As soon as the new department was well on its feet Wade, who had no mind to become a Chinese official, resigned, and became Chinese Secretary under Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong. He was succeeded as Inspector-General by Mr. H. N. Lay, a very able man, the originator of the Lay-Osborn fleet which was commanded by Captain, afterwards Admiral, Sherard Osborn in 1863, a scheme which broke down owing to the faithlessness of the Chinese Government. Lay, clever as he was, had the misfortune to be what the French call a _mauvais coucheur_ in affairs, and his demands upon the Chinese were rather more peremptory and dictatorial than they were prepared to admit; the result was a quarrel and Hart was appointed in his place. There were, therefore, two Inspectors-General before Hart. Nobody denies the powers of the latter as an organizer—least of all did Sir Thomas Wade question them; on the contrary he was, perhaps, Sir Robert Hart’s greatest admirer, and far too generous even to hint at the fact that the service was his own child. I did not share his admiration of his successor and we had many arguments upon the subject. Had Wade, who was loyalty itself, lived to see the Boxer riots and read the two articles in an English magazine in which, when the trouble was over, Hart professed that the Boxer rising was a patriotic endeavour, and practically advised the Boxers to begin over again with the proviso that they should have a care to be better equipped and prepared, I think that he would have come round to my opinion.