PURPLE FORBIDDEN CITY 63 



Permit me then to address the homage of my veneration to 

 the virtues which in your Excellency afford so striking a resem- 

 blance between Asia and America. I cannot shew myself more 

 worthy of the title of Citizen of the United States, which is 

 become my adopted Country, than by paying a just tribute to 

 the Chief, whose principles and sentiments are calculated to pro- 

 cure them a duration equal to that of the Chinese Empire. I am, 

 with respect, Sir, Your Excellency's most humble and obedient 

 Servant, A. E. Van Braam Houckgeest." 



The one outstanding difference, of course, between the 

 Chinese ideal and that of the American Bepublic lies in the 

 fact that in China the Euler was the choice of Heaven, 

 whereas in American he is the choice of the people. Van 

 Braam 's experiences are most interesting, he was the last 

 European until after the Boxer Days of 1900 to have audience 

 in one of the three great Halls. His descriptions are enter -^ 

 taining, and one of the features which struck him forcibly 

 was the entire absence of militarism about the Court or in the 

 Empire. He says : 



"Neither upon this occasion, nor during any of the other 

 ceremonies at which the Emperor was present, did I ever see a 

 military guard. There is not even a guard-house at the gates of 

 the Palace, which are entrusted to the sole care of a little 

 Mandarin and a few other individuals appointed for that 

 purpose. Any one would naturally expect to find a small army 

 in the Imperial residence, but he will see nothing like it. I can 

 affirm that in all my walks through the city I never met with 

 anything military except a small guard-house, occupied by ten 

 soldiers, under the command of an officer, who falls into the 

 ranks himself as sergeants do in Holland. At the gates of the 

 city there are perhaps, thirty or forty men, commanded by an 

 officer of higher rank. 



I was not a little surprised to see so few troops, after 

 having been assured last year, by one of the persons of the 

 English Embassy (Capt. Mackintosh) that the effective army of 

 the Chinese empire amounted to eighteen hundred thousand men. 

 Perhaps it is requisite to go into Tartary to see them ; for I 

 sought in vain during my journey to discover a sufficient number 

 to justify my adopting any such estimate. In the cities of the 

 first and second order we found as many as two hundred and 

 fifty soldiers, and in those of the third order seldom more than 

 half the number. This calculation is founded upon the whole 

 garrison turning out under arms in the cities we went through 

 . . . we should hardly suppose at the outside more than eight 

 thousand men. 



This court is then the only one even in Asia where the chief 

 of the nation is not surrounded and protected by a formidable 

 military guard." 



With these facts in mind let us proceed in imagination, 

 through the various Gates, Halls, and Palaces of the Purple 

 City, which may indeed be called an apotheosis of, a 



