toe that the late viceroy o f Canton, who was no Friend to the
Englilh, had arrived, and that he feared all was not right. That
the Tartar legate had been degraded from his rank for deceiving
the Emperor, and particularly for not paying his perfonal re-
fpeCts to the Embaflador on board his ihip when in Tien-Jing
roads. That the peacock’s feather, which he wore in his cap
as a mark o f his mailer’s favour, was exchanged for a crow’s
tail, the fign o f great difgrace, and that the confideration o f
his age and his family had alone faved him from baniihment.
T he Emperor, it ieems, having heard that the Embaffador had
his picture in his cabin on board the Lion, afked the legate
whether it was like him, upon which it came out that he had
never been near the Lion, as his orders directed him.
On the 17th, being the Emperor’s birth-day, all the princes
and officers about the palace affembled in their robes o f cere-
toony, to make their obeifance to the throne in the great
hall o f audience. On this occafion were placed on the floor
before tl\e throne, on three fmall tripods, a cup o f tea, o f oil,
and o f rice, perhaps as an acknowledgment o f the Emperor being
the proprietary o f the foil, o f which thefe are three material
products. The old eunuch told me that I might remain in
the hall during the ceremony, i f I would confent to perform it
with them, and offered to inftruCt me in it. He faid that all
the officers o f government, in every part o f the empire, made
their proftrations to the name o f the Emperor infcribed on yel- -
low filk on that day.
Tw o
T w o days after this, on going as ufual in the morningto the hall
o f audience, I found the doors fhut and the old eunuch, who kept
the keys, walking about in fo fullen a mood that I could not get
from him afrngle word. Different groupes o f officers were affembled
in the court-yard, all looking as i f fomething very dreadful
either had occurred, or was about to happen. Nobody would
fpeak to me, nor could I get the leaft explanation o f this extraordinary
conduCt, till at length our friend Deodato appeared with,
a countenance no lefs woeful than thole o f the officers o f government,
and the old eunuch. I aiked him what was the matter?:
His anfwer was, W e are all loft, ruined, and undone! He
then informed me that intelligence had arrived from Gehol,,
ftating, that Lord Macartney had refufed to comply with the:
ceremony o f proftrating himfelf, like the Embafladors o f tributary
princes, nine times before the Emperor, unlefs one o f
equal rank with himfelf ihould go through the fame ceremony
before the portrait o f his Britannic Majefty : that rather than
do this they had accepted his offer to perform the fame ceremony
o f refpeCt to the Emperor as to his own fovereign.
That although little was thought o f this affair at Gehol, the
great’ officers o f ftate in die tribunal or department o f ceremonies
in Pekin, were mortified, and perplexed; and alarmed ; and
that, in ihort, it was impoilible to fay what might be the coufo-
quence of an event unprecedented in the. annals o f the empire.
That theEmperor, when he began to think more ferioufl-y on the
fubjeCt, might poffibly impeach thofe before the criminal tribunal
who had advifed him Co accede to inch a propofal,. on reflecting
how much his dignity had differed by the compliance ;;
and. that the records o f the country might hand it down, to po-f-
l terity,,