Oct. 17th—{1) A decree, referring to the continued want of rain in the neighbourhood of Peking, and the severe suffering entailed by drought upon the provinces of Shansi, Honan, and Shensi, in consideration whereof propitiatory services were held on the 16th inst. at the various State temples. 'The rainfall vouchsafed. since then has been inconsiderable; and it-is consequently ordained that on the: 19th inst. a farther series of propitiatory services are to be held, his Majesty proceeding-in person to the Ta' Kao Tien, and: the Imperial princes respectively to offer incense at other shrines.
(2) A. decree based upon a memorial from Shen Pao-cheng, Governor-General of the Two Kiang provinces, who has reported the measures he has adopted for encouraging the destruction of locusts, and the collection of their eggs during the winter. Inthe course of the present year, he states, the crops: have suffered greatly in the provinces of Kiangsu and Nganhwei from swarms of locusts, the ground: being actually covered to the depth of a foot and more by their bodies in the localities where they have alighted. The local authorities had been called upon to use their most active efforts toward the capture and destruction of the insects; but the Governor-General now represents that, bet~ ter even than the destruction of the locust itself in the winged state (the Invang Ht), is the extermination of its larva, the nan Bi; whilst most efficacious of all is the collection of the eggs from which the larva ceeds. Instructions have consequently en issued to the district authorities to fix a price at which eggs will be bought, as an encouragement to efforts directed toward the radical extirpation of the plague. "The measures reported as having been taken are approved; and a continuance of vigilant care for the energetic carrying out of the proposed system is enjoined upon the high authorities. Negligence on the part of any of their subordinates is to be denounced in stringent terms to the throne.
(8) A Decree. Let Li Wei-shuh 45 SE Sit succeed to the post of Brigade-General"of the Yeo Kiang command in Kwangsi, (4) The Governor of Hunan memorialize reporting that an officer named Ho Shu 4if HE has been selected to fill the vacancy in the office of Prefect of Ch'ang-sha Fu, the provincial capital, This function: at present 50 years of age, native of the province of Honan, who, being at the time an honorary licentiate, was appointed in 1850 to a post in one of the minor Government offices at Peking, and who subsequently took his degrees at the provincial and metropolitan examinations. In 1875 he was transferred to Hunan in the grade of Prefect, and' was appointed to hold office in Ch'ang-teh Fu. He is now strongly recommended for the vacancy above-mentioned.—Referred by rescript to the Board of Civil Office for consideration anid report. realizes reporting the proceedings taken in (6) The Governor of Chehkiang momo-the case of an old man named Ts'a0 Chow, who obtained an interview with him in July last, stating himself to be an expectant District Instructor, and who submitted a paper which purported to contain certain statements of importance relating to the sea-wall conservancy, but which on being examined was a mere rambling and prolix mass of trash, of which, consequently, no farther notice was taken. Some ten days later, however, the same individual submitted a printed book, entitled Record of the nonces of Three Generations," which, to the Governor's intense amazement, he found to be ostensibly issued with his own approval and cent g an introduction professedly emanating from his own hand, The contents of the work were a tissue of defamatory libels affecting the principal officers of the provincial administration, in connection with a dispute in which the writer was embroiled with a deputy Superintendent of the _Salt Revenue, the feud arising out of an
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.