by Dr. Martin, President of the Imperial Tungwen Col- lege, to Prince Kung and the other distinguished members of the Chinese Government ; and they wisely availed themselves of my presence to have their portraits taken at the Tsungli-yamen, or Chinese Foreign Office. Prince Kung, as most of my readers are aware, is a younger brother of the late Emperor Hien-fung. He holds several high appointments, military as well as civil, and in particular he is a member of the Supreme Council — a department of the State which most nearly resembles the Cabi- net in our own constitution. He has been for over a quarter of a century Chief Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chancellor of the Empire. He is, too, a man esteemed by all who know him, quick in apprehension, comparatively liberal in his views, and regarded by some as the head of that small party of politi- cians who favour progress in China.
The creation of the Tsungli-yamen, or Foreign Board, was one of the important results which followed the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin. Up to that time all foreign diplomatic correspondence had been carried on through the Colonial Office, where the great Powers were practically placed on a level with the Central Asian dependencies of the Empire. This yamen stands next to the Imperial College, where a staff of foreign professors is now employed in instructing Chinese students in European languages, literature and science. Accompanied by one of these professors, who kindly undertook to be my inter- preter, I found myself one morning entering a low narrow doorway through a dead wall. After making our way along a number of courts, studded with rockeries, flowers and ponds, and after passing down dingy corridors in dismal disrepair, we at length stood beneath the shade of an old tree, and in front of the picturesque, but purely Chinese-looking, audience-chamber.
