But when at luncheon Hart told his host how narrowly he had escaped rough treatment, all the satisfaction he got was:  “Served you right, you two young fools, riding about where you were not wanted.  Served you right, I say.  If I had been there I’d have had a shy at you myself.”

This remark was characteristic of Sir Frederick Bruce, who, either from character or experience, or both, took a conservative view of everything—­even of trifles.  I know Robert Hart afterwards attributed some of his own caution to his friend’s example.  “In all things go slowly,” Bruce was wont to say in his booming, bell-like tone.  “Never be in a hurry—–­especially don’t be in a hurry about answering letters.  If you leave things long enough and quiet enough they answer themselves, whereas if you hurry matters balanced on the edge of a precipice, they often topple over instead of settling and remaining comfortably there for ever.”

During Hart’s visit to Peking a very important question arose concerning the policing of the China Seas.  Great Britain had hitherto been doing the work, but the arrangement was considered unsatisfactory.  The first idea that China should invest in a fleet of her own came up in the course of a friendly conversation between the British Minister and the Officiating Inspector-General.

Later, when they had talked the subject over at length, and Bruce asserted that Great Britain would probably be willing to lend officers and sell ships of war to China for the nucleus of the proposed navy, Hart laid the matter before Prince Kung.  There were endless negotiations, the difficulty and delicacy of which cannot be exaggerated.  But they ended satisfactorily.

[Illustration:  A ROAD IN OLD PEKING DURING THE RAINY SEASON.]

Prince Kung memorialized the Throne, with the result that L250,000 was directed to be set aside for the purpose.  Then, at Robert Hart’s suggestion, the money was sent to the Inspector-General—­Mr. Lay—­to be spent by him in England, together with a long letter of instructions (written by Prince Kung) urging Lay to purchase everything as soon as possible, and to see that the “work put into the vessels should be strong and the materials genuine.”

This delicious phrase, a true touch of human nature, is solemnly recorded in one of the despatches, and may still be seen in the correspondence on the subject in the Blue Book for the year.

It is only fair to point out that it was Robert Hart who stated that “the ability of the Inspector-General is great; that he possesses a mind which embraces the minutest details, and is therefore fully competent to make the necessary arrangements with a more than satisfactory result,” when he might so easily have used his great and growing personal influence with the Chinese (he was a persona grata with them from the beginning) to undermine his chief.

How the fleet “of genuine materials” came out with all despatch under the celebrated Captain Sherard Osborne and various other officers lent by the Admiralty, is a matter of history.  The reputations of its commanders—­for all were men of distinction—­should have ensured its success if anything could have done so.  But from the very moment the fleet reached Shanghai there were misunderstandings.  Captain Osborne found himself subject to local officials whose control he resented.