ABSTRACT
The late Count Goto, who died in 1892, was a trusty retainer of the Prince of Tosa, one of the four provinces into which the island of Shikoku, as its name implies, was of old divided. Goto Shojiro was born in the year 1832, and in his young days was a close student of Dutch books, but the advent of the American "black ships" at Uraga in 1853 led him to turn his attention to marine affairs. He applied himself vigorously to the acquisition of a competent knowledge of modern inventive progress, becoming convinced thereby of the necessity for a radical change in his own country's methods if she would hold her own among the nations. He was entrusted with the portfolio of Minister of Communications in the First Cabinet formed after the establishment of Constitutional Government in 1890, with Marquis Yamagata as Minister-President.
