AN OPPORTUNITY SEIZED
Yung Wing was at this time under official
control of the last named, who, on being
summoned to Tientsin, sent him word, for he was
at a distance from him, to join the Commission
at Tientsin as soon as possible, for his services
would be needed there. Wing, though hastening,
arrived late on the scene and found the
business concluded. But on receiving an account
of the difficulties that had attended its transaction,
and observing that the commissioners were
conscious of their disadvantage in it, he perceived
an auspicious occasion for making a stroke in
behalf of his scheme, and he made the most of it.
He restated his arguments, enforcing them by
the illustration of the case at hand, and insisted
with the utmost earnestness that there ought to
be no delay. And this time he prevailed. The
three friends of his idea being together and
countenancing one another, then and there agreed
that they would at once take action to have the
thing he proposed done, and would cast their
united influence with the Government in its
favor. They kept their agreement. They set
their names to a memorial recommending the
education of a corps of young men abroad for
