As our departure from hence will be for the kingdoms of Cochin-China, and Siam, to effect suitable commercial treaties with those countries, and as similar court ceremonies are there used as at the court of Pekin, I herewith present a memoir, written by a most worthy and highly respectable clergyman, the Reverend Doctor Morrison of Canton, upon the subject of court ceremonies, observed from the lower to the higher dignitaries throughout the Chinese empire, from the simple joining of the hands and raising them before the breast, to the climax of all that is debasing, the ceremony called the _San-kwei-kew-kow_, or “kneeling three different times, and at each time knocking the head thrice against the ground.”--“What are called ceremonies, sometimes affect materially the idea of equality. They are not always mere forms, but revelations of a language, as intelligible as words. Some ceremonies are perfectly indifferent, as whether the form of salutation be taking off the hat and bowing the head, or keeping it on and bowing it low, with the hands folded below the breast; these, the one English, and the other Chinese, are equally good. There is, however, a difference of submission and devotedness, expressed by different postures of the body; and some nations feel an almost instinctive reluctance to the stronger expression of submission. Standing and bending the head, for instance, are less than kneeling on one knee, that is less so than kneeling on both knees; and the latter posture less humiliating than kneeling on two knees, and putting the hands and forehead to the ground; doing this once, is, in the apprehension of the Chinese, less than doing it three, six, or nine times. “Waiving the question, whether it be proper for one human being to use such strong expressions of submission to another or not; when any, even the strongest of these forms are reciprocal, they do not destroy the idea of equality, or of mutual independence; if they are not reciprocally performed, the last of the forms expresses in the strongest manner, the submission and homage of one person or state to another; and, in this light, the Tartar family, now on the throne of China, consider the ceremony called _San-kwei-kew-kow_ thrice kneeling, and nine times beating the head against the ground. Those nations of Europe who consider themselves tributary and yielding homage to China, should perform the Tartar ceremony; those who do not so consider themselves, should not perform it. The English ambassador, Macartney, appears to have understood correctly the meaning of the ceremony, and proposed the only alternative which could enable him to perform it; viz., a Chinese of equal rank performing it to the king of England’s picture.