Parker found it necessary to ask for a leave of absence, and in May, 1855, he made a visit to the United States. His intercourse with the authorities at Washington so favorably impressed them with his intimate acquaintance with Chinese affairs and with his ability, that, discarding the prevailing rule of party preferment, he was nominated full commissioner to China.
He returned to his post through Europe, and held interviews in London and in Paris with the British and French ministers for foreign affairs, in which there was a free exchange of views as to the policy to be pursued in China by the three maritime powers, and an informal agreement reached that there should be cooperation and harmony of action. Full reports of these interviews were sent by him to the Secretary of State, by whom his action was commended.
On his arrival at Canton in January, 1856, Dr. Parker notified Yeh of his appointment as commissioner and that he desired a personal interview to deliver for transmission a letter from the President to the emperor. To this application Yeh returned his stereotyped reply that he was then too busy to grant the interview. After conferring with his British and French colleagues and determining upon uniform action for a revision of the treaties, he again asked Yeh for an interview, and being again refused, the amiable and usually even-tempered minister could restrain his indignation no longer. He addressed Yeh a communication reviewing the latter' s conduct towards his predecessors, who had in vain sought for interviews on important business, and stated "that so sure as there is a sun in
