Excerpt from The Life of Taou-Kwang, Late Emperor of China: With Memoirs of the Court of Peking; Including a Sketch of the Principal Events in the History of the Chinese Empire During the Last Fifty Years A Chinese Emperor can make his mere will the rule of a nation; but he must, at least ostensibly, now and then, pay deference to the better judgment of his statesmen. The nation at large is nothing in itself; yet the man without an equal must make himself popular, by listening to the wishes of his subjects. Every one ought to have access to his ear; the poorest widow be allowed to Speak to him through the Court of Appeal. In recent years, we may say it has become fashionable at Court to talk about the wishes of the people; to speak of them as the first to be attended to: as the guide and loadstone in all measures. Though a great many of these phrases are mere verbiage used on proper occasions, still the principles thus expressed have found many admirers throughout the Whole land. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.