Lord Tlang-men

Lord Tl′jang-mjen (昌文君, tl′jang-mjen-kljur; Jan. 2, 1808 – Mar. 15, 1885) was a Themiclesian civil servant and Liberal politician. He was the first prime minister to be a commoner in office rather than a peer since 1815, governing between 1873 and 1877. He is most remembered for allowing greater coherence in the army and navy and latitude in appointment and promotion of officers.

Name and titles

Lord Tl’jang-mjen is named T’ja Rje. He was made a titular lord in 1863, during the Lord of Sng’rja’s government. It was customary at the time to make cabinet ministers titular lords as soon as they are appointed. The titular name “Tl’jang-men” means “illustrious complexity”.

Prime minister (1873 – 77)

Succession

Tl’jang-mjen became the most senior member of the Liberal Party following the retirement of the Lord of Sng’rja in 1872. While the two never seemed to be on good terms, their shared distaste for Conservative desperation to defend aristocratic privilege made them strong partners in the ministry. During the premiership of the Lord of Nja-'rjum, Themiclesia lost lost the Isle of Liang to Camia. Though the capitulation had diverse causes, public attention centred on the surrender of Lord M’reng, the senior commander on the island, without firing a single shot. Liberals in both houses were outraged by his surrender, though the Conservative parliament refused to prosecute on account of his party affiliation. While the government was led by Sng’rja, contemporaries understood them as equals, since Sng’rja sat in the House of Lords, while Tl’jang-mjen sat in the Commons, each leading the government’s agenda in their respective chambers. Tl’jang-mjen was thus understood as the natural successor of Sng’rja as head of government when he retired. The Emperor offered him a peerage as custom dictated for commoners in line to become prime minister, but he declined, preferring to stay in the House of Commons.

Military reforms

Taking office in early 1873, Tl’jang-mjen and his ministry ordered an inquiry into the appointment system of both army and navy officers. Reporting four months later, the commissioners said that while the Army Academy and Naval Academy both produced qualified officers, some overly so, officers were appointed and promoted largely without regard of specialization. This problem was the more apparent in the army, when an officer studying infantry history and tactic could find appointment as a cavalry officer, simply because he liked one unit over the other. While the rules that ensured fairness and effectiveness in the Civil Service Ministry applied to the army, the commission found many of them outdated. Moreover, since the Army Academy had expanded to become a liberal arts university, a great number of officers were being commissioned without any real exposure to military operations. In fact, there were several hundred “absentee captains” who drew captains’ salaries while doing graduate studies at the Academy. They typically quit the military as soon as their studies were over, effectively using their salaries as scholarships, never meeting militiamen assigned to them or discharging any official function whatever.

Tl’jang-mjen desired to establish a new government office to oversee army appointments and to cull the subjects offered at the officer school, but both measures drew drastic opposition from the Conservative Party. They were concerned that the new measure would create a loyalty to a single authority, who could then create a military government. They defended the existing system saying it guaranteed a pool of principled, independent officers each with strong, personal interests to protect the establishment. Such an officer corps would also constantly check itself for irregular behaviour and ambition and resist personal loyalties. Conservative peers further argued that looseness in specialization encouraged broader perspectives and creativity, and constant interchange with the civil service discouraged parochialism and preserved the civic character of the military. Essentially, the argument is since aristocrats had an open path to honour, they had a personal disincentive to disrupt the establishment that benefited their class.

Tl’jang-mjen was taken aback by this torrential criticism and faced pressure within his party to make a strong response. He said that power and honour should not be exclusive to the aristocracy, and “even ordinary people” should feel an allegiance towards their country’s political system enough to suppress any improper ambitions. While later historians have credited him for a logical argument against the Conservatives, contemporaries felt his response to be a verbatim reproduction of the standard Liberal spiel that everyone was the same, i.e. feeling the same allegiance towards their country and behaving under the same interests that prevents subversion. The prime minister asserted if the political system were not so deeply biased against commoners, they would too feel an entrenched interest to protect the establishment by checking subversive ambitions amongst themselves. In 1874, he said to Parliament that as far as his government was concerned, “every man is an aristocrat, having the same noble aspirations and practical interests that govern their behaviours.” This implied the exclusivity that Conservatives propose is a product of their desire to keep power to themselves.

Conflict with the Lord of M'i

The Conservative response, led by the Lord of M’i, was comparatively weak, appealing to economy and practicality. M’i said that commoners were uninterested in affairs of state, occupied with with subsistence through agriculture, handicraft, or industry, and the Liberal agenda to create a nation of political equals was impossible. Tl’jang-mjen famously replied that "it is the renowned belief of the Conservatives that commoners should be squalid and powerless by reason of their birth”. M’i replied that their powerlessness was due to “of their economic condition, not that of their birth” and, as a remedy, "commoners have created the political classes to manage their nation on their behalf." While M’i left politics by 1889, Tl’jang-mjen’s acrimonious criticism of M’i ironically forced his party to adapt and ultimately become a socialist party.  

In the meantime, however, Tl’jang-mjen cast himself in the light of a man of the common people, campaigning for their equality. Tl'jang-mjen made it more acceptable to criticize the monarch as far as public actions were concerned. While the difference between public and personal actions by the crown had long been recognized, it reduced the Conservatives’ ability to claim royal displeasure as a tool in politics. The monarch’s public activities were statutorily void if the House of Lords refused to accept it, and personal acts void if not supported by the bi-partisan Privy Council. Since this increased the power of the Conservative-controlled House of Lords, it passed the chamber easily and was supported by Emperor Mjen.

Tl’jang-mjen’s republicanism also integrated with his military reforms, believing that Themiclesia’s constitution, though unwritten, should be the ultimate allegiance of all professional soldiers and sailors. This was superior to personal allegiance to a monarch, since in his view Themiclesia’s constitution guaranteed a stable, harmonious government and, all disputes resolved within the constitutional framework, would never create a political role for the military. Tl'jang-mjen argued that all soldiers and sailors should take an oath declaring their allegiance to the "laws of Themiclesia passed by the Sovereign, the Peers, and the People of Themiclesia in Parliament assembled." The Lord of Snur-ljang blocked this proposal, saying that Themiclesian soldiers and sailors have never needed declare their allegiance, and an act requiring it would be useless at best, and "unintentionally subversive" at worst.

Lord Tl’jang-mjen’s constitutionalism predominated in political circles and was accepted by New Conservatives under the Lord of Krungh, to the effect that the latter said in 1900 that the constitution was “not an imposed law, but a consensus creating the political process.”

Tl'jang-mjen Ministry

Cabinet ministers in bold.

Position		Holder
Tyrannian	Shinasthana
Prime Minister	尚書令	The Lord of Snur-lang (to 1894) The Lord of Krungh (from 1894)
Chancellor	相邦	The Lord of K′jar
Vice Chancellor	丞相	Lord of Njet-hwer The Lord of Rjat-lang
President of Tribunes	御史大夫	Lord Gran-skwjadh
Marshal of the Gallery	郎中令	The Lord of Kaw-ngjar
Privy Treasurer	少府	The Lord of ′rup-nem
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs	左僕射主客尚書	The Lord of K′ei-′rjem
Lord Steward of the Palace	殿中監	The Lord of Nja-lang
Under-Secretary of State for Hemithea and Meridia	左主客郎
Under-Secretary of State for Casaterra	右主客郎
Under-Secretary of State for Ceremonies	儀曹郎
Comptroller of States	屬邦
Comptroller of Embassies	典客
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Rites	右僕射祠部尚書	The Lord of Mrjing
Under-Secretary of State for Education	祠部郎	Lord Tjup
Chancellor of Academia Shinasthana	大學監	The Lord of Dar
Comptroller of the Ancestry	宗正
Comptroller of Ceremonies	奉常
Superintendant of Secret Books	秘書監	The Lord of Nja-lang
Secretary of State for Appropriations	度支尚書	Lord Lang-djeng
Under-Secretary of State for Treasury	金部倉部郎
Under-Secretary of State for Revenues	內郎	Lord Ga-lang
Inner Administrator	內史	Lord Sikw-lang
Secretary of State for War	十七兵尚書	Lord Gwigh-njing
Marshal of Hên-lang Guards	顯陽衛尉
Marshal of Middle Guards	中衛尉
Marshal of Gwreng-hljunh Guards	宏訓衛尉
Marshal of Gweng-ngjarh Guards	弘義衛尉
Marshal of Pek Guards	北宮衛尉
Capital Marshal	中尉
Master of the Horse	太僕
Comptroller of Manufactories	將作少府	Lord Mjap
Under-Secretary of State for Munitions	寺工室郎	Lord Ta
Under-Secretary of State for Militias	中外兵郎
Under-Secretary of State for Territorial Forces	別兵郎
Under-Secretary of State for War Departments	諸兵曹郎
Secretary of State for the Navy	航尚書	The Lord of Pek-′al
Under-Secretary of State for Shipbuilding	章部郎	Lord Lra-lang
Comptroller of Waters	水黃令
Marine Prefect	都水使者
Secretary of State for Home Affairs	民部尚書	Lord Kjalh-djeng
Under-Secretary of State for Census	左民曹郎
Under-Secretary of State for Census	右民曹郎
Under-Secretary of State for Police	良人郎	Lord Ljuk-lang
Under-Secretary of State for Lakes and Fisheries	水部郎
Under-Secretary of State for Surveys	左田部郎
Under-Secretary of State for Surveys	右田部郎
Secretary of State for Administration	吏部尚書	Lord Ran-prep
Under-Secretary of State for Local Affairs	二千石曹郎
Under-Secretary of State for Patronage	廕部郎	Lord Mrai-gigh
Under-Secretary of State for Strategy	虞曹郎
Under-Secretary of State for Assessments	比部曹郎
Secretary of State for Public Works	起部尚書	Lord N′er-n′ubh
Under-Secretary of State for Poor Relief	平準郎	Lord Krek-lang
Under-Secretary of State for Railways	鐵路郎	Lord Kakw
Under-Secretary of State for Highways	駕部郎
Under-Secretary of State for Unions	工會郎	Lord Begh
Under-Secretary of State for Local Works	都官曹郎
Leader of the House of Commons	中書僕射	Lord ′jek-nror
Gentlemen in Waiting	給事中	Lord Kjit-mjen Lord Ngjon-djeng Lord Mja-′an Lord Hwjei-ngjarh Lord Gwrjang-′ar
Marshal of Peers	主爵中尉	The Lord of Nem-neng
Lords in Waiting	侍中	The Lord of Hljunh-lang The Lord of ′ebh-lang The Lord of Gah The Lord of Mrus
President of the Privy Council	中大夫令	The Lord of Gwrebh-lang

See also

• Themiclesia