of walls. Beyond the inner and arcane enclosure is the imperial city, which is enclosed by a high wall topped with tiles of the imperial yellow colour; and outside that again is the Tartar city, which forms the northern part of the capital. Strict guard is kept day and night at the gates of the Forbidden City, and severe penalties are inflicted on all unauthorized persons who may dare to enter its portals. One of the highest distinctions which can be conferred on officials whom the emperor delights to honour, is the right to ride on horseback within these sacred precincts. Only on rare occasions, and those almost exclusively occasions of ceremony, does the emperor pass out of the palace grounds. These no doubt present a microcosm of the empire. There are lakes, mountains, parks, and gardens in which the imperial prisoner can amuse himself, with the boats which ply on the artificial water, or by joining mimic hunts in miniature forests; but it is probable that there is not one of the millions of China who has not a more practical knowledge of the empire than he who rules it. Theoretically he is supposed to spend his days and nights in the affairs of state. The gates of the Forbidden City are opened at midnight, and the halls of audience at 2 a.m. Before daylight his cabinet ministers arrive and are received at veritable levees, and all the state sacrifices and functions are over by 10 o'clock. Even the court amusements are held before the dew is off the grass. The following programme, taken from the Peking Gazette, describes a morning's work at Court:

'To-morrow, after business, about six o'clock a.m., the emperor will pass through the Hwa-Yuen

and Shinwu gates to the Takaotien temple to offer sacrifice. Afterwards His Majesty will pass through the Yung-suy-tsiang gate, and, entering the King-shansi gate, will proceed to the Showhwang temple to worship. His Majesty will then pass through the Pehshang gate from the Sishan road, and, entering the Shinwu gate, will return to the palace to breakfast. His Majesty will then

hold an audience, and at seven o'clock will ascend to the K'ientsing Palace to receive congratulations on his birthday. At eight o'clock he will take his seat to witness the theatrical performance."

Fancy Irving and Ellen Terry going down to Windsor to perform at so deadening a time as eight o'clock a.m.! And if wrestlers and conjurers are summoned into the Imperial presence, they must be ready at an equally uncongenial hour to show their skill.

But such relaxations are the glints of sunlight which brighten the sombre life of the solitary man. The present sovereign is twenty-three years old, or, according to our reckoning, twenty-two years. He, or more accurately his advisers, announced his assumption of the imperial purple in 1875, when he was quite an infant, in the following edict :

'Whereas, on the fifth day of the moon" (Jan. 12, 1875), "at the yeo hour" (5-7 p.m.), "His Majesty the Emperor departed this life, ascending upon the Dragon to be a guest on high, the benign mandate of the Empress Dowager and Empress Mother was by us reverently received, commanding us to enter upon the inheritance of the great succession. Prostrate upon the earth we bewailed our grief to Heaven, vainly stretching out our hands

in lamentation. For thirteen years, as we humbly reflected, His Majesty now departed reigned under the canopy of Heaven. In reverent observance of the ancestral precepts, he made the counsels prompted by maternal love his guide, applying himself with awestruck zeal to the toilsome performance of his duty. The welfare of the

people and the policy of the state were ever present in his inmost thoughts. . . . Not in words can we give expression to the sadness which pierces our hearts and shows itself in tears of blood."

The Peking Gazette bears testimony to the desire which was felt by the emperor's tutors to rear the tender thought aright. And in that journal the following memorial on this subject was published with approval. "His Majesty, being still of tender age, it is beyond question expedient that effectual training in the right path be studied. All those who surround His Majesty, and are in near employment about his person, should be without exception of tried capacity and solid character. No youthful and thoughtless person should be suffered to be in attendance." From time to time the outer world was informed of the progress which this tenderly guarded youth was making in his studies. At last the time came-in 1889-for him to assume the reins of power hitherto held by the dowager empresses, and to take to himself a consort. The question of choosing a wife for the imperial recluse was a more serious matter to arrange than the transfer of power. It was necessary that the lady should be of the same nationality as himself-a Manchu-and that she should satisfy the requirements of the dowager empresses as to looks and

appearance. Levees of aspirants to the honour were held by the dowagers, and a lady having been chosen, the personage most interested in the event was made aware of the selection. According to custom, and possibly to provide against any disappointment which the appearance of the bride might produce in the imperial breast, two young ladies were also chosen to accompany the empress as secondary wives. This trio forms the nucleus of the royal household. As time goes on their number will probably be added to, and, if the precedent set by some emperors be followed, the supplementary ladies will be counted by tens and fifties. As is natural in the case of any matter affecting so exalted a personage as the Son of Heaven, the ceremonies connected with his marriage are marked by all the dignity and splendour which are peculiar to Oriental states. Unlike his subjects, even of the highest rank, who are bound as a preliminary to pay court to the parents of their future brides, the emperor finds it sufficient to issue an edict announcing his intention to marry the lady on whom his choice may have fallen, and she, trembling with the weight of the honour, blushingly obeys the command. Unlike his subjects, also, the emperor is by law entitled to wives of three ranks. The first consists of the empress, who is alone in her dignity except when, as has happened, on some rare occasions, two princesses have shared the imperial throne. The second rank is unlimited as to number; and it is from these ladies that, in case of the death of the empress, the emperor commonly choses her successor. The third rank is filled up as the taste of the emperor may direct, and it is

rarely that the ladies of this grade ever succeed to the lofty dignity of the throne.

To the wedding of the empress alone are reserved the courtly ceremonials which grace the imperial marriage. These ceremonies are ten in number. First comes an edict announcing the intended marriage. The Board of Ceremonies next proclaims the fact throughout the empire, and having consulted the imperial astronomers as to the choice of a fortunate day for sending the customary presents to the bride elect, prepares for the occasion ten horses with accoutrements, ten cuirasses, a hundred pieces of silk, and two hundred pieces of nanking. To the Board of Rites belongs the duty of preparing a golden tablet and a golden seal on which the scholars of the Hanlin College inscribe the necessary decrees relating to the marriage. Armed with these imperial pledges a President of the Board invites the imperial order for the presentation of the gifts. When this has been received, the officials, at early dawn on the day appointed, place a table in the hall of "Great Harmony" for the reception of the imperial seal, while others set out a pavilion ornamented with dragons, in which the cuirasses, the silks, and the cloths are reverently deposited. When the assembly is complete, the master of ceremonies orders every one to his allotted place, and exhorts all to assume a grave and decorous attitude. In the hearing of this attentive gathering a commissioner, after bowing the knee, reads aloud the imperial mandate, which runs as follows:"The august ruler has, in accordance with the wishes of the revered dowager empress, promised