We had felt the pulse of the Japanese people more carefully and diagnosed the political condition better than our rivals, so that the prestige of the British Minister in the years 1868 and 1869 was completely in the ascendant.
On the 4th January the prince's reply was to have been delivered on board the "Argus," but at noon Niiro presented himself to say that it was not yet ready. We therefore landed and inspected the glass factory, shot and shell foundry, gun foundry and pot and kettle foundry near the prince's garden at Iso. The letter now arrived in charge of Matsuoka, and after its formal delivery, we sat down once more to a banquet in European style. It was shorter than that of the previous day, and the dishes better cooked, but it was politeness rather than gastronomic satisfaction that caused us to praise it. For in truth the dinner was bad and ill-arranged.
About five o'clock I started off with Sutcliffe to call on Niiro, who had not been seen since the morning. After an hour's walking, we arrived at his house, darkness having already set in. Niiro received us very cordially, and entertained us with tea, oranges, beer, cakes and conversation for an hour and a half. He told me that in passing through Hiôgo lately he had heard that the French Minister was shortly expected there with a letter from the Emperor Napoleon III, and that there was to be a general gathering of foreign representatives. Shitotsubashi had disappointed his friends by accepting the succession to the headship of the Tokugawa family, and was suspected of wishing to establish his power as Tycoon with the aid of foreigners.
He gave me to understand that they regarded the French with dislike and distrust, and seemed to be all the more friendly with us because they had learnt to appreciate the value of our enmity. The Satsuma people seemed to be making great progress in the civilized arts, and gave me the impression of great courage and straightforwardness. I thought they would soon be far ahead of the rest of Japan.
Tycoon, as I have said before, was the title given in the treaties to the temporal sovereign. The Japanese, however, never used it. Sei-i-tai Shôgun, or "Generalissimo for the subjugation of barbarians," was his official designation, which delicacy prevented his ministers from employing in their official communications with the foreign representatives, while the common people spoke of him as _Kubô sama_. The "opposition" _daimiôs_, however, had adopted the term _Baku-fu_, which most closely might be rendered by "military establishment," and it was this term that my friends and I used in conversation. In like manner, for the honorific designation _Gorôjiû_ (noble old men) applied in the east of Japan to the Tycoon's council of ministers, the expression _Kaku-rô_ (old ones) was substituted. The opposition refused to recognize that the government which they wished to upset was entitled to any mark of respect.