l China. When the Manchus came into power the city was
all ready for them, and for a time they kept it in repair; but for more
than a hundred years it has been going to ruin.

"The Manchu, or inner city, is divided into three parts, the largest of
which is the real city. In the middle of it are two walled enclosures,
one within the other. The outer one seems to be the guardroom of the
inner, to which entrance is forbidden to all foreigners, and even to
Manchus and Chinese not connected with the court. This last is called
the Purple Forbidden City, two and a quarter miles around it, and is the
actual imperial residence. It includes the palaces of the emperor and
empress and other members of the family. It contains other palaces and
halls of reception.

"The 'Hall of Grand Harmony' is built on a terrace twenty feet high, and
is of marble, one hundred and ten feet high. Its chief apartment is two
hundred feet long by ninety wide, and contains a throne for the emperor,
who holds his receptions here on New Year's Day, his birthday, and on
other great occasions. The 'Palace of Heavenly Purity' is where the
monarch meets his cabinet at dawn for business; and you see that he must
be an early riser. Within these enclosures are temples, parks, an
artificial lake a mile long, a great temple in which the imperial family
worship their ancestors, and many other grand palaces, temples, and
statues, which I have not time to mention.

"The outer, or Chinese, city, is thinly populated, and a considerable
portion of it is under cultivation. The principal streets are over a
hundred feet wide; but those at the sides of them, like Canton and other
cities, are nothing but lanes. None of the streets are paved, and mud
and dust reign supreme. As with other Eastern cities, the population of
Pekin is exaggerated, being estimated by some as high as two millions;
but Dr. Legge thought it was less than one million.

"The charge of infanticide seems not to be applicable to Pekin or the
surrounding country, and is said to be almost unknown there. A dead-cart
passes through the streets at early morning to pick up the bodies of
children dying from ordinary causes whose parents are too poor to bury
them. There are foundling hospitals, to which the mothers prefer to take
their female children rather than sacrifice them. In fact, infanticide
is said to be known only in four or five provinces. I have nothing more
to say, and I leave you to see the rest f