EFFORT TO FIND A POSITION
Having at last succeeded in mastering the spoken language sufficiently
to speak it quite fluently, I at once set to work to find a position in
which I could not only support myself and mother, but also form a plan
for working out my ideas of reform in China.
Doctor Peter Parker, who had been a medical missionary under the
American Board for many years in Canton, was at that time made United
States Commissioner as a temporary expedient, to take the place of an
accredited minister plenipotentiary--a diplomatic appointment not yet
come into existence, because the question of a foreign minister resident
in Peking was still under negotiation, and had not been fully settled as
a permanent diplomatic arrangement between the Peking government and the
Treaty Powers. Dr. Parker was given the appointment of commissioner on
account of his long residence in China and his ability to speak the
Chinese language, but not on account of any special training as a
diplomat, nor for legal knowledge. It was through Mr. M. N. Hitchcock,
an American merchant of the firm of Messrs. King & Co., and a mutual
friend of Dr. Parker and myself, that I became the Doctor’s private
secretary. I knew Dr. Parker while I was at Mrs. Gutzlaff’s School, and
he doubtless knew I had recently graduated from Yale, which was his Alma
Mater also. His headquarters were in Canton, but he spent his summers in
Macao. I was with him only three months. My salary was $15 a month (not
large enough to spoil me at any rate). He had very little for me to do,
but I thought that by being identified with him, I might possibly come
in contact with Chinese officials. However, this was far from being the
case. Seeing that I could neither learn anything from him, nor enlarge
my acquaintance with the Chinese officials, I gave up my position as his
secretary and went over to Hong Kong to try to study law. Through my old
friend, Andrew Shortrede, who generously extended to me the hospitality
of his house, I succeeded in securing the position of the
interpretership in the Hong Kong Supreme Court. The situation paid me
$75 a month. Having this to fall back upon, I felt encouraged to go
ahead in my effort to study law. Accordingly, I was advised to
apprentice myself to an attorney or solicitor-at-law. In the English
court of practice, it seems that there are two distinct classes of
lawyers--attorneys or solicitors, and barristers. The first prepares in
writing all evidences, facts, and proofs of a case, hands them to the
barrister or counsel, who argues the case in court according to law.
I apprenticed myself to an attorney, who was recommended to me by my old
patron and friend, Shortrede. I was not aware that by going into the
British Colony in Hong Kong to become an attorney, I was stepping on the
toes of the British legal fraternity, nor that by apprenticing myself to
an attorney instead of to the new attorney-general of the Colony, who,
without my knowledge, wanted me himself, I had committed another
mistake, which eventually necessitated my leaving Hong Kong altogether.
First of all, all the attorneys banded themselves together against me,
because, as they openly stated in all the local papers except the “China
Mail,” if I were allowed to practice my profession, they might as well
pack up and go back to England, for as I had a complete knowledge of
both English and Chinese I would eventually monopolize all the Chinese
legal business. So they made it too hot for me to continue in my
studies.
In the next place, I was not aware that the attorney-general wanted me
to apprentice myself to him, for he did all he could in his capacity as
attorney-general of the Colony to use his influence to open the way for
me to become an attorney, by draughting a special colonial ordinance to
admit Chinese to practice in the Hong Kong Colony as soon as I could
pass my examinations. This ordinance was sent to the British government
to be sanctioned by Parliament before it became valid and a colonial
law. It was sanctioned and thus became a colonial ordinance.
In the meanwhile, Anstey, the attorney-general, found out that I had
already apprenticed myself to Parson, the attorney. From that time forth
I had no peace. I was between two fires--the batteries operated by the
attorneys opened on me with redoubled energy, and the new battery,
operated by the attorney-general, opened its fire. He found fault with
my interpreting, which he had never done previously. Mr. Parson saw how
things stood. He himself was also under a hot fire from both sides. So
in order to save himself, he told me plainly and candidly that he had to
give me up and made the article of apprenticeship between us null and
void. I, on my part, had to give up my position as interpreter in the
Supreme Court. Parson, himself, not long after I had abandoned my
apprenticeship and my position as interpreter, for reasons satisfactory
to himself, gave up his business in Hong Kong and returned to England.
So master and pupil left their posts at pretty nearly the same time.
A retrospective view of my short experience in Hong Kong convinced me
that it was after all the best thing that I did not succeed in becoming
a lawyer in Hong Kong, as the theatre of action there would have been
too restricted and circumscribed. I could not have come in touch with
the leading minds of China, had I been bound up in that rocky and barren
Colony. Doubtless I might have made a fortune if I had succeeded in my
legal profession, but as circumstances forced me to leave the Colony, my
mind was directed northward to Shanghai, and in August, 1856, I left
Hong Kong in the tea clipper, “Florence,” under Captain Dumaresque, of
Boston. He was altogether a different type of man from the captain of
the “Eureka” which brought me out in 1855. He was kind, intelligent and
gentlemanly. When he found out who I was, he offered me a free passage
from Hong Kong to Shanghai. He was, in fact, the sole owner of the
vessel, which was named after his daughter, Florence. The passage was a
short one--lasting only seven days--but before it was over, we became
great friends.
Not long after my arrival in Shanghai, I found a situation in the
Imperial Customs Translating Department, at a salary of Tls. 75 a month,
equivalent to $100 Mexican. For want of a Chinese silver currency the
Mexican dollar was adopted. This was one point better than the
interpretership in the Hong Kong Supreme Court. The duties were not
arduous and trying. In fact, they were too simple and easy to suit my
taste and ambition. I had plenty of time to read. Before three months of
trial in my new situation, I found that things were not as they should
be, and if I wished to keep a clean and clear record and an untarnished
character, I could not remain long in the service. Between the
interpreters who had been in the service many years and the Chinese
shippers there existed a regular system of graft. After learning this,
and not wishing to be implicated with the others in the division of the
spoils in any way or shape, I made up my mind to resign. So one day I
called upon the Chief Commissioner of Customs, ostensibly to find out
what my future prospects were in connection with the Customs
Service--whether or not there were any prospects of my being promoted to
the position of a commissioner. I was told that no such prospects were
held out to me or to any other Chinese interpreter. I, therefore, at
once decided to throw up my position. So I sent in my resignation, which
was at first not accepted. A few days after my first interview, Lay, the
chief commissioner, strenuously tried to persuade me to change my mind,
and offered as an inducement to raise my salary to Tls. 200 a month,
evidently thinking that I was only bluffing in order to get higher
wages. It did not occur to him that there was at least one Chinaman who
valued a clean reputation and an honest character more than money; that
being an educated man, I saw no reason why I should not be given the
same chances to rise in the service of the Chinese government as an
Englishman, nor why my individuality should not be recognized and
respected in every walk of life. He little thought that I had
aspirations even higher than his, and that I did not care to associate
myself with a pack of Custom-house interpreters and inspectors, who were
known to take bribes; that a man who expects others to respect him, must
first respect himself. Such were my promptings. I did not state the real
cause of my quitting the service, but at the end of four months’ trial I
left the service in order to try my fortune in new fields more
congenial.
My friends at the time looked upon me as a crank in throwing up a
position yielding me Tls. 200 a month for something uncertain and
untried. This in their estimation was the height of folly. They little
realized what I was driving at. I had a clean record and I meant to keep
it clean. I was perfectly aware that in less than a year since my return
to China, I had made three shifts. I myself began to think I was too
mercurial to accomplish anything substantial, or that I was too dreamy
to be practical or too proud to succeed in life. But in a strenuous life
one needs to be a dreamer in order to accomplish possibilities. We are
not called into being simply to drudge for an animal existence. I had
had to work hard for my education, and I felt that I ought to make the
most of what little I had, not so much to benefit myself individually
as to make it a blessing common to my race. By these shifts and changes
I was only trying to find my true bearing, and how I could make myself a
blessing to China.