the British government's general instructions to its ministers -perhaps from about this time-used to contain for their final injunction the advice,-"When in doubt, consult Sir Robert Hart."

At first Hart accepted the appointment; it must have seemed to him to promise a fine culmination of his career, the summit of his ambition. But after a few weeks he determined to decline the proffered honor, and to remain as he had so long been, the inspector general or "I. G."-the head of the imperial customs. Exactly why he chose this course I can only conjecture. He may have foreseen his liability to be forced into an attitude of hostility towards the Chinese government, whom he had so long sympathetically served. Perhaps he apprehended the possible coldness or unfriendliness of the British consuls, whom he would have to direct and on whose assistance he must depend. But I do not believe that these were the reasons which determined his decision. I think he shrunk from abandoning a post for which he knew he was well fitted-from ceasing his efforts to lead and help China as her employee and adviser; and further that he could not endure to see the great service which he had so industriously built up out of his own brain, and with such unremitting toil, devotion and hope, fall into hands perhaps less devoted and less capable than his own. At all events the announcement that he had decided to continue to be their inspector general, was welcomed enthusiastically by the customs men everywhere. An address of congratulation was presented to him by the service.

There yet lay before him almost a quarter of a century which Hart was destined still to devote to China. The first great measure to demand his attention was the transference of the collection of the internal revenue tax (or "Likin") on opium from the native inland collectorates to the foreign customs offices. It was purely an administrative customs business, but the problem was intricate, the revenue at stake amounted to millions, and the change must be made at all places on the same fixed day, close at hand. A single error in the instructions given to the customs offices might entail troublesome complaints from Chinese officials, or

outcry and "claims" from opium importers; it might produce irremediable confusion. Here was precisely the kind of operation that the inspector general delighted to undertake. The procedure was complicated; the readjustment radical. Of the opium affected the new customs treatment had to be differentiated according to the precise stage of taxation which each several lot had reached on the crucial day. At the same time a fresh system had to be devised and set in motion, which should be applied in future to all opium arriving. Written instructions-there was barely time to circulate them to the ports before they must be acted on. But like all Hart's directions these were orderly, clear, precise; by telegraph from Peking he dealt no less promptly and clearly with such special difficulties as arose here and there, and in a day the changed system was in calm operation. The new opium Likin scheme was a masterpiece of able administration.

Next followed the Tibetan or Sikkim question, involving negotiations between Peking and the Indian government. These were conducted chiefly by Sir Robert Hart by telegraph, in addition of course to his regular work, which of itself was onerous enough. He now purposed returning to England, and began the necessary preparations. Yet the moment seemed never to come when he could safely leave his post. The Chinese-Japanese war broke out in 1894–95; of course he would not ask leave of absence at such a juncture. Next came the opening of the West River to trade; and after that the strife for concessions among the European legations in Peking became most menacing the actual partition of China was begun. The coup-d'état of 1898 followed-and Hart was still in Peking, no possibility of leaving China at so critical a time! In this way year followed year, with the faithful inspector general still at his desk striving to save what he could of China's tattered sovereignty, and at all events successfully holding her invaluable revenue service steady and unshaken on its course. Lady Hart with her children had returned from Peking to England in 1882; but how could the inspector general hope to join them while China was in such dire straits?

So far from dropping his task, Hart even took on in 1897 a new enterprise of mammoth proportions-the creation of a postal service to be gradually extended over the entire empire. The foreign office memorialized the throne in advocacy of this proposal; the emperor issued an edict of approval. On Hart's confident and willing-if overburdened -shoulders was laid this immense task. He was made inspector general of posts. Up to this time China had no conception of a national post office functioning everywhere. The Chinese had known hitherto only petty express agencies, private letter-carrying "shops," operating on a few main routes, for comparatively high charges. Vested interests must be handled tenderly, else popular hostility would be aroused, and the new scheme would instantly forfeit the support of a timid government and of a luke-warm public opinion. At the outset there was to be expected little or no financial aid from the impoverished indemnity-ridden Chinese exchequer. And a staff of postal men must be organized -Chinese and European—and the many novices taught their work. The appropriations devoted to the customs establishments were made to bear the new expenditures-being treated in the accounts as advances to be refunded when the postal service after some years should have become a success, and should have obtained fiscal appropriations of its own. Customs men, customs buildings, customs funds everywhere were most liberally and fully devoted to the new development-in addition to their time honored regular uses. There was no other way. That quality of elasticity to which, as I have said before, Hart had early habituated the service which he had built up, was now subjected to its severest tension. But Hart could generally command a loyalty akin to his own, and he never hesitated to exact obedience. He had always required his foreign employees to study the Chinese language and customs; and besides these the service possessed within its ranks very many native clerks of thorough office training and of no small acquaintance with English. Upon this loyalty and fitness Hart drew copiously. Within a few years the coasting and riverine steamers, and the few railways had become China's contract mail carriers.

From every open port radiated mail routes into the interior, served according to local conditions by boats, by mules, by couriers on foot. Gradually the great interior provinces were covered with a net work of postal routes. The largest offices were placed in charge of such men as had demonstrated most interest, ability, and general fitness for their work. Hart's watchfulness and that of his chief lieutenants at headquarters was never relaxed. At length the central and the provincial governments became full converts and sincere supporters of the national post office, and grants in aid where necessary were made. Today China regards the postal service as no less essential to the life and business of the nation than it is elsewhere over the globe. It is no longer dependent on the mother service, but has its own separate existence. In 1912 there were over 6000 postal establishments, with 127,000 miles of courier connections, and the service dealt with 421,000,000 of postal articles."

How shall one speak adequately of that cruel summer of 1900 when China's so loyal helper was suddenly entrapped, together with the entire Peking foreign community in the onrushing tempest of the Boxer fanaticism? True, Hart foresaw the approach of peril but he misjudged the time of the outburst. He had taken steps to prepare his Peking staff for sending away wives and children as the danger increased, but he was too late! The German minister was murdered. Behold the Boxers within the city gates, sweeping all before them-burning and slaughtering. The little community was at bay fighting for life. Like all others, Hart left his house and his invaluable papers, the offices with their archives of fifty years, and sought refuge in the legation

5 It may be taken as probable that Hart's success in creating and more especially in extending the postal service by gradual steps until it covered the empire, led directly to the conviction in his own mind that the sorely needed reorganization, reform and purification of the national land tax might be accomplished in a similar way. And it is not at all unlikely that his published Land Tax Proposals, though negatived when they were made, will yet be adopted in principle if and when the present Chinese government feels itself strong enough to grapple with the subject. But it requires almost "the gestation of a thousand years" to produce a man of Hart's experience, devotedness, and energy-fit to achieve so Herculean a task.

area. He took with him only a small roll of blankets, and a few clothes. Strangely enough, he believed that the customs premises would be spared because they belonged to the government! In fact, they were speedily with their contents burned to the ground. At the beginning of the siege Hart had little hope that the foreigners could be saved. To me at Tientsin he sent by a trusty coolie, who took his life in his hand to bring the note, this desperate touching message written in ink on a small scrap of paper; what volumes it speaks!

Legations ordered to leave Peking in 24 hours!!!-R. H.

19 June, 1900, 4 p. m. Good bye!

Pay bearer Tls. 100.-R. H.

Drew,
Customs,

Tientsin.

I need not dwell on the thrilling tale of the eight weeks that followed. For the hard pressed Europeans it is a story of suffering, of horror, of death, of wondrous fortitude, of unflinching tenacity and courage. The world's history affords few examples of equal heroism displayed by women and by men. Sir Robert, then in his sixty-sixth year, was too old to take his place rifle in hand in the muddy trenches or behind the sand bags; but his confidence, his Irish good humor were conspicuous among the besieged; and the spectacle of his serenity, sympathy and helpfulness, as he moved about, fortified both the timorous and the brave. Needless to say, he shared privations and faced dangers on an equal footing with the humblest around him. At the mess table, when horse meat was served for the first time, on being asked how he liked it, he smacked his lips and replied, "Now I have discovered what it was that my cook used to serve for my dinner parties, when I had charged him to spare no pains to get a specially fine piece of mutton!"

During those desperate weeks his thoughts must have striven to forecast the political outcome for China, if the armies of the allied powers should reach Peking and raise