gracious deliverance, a speedy and divinely beneficial rain, and to save the people's lives, and in some degree redeem my iniquities. Alas, imperial Heaven! observe these things. Alas, imperial Heaven! be gracious. I am grieved, alarmed, and frightened.

"This memorial is presented reverently, 12th year of Taou-kwang, 28th day, 6th month"(July 25, 1832.)

or

These edicts relative to the emperor's conduct are not confined to seasons of calamity. When the country is in a flourishing state he issues some of a different character, in which he praises himself, and thanks Heaven that he is so perfect a man as to ensure such blessings. And it is worthy of remark, that this has been the policy of all Chinese emperors, whether natives foreigners. However different their manners may have been before, so soon as they have seated themselves in the "divine utensil," or the throne, they set themselves up as the mediators between Heaven and their subjects. Even the rude and fierce Mantchoo Tartar made no scruples in adopting for his title "The Son of Heaven," when the fortunes of war placed the sceptre of the empire in his hands. Policy taught him to rule as though he was a genuine descendant of "the black-haired race."

As might be reasonably supposed of so exalted a mortal, the installation of a Chinese emperor is a very imposing ceremony. An eye-witness of that of Kang-he thus describes the ceremony:"All the mandarins were ranged on both sides, dressed in silk, flowered with gold in the form of roses. There were fifty men who held great

umbrellas of gold brocade and silk, with their staves gilt, divided into two rows. On the side of them were fifty other officers, having large fans of silk, embroidered with gold; and near these were twenty-eight large standards, embroidered with golden stars, and the figures of the moon in all its changes. In order to represent its twenty-eight mansions in the heavens, and its different conjunctions and oppositions with the sun, as they appear in the intersection of the circles, which the astronomers call nodes; these things were delineated with considerable accuracy. A hundred standards followed these, and the rest of the mandarins carried maces, axes, hammers, and other instruments of war or court ceremony, with heads of strange monsters and other animals." Such is the paraphernalia of the occasion when a mortal is self-constituted "The Son of Heaven!"

Concerning the private life of the emperor of China, scarcely anything is known among Europeans. He appears very little in public, regarding it the safest policy to withdraw from the gaze of his subjects, in order to inspire them with the greatest awe. Frequent intercourse with them is deemed unsafe, as it would greatly diminish their reverence for his "sacred person." As for the charms which constitute the pleasures of civilized life, they are little known to such a despotic monarch. His time, for the most part, is spent in the harem, among women and eunuchs, where a veil is gathered over his proceedings which cannot be drawn aside. The imperial palace is forbidden ground to all except those of his own household, unless when he gives an

audience. As it is on these occasions may be seen from the following description, given by some Roman Catholic missionaries :

"The palace, which shines with carving, varnish, gilding, and painting, stands upon a kind of platform, paved with large square pieces of a beautiful green marble, polished like glass, and laid so close together, that one cannot distinguish the joinings. At the entrance of the great hall there is a door, which opens into a large square room, paved with marble, where the emperor was sitting on an estrade, after the Tartar fashion. The beams of the roof were supported by wooden columns, varnished with red, and fixed in such a manner in the wall that they were even with its surface. We performed the usual ceremonies; that is, we ranged ourselves in a line facing the emperor, and fell on our knees three times, bowing every time to the ground. In receiving these marks of our respect, he did us great favour; for when the mandarins of the six sovereign courts come every fifth day, on the first day of the year, and on the emperor's birth-day, to perform this ceremony, he is scarcely ever present; he is even at some distance from the palace when they pay him this homage. After we had performed this duty, we approached his person, kneeling on one side, and in a line. He asked us our names, ages, and country, and entertained us with a sweetness and affability which would be surprising in any prince, but was much more so in the emperor of China."

The table of a Chinese emperor is supplied with but few dainties. The wine he drinks is made from sour mare's milk, and would be very

unpalatable to those accustomed to the juice of the grape. Sometimes he gives a public repast at his palace, to which a certain class of persons are invited, as the aged, whom the emperor himself waits upon; and the literati, who partake of his bounties under the sound of music.

The emperor of China participates in various diversions, the most remarkable of which is hunting, in the season of autumn. It more resembles a campaign than a hunt, on account of the large number of soldiers who follow in his train. The custom was, indeed, introduced in order to inure the soldiers to fatigue, and to maintain in them a spirit worthy of the sons of the desert. But the means could hardly have answered the end, for the prey was easily taken at all times, it being the custom to surround, and not pursue it in a straight line, or to whatever course fear might prompt it to take. At present the custom seems to be falling into disuse, owing, perhaps, to the fact, that the death of Kea-king, the father of the present monarch, was caused by an accident he met with in hunting on the mountain of Kwan-jin.

In former days, as in the reign of Kang-he, it was customary for the emperor to make extensive tours in the provinces, in order to take cognizance of the state of the country. Now he is seldom heard of beyond Pekin and Jehol. When he does leave the palace, he is carried in a sedan-chair, and is preceded by the princes and nobility on horseback; the prime ministers and presidents of the six boards, hereafter described, marching before him. These are followed by three companies of twenty men each, bearing yellow flags,

embroidered with dragons, umbrellas of the same

colour, and fans. After these come the lifeguards, clothed in yellow, wearing a kind of helmet, and armed with a javelin or halberd, gilt and adorned with the figure of the sun, or moon, or of some animal. The emperor is carried by twelve men in yellow, and is surrounded with musicians.

On the occasion of the pilgrimage to the imperial tombs, the emperor of China is surrounded with great pomp. All his grandees accompany him, and his expedition more resembles the march of an army going out to battle than a procession of pilgrims. When he has arrived at the land of his birth, he, with his grandees, pay their devotion at But here the idea

the graves of his ancestors. of a pilgrimage ends. Regardless of the lesson which a sight of the tomb is calculated to impart, the emperor divests himself of all care, and