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It is a matter of boundless congratulation for the sake of the country, as it is also a great honour and happiness to me, that we are able to-day to meet together in this hall, in virtue of the great and immutable charter established by the benevolent intentions of His Majesty the Emperor. The present is a fitting occasion for me to make a brief allusion to the course of policy followed by the Government in domestic as well as foreign affairs of State. The policy followed by the Government having been already pointed out in the Speech from the Throne at the time of the opening of the Diet, it may seem unnecessary for me to offer any further explanations on the same subject. During the three centuries that followed the adoption of a policy of seclusion by the Shogunate Government, profound tranquillity was preserved throughout the whole country. It is, however, to be regretted that the Government of that time is open to the charge of having run counter to the general tendency of events in the world, and of having thereby retarded the progress of the country during those centuries. At the time of the Restoration, when, considering the altered aspect of things in the world, we changed the course of the national policy, we made it our primary object to redeem, in as short a period of time as possible, this debt of 300 years’ standing. The grave responsibility, of which we still feel the weight, has not yet been half discharged. Fortunately the course and outline of the policy to be pursued having been moulded by the profound wisdom of His Majesty the Emperor on the one hand, and by the advice and measures of our distinguished predecessors on the other, we have been enabled to attain the present stage by a gradual and orderly progress. There may be more or less difference of opinion as to the relative urgency of particular measures, and as to