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In China the Imperial dignity is not the certain inheritance of the Prince next in succession, but of him whom the deceased Monarch may have left named in a note, which is deposited in a casket: the reigning Prince having the power of preferring not only the younger sons to the eldest (though this should be the son of the Empress and those the children of concubines), but also his grandsons. Women have but little influence on this nomination in the present dynasty, but in some of the former they have exercised it so far as to promote a concubine to the dignity of Empress Mother, obliging the latter to abdication, or imprisonment. |
