April Ist and 2nd.—His Majesty has issued an Edict remitting three-tenths of the taxes due this year from five districts through which he passed on his journey to the Easter Mausolea, in consequence of the apparent poverty of those districts.
(2) Wan-kwei announces that on the 10th day of the second month of the present year he arrived at Hwae-gan and took over the seals of office, in obedience to His Majesty's orders Lo He-neon, an officer of the first rank, Governor General of the provinees of Fuh-keen and Chi-kéang, and Acting General for the defence of Fuh-chow-foo, together with Wang K'hae-tae, the Deputy Governor of Fuh-keen province, kneel and petition in reference to the accumulation of Jaw cases at 'T'ae-wan (Formosa), in order that a period of time may be speedily assigned, within the limits of which all cases must be completed, and praying that certain laws may be altered, with a view to the clear understanding of prison discipline. he petitioners respectfully present this petition praying that our Holy Emperor may deign to glance at it.
the territory of T'ae-wan is extonsi i¢ and the population are violent in action, and fierce in temperament; hence, litiga tions and imprisonments ate numberless, According to established law, all ordinary vagabond culprits and expelled soldiers, together with those who have committed capital crimes, must be brought before the Taoutae of Tae-wan for trial; and this oficial, having examined fully into the matter, must draw up a report of each case, tobe forwarded to the Censorate at Peking for final adjustment, And, those criminals who are condemned to be beheaded or strangled, together with soldiers expelled for murder and all vagabond culprits, must be sent up to Poking' to be re-examined, within the limit of time specified for each case. Lately, in consequence of the inability, through want of time, of the Che-been' and his subordinates to attend fully to matters relating to the military, and also to their additional duty of settling the numerous matters arising between foreign and native merchants, it has been impossible to avoid ing' some cases while attending to reover, in consequence of the violence of the litigants, it is by no meang easy always to come toa satisfactory solution of a case; so that these criminal cases have accumulated beyond all control. audition to all this, in consequence of 'T'ae-wan being widely separated from the mainland by water, the transmission of riseners involves considerable expense. rom these causes, all those off have hitherto held office in T'ae-w: culated themorehopestment become. The execution of those guilty of heinous crimes has in many cases been long deferred; and those guilty of lessor crines have frequently wasted away miserably in prison. If a limit be not assigned for the proper adjustment of such cases, how can their accumu-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.