the Editor of the Dear Si,—Will you please insert the inclosed two letters in regard to the famine in the North. The one is from Rev. Pere Aymeri, who describes in brief the terrible condition of things raging over whole provinces. The other is a continuation of {eiters that have been sent by Mr. Richard at Tai-yuen-foo, but have not come to hand. Both most earnestly appeal for assistance from the Famine Relief Fund, but our supplies have all been sent North to the scene of suffering. It would be a great satisfaction if timely relief were afforded in answer to these appeals, and the Committee would be glad to receive and forward any assistance that might be rendered. Ws, Mumutean, Hon. Secretary.
nghai, 24th Jan, Purswexr,—Can you, as you did for the sufferers of Shantung, rough the Procure of the Lazaristes, who has authority over the Catholic Missionaries of the provinces afflicted by the famine, some portion of the amount which has been obtained for those suffecing from the effects of the famine.
do not think it necessary I should give you in detail a translation from the Italian, Of the horrible accounts I have received from numerous letters which have been sent to one from Shansi, Shensi, and Honan, where the famine is most general and terrible, and from Shantung, where the famine is far from having disappeared, though it is less severe there than it was last year.
These letters are truly heartrending; the people are dying, one might say, like flies the cold, added to the failure of nourish-fuel, leaves them nothing out allow earth mixed with leaves of various kinds of trees, to prolong their lives for a few days. The wild fruits, collected before they ate ripe, and the stalks of the millet, are all that are left them; even water has failed, and it is often necessary for the suitorers to seek it at a distance of half a 's journey.
The future is very terrible, for, in many parts, the want of rain will prevent the ground from producing, and in many places the people will have consumed all of the grain seed before sowing time.
The letters I have received are of a nature to make me believe that the details of the famine given in the Peking Gazette, and reproduced in the North-China Daily News, are correct.
Hoping the Committee will take my request into consideration.
(Signed) A. Avent, procure des Lazaristes.
Shanghai, 23rd Jan.
Dean Mr, Mumneap,—As Ido not know whether the posts here are reliable, I send you duplicate of a letter forwarded a fow Gays ago, and if this reaches at the same time, perhaps it had better be published.
Tels some time since I saw any account of the Indian famine, In com; i it, believe the suffering here terrible. The names of eight or nine millions are down for. relief, namely:—Honan, 2; Shensi and Chihli, about 1, and Shansi, 5 or 6 millions. That people sell their lands, pull down their houses, sell their wives and daughters, eat roots and carrion, clay, and refuse is nothing strange, but a constant occurrence. And if this were not enough to move one's pity, the sight of men and women and little children lying helpless on the road-side, or if dead torn by hungry doge and magpies, should do.s0. The news has reached us within the Inst few days, from more than one source, that children are being boiled and eaten. If there is pity in the human heart, and the possibility of assistance at hand, this is the time to call it forth. The terrible tales of sieges oven sink to nothing before it for is only single cities which thus suffer; but here it is a thousand cities—a whole Huropean kingdom! Many thousands of lives were "actually saved, and no less than seventy thousand relieved last year, by the generosity of foreigners and their Chinese lends at the porta. It was then a Inbour of love on your part who so nobly strove to do good. The blessing of God will ever rest on such deed: we have one of contend with, Any help given will be most the greatest famines this dynasty has had to
conscientiously given to the real sufferers. Want'will be the only condition of relief, If friends at the ports or elsewhere do not consider Shansi too far away, every tael they contribute will relieve so many sufferers; and in multitudes of cases life depends on there being such hel command. I feel much difficulty in calling
too much on willing hearts, but when ead for aid this year again, Tt seems like laying day brings news of greater and greater suffering, I cannot but put the matter before those friends who showed such readiness before, and let them do what they can. 'To-day, my landlord told me that two carts laden' with corpses went out at the cast gate of this city, which were to be buried together inacomunon pit. He didn't know the number that were carried out singly. Thave no words to express the anguish and despair of these poor people.
Tremain, yours faithfully, Tai-yuen Fu, 1st Jan,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.