Wensiang, who from the opening of Peking to his death in 1875 bore
the leading part in the conduct of foreign affairs, showed great
ability in piloting the state through rocks and breakers. His mental
power greatly impressed all foreigners, while it secured him an easy
ascendency among his countrymen. Such men are sure to be overloaded
with official duties in a country like China. Physically he was not
strong; and on one occasion when he came into the room wheezing
with asthma he said to me: "You see I am like a small donkey, with
a tight collar and a heavy load." The success of Prince Kung's
administration was largely due to Wensiang. Paochuin, minister
of finance, and member of the Inner Council, was distinguished
as a literary genius. Prince Kung delighted on festive occasions
to call him and Tungsuin to a contest in extempore verse. To enter
the lists with a noted scholar and poet like Tung, showed how the
Manchus have come to vie with the Chinese in the
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refinements of literary culture. I remember him as a dignified
greybeard, genial and jocose. On the fall of the Kung ministry,
he doffed his honours in three stanzas, which contain more truth
than poetry:

"Through life, as in a pleasing dream,
Unconscious of my years,
In Fortune's smile to bask I seem;
Perennial, Spring appears.

"Alas! Leviathan to take
Defies the fisher's art;
From dreams of glory I awake,--
My youth and power depart.

"That loss is often gain's disguise
May us for loss console.
My fellow-sufferers, take advice
And keep your reason whole."

In more than one crisis, the heart of the nation has cleaved to
the Manchu house as the embodiment of law and order. The people
chose to adhere to a tolerably good government rather than take
the chance of a better one emerging from the strife of factions.

Three things are required to confirm their loyalty: (1) the abolition
of tonsure and pigtail, (2) the abandonment of all privileges in
examinations and in the distribution of offices, (3) the removal
of all impediments in the way of intermarriage.

This last has been recently authorised by proclamation. It is not
so easy for those who are in possession of the loaves and fishes to
admit others to an equal share. If to these were added the abolition
of a degrading
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badge, the Manchu dynasty might hope to be perpetual, because the
Manchus would cease to exist as a p