赫德与日意格

Robert Hart and Prosper Giquel

赫德曾赞扬日意格,说他有事业心、勤奋、聪明、能干。但一个是英国人,一个是法国人,英法在华利益是有矛盾的。中国创办海军,采购军舰,两人争作掮客,也发生了矛盾。赫德还担心日意格出任河内海关总税务司、法国驻华公使,与自己抗衡。于是,又多次对日意格进行了尖锐批评。这都与晚清史息息相关,很值得研究。

Robert Hart praised Prosper Giquel as enterprising, diligent, brilliant and capable. However, one of them was British and the other French, and England and France were two countries with conflicting interests. Both of them helped China to found navy forces and strived to be broker to buy warships for China. They gradually ran into conflict with each other. Hart worried that Giquel would be the French minister of China＇s Imperial Maritime Custom Service and contend against himself. Therefore, Hart criticized Giquel sharply for many times. They were both closely linked with the history of the late Qing Dynasty and worthy of study.