Sir Robert Hart, from whom I had this statement, is the father of China’s postal system.  Overcoming opposition with patience and prudence, he has given the post office a thorough organisation and has secured for it the confidence of princes and people.  Already does the Government look to it as a prospective source of revenue.

To the maritime customs service, Sir Robert has been a foster-father.  Provided for by treaty, it was in operation before he took charge, in 1863; but to him belongs the honour of having nursed the infant up to vigorous maturity by the unwearied exertions of nearly half a century.  While the post office is a new development, the maritime customs have long been looked upon as the most reliable branch of the revenue service.  China’s debts to foreign countries, whether for loans or indemnities, are invariably paid from the customs revenue.  The Government, though disinclined to have such large concerns administered by foreign agents, is reconciled to the arrangement in the case of the customs by finding it a source of growing income.  The receipts for 1905 amounted to 35,111,000 taels = L5,281,000.  In volume of trade this shows a gain of 11-1/2 per cent. on 1904; but, owing to a favouring gale from the happy isles of high finance, in sterling value the gain is actually 17 per cent.

[Page 207] To a thoughtful mind, native or foreign, the maritime customs are not to be estimated by a money standard.  They rank high among the agencies working for the renovation of China.  They furnish an object-lesson in official integrity, showing how men brought up under the influence of Christian morals can collect large sums and pay them over without a particle sticking to their fingers.  While the local commissioners have carried liberal ideas into mandarin circles all along the seacoast and up the great rivers into the interior, the Inspector-General (the “I.  G.” as Sir Robert is usually called) has been the zealous advocate of every step in the way of reform at headquarters.

Another man in his position might have been contented to be a mere fiscal agent, but Sir Robert Hart’s fertile brain has been unceasingly active for nearly half a century in devising schemes for the good of China.  All the honours and wealth that China has heaped on her trusted adviser are far from being sufficient to cancel her obligations.  It was he who prompted a timid, groping government to take the first steps in the way of diplomatic intercourse.  It was he who led them to raise their school of interpreters to the rank of a diplomatic college.  He it was who made peace in the war with France; and in 1900, after the flight of the Court, he it was who acted as intermediary between the foreign powers and Prince Ching.  To some of these notable services I shall refer elsewhere.  I speak of them here for the purpose of emphasising my disapproval of an intrigue designed to oust Sir Robert and to overturn [Page 208] the lofty structure which he has made into a light-house for China.