SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK.

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the slightest show of truth, that having once made up his mind as to the course to be pursued, he did not pursue that course in a persistent manner, or shrunk from responsibility, or failed to acknowledge in a generous manner the services of his coadjutors. It may also be noted that he was eminently successful in leading the other Foreign Ministers at Peking to act along with him, so as to present an undivided front to the Mandarins; and there can be little doubt that this was one of the chief reasons which led to his promotion to the still more difficult post of Minister at Washington, where he also acted with rare tact and discretion, almost up to the very day of his sudden and lamented death,--a death which, as the President of the United States remarked,* revealed to Americans the fact that the friendship which they had cherished for him "had even acquired the intensity of fraternal affection."

It is not necessary to say much about Sir Rutherford Alcock, the successor of Sir Frederick Bruce as British Minister at Peking. In ordinary times the Chinese need not expect that we should always be represented by distinguished or able men, or that our Foreign Office should overlook the claims which long service in the Far East may confer on a mere routinier. It is greatly to Sir R. Alcock's credit that nothing particular has to be said against his conduct of the mission to China; for both as Consul at Shanghai and as Minister to Japan his previous career had given indications of considerable want of judgment. One or two of his earlier reports to his own Government on the state of China, and on our relationships with that country, are really valuable documents, characterised by sound knowledge and great

* In his address to Mr Thornton, the successor of Sir F. Bruce as British Minister at Washington.

moderation of tone; but as Consul at Shanghai he did not always act on the principles he had propounded, and especially in threatening, on account of some dubious dispute with the Imperialist authorities in his neighbourhood, to lay an embargo on the sea-going supply of grain to Peking. In Japan the conduct of Sir Rutherford Alcock was productive of more serious consequences, and a good deal of our difficulties with that newlyopened country may be fairly charged against him. Towards the Japanese he was both overbearing and timid. He greatly weakened his position as her Majesty's representative by, at an early period of his mission, threatening them with war on insufficient grounds and without sufficient authority, an offence for which he was severely reproved by Earl Russell, then Foreign Secretary; and yet when the Japanese Government, pursuing its policy of intimidation towards Foreigners, warned him that it could not protect the Legation at Yedo, he had the weakness to remove his flag to Yokohama, while Mr Harris, the American Minister, continued to reside in safety at the secular capital. Towards his own countrymen in Japan also Sir Rutherford Alcock behaved very injudiciously, trying to control and thwart them in regard to matters in which they were perfectly in the right, such as preferring Yokohama to Kanagawa as a place for a commercial settlement, and travelling in the country, with the connivance of Japanese authorities, beyond the limits allowed them by treaty.

In our connection with China a great deal depends on the character of certain British officials who are well acquainted with the Celestial language, but who do not come prominently before the notice of the British public. Of these by far the most important of late years has been Mr Thomas Wade, who acted for long as Chinese

MR THOMAS WADE.

309

Secretary to the Legation, and filled at one time the post of Chargé d'Affaires at Peking. Having gone out to China as a subaltern in one of her Majesty's regiments during the period of the Opium War, Mr Wade's linguistic proclivities led him to acquire a knowledge of the Chinese tongue, and his first civil employment was in the somewhat humble position of interpreter to the Supreme Court of Hongkong. Neither well skilled, nor professing to be well skilled, in the use of colloquial Chinese (a defect which he shares, along with the American, Dr S. W. Williams, one of the most eminent of living Sinologues), Mr Wade has, nevertheless, enormous knowledge of the Chinese language and literature, and has done good service by his translations, published or only privately printed, of Chinese State-Papers. His irritable repellant air, as of an ill-used and over-worked man, has not been fitted to inspire the confidence of a calm-tempered people like the Chinese, and he has been not altogether unjustly accused of a fondness for working in the dark in circumstances where the interests of the two countries would have been much better furthered by greater frankness and publicity. In brief, Mr Wade's great fault is, that in a position of great power and responsibility he has failed to rise above the subservience and caution which are the characteristics of subordinate officials in small colonies such as Hongkong.

Sir Harry Parkes and Mr H. N. Lay come to be noticed together, as both belonging, longo intervallo, to the same school. They both went out to China at a very early age, and had the misfortune of being pupils of the late Dr Gutzlaff, a man of somewhat unscrupulous character. I have noticed that Europeans who have been brought up from childhood or from early youth in India or China, and have at the same time

*

made early acquaintance with Eastern languages, are disposed to treat the natives of these countries with greater rudeness, or, as some would call it, energy, than is usual among other Englishmen in the East of similar social standing. The real cause of this I believe to be partial arrestment of moral development at the boisterous schoolboy stage, owing to a too early acquirement of power among people of a different moral code from that of their own countrymen; but it may plausibly, however erroneously, be argued that it proceeds only from appreciation of the best means of dealing with Asiatics. Be that as it may, both the gentlemen now referred to acquired a reputation among the Chinese for this characteristic. Of Mr Lay enough has been said already, and I have no wish otherwise to compare Sir Harry Parkes with him; but the latter also has certainly been affected by early Eastern training, both as regards a habit of driving the Chinese, and as regards a quality which may be called subtlety. When he was engaged with Sir John Bowring in obtaining our treaty with Siam, the officials of that country said that he combined the energy of a European with the finesse of a Chinese Mandarin; and a similar suggestion is made by the contrast between his brilliant forehead and manly open countenance and his stereotyped hollow smile, so indicative of oblique design. Though that affair passed very soon out of his hands, yet a certain responsibility for the Arrow difficulty rests upon him; and I have heard more than one impartial observer speak of his treatment of Chinese officials on certain occasions as having been something "quite frightful." +

*See ante, p. 260 et seq.

On this subject generally, Dr Rennie makes the following remark, which is worthy of note, in his 'Peking and the Pekingese,' vol. ii. p. 290 : "Wang a small Mandarin, who has often complained bitterly of his

SIR HARRY S. PARKES.

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When Sir Harry Parkes fell into the hands of the Chinese in 1860, no one expected that he would ever reappear in any other shape than that of "minute pieces ;" but his unshaken courage and firmness had something to do, as well as his good fortune, in preserving him from the fate of his companions; and his estimable personal qualities, as well as his value as a public servant, made his release unharmed a matter of rejoicing to all his countrymen in China. Being still little past Dante's mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, his success in life has been somewhat remarkable; but it has been well earned by his singular activity and his devotion to the interests. of the British merchants in China. I believe it was the intention of Lord Elgin, when he superseded Sir John Bowring, to have sent Sir Harry, then Mr Parkes, back to his unimportant consulate at Amoy, as having proved himself of rather too active a disposition; but the services of the latter were found indispensable, and on our occupying Canton he was made British Commissioner for the Government of that city, fulfilling the multifarious duties which devolved on him with an ardour which knew no rest, and a personal fearlessness which despised even common prudence. His captivity at Peking, and services about that period, were rewarded with the title of K.C.B.; and from the Shanghai Consulship he was advanced to be our Minister in Japan, a position which will probably lead to his obtaining the Peking mission.

treatment by Sir H. Parkes, when he went over to the north fort, at Taku, in August 1860, to deliver a letter to Lord Elgin from the Governor-General of Chili] attributes a great deal of the troubles of the British Government with China to the overbearing conduct of our interpreters, who, he remarks, lose themselves completely as soon as they have learned the Chinese language, and try to carry everything by bullying, and what they call 'knowing how to manage the Chinese;' an observation that my own experience inclines me very much to endorse, from what I have on several occasions myself witnessed."