March 24th.—(1) A decree ordering a series of prayers to be offered for rain at the various State temples on the gth inst., in which His Majesty will take a part.
(2) A decree directing the attention of the Board of Civil Office to a memorial from the Censor Ko Ching on the necessity of care in the selection and examination of candidates for official posts.
(3) A decree referring toa memorial from the Censor Hwang Yuan-shan on the extravagance and waste entailed by the multiplicity of chit or supplementary establishments for the conduct of public business, and to the decree ordering a reduction in the number of these establishments, The Censor Ko Ching now memorialises on the same subject, and adds that another evil of the system consists in the wholesale nature of the recommendations of the services of the officials employed in these chit. Gorernors-General and Governors are hereby called upon to give speedy effect to the instructions earlier issued, and to refrain from undue or unauthorised recommendation of the services of officers employed in the supplementary office in question.
(4) A decree ordering a votive tablet to be. prepared by the Imperial College of Inscriptions for the Dragon God at Féngchen T'ing in Shansi, who has manifested his divine interposition in answer to prayers for rain.
(6) Memorial from T'ung Hua and Ngén-@héng, the high officers appointed to investigate certain charges against Ting Pao-cheng, Governor-General of Szoch' wan, and his subordinates in connection with an arsenal established by the former, and other matters. Being unable to take action upon the evidence placed before them by the Governor-General, and the statements of Li Vu-hong and others implicated being so evasive and contradictory that nothing short of extreme measures will suffice, which memorialists are loth to take in the case of such high officials without special authority and sanction, they beg that this may be given them. They have further to make a complaint against the Magistrate of the Tung-hsiang district, who although specially called upon more than three months ago to produce certain witnesses whose testimony was most important, has, so far, neglected to do so. His careless disregard of instructions has prevented the termination of the enquiry, and they beg that he may now be committed to the Board for the infliction of a penalty.
March 25th.—(Memorials issued for publication.) Hong Hstin and others report that the Nepalese Envoy begs that he may be allowed, as heretofore, to enter the capital and have audience of His Majesty—Rescript: It is noted. Let the Nepalese Envoy and those with him be permitted to enter the capital in accordance with law, and let letters be sent before them along the route in order that due care may be taken of them. Let the regulations be referred to determine the propriety or otherwise of the acceptance by the Military Governor of the presents that have been sent him, (1) A decree ordering the Magistrate of the Yung-chi district' in Shansi to be cashiered and placed on his trial on a charge of collecting land tax in oxecss of the proper amount, and sending in returns for less than he should have collected.
(2) Yung Hwui STE is appointed Reader of the Grand Secretariat and Fu Kun image and Ying Hsii SRA Deputy Supervisors of Instruction.
(8) At the request of the Censor for the central division of the metropolis, the fifteen kitchens for the issue of cooked rice and others at which gruel is dispensed are to be kept open for a further period.
(4) Wu Tsan-cheng, Director of the Foochow Arsenal, requests a month's leave for the benefit of his health, Memorialist crossed over to Formosa twice last year and visited in person several places in the hills at the back of the island that had hitherto been unvisited by man, where he contracted a malarious complaint from the pestilential air from the mists that hung over the country, which recurred at intervals. Feeling his constitution to be robust, memorialist neglected to pay much attention to this complaint and returned to the provincial capital at the end of the ar, where he took counsel with the Governor-General _as to the conduct of official business. He then went tothehouso of Ting Jih-ch'ang, the former Governor, and had just commenced to talk with him, but had not said many words when his left hand suddenly grew numb and his whole body gradually commenced to shake, while the numbness spread to the left foot. Ting Jih-ch'ang, noticing that memorialist could not support himself the stool upon which he was seated, and seemed half asleep, and that though conscious could not express his thoughts in words, administered some medicine to him, and though the attacks of fever daily re~ turned they gradually became less violent, Memorialist continued unable, however, to attend to public matters, and his left hand remained paralysed without power of motion. Ting Jih-ch'ang being an invalid himself, comparative facilities were afforded for medical attention, andtheGovernor-General and Gosernor, who constantly came to see memorialist, were of opinion thatit would be impossible for him to move after such a grave and sudden attack, and that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.