The ease, politeness, and dignified carriage of the old viceroy of _Pe-tche-lee_, who was a Mantchoo, could not be exceeded by the most practiced courtier in modern Europe: the attention he shewed to every thing that concerned the embassy, the unaffected manner in which he received and entertained us at _Tien-sing_; the kindness and condescension with which he gave his orders to the inferior officers and to his domestics, placed him in a very amiable point of view. He was a very fine old man of seventy-eight years of age, of low stature, with small sparkling eyes, a benign aspect, a long silver beard, and the whole of his appearance calm, venerable, and dignified. The manners of _Sun-ta-gin_, a relation of the Emperor and one of the six ministers of state, were no less dignified, easy, and engaging; and _Chung-ta-gin_, the new viceroy of Canton, was a plain, unassuming, and good-natured man. The prime minister _Ho-chang-tong_, the little Tartar legate, and the ex-viceroy of Canton, were the only persons of rank among the many we had occasion to converse with that discovered the least ill-humour, distant hauteur, and want of complaisance. All the rest with whom we had any concern, whether Tartars or Chinese, when in our private society, were easy, affable, and familiar, extremely good-humoured, loquacious, communicative. It was in public only, and towards each other, that they assumed their ceremonious gravity, and practised all the tricks of demeanour which custom requires of them.