When Munemitsu MUTSU (who had served as Minister of Foreign Affairs until the year before) died in 1897, Saionji said, 'even Mutsu finally went to the land of the dead,' lamenting the defeat of the Han clique headed by Yamagata and the failure to establish parliamentary democracy.
明治30年（1897年）、前年まで外務大臣を務めた陸奥宗光が、山縣を中心とする藩閥の打倒と議会制民主主義の未達成を嘆きつつ死んだ時、西園寺は「陸奥もとうとう冥土に往ってしまった。