Suly 28th.—(1) Tsing Kwoh-ts'tian, Governor of Shansi, requests the bestowal of a mark of approval upon Wei Tsu-tsin, an Assistant Sub-Prefect on approbation, who for the past two veers has been engaged under the Director-General of the Yellow River in the Salt Preventive Service. Appointments of this nature are held for only two years, and it is customary to recommend the incumbent at the expiration of his term of service for the bestowal of some form of reward, if he has acquitted himself with zeal and diligence. There are six places in addition to the large. salt producing 2 known as the Ho-tung, where salt is prepared, and uniers the supervision and watch maintained are very thorough, pans for the illicit manufacture of salt are certain to be established, The officer in question has performed his duties zealously and success-and memorialist suggests that he be placed first on his list for appointment to a vacancy in token of the Imperial approbation.—Granted by Rescript.
(2) King Jui, Imperial Superintendent of the Eastern Mausolea, reports that he has filled two appointments in, the buttery offices attached to the King Ling and Ting Ling respectively, and that in ace with a decree of the Emperor Kia solving officers appointed to subordinate offices at the Mausolea from previous at-
newly appointed officers to Peking to be tendance at the place he has not sent the presented to His Majesty.
(8) Wen Koh announces the forwarding of a second instalment of contributions for Shansi, amounting altogether to Ts. 11,000.
Tsing Kwoh-t'sian, Governor of Shansi, in a memorial acknowledging the receipt of eight memorial boards or tablets, which have been reverently suspended by him in different temples, gives a return of the prices of grain and rates of exchange in various portions of the province. In the districts to the cast of the capital, which suffered Jess severely last year than those in the south of the province, and are only seven days distant by road from Chihli, the tael of Wen-yin (or so-called pure silver) changed for 1,400 to 1,500 cash, and rice sold for Tis, 21-22 per picul. In the districts to the extreme south of the capital, where baggage animals had become extinct, and it was necessary to procure others by the offer of high rates of payment, the cost of carriage on each catty of rice zmounted to over fifty cash, and as the rate of ex change for silver in these districts was extremely low, a tael realising no more than 900 cash or thereabouts, the porterage alone on each picul of rice amounted to fourteen or fifteen strings of cash, Hence the rice imported by Government could not be laid down in these districts under a cost of Tls. 30 or more, and that laid down by Private speculators must have cost a still larger amount. At the commencement of the summer, Yen King-ming, the Famine Commissioner, wrote to say that rice flour was selling in the districts to the east of the river at 178 cash per catty, and 47-48 strings per picul, or Tls. 44-45. From these figures it may be soon that the difference between the rates in the southern districts and those to the east and north of the provincial capital does not amount to more than ten strings of cash or thereabouts, but that the silver values differ to the extent of more than is, 20. It should be explained that the quantities given above are reckoned in the Min-hu, or people' measure, in which the picul is exactly twice much as the Ts'ang-tan, or granary picul. The present rates and those given in the month of April do not differ very much, but memorialist is afraid that his omission K' to explain the nature of the measure in which he was reckoning was the cause of extra anxiety to Their Majesties. With so fair 2 prospect of good harvests before them, the people are everywhere content, and as the same good fortune may be anticipated for the neighbouring provinces, as soon as importations from these arrive, prices are sure to fall. Indeed, news has just been received that prices of flour in districts of the neighbouring province of Shensi have suddenly dropped from 170 cash to 90 or 100. Such unexpectedly good news has caused great rejoin ing, but so far there is not much reduction in the rates prevailing at the provincial capital and places in the centre of the province.
July 29th.—(1) Memorial by P'an Wei, Acting Governor of Hupeh, reporting great length the circumstances of a burglary committed by number of disbanded braves on a shop in the Chung-siang district. Their intention was, in the first instance, to have committed a simple theft, but the noise made by the crowbar with which they tried to prize open the door awoke the proprietor and his sons, and on the spur of the moment they determined to proceed to violence. Dropping their crowbar, they seized a large stone and battered in the door, and having wounded the proprietor and his sons, who tried to keep them ack, laid their hands on all they could find, and decamped., The chief actors in this' crime were sunimarily beheaded, and the others severally dealt with in proportion to the measure of their guilt.
(2) The only other document in this day's Gazette is a memorial from Feng Shen, Military Governor of Heh-lung-Kiang, reporting a case of rape and the punishment inflicted on the offender, a youth called Kin Hai, son of a bannerman in the Bordered Yellow Corps, who resided in a small village called "Hankow, in Tsi-tsi-har. At noon on the 1th Tune last, this youth went to a river about.
from the village to look for wild duck's eggs, and there ho saw the daughter of one Kin'Teh, a little girl twelve years of age, whose name was Ki Koh, She was accom-pained by her little brother, eight years old, and_a little girl, the daughter of an inmate of her father's house, a year younger than herself. They were tending horses and cattle, and Kin Hai went up and began to talk with them. After they had chatted some time, evil thoughts suggested_themselves to him, and in pursuance of his base designs he sent the little boy and the younger girl off to 2 distance to drive up Some of the cattle they were tending. When they had gone, he seized Ki Koh and threw her to the ground, after which he tied her hands with his Wwaisthand, His vile purpose effected, he became alarmed by the eries and sobs of the girl and ran off and hid himself. The child went home and told her parents, and the father, filled with rage and indignation, told the vi elder, who went with him and arrested the Jad. "When placed on his trial ho con. fessed to his crime, and the case was in due course of time passed on to memorialist for
prisoner's confession might not be complete a final hearing, Lest by any chance the in all its details or correct in every respect, he was subjected by memorialist to the most rigorous examination, and as his evidence under this process' was in every respect the same as that given by him before, nothing remained but to pass sentence upon him. The law lays down that whosoever shall be guilty of a rape upon a child under twelve and over ton years of age, shall be punished by beheading after the autumn assize, and as no exten-nation of the guilt of Kin Hai can be admitted, he having committed the crime in broad daylight, he has been sentenced to death after the autumn assize in accordance with the law above quoted.
July 80th.—(1) Memorial by the Censor Hien-ki on corruption and maladministration in Honan, already summarised in an Imperial decree of July 16th.
(2) Postscript memorial by Ho King, Governor-General. of Fuhkien and Ché- Kiang, reporting that at five p.m. on the 22nd' May, the city of 'T'aiwan Fu was suddenly Visited by a "strange" wind and a darkness that spread over everything to an extent that rendered shapes and forms indistinguishable. [The hurricane or whirl wind] came up fromthe south-west, bringing rain with it, and struck the city wall, from whence it made its way by the West gate into the Governor's temporary residence, tearing down the entrance and second gates, as well as the inner pavilion and other places. It then travelled from the back of this Yamen to the north-west comer of the outer wall, and from thence made its way across the city tothe northern wall, raisin in its progress a cloud of debris compose: of fragments of houses, tiles, and uprooted trees. The large brick screen or wall in front of the yamen was levelled to the ground and the flagstaffs broken short off ile inside a large half of the rooms an building, if not completely levelled, were all set aslant by the force of the wind, and not a single tile remained, 'The outer wall on the North and West sides was blown down, and at least half of the soldiers' quarters on the archery course were levelled, sixteen of the occupants being injured by their fall. More than one hundred feet of the crenelated battlements on the northern wall of the city were destroyed, and almost all the houses along the course taken by the hurricane were blown down damaged, some scores of people being crashed by the falling timbers, in two cases with fatal results, All the other public offices were more or less damaged by the loss of tiles and_s0 forth, but not to.an extent that signifies much. On receipt of the above particulars from Hia Hien-lun, Taotai of Taiwan, the memorialist instructed him to furnish a report on the origin and cause of this extraordinary wind, and the amount of damage, if any, caused by it amongst the shipping in larbour. (For decree see Gazette of 15th July.)
(8) The Governor-General of Szech'van reports the execution by ling-cl'e of a man who murdered his adopted father in a fit of drunken rage, when he hardly knew what he was about. The man had come home drunk one day, by no means an. uncommon occurrence with him, and got into a rage with his wife about some trifling domestic matter, for which he was going to correct her with a vegelable chopper or knife, but she ran away and hid' herself. The adopted father came in when he heard the noise, and shouted to his son to desist, when the son, stupid and blind with drink, struck at him with the knife and wounded him. The father, enraged at his audacity, seized him
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.