Reginald Johnston

Words are important.

If you cannot say what you mean, Your Majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says.

The Emperor has been a prisoner in his own palace since the day that he was crowned, and has remained a prisoner since he abdicated. But now he's growing up, he may wonder why he's the only person in China who may not walk out of his own front door. I think the Emperor is the loneliest boy on Earth.It is true, Your Majesty. Many heads have been chopped off. It does stop them thinking.

It is true, Your Majesty. Many heads have been chopped off. It does stop them thinking.

It would be conveniently sad if he becomes blind. To the expense, Your Excellency. To the cost of maintaining one thousand two hundred eunuchs, three hundred and fifty ladies-in-waiting and one hundred and eighty-five cooks to buying a hundred and twenty sable furs a month and three thousand chickens a week. To the fact that eight hundred and forty guards and employees of the household department, plus one Lord Chamberlain, care only about one thing! Filling their own rice bowls!

Your Majesty, in my country, it would be usual to begin with some kind of an examination.