respect, he ordered a portrait of the first President to be painted, and it was presented on behalf of the government of the United States by Mr. Burlingame in an appropriate address to Sen Ki-yu, in the presence of his colleagues and a distinguished company of Chinese statesmen and scholars.
Upon his appointment to the Tsung-li Yamen, he was likewise made the managing director of the Tung Wen Kwan, or Imperial College, which had been established for the education in European languages and learning of a select number of Chinese youths taken from the families of the nobility and higher officials. The presidency of this college had been conferred upon Dr. W. A. P. Martin, the American Chinese scholar, who was assisted by a corps of European professors. Another evidence, reported by Minister Burlingame, of the spirit of progress of the government and its acceptance of American ideas, was the publication by the Chinese Foreign Office and distribution to the officials of the empire of a Chinese version of Wheaton's treatise on international law, translated by Dr. Martin.
During the term of Mr. Burlingame's mission no questions of serious difficulty arose between the United States and China, thanks to the intelligent policy of the Tsung-li Yamen and to the tact and friendly disposition of the American minister. After a residence in Peking of six years, Mr. Burlingame decided to resign and return to the United States to reënter political life.[1]
- ↑ As to Burlingame's appointment as minister, see MSS. dispatches, Department of State, 1861, Austria. As to services in China, U. S.
