A CHINESE MARQUIS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1100, 20 August 1880, Page 2

A CHINESE MARQUIS.

A Correspondent ; writes : — "During the debate on the Opium, question, in: the House of OommonSj the Chinese Ambassador was present. The Marquis; Tseng was accompanied by Dr. Macartney, the interpeeter. He is a big-eyed but pleasant-looking Pagan, undershot in the jowl, with a nose cocked in what is generally understood to be the Celtic s%lej and a complexion between clay and baked brick. His Excellency ap--1 peared in most gorgeous array, wearing I. believe, the extreme resplendencies of his office. His cap, in Shape between a turban and a'biretta,. was purple 1 , with an,enormous blue tassel. • His robe, if I might respectfully call ib his petticoat, was of heavy silk, of a dark shade. But wfiat'gave him the aspect of -a< solid Jump of sunshine amid the'" sombre Western humanity in his neighbourhood was his yellow wide-sleeved jerkin or lnose jacket. This was of that dye between canary and pale gold, but of unspeakable brightness and softness, the secret of which is a Chinese mystery, as was antique purple a trick of Tyre. The Chinaman made a splendid figure by contrast with the British barbarian. But the wonder of his dress, was not j its cut, nor yet its colour. It was this, that it seemed to be all pocket." I marked the Marquis with inteiest, aDd saw him, for instance, take a handkerchief . from somewhere round his fight shoulder and return it to his breast. -Presently he seemed to draw, an opera glass out of his sleeve, and when he at his 'watch lie;, producted that instrument, as well as Ilould ofeserve^ from' the back of his neck, and put it up apparently in his boot. This sort of conjuring was not more interesting than the distinguished "foreigner's close scrutiny of the assembly. Evidently he found something highly comic in the general aspects, for as the leading figures were pointed out to him he delivered a comment which seemed to strike the interpreter as a right good tiling, for that official was fain to hide his. laughter. The Ambassador knows English like a native,' so that the attention with which we heard the debate was .nob affected."