Though a representative of the most inscrutable of Governments, Mr. James Hart is not by any means inaccessible or sphinx-like in his demeanour. He is, on the contrary, an easy-going, comfortable Irishman, with a strong flavour of the Bohemian about him, and a racy communicative way of speaking, which may or may not hide a great deal. To look at him he is certainly the last man to accuse of Machiavellian tendencies, unless they can be deduced from the penetrating black eye which he turns on you in conversation nor does he give the idea of being weighted with the responsibilities of displomatising in two languages, in one of which, Chinese, he is a past master. I knew his brother, the great "I. G.," Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime Customs of China whom the Chinese Government delighted to honour, and whom it pleased once to give the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.