Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/49

 were heavy. The Chinese forces were routed by land and sea, and in April 1895 the veteran statesman Li-Hung-Chang concluded the treaty of Shimonoseki, by which the Liao-Tung Peninsula, the island of Formosa, and the Pescadores group were ceded to Japan, China agreeing further to pay an indemnity of 200 millions of taels. Popular excitement in China ran high during these events. The Chinese government provided the foreign legations with guards of native soldiers, who, though perfectly well behaved, did not inspire complete confidence as efficient protectors. The British admiral gave the British legation the additional safeguard of a party of marines. Almost immediately after the ratification of the treaty of Shimonoseki a fresh complication occurred. The French, German, and Russian governments presented to Japan a collective note, urging the restoration to China of the Liao-Tung Peninsula on the ground that its possession, with Port Arthur, by a foreign power would be a permanent menace to the Chinese capital. The course pursued by the British government was not calculated to earn the gratitude of either of the parties principally interested. They declined to join in the representation of the three European powers, but they did not conceal from Japan their opinion that she might do wisely to give way. Japan with much wisdom assented to the retrocession in consideration of an additional indemnity of 30 millions of taels. In recognition of O'Conor's arduous labours he received the honour of K.C.B. in May 1895. Meanwhile the signature of peace was followed by anti-foreign outbreaks in several provinces of China, in one of which, at Kucheng, British missionaries were massacred. The Chinese government, as usual, while ready to pay compensation and to execute a number of men arrested as having taken part in the riot, interposed every kind of obstacle to investigation of the real origin of the outbreaks and to the condign punishment of the officials who secretly instigated or connived at them. In the end, after exhausting all other arguments, O'Conor plainly intimated to the Tseng-li-Yamen that unless his demands were conceded within two days the British admiral would be compelled to resort to naval measures, and a decree was issued censuring and degrading the ex-viceroy of Szechuen. In Oct. 1895 O'Conor left China to become ambassador at St, Petersburg. In the following year he attended the coronation of the Emperor Nicholas II, who had succeeded to the throne in November 1894. He received the grand cross of St. Michael and St. George and was sworn a privy councillor in the same year. He was as popular at St. Petersburg as at his previous posts, but towards the close of his residence our relations with Russia were seriously complicated by the course taken by the Russian government in obtaining from China a lease of Port Arthur and the Liao-Tung Peninsula. The discussions, which at one time became somewhat acute, were carried on by O'Conor with his usual tact; but a disagreeable question arose between him and Count Muravieff, the Russian minister for foreign affairs, as to an assurance which the latter had given but subsequently withdrew that Port Arthur, as well as Talienwan, should be open to the commerce of all nations. This incident and the manner in which Count Muravieff endeavoured to explain it made it on the whole fortunate that in July 1898 an opportunity offered for O'Conor's transference to Constantinople. He had been promoted G.C.B. in 1897. O'Conor's last ten years of life, which were passed in Constantinople, were very laborious. He worked under great difficulties for the policy of administrative reform, which was strenuously pressed whenever possible by the British government. He succeeded, however, in winning to a considerable extent the personal goodwill and confidence of the Sultan and of the ministers with whom he had to deal, and by persistent efforts cleared off a large number of long outstanding claims and subordinate questions which had been a permanent burden to his predecessors. Among more important questions which he succeeded in bringing to a settlement were those of the Turco-Egyptian boundary in the Sinai Peninsula, and of the British frontier in the hinterland of Aden. His health had never been strong since his residence in China, and in 1907 he came to England for advice, and underwent a serious operation. The strain of work on his return overtaxed his strength, and he died at his post on 19 March 1908. He was buried with every mark of affection and respect in the cemetery at Haidar Pasha, where a monument erected by his widow bears with the date the inscription 'Nicolaus Rodericus O'Conor, Britanniæ Regis apud Ottomanorum Imperatorem Legatus, pie obiit.' O'Conor succeeded in May 1897, on the death of his surviving elder brother, Patrick Hugh, to the family estate of Dundermott. He married on 13 April