'Tui memorial' from the Governor of trike, which we publish elsewhere, _drawa's picture of the sufferings of the people in that province, well-nigh os lSplorable as those which have reached us the condition of Shantang. Thesoil, jS'nffirms, is not naturally of a produc.
ye character, and even in years of good harvests it is necessary to import cereals from the neighbouring provinces to meet the wants of the population. But for somie'years past the harvests have been by no means prosperous. The Spring and Autumn of last year were seasons of severe drought, and in the districta affected great difficulty was experienced in providing means of subsistence for the people—" Throughout the winter and spring the local authorities of all "the districts affected have been col-Jecting subscriptions for the relief of "the distressed, and have called upon the wealthier inhabitants to distribute applies of food in their several "'éighbourhoods, the, hope being that "'rain would fall at the accustomed time in spring, and thus enable the wheat to'ripen.. With the protracted drought, however, the means of both the authorities and the people have become exhausted, and the lind has come to resound with the lamentations of the famine-stricken multitude, "Beginning with the sale of their children, of either sex, in order to oko out the means of subsistence, the *pedple have' been further reduced to '"dig'up'rdote and to atrip trees of their bark in' order' to provide themselves with another meal, The bark of the trees having come to an end, and "ly pen the wild herbs ceasing to spring "ab in: consequence of the drought, "-tecourse has: béon had to such expe-"Sdienté aa the manufacture of pellets of'earth mingled with stone ground ""hto: powder. The maintenance of "Hife la barely conceivable when famine "has reached'such a stage ""Not a day passes, consequently, with-"lont'deaths occurring upon the public "hhighivays, and tears can scarcely be "seprdssed. in attempting to describe "ntiseries that are witnessed and the sorrow with which the mind is laden."
"Nothing can transcend the pathetic extrestness of the language with which Chiese officials know how to describe thie nigories of the people. If only one tithe of this sympathy found express ial in energetic effort to remedy the é'too often falls to their lot to picture, there would-be less frequent occadidn'for the display of their literary talent. We do not pretend to attribute this special calamity to the individual misdeeds of the Governor of Slsnse—thongh this would be almost consistent with the Chinese theory that calamities are attributable to the faults of'rilers, and he himself expresses a hope that the orders ho has issued to "hig" subordinates to perform''more assiduously the duties of Government, will conduce to "the beneficent harmony of the powers of nature, to the end that the fate of the people may be alle. viated." We mean rather that the inability to relieve such distress when it arises, the poverty which renders it impossible for the Governor " to solicit an appropriation of fands from the treasury at Peking," are direct results of the misgovernment and corruption which characterise the public administration. One of the richest countries of the world in natural resources—far superior in this respect to India—China is so itapoverished by misgovernment that she has difficulty in raising, with all the formalities of a loan, a sum which the Government of India could command almost as an overdraft upon its banking account; and which is scarcely more than a tithe of what that Government is actually spending to relieve a famine less wide-spread than that which is now desolating so large a portion of Chioa.—To return however to Shanse, it is not only the suffering of the past winter that the Governor has to deplore; the drought was being protracted into the new season, till grave apprehension was felt for the growing crops—There has been no rain to "speak of since the commencement of "spring this year, and whilst in the "North of the province, where, owing to the difference of climate, the season of "sowing is somewhat later, the anxiety "felt is not so overpowering; in the "South, on the contrary, the utmost "alarm prevails at the prospect of a "failure of the crops. In this section "of the province, with its very mild "climate, wheat is always sown after the "autumn harvest; and at the present "moment, when the crop should be well "grown, the shoots are but an inch or "two high, and appear already withered "and dried up."
We may hope that the more promising accounts which have lately reached us from Chibli, of the rainfall and consequent amelioration of the prospects of the crops in that province, may be taken as an omen of improvement also in the neighbouring districts. It is painful to learn, however, how intense and wide-spread has been the suffering which was thought at first to be confined nearly to the province of Shantung.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.