Under the head of "DiplomaticSketches," Vanity Fair has the following notice of this gentleman Sir Harry Parkes began the public service at the unusually early age of fifteen, h Henry Pottinger's mission to China in the year 1842. Being in China, he naturally acquired the dialect of the Chinese province in which ho resided, and in 1845. was employed as interpreter at Fonchom, and in the following year at Shanghai. In 185) ho was sent on a mission to Formosa, and in 1854 was appointed Consul at Amoy. He accompanied Sir Tohn Bowring on his diplomatic mi Siam, and brought Home to Eng ratification the treaty with that country. In 1858 he was appointed to the important post of Consul at Shanghai, was likewise in the same year Britis Commissioner of the Allied Commission at Canton. Together with Mr. (now Sir Thomas) Wade, he was joint secretary tothe Earl of Elgin's Special Embassy in China, and was employed prominently on various occasions during the important operations Mich took place on the Peiho in the ear 1860, He accompanied Admiral Sir james Hope in his advance upon Tientsin, making the necessary arrangements for the reception and accommodation of the allied troops at that place. When under a flag of truce ho was, contrary to all the usages of civilised nations, taken prisoner by the Chinese at Tungchow, and was only released after three weeks of the most rigorous confinement—instant death being held before his eyes at every moment. Ho accompanied Admiral Hope up the Yangtsze Kiang in 1861; was made a K.0.B. in 1862; and was, in 1865, appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotenflary in Japan, Such is a brief outline of the official record of Sir Henry Parkes's eventful and stirring career, in commenting on the different portions of which one should be careful to separate the boy from the man, Beginning his official Iie at an age when others are at school, it is not surprising if Sir Harry Parkes fell into some youthful errors which his own more mature judgment might not altogether prove. Although of good judgment, just, and amiable, he is of a somewhat hasty (we do not mean violent, but impetuous and unreflective) temper, which, as a youth, precipitated him into hasty measures with the Chinese authorities in the matter of the lorcha Arrow—measures which, being approved by Lord Palmerston, led to such high-handed measures at Hongkong and Canton. However, all these proceedings certainly brought out the fact that Consul Parkes was aman of remarkable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.