from foreign policy. In relation to foreign affairs the patriotism of the nation has ensured a reasonable continuity, but on home questions there has frequently been wide divergence of opinion. It was generally expected that in May 1901, when the last Ito Cabinet went out of office, Count Inouye would be successful in forming a Ministry, or that he would join a Ministry with Marquis Saionji as Premier, on the basis of the Ito party. But in the end the Cabinet of Count Katsura was established, and it continued until January 1906 to hold office, having guided the destinies of the nation with conspicuous success through the long and anxious period of the war against Russia.
Although he has not held a portfolio, therefore, in any recent administration, the influence of Count Inouye is always felt and his wise and sure guidance sought for in times when the financial outlook in Japan is more than ordinarily complicated, as was the case shortly before the formation of the existing Government in 1901. There seems to be a consensus of opinion in the country that among the “Elder Statesmen” three in particular are most conversant with financial matters,—Counts Inouye, Okuma, and Matsukata,—and to one or other of them it always turns in the hope of being extricated from its difficulties and relieved of its anxieties in a monetary crisis. In business circles the prestige which Count Inouye enjoys has never waned, from the period of his earliest assumption of the duties appertaining to the office of Finance Minister, and his views on those matters with which he has been more particularly connected during his long and diversified career, as soldier financier, and diplomatist will never cease to command the highest respect and attention of the nation.
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VISCOUNT OKUBO TOSHIMICHI
One of the most trusted of his Majesty’s advisers, Okubo Toshimichi was the Minister who was mainly responsible for the vast administrative reform symbolised by the public appearance of the Emperor Mutsuhito and the removal of the imperial court from Kioto to Yedo, renamed Tokio. Okubo held firmly to the conviction that the distinction which had for three centuries been recognised, in pursuance of the Shogunal policy, between the feudal chieftains and the court nobility (kuge) must forthwith be abolished, as a first step towards the re-establishment of that direct personal rule which had existed prior to the usurpation of the imperial prerogative by the Ashikaga house, and by the Tokugawa family which followed it at Yedo. Okubo Toshimichi was a Satsuma samurai of good family, and though the Kagoshima clan has many a name inscribed on its roll of honour there is none that possesses for his countrymen a greater power to stir the emotions or awaken grateful memories than that of the subject of this memoir. Twenty-eight years ago, on a lovely summer morning, as he was on his way to attend a meeting at the imperial palace, in an unfrequented part of the highway at Kojimachi adjoining the castle moat, his carriage was stopped by some students, as they seemed to be, who a moment before had been sportively thrusting at one another with branches of the flowering cherry (sakura), the better, as the sequel showed, to lull the suspicions, if he entertained any, of the coachman on the box. The Minister, unarmed, finding his carriage stopped, descended and faced his assailants, who thereupon stabbed him to death, and at the same time slew the coachman who loyally sought to aid his master.
VISCOUNT OKUBO TOSHIMICHI