[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 CHINALIFE AT NINGPOTHE ALLIED COMMISSION AND SIR HARRY PARKESRESIGNATION FROM THE CONSULAR SERVICE
CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE IMPERIAL CHINESE CUSTOMSA VISIT TO SIR FREDERICK BRUCETHE SHERARD OSBORNE AFFAIRAPPOINTED INSPECTOR-GENERAL
CHAPTER IV
ORDERED TO LIVE AT SHANGHAIFIRST MEETING WITH "CHINESE GORDON"THE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN GORDON AND LI HUNG CHANGTHE TAKING OF CHANG-CHOW-FUDISBANDMENT OF "THE EVER-VICTORIOUS ARMY"REWARDS FOR GORDON
CHAPTER V
ORDERED TO LIVE IN PEKING"WHAT A BYSTANDER SAYS"A RETURN TO EUROPEMARRIAGECHINA ONCE AGAINTHE BURLINGAME MISSIONFIRST DECORATIONTHE "WASA" OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY
CHAPTER VI
BIRTH OF A SONTHE MARGARY AFFAIR AND THE CHEFOO CONVENTIONA SECOND VISIT TO EUROPETHE PARIS EXHIBITION OF 1878
CHAPTER VII
YUAN PAO HNG SUGGESTS PROHIBITION OF OPIUM SMOKING IN CHINANEW BUILDINGS FOR THE INSPECTORATETHE FIRST INFORMAL POSTAGE SERVICETHE FRENCH TREATY OF 1885OFFERED POST OF BRITISH MINISTER
CHAPTER VIII
AN IMPORTANT MISSION TO HONGKONG AND MACAOTHE BEGINNING OF A PRIVATE BANDDECORATIONS, CHINESE AND FOREIGNTHE SIKKIM-THIBET CONVENTIONFORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE POST OFFICEWAR LOANS
CHAPTER IX
THE PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGEBARRICADES AND SCALING LADDERSTHE SIEGE PROPERA MESSAGE FROM THE YAMN AND AN IMPORTANT TELEGRAMRELIEF AT LASTNEW QUARTERSNEGOTIATIONSTHE CONGRESS OF PEKINGAN IMPERIAL AUDIENCE
CHAPTER X
SOME QUIET YEARSA CHANGE OF MASTERSINSOMNIAA FAREWELL AUDIENCEAN HONOUR AND ITS ADVERTISEMENTAH FONG AND OTHERSDEPARTURE 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 TUNGCHOWALONG THE GRAND CANAL
A PICNIC IN OLD PEKINGTOWARDS 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 TRPPEL (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 uncle and niece soon slipped into that still better and warmer companionship of friend and friend.
For me the friendship has ever been, is, and always will be, a thing to take pride in, a thing to treasure. Nor will you wonder when I confess that he of whom I speak is none other than the great Sir Robert Hart, the man whose life has been as useful as varied, as romantic as successful.
The story of it can be but imperfectly written now. There are many shoals in the form of diplomatic indiscretions to steer clear of; there is much weighing and sifting of political motives for serious historians to do, but the time has not come for that. Much of the romance of his long career in China lies over and above such things, and of the romantic and personal side I here set down what I have gathered from one and from anotherchiefly from those who have had the opportunity to collect their information at first hand, who either knew him sooner than I or were themselves concerned in the events describedin the hope that some readers may sufficiently enjoy the romance of a great career to forgive any imperfections in the telling for the sake of the story itself.
CHAPTER I
EARLY YEARS
Robert Hart began his romantic life in simple circumstances. He was born on the 20th day of February, 1835, in a little white house with green shutters on Dungannon Street, in the small Irish town of Portadown, County Armagh, and was the eldest of twelve children. His mother, a daughter of Mr. John Edgar, of Ballybreagh, must have been a delightful woman, all tenderness and charity, judging from the way her children's affections became entwined around her. His father, Henry Hart, was a man of forceful and picturesque character, of a somewhat antique strain, and a Wesleyan to the core. The household, therefore, grew up under the bracing influence of uncompromising doctrines; it was no unusual thing for one member to ask another at table, "What have you been doing for God to-day?" and so rigidly was Sunday observed that, had the family owned any Turners, I am sure they would have been covered up on Saturday nights, just as they were in Ruskin's home.
