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320 HONDA THE SAMUKAI.
unify their nation by exalting their sovereign, they
were ready to do any deed of violence. In order to
checkmate the desires and the policy of the prime
minister, the more loyal, upright, and calm-minded
men refrained from sympathy with these " Mikado-
reverencers " and " barbarian-expellers," but desired
rather that things should be done according to
public opinion. Many of the more active patriots,
among whom were the brother of Doctor Sano, Nog
Toro, and Ban Saburo, were seized in Kyoto and
brought in cages to Yedo, where were already so
many victims of the prime minister's high-handed
policy that every ward of the great prison was
crowded.
The hopes of the moderate men, like Koba and
the daimio of Echizen, that the example set by the
Tycoon, in calling together an assembly of daimios
to consider the treaty of Commodore Perry, would
be followed by the gradual formation of something
like a national body for the discussion of public
for the prime min-
affairs, were totally disappointed ;
ister, instead of relaxing, became still more fixed
in his views of despotic government. He now gave
full rein to his despotic ideas, and when the prince
of Mito and others pressed upon the Yedo government
the idea of honoring the emperor by canceling
the treaties and expelling the foreigners from Japan,
the prime minister found it necessary to take violent
action. He ordered Mito to be put into permanent
imprisonment and his son into exile, while the
princes of Echizen, Owari, Tosa, and Uwajima were