PERSONAL CHARACTER

With his remarkable personality and wide range of sympathy, deep learning, and almost poetic imagination, Sir Robert Hart endeared himself to a very wide circle of friends and acquaintances. His character is as complex as his personality was sympathetic. The Spartan training of à Belfast Irishman was tempered through his long residence in the East to a broad and tolerant acceptance of life in all its phases. Upon the traditions of a Puritan stock was grafted the easy-going philosophy of the East; and the combination of these

qualities made up a character that stands out against background of modern Chinese history as romantic a figure as that of General Gordon, or of Rhodes, or of any other great Englishmen overseas. During the siege of the Legations in 14900, when the whole machinery of a life of routine had been so suddenly upset, his character stands at its noblest and best, showing him to be a very gallant gentleman, who, combining the qualities of endurance, courage, and helpful cheerfulness, raised himself in the esteem of his fellow-men more than he could have done by any administrative successes. The autocrat and martinet of the Customs became a simple volunteer in the work of defence. Sir Robert Hart was a philosopher and a poet; he possessed a capacity for friendship to which years of correspondence testified. His political knowledge was wide, and his instincts generally sound; but they were always liable to be affected at critical moments by the impulsive nature of his sympathies, which outweighed on more than one notable occasion his deliberate judgment.

Sir Robert Hart was the possessor of 13 Grand Crosses bestowed upon him by European Sovereigns, privileged to wear the red ribbon of the first order of Chinese officialdom, the Peacock’s Feather, the Double Dragon, and many other distinctions which, as he quaintly put it himself, gave him the appearance of a Christmas tree. His life will go down to history as one of the greatest monuments of British administrative capacity and loyalty. His opportunities were undoubtedly great, but the man rose to them, earning golden opinions not only from his own countrymen but from the many men of other races with whom he frequently came into contact in circumstances calling for unusual tact and discrimination. That there were weaknesses and errors in his administration of affairs few will deny; one of the most conspicuous was that quality of autocracy which has left the Customs Service without cohesion or definite policy to face the uncertain future. Taking him all in all, Sir Robert Hart leaves behind him a record as an administrator that has been rarely excelled and an example from which the Chinese in the long run cannot

fail to derive guidance and benefit.

I. PRINCE K’ING. — II. OPIUM AGREEMENT. — III. CHINESE LOAN. — IV. TRANSFER OF THE CHINESE POST OFFICE TO THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT.

PEKING, April 27.

Prince Ching has been for years the most conspicuous and the most notorious figure in China. The story of his life is the story of China for the past 27 years—the story of the most disastrous experience in the history of the Empire. From those disasters China is now emerging chastened and strengthened; her future, under new methods of government, is rich with promise. Whether Constitutional development can be guided satisfactorily by a decrepit old man, irresolute, wily, corrupt, and inefficient, is a question which may be disputed.

Prince Ching is not of princely origin. An Imperial clansman, born in Peking on April 12, 1839, he was, when a child of 13, adopted as the heir of a grandson of the great Emperor Chien Lung, the grandson being the son of the 17th son of the Emperor. As an adopted son he was admitted to all the rights and recognition of a true son. He is thus regarded as of the same generation as the Emperor Hsien Fêng (1857-61) and his brothers, Prince Kung and Prince Chun, the father of the Prince Regent.

In his early years he was not well provided for, and it is recorded that he was glad to increase his income by giving lessons in writing and painting, His first appointment to office was on April 11, 1884, when, quite untrained and inexperienced, he was made President of the Board of Foreign Affairs, the old Tsung-li Yamen, in place of Prince Kung, degraded. His appointment coincided with the commencement of difficulties with France, which culminated in war. Four years later, in the matter of the Imperial Audience, he is found counselling the Emperor to slight the foreign representatives in Peking by

receiving them in the Hall of Tributary Nations, an Oriental indignity that

1) From the Times Own Correspondents.

in those days was regarded as a clever ruse well adapted to maintain the prestige of the Throne in the eyes of its subjects.

Created Prince of the First Order in February, 1894, he was responsible in large measure for the misdirection of the Throne as to the preparedness of his country for war with Japan, and he approved the bombastic declaration of

war drafted by Wên Tung-ho, which provoked the derision of the whole world.