What a rottenness
at the core is here betrayed!
[Page 209]
A new development worthy of all praise is the opening, by imperial
command, of a school for the training of officials for the customs
service. It is a measure which Sir Robert Hart with all his public
spirit, never ventured to recommend, because it implies the speedy
replacement of the foreign staff by trained natives.
Filling the sky with a glow of hope not unlike the approach of
sunshine after an arctic winter, the reform in the field of education
throws all others into the shade. By all parties is recognised
its supremacy. Its beginning was feeble and unwelcome, implying
on the part of China nothing but a few drops of oil to relieve
the friction at a few points of contact with the outside world.
The new treaties found China unprovided with interpreters capable
of translating documents in foreign languages. Foreign nations
agreed to accompany their despatches with a Chinese version, until
a competent staff of interpreters should be provided. With a view to
meeting this initial want, a school was opened in 1862, in connection
with the Foreign Office, and placed under the direction of the
Inspector-General of Maritime Customs, by whom I was recommended
for the presidency. Professors of English, French, and Russian
were engaged; and later on German took a place alongside of the
three leading languages of the Western world.
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