his father's court: he seemed to have no desire ungratified so long as
he had his bow and arrows, his horse and matchlock; and even after he
was unexpectedly nominated heir to the throne, in consequence of
having personally defended his father from a band of assassins, his
new expectations made no difference in his frugal and modest way of
life. The emperor at length died; it did not clearly appear by what
means, and it would perhaps have been troublesome to inquire: the
empress-dowager waived the claims of her son; and Taou-Kwang ascended
the throne without bloodshed. The luxury of the preceding reign now
gave place to sobriety and economy; though the usual ceremonies of the
court were strictly observed, they were conducted in the least
expensive manner; and the ruling passion of the monarch soon appeared
to be avarice.

Taou-Kwang had no taste either for literature or the arts; and he
jumbled together in one large magazine the beautiful pictures, clocks,
and musical instruments accumulated by his ancestors. To explain and
repair these, there had always been Europeans, chiefly Portuguese, in
attendance; and to some of these we have been indebted in times past
for memoirs of the court of Peking; but Taou-Kwang dismissed the last
of them. It is believed that an undefined dread of Western power had
much to do with this distaste for the products of its ingenuity.

The only orgies which the emperor seemed desirous of maintaining, were
feasts for the promotion of Manchoo union; on which occasions, the
Manchoos assembled to eat meat without rice--in order to maintain the
recollection of their Nimrodic origin--and to drink an intoxicating
liquor made of mare's milk. He had a favourite sequestered abode at no
great distance from the capital, where he had allowed the vegetation
to run wild and rank, in order to make it a rural retreat, instead of