1852: The Loyalists at bay
It was not enough to take away the oligarchical rule of the landed interest, and to substitute in its place the manufacturing interest of this country; because there are thousands and millions in this country who have neither land nor that species of power which is derived from the possession of wealth; but who have intelligence, who have morality, and, with the two combined, have opinions which deserve to be represented in this House. Now, what do we want in this House? We want a body of men to represent, first the intelligence, and next the good feeling of this country. How are we to get these two things? Will any one say that the intelligence of the country is represented by the persons who possess land?
State opening and Emperor's speech
The Diet which assembled for the start of the 1852 session was the most liberal yet, and thus the least in sympathy with the Cabinet and its policies. The frustrations of 1851 had given way to a new mood of optimism; a handful of senior Patriotic Union deputies had voiced their support for electoral reform, and although the majority of their colleagues remained opposed, it seemed that a workable majority could be assembled
Sakuramachi's address to the opening of the Diet was a careful piece of statesmanship that trod a line between celebrating the stability and strength of the present regime and warning against what could happen should these be thrown away precipitously.
Despite the Emperor's antipathy, the liberals were unabashed. In their eyes Sakuramachi had involved himself too closely with the Loyalists and was less the dispassionate father-figure of legend and more a partisan of the Kuroda administration.
The Budget served to compound feelings that the present regime was mishandling the Empire. The Finance Minister was forced to announce that the costs of the war with Modena had proved much greater than anticipated and, far from lowering the tariff as liberal deputies demanded, the state could not break even at the current rate.
While reserves remained sufficient for the short term, the Finance Minister announced that taxes might have to rise in future. Opposition deputies condemned the budget as another example of the Loyalists' fiscal irresponsibility.
Shortly after the Diet session began, an amended version of the Franchise Reform Bill that had failed to pass the previous year was introduced. This time, instead of simply widening the franchise it established a significantly reduced property qualification for a new tier of voters, which would be held equivalent to half a vote from an existing elector. The liberals themselves were not completely happy with the compromise, but it was enough to win round several wavering Patriotic Union deputies.
Although the Loyalists resorted to a variety of procedural tactics to stall the Bill’s progress, they lacked sufficient support in the Diet to prevent the legislation from passing in a more or less unchanged form. Worse still, the Bill made provision for an immediate dissolution of the Imperial Council and fresh elections under the new franchise.
Once passed, the Bill required the Emperor's blessing to become law, yet Sakuramachi was clearly to be hostile to it. In private meetings with the Emperor, Prime Minister Kuroda was invited to discuss what options remained. Kuroda replied that Sakuramachi could reject the Bill and ignore the Diet, or he could accept it with good grace. Accepting the reforms would almost certainly spell defeat for the Loyalists, the Prime Minister admitted, but he added that no good could come of their rejection.
"The Loyalists", Kuroda remarked, "have endeavoured to serve your majesty, and will continue to do so, but there comes a time when we must accept defeat. Let the lower orders have their franchise. I am certain that they will prove better subjects than the hotheads in the Diet".
The Reform Act election
The Emperor's assent to the new franchise meant fresh elections to the Imperial Council. The short time there had been to prepare for the campaign meant that the Loyalists' tactics of excluding opponents from the ballot was harder to repeat. Furthermore, opposition candidates were better prepared to challenge such attempts, with the result that the election was a deal fairer than that of 1850.
On the mainland, many states saw their electorates expand massively. In Pyongyang, the campaign centred on the Empire's refusal to recognise Korean culture. The liberals argued that Koreans, Chinese and others should enjoy the same rights as the Japanese.
This argument made little headway in the face of determined opposition from both the Loyalists and the Patriotic Union. The fact that non-Japanese subjects were ineligible to vote meant that the liberals’ arguments were unable to make much headway.
Where the economy was concerned the liberals enjoyed a clear advantage over their rivals. The Loyalists' insistence on its cumbersome licensing regime for new factories and their adherence to the Court Party's tariff policy had won them few friends among the Empire's middle classes.
In states where economic matters featured heavily in the campaign, liberal candidates out-performed their rivals by handsome margins.
Where religious matters were concerned, the liberals again did much better than the Loyalists and were occasionally able to hold their own against the Patriotic Union.
The fact remained that many of the liberals' gains were in states with only minor representation on the Imperial Council. The Home Islands themselves were where the campaign would be won or lost, and here it was the Loyalists' military record that mattered the most.
The war with Modena had been brought to a successful conclusion in February. General Enomoto had destroyed the last significant Modenan force at the Battle of Taza in January and at first this news looked set to bolster support for the Loyalists.
However, it soon became clear that the victory had come at a heavy cost. General Enomoto's command had lost over two-thirds its fighting strength during the course of the Morocco campaign, a fact that opponents attributed to the Loyalists' insistence on aggressive pursuit of the enemy.
The high cost of the war in blood and treasure was used to attack the Loyalists and their handling of the conflict. In Osaka, many new voters voiced their displeasure at the cost of the war by backing the liberals or the openly anti-military Patriotic Union.
Where military spending alone was the issue, the liberals prevailed, arguing that Japan needed a strong, well-supplied army, but not one that was committed to wars mindlessly: the Empire must preserve its own interests, but pick its battles. Here, the Patriotic Union were on shakier ground, with some hewing to the Court's interventionism and others remaining staunchly isolationist.
The tensions that had given rise to the franchise reform movement had begun to subside once the Bill had passed, but even now there were still radicals who believed that the changes had not gone far enough. In May, one such troublemaker, Takayoshi Uryu, led an angry mob to the Nagano armoury and proclaimed the formation of the Republic of Japan. Styling himself the commander of the Republican Guard, he whipped up the crowd with talk of marching on Edo and forcing the Emperor to accede to his demands for a new and fairer society.
In the capital, the revolt was seized on by the War Minister as the pretext the Loyalists needed. A state of emergency could be declared and the elections suspended indefinitely, he argued. Prime Minister Kuroda was quick to overrule such talk. The elections would be allowed to run their course.
General Kodama was despatched to Nagano to deal with the rebellion, which fizzled out before his soldiers could reach the city. Uryu himself had fled as soon as he had heard of Kodama's approach, and without leadership his 'Republican Guards' had slipped back to their homes.
The elections proved a stunning success for the Patriotic Union, standing in stark contrast to its performance just two years before.
The Loyalists saw their share of the vote collapse by over 50%, while even the liberals performed badly compared to their 1850 result. The new Imperial Council was to have 35 Patriotic Union affiliated members, 11 Loyalists and only four liberals.
Kaoru Oyama, a prominent figure in the isolationist movement, was chosen to serve as Prime Minister, while Inoue Iwao, the former Court Finance Minister, would take resume his old position in the new Cabinet.
Domestic affairs
Iwao’s first move was to issue an emergency Budget cutting the consumption tax on the rich and middle classes by ten per cent. Critics attacked this as a blatant bribe to the new electorate, but Iwao was adamant that the taxes had to come down and promised further reductions in his first full Budget in January.
The first test of the new government came shortly after Oyama was sworn in as Prime Minister. After accusations of army brutality led to protests in Mukden, the Cabinet decided to make an example of the officer in question. Oyama was determined to draw a line under the behaviour of his predecessors, whom he believed had been too beholden to the Army.
The court martial became a cause célèbre with the Government finding itself largely isolated from popular opinion in the Home Islands. Even within the Cabinet, many were uneasy with the line Oyama was taking, feeling it left them open to charges of being soft on separatist sentiment.
Eager for any development that might divert public attention from the court martial, the Government intervened to block attempts by the chief magistrate of Kuizhou to forbid publication of the state's newspaper, following an article detailing his links with the madam of a notorious local brothel.
The Interior Ministry had the law on its side when it ruled that the judge had no power to curtail distribution of an official publication. The fact that the chief magistrate was a Loyalist appointee whose hardline application of anti-separatist policies had made few friends in Kuizhou added additional spice to the case.
Despite the upheavals of the year, the Empire's settlement policy in the Great Eastlands continued steadily on. By the end of 1852 efforts to "fill in" the vast interior between the colonies on the coast and the eastern borders were in full swing.
New colonists were directed inland from the settlements on the northern coasts, while the discovery of coal and iron deposits in the deserts of the south prompted miners and prospectors to establish claims throughout that harsh land.
The year also saw gradual but marked improvements to the health boards the Loyalists had established in 1848. The introduction of simple mass-produced devices, such as stethoscopes and thermometers, enabled doctors to better diagnose conditions.
The result was a gradual decline in mortality rates, although in an Empire of nearly 100 million people even such small shifts could mean huge changes.
Foreign affairs
For the Italian peninsula, 1852 was the year when Milanese ascendancy began to assert itself in earnest. The acquisition of Campania and Calabria – and of the rich city of Naples in particular – shifted the balance of power towards King Ascanio.
Although a strong Milan was seen as a vital bulwark against Austria, the Foreign Ministry were becoming concerned about Ascanio's intentions. Speaking grandiloquently about a united Italy was one thing, but to achieve this goal would mean not only war with Austria, but a clash with France, which even now retained possession of the city of Milan. Japan would gain little from such a war.
The year also saw fresh Ottoman successes, although in this case the outcome was very much a foregone conclusion.
In the hope of using the Ottomans to check Russian expansionism in the region, the Porte was granted financial assistance for the course of the war. Although the money was hardly necessary, it did go some way towards improving relations.
Elsewhere, both Russian and the British Empire began aggressive wars, while Aragon and Khorasan took advantage of weakened neighbours to acquire more territory.
In the case of the Cornish war, Finance Minister Iwao was able to bring his colleagues round to the idea of providing financial assistance. Fully mobilised, Cornwall's army was some eight brigades, which it was hoped might prove sufficient to frustrate British ambitions, or at least give them a bloody nose.
End of year
The close of the year saw fresh gains for the liberals in the Diet elections, although the rate of change was slower than it had recently been. Despite the steady fall in the number of conservative deputies, the Patriotic Union could still count on a majority to support it, but for how long?
As 1853 dawned, Oyama was determined to ensure that Japan was able to enjoy the fruits of her labours in peace.