THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

374
supplies  to  the  foreign  Consul  and  merchant  the  intimate
knowledge  of  Chinese  legal  and  official  machinery  which
they  do  not  always  possess  ;  and,  in  the  past  at  least,  his
position  may  be  likened  to  that  of  the  man  in  the  middle
of  the  see-saw,  able  to  raise  or  to  depress,  as  he  may  judge
the  right  to  lie  on  one  side  or  the  other.  The  general
testimony  is  that  this  position  of  influence  has  not  been
used  arbitrarily,  either  in  favor  of  the  Chinese  Government,
whose  servant  he  is,  or  in  favor  of  the  foreigners,  to  whom
he  is  allied  by  birth  and  education.
In  all  these  local  matters  the  closest  touch  has  always
been  maintained  witlq  the  Inspector  General.  Commissioners ­
  have  never  failed  to  make  the  fullest  reports  to  him,
and  from  him  have  come  the  guidance  and  encouragement
which  have  enabled  them  to  grapple  with  questions  beyond
their  ordinary  capacity.  He  has  seldom  interfered  unduly
with  “  the  man  on  the  spot  ”  ;  but  an  illuminating  sentence,
coming  from  the  experience  acquired  at  the  centre  of
affairs,  has  often  supplied  the  missing  thought  unattainable
by  a  more  circumscribed  knowledge.
As  one  of  themselves,  I  say  of  my  colleagues  that  among
them  are  many  of  sturdy  independence  of  thought  ;  that,
one  and  all,  they  are  animated  in  their  conduct  by  the
strictest  rectitude  ;  and  that,  with  all  their  independence
and  with  their  varying  national  characteristics,  no  one  #
all  these  years  has  ever  impugned  their  entire  loyalty  to
their  chief  and  the  Government  they  serve,  or  the  absolute
impartiality  of  their  administration.
The  appointment  of  Robert  Hart  in  1861  as  Officiating
Inspector  General  was  communicated  to  the  Commissioner 5
in  charge  of  seven  ports  then  open  ;  his  substantive  ap'
pointment  in  1863  was  communicated  to  thirteen  ports  :
and  to-day  he  issues  circular  instructions  to  Commissioner 5
of  Customs  at  forty  ports,  to  six  Likin  Collectorates,  and
to  four  Postal  Commissioners.  The  revenue  collected  f#
the  Imperial  Government  by  the  Service  organised  by  hi#
increased  from  Tls.8,296,275  in  1865  to  Tls.37,o8o,457
in  1906.  The  foreign  trade  under  its  cognisance  increased