Soon after the arrival of the Embassy at Zhe-hol, the ceremonial of its prefentation to the Emperor being adjutted in the manner already related, the fourteenth day of September, three days before that of the Emperor's birth, was fixed for that purpose. We thall felect, from a very exact and detailed narrative, the most striking circumstances.

On that morning the Ambaffador and his fuite went before day-light, as was announced to be proper, to the garden of the palace of Zhe-hol. Soon after day-light, the found of feveral inftruments, and the confufed voices of men at a distance, announced the Emperor's approach. He foon appeared from behind a high and perpendicular mountain skirted with trees, as if from a facred grove, preceded by a number of perfons, bulied in proclaiming aloud bis virtues and bis power. He was feated in a fort of open chair, or triumphal car, borne by fixteen men, and was accompanied and followed by guards, high flag and umbrella-bearers, and mufic. He was clad in plain dark filk, with a velvet bonnet, in form not much unlike the bonnet of Scotch Highlanders; on the front of which was placed a large pearl, the only jewel or ornament that appeared. On his entrance into the tent, he immediately mounted the throne by the front steps. His prime minifter, and the two principal perions of his houfhold, went clofe to him, and poke to him on their knees. The Prefident of the Tribunal of Rites conducted the Ambaflador, attended by his page and Chinefe interpreter, and accompanied the Plenipotentiary near to the foot of the throne, on the left band file, according to the unge of China, the place of honour. The other Gentlemen of the Embally ftood at the great opening of the tent.

His Excellency was richly habited in an embroidered fuit of velvet, adorned with a diamond badge and itar of the Order of the Bath; and over the fuit a long muntle of the fame order. This drefs was in conformity to the Chinese ideas and manner-upon the fame principles. The Minilter Plenipotentiary, as an Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University of Oxford, wore the fcarlet gown of that degree. This was alio luitable in a government where degrees in learning lead to every kind of political fituation. The Ambafador, inttructed by the Prefident of the Tribunal of Rites, held the magnificent iquare box of gold, adorned with jewels, in which was in

closed his Majefty's letter to the Emperor, between both hands, lifted above his head; and thus, afcending the few fteps that led to the throne, and bending on one knee, prefented the box, with a fhort addrefs, to his Imperial Majesty; who, graciously receiving the fame with his own hands, placed it by his fide, and expreffed the fatisfaction he felt at this testimony of his Britannic Majesty's efteem and good-will. This mode of reception was confidered, by the Chinese Court, as particularly honourable and diftinguished.

His Imperial Majesty, after a little more converfation, gave, as a firit prefent to his Majesty of England, a gem, or precious tone, upwards of a foot long, intended to refemble a fceptre, and confidered as emblematic of profperity and peace.

During the ceremonies, the Emperor appeared perfectly unreferved, cheerful, and unaffected. His eyes were full and clear, and his countenance open. Being informed that the Amballador's page (Maiter Staunton), who was then in his thirteenth year, had alone made fome proficiency in the Chinese language, he delired to have the youth brought up to the throne, and to speak Chinele. What he faid, or his manner, was so pleasing to his Imperial Majetty, that he took from his girdle a purie for holding areca nut, and prefented it to him: This was deemed a high mark of personal favour. It was of plain yellow filk, with the figure of the five-clawed dragon, and fome Tartar characters worked into it.

On the ceremonies ufed upon this occafion, Sir. G. Staunton makes fome judicious remarks. He obferves, that there is a physical as well as a moral inequality in tbs homage paid to Eattern princes. They will be confcious of being liable to private treachery; and fufpicion has fuggefted precautions againit dangerous deigns. The projtrations, the knee ings, the bands uplifted above the head, render attacks lefs practicable.

During the day, the Emperor fent his European guetts, at the repaft in the tent, ieveral dishes from his own table; and prefented them with his own hands, a goblet of warm Chinese wine, not un like Madeira of an inferior quality. Being informed of the age of our king, he wifhed he might equal himfelf in years, which had already amounted to eightythree, and with as perfect health. The Emperor was indeed yet fo hale and vigorous, that he icarcely appeared to

F 2

have

have exifted as many years (fifty-feven) as be bad governed the Empire. When the festival was over, he defcended from his throne, and marched firm and erect, and without the least symptom of infirmity, to the open chair that was waiting for him.

The feventeenth of September was, as has already been obferved, the Emperor's Anniverfary. To this ceremony, as to the former, the Ambaffador and his fuite were called before the rifing of the Sun. They were introduced into an inner building, bearing the femblance of a temple. It was furnished with great inftruments of mufic, among which were fets of cylindrical bells, fufpended in a line from ornamented frames of wood, and gradually diminishing in fize from one extremity to the other; and alfo triangular pieces of metal arranged in the fime order as the bells. To the found of these inftruments a flow and folemn hymn was fung by the eunuchs, who had fuch a command over their voices, as to refemble the effect of the musical glafies at a distance. The performers were directed, in gliding from one tone to another, by the striking of a thrill and fonorous cymbol; and the whole had a very mufical and grand effect. At a particular fignal, nine times repeated, all the perfons prefent proftrated themfelves nine times, except the Ambaffador and his fuite, who made a profound obeifance. But the Emperor, whom it was meant to honour, continued, in imitation of the Deity, invisible the whole time.

For a few days afterwards, a variety of entertainments were exhibited in the prefence of the Emperor. Some of the contrivances in the fire-works were new to the English fpectators. Out of a large box, lifted up to a confiderable height, and the bottomfalling out as if it were by accident, came down a multitude of paper lantberns, folded flat, as they iffued from the box, but unfolding themselves by degrees. As each lanthern affumed a regular form, a light was fuddenly perceived of a beautitully coloured flame. This devolution and developement was feveral times repeated, with a difference of figure every time, as well as of the colours, with which the Chinese feemed to have the art of cloathing fire at pleasure. On each fide of the large box was a correfpond. ence of fmaller boxes, which opened in like manner, and let down a kind of net work of fire, which shone like burnished copper, and flabet like lightning, with every impulie of the wind. The whole

ended with a volcano, or eruption of artificial fire, in the grandeft ftyle.

At none of thefe amusements did any females appear. Only at the exhibition of a pantomime, to which the Embay were invited, there were latticed galleries for the ladies, who, without being feen, could difcern all that was palling on three open theatres, or ftages, one above another. They had not probably any view into the boxes; for the Emperor, in order to indulge their defire of feeing fome perfon of the Embally, directed one of the eunuchs to conduct the youth already mentioned (Sir G. Staunton's Son) out of the Ambaffador's box upon a platform within the ladies' view.

Inftead of human figures upon the ftage, the actors affumed the forms of other animate and inanimate productions of the land and fea. They filled the three feveral ftages, forming a kind of epitome of the world.

Among other talents, the Emperor of China has thofe of a poet. He prefented a few stanzas to the Ambassador for his Majefty, together with fome curious gems, which he particularly valued for having been eight centuries in his family, and which he gave as an earncit of perpetual friendship.

Chapter the Second treats of the return to Pekin, and of oblervations and occurrences there. A curious inftance is mentioned of the ingenuity ard dexterity of the Chinese workmen. Two of them took down the two magnificent glass luftres, fent as prefents to the Emperor, in order to place them in a more advantageous pofition. They feparated them piece by picce, and put them again together in a fhort time without difficulty or miftake, the whole confifting of many thoufand minute pieces, though they had never feen any thing of the kind before. Another Chinele cut a narrow flip from the edge of a curved plate of glais, in order to fupply the place of one belonging to the dome of the Plenitarium, which had been broken in the carriage. The English mechanics belonging to the Embafly had in vain attempted to cut the glass according to this curved line, with the affistance of a diamond. The Chinese did not fhew his method; but it was faid that he fucceeded by first drawing the point of a heated iron across the furface to be divided. The fkill of this artist was the more admirable, as there is no manufacture of glafs in the Empire, except at Canton, where, instead of using flint and barilla, and converting them by

the

the proper procefs into glass, the manufacturer only melts the broken pieces of that material, and forms it into new hipes.

Notwithstanding our Author's former afertion, that the Chinese are not fond of reading, he again tells us that the multiplication of the claffic works of the Chinele by printing is prodigious, and also that the lighter literature of the country gives no inconfiderable occupation to the prefs. The Orphan of China, which has appeared in an English drels, is no un favourable fpecimen of Chinese tragedy; and the Pleasing Hiftory, of which an English tranflation was pubiifhed feveral years ago, is an inftance of Chinese novelwriting that is interefting and fimple.

Gazettes are frequently published in Pekin, under the authority of Government. The various appointments throughout the Empire, the favours granted by the Emperor, bis remiffion of taxes to diftris fuffering by dearth, his recompenfe of extraordinary fervices, the embafies fent, and the tribute paid to him, form a confiderable part of the public news. The domeftic details of his houfe. hold, or of his private life, are feldom, if ever, mentioned. Singular events, inflances of longevity, fometimes the funishment of offences, committed by Mandarines, are there recorded.

But though the daily prints are not, as in England, the vehicles of political knowledge, and fometimes of fedition, yet more fecret means of mischief are faid to exist in China. A fect, it is reported, bas tor ages fubfifted in the country, whofe chief principles are founded upon an antipathy to monarchy; and who nourish hopes of at laft fubverting it. Their meetings are held in the utinoft fecrecy, and no man avows any know ledge of them; but a fort of inquifition i faid to be eftablished, in order to find them cut. They, who are fufpected of fuch fentiments, are cut off, or hunted out of fociety.

The qualification to be officers of the brutebold, and other attendants in the Imperial palaces, confits in that operation, which, in a few parts of Europe, is performed for meliorating the voice, and difqualifies for being a parent. But to be intrusted with the care of the ladies

of the court, or to be allowed an approach to their apartments, it is neceflary to be what, without reference to colour, the Turks are faid to have termed a black eunuch; which means, that all traces of fex fhould completely be eraied. The operations for this purpofe, however delicate in themfelves, are performed even upon Chinese of an adult age, with little peril in respect to life.

The Narrative of Eneas Anderson, though written by a perfon in a fubaltern capacity, and who could not therefore, as he modeftly acknowledges, be fuppofed to be in the fecret, as to the progrefs of the negotiation between the Embay and the Court of China, contains however many fhrewd gueffes on the hoftile dif pofition of the Prime Minitter towards the English. In the fubfequent publication of Sir G. Staunton, the bufinefs is more plainly and diftinctly stated, as might be expected, by a Member of the Cabinet. The Colao, for that is the name given to the first officer of state, feemed determined from the first that the European vifitors fhould not winter in China; and, without lofing fight for a moment of that cool politeness, which however flourishing a talent it may be deemed in Courts, feems to be pre-eminently vigorous at Pekin, informed his Lordship, indirectly indeed, but in a manner it was impoffible to evade, that his departure muft no longer be delayed.

Lord Macartney fubmitted, with as good a grace as he could, to fo peremptory, though civil a difmiffal, which, after all, perhaps, was rather to be attributed to general principles of policy, than to any particular ground of diflike; though the Colao's refufal of the Ambaffador's prefents might afford reafon for fuch a fufpicion. It was fome confolation for this difappointment, that the intercourfe with the Emperor, of which the fuppofed termination was the chief ground of the Ambaffador's regret, was in fact maintained afterwards more intimately, and through a more favourable channel than while the Embassy remained at Pekin. This was owing to the efpecial kindness and favour of the Mandarin who had the care of re-conducting the Embally to Chufan.

[To be continued.]

THE

HERE are few Authors, particu

whole works have been more jultly or more univerfally admired than thofe of LE SAGE. The vivacity of his charafters, the interefting nature of his incidents, the epigrammatic turn of his dialogues, the humour of his fcenes, and the fly eliptical vein of fatire by which he inculcates his moral, and endeavours to reform the follies of various orders in fociety, have fcarcely ever been equailed, and certainly have never been furpaffed. The Gil Bas, in particular, has railed a monument of deathlefs fame to his memory, and the merits of it, which are in every reader's knowledge, will most likely be handed down from age to age, to the remotelt periods of recording time. The work at present before us is faid to be the genuine offspring of this ingenious and entertaining writer; the laft effort of his expiring genius: and of the truth of thete obfervations the work itfelf bears intrinfic evidence. It poffeffes all the characteristic qualities of LE SAGE'S mind; and, as it was the laft he wrote, feems to have been intended as the platform of a chef d'œuvre, which, when fuifhed, might fairly contend for fuperiority with the Hero of Santillane. This is the first time that this too long neglected novel has wholly appeared in an English drefs, and it is truly obferved by the Tranflator in the Preface, that it does not confift, like most of the novels of the prefent day, of a feries of idle and unmeaning fictions, which ferve only to mislead the judgment, and corrupt the heart; but contains exact pertraits of a variety of real characters, moral, political, and literary; a ferics of lively and pleasant adventures; and many keen but ju cenfures upon the vices and follies of mankind." We might indeed, from the pleasure we have received in the perufal of it, have added many more commendatory initances of its merit; but we shall let the work fpeak for itself, by inferting the following extract, calculated to expofe thofe abufes of medicine, and that careleffnels and mifconduct of its empirical profeffers, which, as it appears in every part of the works of Moliere, was fo dangerously prevalent at this

period in France. Vanillo, the fprightly the prefent piece, being

from the fervice of the Viceroy of Sicily, is taken under the patronage of Dr. Potofchi, a celebrated nostrum monger, who, among other curious discoveries in pharmacy, invents a pomacca for all the ills attendant on old age and uglineis, by means of which he rejuvenates, among others, the Paronefs de Conca, the female favourite of the Viceroy, and thereby enables her to maintain the empire which her factiticus charms had gained over his heart. To this wonder-working Chemist and Pharmacopolift, Vanillo acts as a confidential affiftant, and is by degrees inftructed in all the fecrets of his art. "I had already," fays Vanillo," been intrufted to compound a variety of medi. cines, when two prefcriptions were tent to the fhop by Dr. Arifcader, a Navarrois Physician, who at that time pailed for a fecond Hippocrates in Palermo. There was not a Baron, a Count, or a Marquis, that would die contentedly hy any other hand. Thefe prefcriptions were calculated to produce very opposite effects; for the one of them was intended for a Counsellor, who had acquired a defluxion of the lungs by elaborate pleading; and the other for a Divine, who had contracted a viclent pleurify by running too precipitately after church preferment. Having carefully mixed the drugs and other articles, of which there refpective medicines were ordered to be compofed, I carried them to the houfes of the two patients; but by a most melancholy mittake, like a stupid fellow as I was, I accidentally delivered the potion which was intended for THE ADVOCATE to THE DIVINE; and that which was intended for THE DIVINE to THE ADVOCATE; and, ftill more unfortunately, I did not recollect that I had made this egregious blunder until the patients had drained their refpective phials to the last drop.

"Dexterous as I may be at concealing truth under a varnifh of falfehood, I could not excufe this grofs and dangerous act of carelefinefs even to myfelf; and being certain that both thefe unfortunate men muft foon unavoidably be, if they were not already, numbered among the dead,