It is difficult to imagine how any woman, brought up in the subordinate position which is alone allotted to the sex in China, with the imperfect education which is there attainable, and with all the prejudices of her early life, and the proud assumption of superiority of the other sex to contend against, could have had imparted to her the peculiar tone of character which she possessed. In her attempts to reform and to improve, she never ceased to be _Chinese_; indeed, she seems to have thought that to _restore_ what was fallen to decay was the best kind of reform. She sought the removal of abuse, the purification of public offices, and the improvement of the details of administration throughout the country. Her influence became paramount; and those who could not be gained by her arguments are said to have been led by her fascinations. The words of the Emperor's public eulogy of the Empress, after her death, will in a measure point out this feature in her character. He declared that "she was overflowing of kindness to all, lovely and winning." She held control over the hearts of those about her, not by dint of authority, but by gentleness and forbearance. "Her intercourse," he added, "lightened for me the burden of government, and the charms she spread around conciliated all hearts. And now I am alone and sad." In her choice of persons for high employment, the Empress possessed the most valuable of all talents to those who are called upon to exercise their power of selection--that of distinguishing not merely abstract merit, but of discerning those less conspicuous qualities of the mind which constitute _fitness_ for office and aptitude for public distinction. The greatest influence of the Empress seems to have been exercised about the years 1835 and 1836, and it was just at that period that the question was so keenly debated, at court and elsewhere, whether opium should be permitted, under certain modified regulations, or whether it were possible to put an end to the traffic by force, and to _drive the nation_ from its use by fear. This was evidently the commencement of a new era in that country, for whatever might be the result of the debate upon this important question in the Chinese cabinet, the effect of it was to occasion the agitation of the subject throughout the empire. Agitation in China! But a spirit of change had now begun to tincture even the minds of true Chinamen, and the amiable Empress herself became affected by, and even in a measure encouraged, that movement. The vice-president of the sacrificial board, by name Heu Naetze, and others, amongst whom was reckoned also Keshen, belonged to the immediate favourites of the Empress, and but for that high protection it is probable that Heu Naetze would hardly have ventured to present his famous memorial in favour of the legalization of the opium-trade.