Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/880

This page needs to be proofread.

PAEKES.

863

l>eing appointed the First Keeper, under tlie new arrangement. He was nominated a Companion of the Bath (civil division) in Oct., 1871. He is Vice-President of the Oxford Architectural Society, a member of the Society of Antiquaries of Nor- mandy, and of La Society Fran- 9aise pour la Conservation des Mo- numents, and Vice-President of the British and American Archaeologi- cal Society of Eome.

PABKES, Sib Habby Smith, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., is son of Harry Parkes, Esq., of Birchill's HaU, Staffordshire, where he was born in 1828. He was educated at the City of London school. He entered the civil service of the Crown in 1852, being attached to the suite of Sir Henry Pottinger in China ; and he served in various consulates until 1854, when he was nominated Consul at Amoy . He accompanied Sir John Bowring to Siam as Secretary, and came to England with the Siamese Treaty in 1865, returning with rati- fications the following year. From 1856 to 1858 he acted as Consul at Canton, and he was commissioner at Canton during the allied occupation, 1858^1, being created a Companion of the Bath (1859) in recognition of his services. He served as joint Chinese Secretary to the Earl of Elgin in the expedition of 1860, and while engaged in negotiations under a flag of truce he was imprisoned and inhumanly treated by the Chinese. In 1862 he was appointed Consul at Shanghae, and promoted to the rank of K.C.B. In 1865 he wasnominated Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister- Plenipotentiary and Consul-General in Japan. In 1872 he came to Eng- land, 'but at the commencement of the following year he returned to Japan, being engaged to do his best to allay the difficulties which beset missionary work in that country, and being also charged with the negotiation of treaties between Japan and no fewer than thirteen European nations. He was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order

of SS. Michael and George in 1881; and in July 1883 he was appointed Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister- Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of China, and Chief Superintendent of British Trade in Chma.

PABKES, The Hon. Sib Hknby, K.C.M.G., is the son of Thomas Parkes, a Warwickshire farmer, and was born at Stoneleigh, in that county, in 1815. He spent some years of his early life in South Wales, and was afterwards appren- ticed to a mechanical trade in Bir- mingham, where he married. In 1839 he emigrated to Sydney, in Australia, and appears to have en- gaged in the ordinary pursuits of Uibour in that colony. We find him in 1848 taking an active part in the election of Mr. Robert Lowe (now Viscount Sherbrooke), as member of the local Legislature for the city of Sydney, and soon afterwards he established the Em- pire, a daily newspaper, which he conducted for seven years. In 1854 Mr. Parkes was elected to the Legislative Council for Sydney, and he still sits for the mel^poHs in the Parliament of New South Wales. He accepted from the Go- vernment in 1861 the appointment of Commissioner for Emigration in England, and was in this country till the end of 1862. In January, 1866, he took office as Colonial Sec- retary, and was the minister who passed the Public Schools Act of that year, which has been often spoken of as an admirable measure of popu- lar education. Mr. Parkes was Pre- sident of the Council of Education from January, 1867, until October, 1870. In May, 1872, he was en- trusted by the Governor with the formation of a ministry, and he continued to hold office as Premier until February, 1875. Mr. Parkes received, in 1874, the gold medal of the Cobden Club for Ws services in Australia to the cause of free trade during his administration. In March, 1877, he was commissioned by the Governor of New South