PROBLÈMES CHINOIS DU SECOND DEGRÉ

AT A JP a 503, Aa] AR A 264, 41) NE 52

Si b+c=533 et b + (a — c) = 364, que valent a, D, ce?

À 5 Je ù 63, y An An 270, FU #7 JRé 5

Si ce —b=68 et b + ce+ a =270, chercher a, b, ce?

A y Je BR 555, 7 XX 126, F4 a] Je

Si ce — b=553 et (a — ce) — b = 126, chercher a, ; c?

A a Je 1e 49, ap 1e fX 42, F9 #7 Be 5

Si c — b=49 et (a — c) — b = 42, chercher a, b, ce?

A y Je BR 16, Ag 2 2 192, FN y Je 5

Si c—b=16 et (a — c) — b = 192, ie a, b, c?

A hf BE Be 62, fa] XX 82, FN #7 Je 52

Ayant ce — b=62 et (a — c) — b = 82, chercher a, b, ec?

#52 A1 676, a] AU IR 560, FA #7 Je 57

Étant donnés b + a = 676 et (ce + a) — b = 560, chercher a, b, c?

À Ha) 52 An 288, 1] AS 378, FN #7 JE

Si b + a = 288 et (a + c) — b =378, chercher a, . cÿ

À] 52 A1 806, A] HS ER 68, FA #7 Je 52

Supposées b + a = 306 et (a — c) — b=68, que valent a, b, e?

À) 52 I 588, A] XX 144, FA #7 Je 52

Si bd + a = 588 et (a — c) — b = 144, quelle est la valeur de a, b, c?

#T A BE 100, 4 Fa AA 264. [ID #7 JIX 5%

Connaissant « — b=100 et b + (a + ec) = 264, chercher a, b, ec?

À) 52 fR 648, A] PR A1 176, FA #7 Be 52

Connaiïssant à — b=648 et b + (a — ce) = 176, trouver a, b, ec?

À] GER 40, A] EX A 50, FJ y Je 52

Ayant a — b= 40 et b + (a — c) = 380, trouver a, b, c? À a] 59 Be 288, fi] fe ui 806, FN #1 Je 52

Si a — b=288 et b + (a — c) = 896, évaluer a, b, c?

A y 52 1e 204, A 1e Au 468, FN #1 Je 52

Si a — b=294 et b (a — c) = 468, calculer a, b, c?

562 LOUIS VANHÉE.

a1 À Né 8e An 144, #9 à Au 28, HN #7 JE 57

Données: ce a=144 et b+(a — c)=28; on demande a, b, c?

se #7 M 5% Au 588, #7 NS 24, HA #7 I 57

Si ct a=338 et (a — c) —b=24, que valent a, b, c?

ss #1 NX 2% dt à, A) Au 0 528, [A 6] JR 52

On donne a —c=4 et b+(a—+ c)=528, chercher a, b, ©?

g4 A5 Re ag de 12, A A ER 1080, [1] #1] JR 62

QG a — c=12 et (a+ c) — b = 1080, chercher a, bic

NECROLOGIE.

Sir Robert Hart.

Sir Robert HarT, Bart., G. C. M. G., Inspecteur Général des Douanes Impériales Maritimes chinoises, est mort le 20 septembre 1911, à Fingest Grove, High Wycombe, à l’âge de 76 ans. Fils de Henry Hart, de Portadown, Comté d'Armagh, il était né en février 1835; c’est en novembre 1853, qu’il remplaça Horatio N. Lay dans la haute situation qu'il occupa jusqu’à sa mort. Nous reviendrons sur la carrière et l'oeuvre de cet homme remarquable. En attendant nous croyons devoir reproduire l’article que le Times vient de lui consacrer.

He Ce

We regret to learn that Sir Robert Hart, who for some time past had been suffering from pneumonia and other troubles, died at 10 o’elock on Wednesday night at Great Marlow. Although he passed à fairly good night on Tuesday, his condition became worse on Wednesday afternoon, and from 2 o’clock it was evident that he was losing strength.

For very many years Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs, Sir Robert Hart has spent the last few years in England on leave of absence that was renewed from year to year. He himself, until a short time ago, cherished the hope that he would be able to return to China and resume his duties as Inspector-General; but to most of his friends it was plain that his health would not permit of it.

© With his death there passes from the scene one of the most picturesque figures of the 19th century, a man whose remarkable talents and personality could not have failed to bring distinction in any work or environment of life, and who, by virtue of the unique background in which his career was set, attained at a comparatively early age to world-wide fame The name of Robert Hart was a household word in China before he was 30 years of age; it grew in prestige with the marvellous organization of the Chinese Customs Service of which he was for so long the distinguished head, and it gained naturally in

importance from the crises through which China passed during his admi-

nistration of her revenues, crises in the settlement of which his personal influence and exceptional knowledge saved the Manchus and the Chinese Empire from the consequences of the folly of the Mandarin.

Born on February 20, 1835, in the North of Ireland, he graduated at Queen's College, Belfast, in 1853, and he went out to China in the following year, as a student interpreter in the Consular Service. Employed as secretary to the allied commanders during the Anglo-French occupation of Canton in 1858, he was appointed in 1859 Inspector of Customs in that city. This was his first connexion with the service he was ultimately to be connected with in

all his work in China.

His Work IN CHINA.

When voung Hart first went out to China in 1854 the Southern and Central Provinces were the scene of a great popular upheaval, the Taiping Rebellion. The Taipings had in that very year swept down the Valley of the Yang-tze and seized the native city at Shanghai, compelling the Chinese Superintendent of Customs to close his office. The European settlement held its own, and two months later the Shanghai Customs house was re-opened in the settlement for the collection of Imperial revenue under the joint Inspectorate of the three Treaty Powers, then in relation with the Provincial authorities — Great Britain, the United States, and France.

This was the origin of the great organization which Sir Robert Hart was destined to govern for so many years and which he first represented at Canton.

In 1861 Prince Kung, the President of the Tsung-li-Yamên, formally invested the Collectorate of foreign Customs at the Treaty ports with regular powers from the Central Government, and placed the management in the hands of Mr. Lay, who was then in charge of the Shanghai Collectorate.

When Mr. Lay resigned in 1863 owing to serious differences of principle between himself and the Chinese Government, M. Hart, although then only 28 years of age, was appointed to succeed him.

From that day he devoted himself with all the dogged perseverance, the shrewd intelligence, and business-like capacity of a typical Ulsterman to the task of evolving European order out of Chinese chaos. In his masterful hands the Maritime Customs, which originally represented mere local agencies for the collection of duties on foreign goods, grew to be. a great and complex organization, administering the one substantial and liquid source of revenue

at the disposal of the Central Government of China. LOYALTY TO THE CHINESE.

Sir Robert Hart’s career since 1900 has little to show in the way of new constructive work. After the restoration of peace his life at Peking returned

almost without effort in the old grooves, and he continued until January, 1908, loyally to serve a Government which had ill-requited his best services and which, as he himself was forced to confess, was apparently incapable of learning or forgetting anything. It was through his mediation and chiefly owing to his influence and wise guidance that Prince Ching and Li Hung Chang were able to pave the way for the restoration of the Manchu Dynasty and practically of the authority of the late Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi, That august Jady admitted as much herself when thanking him at a private audience after her return to Peking. “To you”, she said, “who have ever been our most faithful servant, we owe the opportunity of making a new beginning”. Sir Robert Hart himself had doubts which he guardedly expressed in his work, “These from the Land of Sinim” (1901), as to the wisdom and expediency of permitting the Manchus’ return. He realized the necessity for new measures if the ancient Empire were to be saved from itself. But he was already then in his GGth year and long association with the easy-soing philosophy of the Orient had taught him many lessons of expediency, and he was swayed above all, as the results proved, by a sentimental devotion to the Chinese Throne and Government which made him instinctively their apologist even when he could not be their reformer. Nothing could shake his unswerving loyalty to the rulers of the country which he had made his home; even the base ingratitude of their treatment of him in 1900, the destruction of his home and personal belongings, "never affected him or his attitude in the slightest degree; on the contrary, the articles which he published in English magazines and the whole tenor of the book to which we have referred revealed increasing evidences of sympathy with the Oriental standpoint in politics and philosophy.

Tue END or His CAREER.

It was in May, 1906, that Hart received final and convincing proof that, however much his services had been used by the Chinese Government in the past, there was nothing of gratitude or even of consideration in their appreciation of his labours, The one essential factor of the success of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service was the undivided authority of its chief, and the loyalty of the staff who had efficiently served him and China in the collection of her revenue. That factor the Government proceeded to attack by appointing high Chinese officials to be controllers of the Customs under the title of the Shui-Wu-Chu'u. It was not only the nature of the change, which was felt at its full significance by foreign Governments and financiers, but the gross discourtesy shown to the IG. personally, in the fact that he was neither consulted nor notified in regard to the pending change. Writing to a friend at the time, in the first flush of natural indignation, he expressed the belief that this was the beginning of the end of the great service which he

had built up after long years of labour, and his chagrin was undisguised. But he had learnt from the East a lesson which he was fond of inculcating in the words of a Chinese proverb which says, “When the strong wind blows the tree may break, but the waving grass will bend and recover”. In the subsequent pourparlers between the Chinese and the British Governments he took no pronounced part, and expressed no strong opinions; but in the following year he tendered his resignation. Then arose the question of his successor, a question greatly complicated by International jeaiousy and by the policy of China for the Chinese which inspired the action of the Peking Government. Again, as in 1885 (when for a few weeks he accepted the appointment of British Minister in China), the Chinese Government declined to accept his recommendations in regard to his successor. The question was eventually settled in the usual Chinese manner by leaving it open. Sir Robert Hart received a year’s leave of absence, dating from January, 1908, wich leave has since been regularly renewed, while an acting I.G. (Mr. Aglen) carries on the duties of the post without any very definite understanding as to his future position and authority.

Thanks to the complete destruction wrought by the Boxers in 1900, not only in Peking but in the Foreign Settlernents at Tientsin, no complete record of the life of Sir Robert Hart on its political and administrative side can ever be written; for the archives which recorded the earlier history of the Customs Service and his many diplomatic measures and negotiations with the Chinese Government were destroyed by fire. Destroyed also were the letters of Chinese Gordon and many other priceless documents. The preservation of his correspondence with Mr. Detring would have enabled future historians to reconstruct the history of the French and Japanese wars from materials which are not to be expected from purely Chinese sources. Only his private diary was rescued in the nick of time from destruction. It is characteristic of the man that, seeing it brought for safety to the British Legation, he expressed regret that it should have been saved, and there is reason to believe that the executors will receive instructions that no use shall be made of its records for biographical

or other purposes.