sions, they will affirm, you have done well. Should Alexander, when he Thus they addressed Nero, MIRABEAU. when he assassinated his mother. Memorial to the King of Prussia. WHEN Waller was young he had the curiosity to go to court! and he stood in the circle and saw James dine; where, among other company, there sat at table two bishops, Neile and Andrews. The king proposed aloud this question: Whether he might not take his subjects money, when he needed it, without all this formality of parliament? Neile replied, God forbid you should not: for you are the breath of our nostrils. HUME. History of England vol. vi. p. 75. COURTIERS. COURTIERS. * THE most lofty titles, and the most humble postures, which devotion has applied to the supreme Being, have been prostituted by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with ourselves. The mode of adoration, of falling prostrate on the ground, and kissing the feet of the emperor, was borrowed by Dioclesian from Persian servitude; but it was continued and aggravated till the last age of the Greek monarchy. Excepting only on Sundays, when it was waved from a motive of religious pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who entered the royal presence. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, asserted the free spirit of a Frank, and the dignity of his master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the abasement of his first audience. 04 * The preceding article related to the effect of courts, as they tend to deprave the prince to whom they are an appendage; the present article relates to their moral effects upon courtiers themselves, the persons of whom they are composed. audience. When he approached the throne, the birds of the golden tree began to warble their notes, which were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of gold. With his two companions, Liutprand was compelled to bow and fall prostrate; and thrice he touched the ground with his forehead. He arose, but, in the short interval, the throne had been hoisted by an engine from the floor to the ceiling, the imperial figure appeared in more new and gorgeous apparel, and the interview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and curious narrative, the bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the Byzantine court, and which were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Moscovy or Russia. GIBBON. Roman Empire, vol. v. p. 394 I HAVE just been sent upon an embassy to Japan. I was present at an audience given by the emperor to the Dutch envoy, who had sent several presents to all the courtiers, some days previous to his admission, but he was obliged to attend those designed for the emperor himself. From the accounts I had heard of this ceremony, my curiosity prompted me to be a spectator of the whole. First went the presents, set out on beautiful enamelled tables, adorned with flowers, borne on men's shoulders, and followed by Japanese music and dancers. From so great respect paid to the gifts themselves, I had fancied the donors must receive almost divine honours. But, about a quarter 1 quarter of an hour after the presents had been carried in triumph, the envoy and his train were brought forward. They were covered from head to foot with long black veils, which prevented their seeing, each led by a conductor, chosen from the meanest of the people. In this dishonourable manner having traversed the city of Jedo, they at length arrived at the palace gate, and, after waiting half an hour, were admitted into the guardroom. Here their eyes were uncovered; and, in about an hour, the gentleman usher introduced them into the hall of audience. The emperor was at length shown, sitting in a kind of alcove at the upper end of the room, and the Dutch envoy was conducted towards the throne. As soon as he had approached within a certain distance, the gentleman usher cried out with a loud voice, Holanda Capitan; upon these words the envoy fell flat upon the ground, and crept upon his hands and feet towards the throne. Still approaching, he reared himself upon his knees, and then bowed his forehead to the ground. These ceremonies being over, he was directed to withdraw, still groveling on his belly, and going backward like a lobster. If these ceremonies essayed in the first audience, appeared mortifying, those which are practised in the second are infinitely more so. In the second audience, the emperor, and the ladies of court, were placed behind lettices, in such a manner as to see without being seen. Here all the ropeans were directed to pass in review, and grovel and act the The the serpent as before. With this spectacle the whole court seemed highly delighted. strangers were asked a thousand ridiculous questions; as their names and their ages: they were ordered to write, to stand upright, to sit, to stop, to compliment each other, to be drunk, to speak the Japanese language, to talk Dutch, to sing, to eat in short they were ordered to do all that could satisfy the curiosity of women. Imagine, a set of grave men thus transformed into buffoons, and acting a part every whit as honourable as that of those instructed which are shewn in the streets to the mob on a holiday. Yet the ceremony did not end here; for every great lord of the court was to be visited in the same manner; and their ladies, who took the whim from their husbands, were all equally fond of seeing the stranger perform, even the children seeming highly diverted with the dancing Dutchmen. GOLDSMITH. Citizen of the World, vol. ii. let. 118. IN the habit of being constantly seen here, I appear to belong to this palace; and I have often the honour of being as familiarly shoved about by our black courtiers, as any of the rest of the rabble who form the ring around his majesty. His levee is in the open air, only he is on horseback, and I think he generally chuses the dirtiest part of the field. There the poor obsequious crowd keep frequently kneeling and kissing the dirty ground, and bawling out his praises as he speaks. In that posture, with their posteriors cocked upwards, they do |