_General Character of the Court--Of the Buildings about the Palace--_Lord Macartney's_ Account of his Introduction--Of the Celebration of the Emperor's Anniversary Festival--Of a Puppet-Shew--Comedy and Pantomime--Wrestling--Conjuring and Fire-Works--Reception and Entertainment of the Dutch Embassadors from a Manuscript Journal--Observations on the State of the Chinese Stage--Extraordinary Scene in one of their Dramas--Gross and indelicate Exhibitions--Sketch of_ Kien-Long's_ Life and Character--Kills his Son by an unlucky Blow--conceives himself immortal--Influence of the Eunuchs of the Tartar Conquest--their present State and Offices--Emperor's Wife, Queens, and Concubines--How disposed of at his Death._ After the sketch I have exhibited of the state of society among the different ranks in China, a tolerable notion may be formed of the general character and complexion of the court. It is, as Lord Macartney has justly observed, "a singular mixture of ostentatious hospitality and inbred suspicion, ceremonious civility and real rudeness, shadowy complaisance and substantial perverseness; and this prevails through all the departments connected with the Court, although somewhat modified by the personal disposition of those at their head; but as to that genuine politeness, which distinguishes our manners, it cannot be expected in Orientals, considering among other things the light in which they are accustomed to regard the female part of society." Whether the great ministers of state, who have daily intercourse in the different tribunals, sometimes relax from the stiff and formal deportment observed towards each other in public, I am not able to say, but when at Court they invariably observe certain stated forms and expression as studied and ceremonious as if they had never met before. It appeared to us highly ridiculous to see our friends, the two colleagues _Van-ta-gin_ and _Chou-ta-gin_, on meeting in the precincts of the palace, performing to each other all the genuflexions and motions of the body which the ceremonial institutes of the empire require.