The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir Robert Hart, by Juliet Bredon

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Title: Sir Robert Hart The Romance of a Great Career, 2nd Edition

Author: Juliet Bredon

Release Date: May 14, 2004 [EBook #12344]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR ROBERT HART ***

Produced by Leah Moser and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. Produced from images provided by the Million Book Project.

[Illustration: Sir Robert Hart, G.C.M.G.]

SIR ROBERT HART

THE ROMANCE OF A GREAT CAREER

TOLD BY HIS NIECE JULIET BREDON

SECOND EDITION

1910

CONTENTS

A WORD OF INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER II

FIRST YEARS IN CHINA—LIFE AT NINGPO—THE ALLIED COMMISSION AND SIR HARRY PARKES—RESIGNATION FROM THE CONSULAR SERVICE

CHAPTER III

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE IMPERIAL CHINESE CUSTOMS—A VISIT TO SIR FREDERICK BRUCE—THE SHERARD OSBORNE AFFAIR—APPOINTED INSPECTOR-GENERAL

CHAPTER IV

ORDERED TO LIVE AT SHANGHAI—FIRST MEETING WITH "CHINESE GORDON"—THE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN GORDON AND LI HUNG CHANG—THE TAKING OF CHANG-CHOW-FU—DISBANDMENT OF "THE EVER-VICTORIOUS ARMY"—REWARDS FOR GORDON

CHAPTER V

ORDERED TO LIVE IN PEKING—"WHAT A BYSTANDER SAYS"—A RETURN TO EUROPE—MARRIAGE—CHINA ONCE AGAIN—THE BURLINGAME MISSION—FIRST DECORATION—THE "WASA" OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY

CHAPTER VI

BIRTH OF A SON—THE MARGARY AFFAIR AND THE CHEFOO CONVENTION—A SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE—THE PARIS EXHIBITION OF 1878

CHAPTER VII

YUAN PAO HÊNG SUGGESTS PROHIBITION OF OPIUM SMOKING IN CHINA—NEW BUILDINGS FOR THE INSPECTORATE—THE FIRST INFORMAL POSTAGE SERVICE—THE FRENCH TREATY OF 1885—OFFERED POST OF BRITISH MINISTER

CHAPTER VIII

AN IMPORTANT MISSION TO HONGKONG AND MACAO—THE BEGINNING OF A PRIVATE BAND—DECORATIONS, CHINESE AND FOREIGN—THE SIKKIM-THIBET CONVENTION—FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE POST OFFICE—WAR LOANS

CHAPTER IX

THE PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGE—BARRICADES AND SCALING LADDERS—THE SIEGE PROPER—A MESSAGE FROM THE YAMÊN AND AN IMPORTANT TELEGRAM—RELIEF AT LAST—NEW QUARTERS—NEGOTIATIONS—THE CONGRESS OF PEKING—AN IMPERIAL AUDIENCE

CHAPTER X

SOME QUIET YEARS—A CHANGE OF MASTERS—INSOMNIA—A FAREWELL AUDIENCE—AN HONOUR AND ITS ADVERTISEMENT—AH FONG AND OTHERS—DEPARTURE FROM PEKING—"A SMALL, INSIGNIFICANT IRISHMAN"

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SIR ROBERT HART

THE CANAL: THE ROUTE BY WHICH SIR ROBERT HART FIRST CAME TO PEKING

A VIEW OF OLD PEKING SHOWING CONDITION OF ROADS

A ROAD IN OLD PEKING DURING THE RAINY SEASON

SIR ROBERT HART ABOUT 1866

UNDER THE PEKING CITY WALL TOWARDS TUNGCHOW—ALONG THE GRAND CANAL

A PICNIC IN OLD PEKING—TOWARDS YUEN MING YUEN

WELL NEAR THE CANAL, BRITISH LEGATION, BEFORE 1900

SIR ROBERT HART IN 1878

OUTSIDE SIR ROBERT HART'S HOUSE BEFORE 1900

PEKING: A MESSENGER CARRYING MAILS IN THE RAINY SEASON

A SECRETARY GOING TO THE INSPECTORATE OFFICES DURING THE RAINY SEASON

STABLES OF SIR ROBERT HART IN THE RAINY SEASON

THE INSPECTORATE STREET BEFORE 1900

ENTRANCE TO THE INSPECTORATE OF CUSTOMS BEFORE 1900

SIR ROBERT HART'S BAND IN THE EARLY 'NINETIES

SIR ROBERT HART'S CHINESE BAND

SIR ROBERT HART'S STABLES IN 1890

SIR ROBERT HART'S PRIVATE CART

THE IMPERIAL CHINESE POST OFFICE ENTRANCE ON A RAINY DAY IN THE 'NINETIES

A GARDEN PARTY GIVEN BY SIR ROBERT HART TO GOVERNOR TRÜPPEL (OF KIAOCHOW) AND PARTY

LADY HART

SIR ROBERT HART IN HIS PRIVATE OFFICE

SIR ROBERT HART AND A GROUP OF CUSTOMS PEOPLE

SIR ROBERT HART AND MISS KATE CARL

PEKING PEACE PROTOCOL, 1901

A CORNER OF SIR ROBERT HART'S GARDEN: A WINTER VIEW

ANOTHER WINTER VIEW OF SIR ROBERT HART'S GARDEN

TING'RH, OR CHINESE PAVILION, IN SIR ROBERT HART'S GARDEN, PEKING

SIR ROBERT HART AND HIS STAFF (FOREIGN AND CHINESE), PEKING, 1903

SIR ROBERT HART WISHING MISS ROOSEVELT "BON VOYAGE" ON HER DEPARTURE FROM PEKING, SEPTEMBER 16, 1906

FRONT DOOR OF SIR ROBERT HART'S HOUSE, PEKING

FRONT VIEW OF SIR ROBERT HART'S HOUSE

A WORD OF INTRODUCTION

Seventy-three years ago a little Irish boy lay in his aunt's lap looking out on a strange and mysterious world that his solemn eyes had explored for scarcely ten short days, while she, to whom the commonplaces of everyday surroundings had lost their first absorbing interest, was busily engaged in braiding a watch-chain from her splendid, Titian-red hair. These chains were the fashion of the hour, and the old family doctor, friend as well as physician, paused after a visit to the boy's mother, to joke her about it: "You're making a keepsake for your sweetheart, I see."

"No, indeed," she answered gaily with a toss of her bonny head, "I'm making a wedding present for this new nephew of mine when he marries your daughter."

It was a long-shot prophecy. The doctor was even then a man past his first youth; the neighbours looked upon him as a confirmed bachelor; he seemed as unlikely ever to possess a daughter as a diamond mine. Yet, all these improbabilities notwithstanding, he had taken to himself the luxury of a wife within a very few years, and soon children were climbing on his knees. I cannot say whether this red-haired young woman had the gift of second sight or whether, by some subtle power of suggestion, she willed the doctor to carry out her prophecy. I only know that the prophecy was startlingly fulfilled, for among his children was one little girl who, when she grew to womanhood, did marry the nephew and did get the watch-chain as a wedding gift.

The doctor's daughter was an aunt of mine, and her romantic marriage, by tying our two families together, gave me some slight claim on her husband's affection. Propinquity afterwards ripened what opportunity had begun; we lived long side by side in a far-away corner of the world, and from the formal relationship of