“In 1874,” he writes, “King Chulalongkorn assembled his ministers and nobles and, having ascended the throne, promulgated a decree emancipating them and all subjects from the degrading custom of crawling on their knees in the presence of a superior; after which, at his command the whole assembly arose from their prostrate position on their hands and knees and stood erect for the first time in the presence of their sovereign.” Though his personal relation with the occupant of the throne was terminated, Dr. House found that the new government included many of his old-time friends from the days of his lectures on science. Among these were the regent himself, the minister of foreign affairs, the master of the new mint and the commander-in-chief of the army. A new office also had been established, and the doctor found his friend Godata, formerly a priest in Chao Fah Yai’s watt, appointed as court preacher with the duty of preaching on the Christian Sabbath a moral lecture to the soldiers and cadets, by the king’s orders. NEW FAVOURS The mission workers hoped that a change in sovereigns would mean no reaction; they scarcely expected more. But while King Mongkut had “put no obstacle in the way,” King Chulalongkorn soon removed the remaining obstacles by making effective the treaty provisions even in the dependency of Lao. For it was the rapid development of the work in that new station that precipitated a condition in which the good offices of the new government alone saved the day. Within two years of the beginning of work at Chiengmai the first convert made a confession of faith, Nan Inta; and in seven months more six others had received baptism. Then suddenly the virulence of the king of Lao was manifested by the martyrdom of two of these converts, put to death on his orders.