Hart seized the psychological
moment, and, hastening to the _Yamen_, induced the ministers
to turn a pleasantry into a reality. The Dowagers (for there were
two) assented to the proposal of Prince Kung, to invest Burlingame
with a roving commission to all the Treaty powers, and to associate
with him a Manchu and a Chinese with the rank of minister. An
"oecumenical embassy" was the result. Some of our students were
again attached to the suite; reciprocal intercourse had begun; and
Burlingame has the glory of initiating it".
In the work of reform three viceroys stand pre-eminent, viz., Li
Hung Chang, Yuen Shi Kai and Chang Chitung. Li, besides organising
an army and
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a navy (both demolished by the Japanese in 1895), founded a university
at Tienstin, and placed Dr. Tenney at the head of it. Yuen, coming
to the same viceroyalty with the lesson of the Boxer War before
his eyes, has made the army and education objects of special care.
In the latter field he had had the able assistance of Dr. Tenney,
and succeeded in making the schools of the province of Chihli an
example for the Empire.
Viceroy Chang has the distinction of being the first man (with
the exception of Kang Yuwei) to start the emperor on the path of
reform. Holding that, to be rich, China must have the industrial
arts of the West, and to be strong she must have the sciences of
the West, he has taken the lead in advocating and introducing both.
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