Ina. Memorinl presented to the Emperor jast month by the Governor Fa (Peking), some rather interesting' details are given of the carried in the the great famine that desolated the Provinoee ct Obibli and Shantung a efages on a considerable bad pate administered, The shelter provided was shelter, and that is all that could''be said for it; but it was Balove. Another curious feature of the idigte suitable for cattle than for human
system, to which we may refer, was, that the inmates of the enclosures used 'Qoniplain' that they were starved, and" ory gut pitifully to pnasers-by, praying 7 vim for the love of merey to ive them a little food. The usual shnient consisted of siz, o'olock in the ce aa season doled out at
being the depth of winter; and nothing more did the unfortunate creatores get "aay."
Naiking plamed themnolves mightily upon the -beueficence they displayed, otis clu remarking to " foreign "With such reminiscences it is not to be wondered at if' we are disposed to Took with some caution upon na tations in the aintter of public a The Metropolitan Governor, Eonerer, eértaitily succeeds in drawing Ho says sive refage- -eysiem in: roy of Chibli was very ted in Poking. A number re rented, where out-door dispensed, and a home provided for destitute women and children. The Viceroy las behaved so liberally itter that Tatély a large addi-secured, and the movement d very considerable propor-We are now told of a regularly.
ud extensive Foundling Hosire childroni are hot only fed and d hed, but Where they receive instruction by competent teachers, and subjected to 8 monthly examina tion is paid to the natural fications of the various scholars, those whose physical development ater than their intellectual are ledtn some useful trade, in hood ab their fingers' ends. In addition to this there an agency for the support of virtuous widows—by who do ud those who are rident upon them. No fower than persons of this descrip. tion are now in receipt of alms from Ulus source, the revenues of the entablishment being derived partly from volantsry contributions on the part of the charitable public and partly from an annual grant bestowed by the Viceroy Li. The object of the Memorial in question is to pray the Emperor to bestow a yearly subsidy upon the estab. lishment to the amount of three hundred piculs of grain, and His Majesty has been graciously pierised to accede. The Kuang-jeu T'ang, of course, is by no moans the only institution of the kind g. There are numerous others jar unrare, most of which are more or less under the Imperial patronage. That they are a source of comfort and real relief to a great number of deserving cases, we are free to admit is very possible, But there can be no doubt that their appearance strikes a foreigner with an iden of anything rather than of comfort. We remember one establishment of the sort just outside the 'Téshén Men, It looks at first aight like a rather handsome temple, with red walls, and a big arch of those green and sallow tiles which are the special sign of Imperially-patronised buildings in the Capital, Several wide and spncions courts are traversed after entering, and right at the back of all the visitor finds himself in what we can only call an open Inzar-house, In a moment he is surrounded by a crowd of the most wretched objects, many of them naked, and covered from end to foot with festering and unsightly sores, These unfortunate beings are permitted to herd together the walls of the so-called refuge, and are certainly provided with n sufficient allowance of thin groel to keep body and soul together; but the accommodation, if worthy of the name, is of the poorest and most niggardly description, while no provision whatever is made for giving the refugees the medical attendance of which many of them stand so much in need. On one occasion one of the attendants, after expatiating upon the tender condescension of the Ewperor in thas providing for the wants of his poor subjects, was asked whether there was no doctor atinched to the institution, "Doctor was his reply, in unfeigned astonishment. "How much do you think it would cost us for a doctor to Took after all this crowd, and to keep ug in medicines? How many doctors do you think we should require to keep things going?" The fact that a large proportion of the inmates were being actually eaten up with disorders of the most distressing nature, and wanted medicines and ointments quite as much as gruel, seemed not to strike him at all, and he was honestly surprised at hearing that, in the West, medical attendance would be considered the first nud foremost desideratnu un-dor similar cireumstaness, All this of course is simply another instance of the shiftlessness and half. and-half policy which characterises the Chinese in nearly all their actions, That they are really charitable and mean well we are quite prepared to believe, But in these and all their doings they prove themselves very often sad bunglers. It is not too much to say that the raling classes eucournge paupers. Beggary is actually fostered in many of the large Chinese cities, although it is known that the beggars are the vilest of the vile; yet they are permitted to roam the afreets all day in tattered idleness, victimising all, the well-to-do by howling at their shop. doors artil the customary blackmail is extorled, and then herding in the so. called refuges provided for them by the paternal care of the Emperor, If beggary were made a misdemeanour, and all persons who have no work to do were forced to employ themselves in mending the roads, cleansing the gut-tors, and repairing the rottenness and decay which everywhere abound, the Capital would present a rather less disgraceful appearance then it does at present, and the authorities be relieved of the necessity of providing imperfect refuges for a pack of demoralised and lazy vagabonds, FAIR TRADE AND FREE 'TRADE, Tuere is a dialogue on Fair Trade and Free Trade in the Contemporary Review for December which contni deni of interesting informa ti commercial position and progress of Great Britain, It is more pleasantly written than papers on such subjects generally are, contains many argu ments that are at least ingenious, and illustrations in support of the Free Trader's opinions that slow that a great deal of pains has been taken to set them in the best light. The author is a staunch Free Trader, and in Mr, Faith fal, the exponent of his own views, ho has chosen a much more capable advocate than Mr, Pliable the Fair Trader, It is a throe-decker alluring a poorly found and scarcely soa-worthy craft into a mimic fight, gradually opening fire with shotted gaus, throwing the Fair Trader into confusion and then pouring in upon him broadside after broadside of guns loaded to the muzzle. The cannonade becomes fenrfal, and the reader seeing the unfairness of the struggle has his sympathies turned to the wretched Pliable. The very heaviest projectiles are used,—statistics, tables of iniport and export, comparisons of the trade of England with that of other countries, and those sort of indigestible arguments that are called, and justly, weighty. Poor Pliable is scarcely allowed to get a word in edgeways before the end of the dialogue has come, and while we pity his case that amiable feeling is eventually some-whit tempered by contempt. How could he have trasted himself alone with such a magazine of useful information as Faithful? He was the Intter's guest, at the time, and must have known his character, and how much ho was to be avoided as © companion in
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