background and the Regent about to yield the authority he had exercised since the death of King Mongkut in 1868 and all the courtiers kneeling or lying prostate on the ground before the golden curtain. At a given signal the curtain was raised disclosing the King sitting on his throne, magnificently dressed wearing the crown and the royal jewels: but striking as was this picture, a more sensational inci dent was reserved a denouement. The King delivered an address and at the end of it he announced the abolition of the practice at his Court of kowtowing and lying down in the royal presence. As the words passed his lips the recumbent figures rose, and the effect was described by those present as most impressive. To change a practice o abject servility into one of reasonable and dignified Court etiquette was not a bad commencement for a reign of progress and reform. It was at least an occurrence that inclined the mind to give sympathetic consideration to any proposal or request emanating from the then young King of Siam. Fifteen months later the occasion arrived. The king was well aware that British representatives in Siam were not well disposed towards him, and he used the coronation as an opportunity to build a relationship with British authorities in the Straits Settlements After the coronation, he wrote to Sir Andrew Clarke expressing the hope that goodwill would long continue between Siam and the British Colony and offering him the order of the White Elephant of Siam. He wrote a second more formal letter thanking him for sending a mission to attend the ceremony and referring to Siam's position concerning future reforms, and making the point that means for achieving these reforms were limited in making changes for the development of its resources we can only proceed step-by-step according to our strength, and we cannot make very rapid changes. Only by the support of a powerful country can a weak one be rapidly developed, and therefore we beg that Your Excellency, appointed by H M. Queen Victoria to govern a British Colony which is very close to Siam, will suggest and advise us as to whatever is likely rapidly and largely to develop our tesources Thus the king sent the representative of the British a signal that his future reforms British interests because they would bring more trade. His plans for reform went further than those proposed by Conservative siam in that he called not only for the abolisomof we seen, but also fiscal reforms. Because Conservative slave iam was unwilling to identify itself with further change, the Governor the king and Young Siam to be the sole agents of reform. and the king was later to reap the political benefits um reached a peak of with the establishment of the ncil of State and the Privy Council in 1874, and its mouthpiece,