During the brief period of our prosperity at Lha-Ssa, we had also tolerably intimate communication with the Chinese ambassador Ki-Chan. He sent for us twice or thrice, to talk politics, or, as the Chinese phrase it, to speak idle words. We were much surprised to find him so intimately acquainted with the affairs of Europe. He spoke a good deal about the English and Queen Victoria. “It appears,” said he, “that this woman has great abilities; but her husband, in my opinion, plays a very ridiculous part; she does not let him meddle with anything. She laid out for him a magnificent garden full of fruit-trees and flowers of all sorts, and there he is always shut up, passing his time walking about. They say that in Europe there are other countries where women rule. Is it so? Are their husbands also shut up in gardens? Have you in the kingdom of France any such usage?” “No, in France the women are in the gardens, and the men in the state.” “That is right, otherwise all is disorder.” [Picture: Portrait of Ki-Chan] Ki-Chan inquired about Palmerston; and whether he was still at the head of foreign affairs. “And Ilu, {192} what has become of him? Do you know him?” “He was recalled; your fall involved his.” “That is a pity. Ilu had an excellent heart, but he was devoid of prompt resolution. Has he been put to death or banished?” “Neither the one nor the other. In Europe they do not proceed to such extremities as you at Peking.” “Ay, truly; your Mandarins are more fortunate than we: your government is better than ours: our Emperor cannot know everything, and yet he judges everything, and no one may presume to object. Our Emperor tells us, That is white; we prostrate ourselves and answer, Yes, that is white; he then points to the same thing, and says, That is black; we again prostrate ourselves and reply, Yes, that is black.” “But if you were to say that a thing cannot be at once white and black?” “The Emperor would perhaps say to a person who exhibited such courage, You are right; but, at the same time, he would have him strangled or beheaded. Oh, we have not like you a general assembly of the chiefs (Tchoung-Teou-Y; so Ki-Chan designated the Chamber of Deputies). If your Emperor wished to act contrary to justice, your Tchoung-Teou-Y would be there to stop him.”