The sixth day of the eighth moon was a ud day in Hangchow. Everybody and is cousin was out to see the procession of igh officials enter the Examination Hall. People came from the villages and towns ton and twenty miles distant. The grand ight was eight high officials riding in open fairs, wearing their official robes and seated on tiger skins. The procession formed at the Fu-tai's Yamen and came through the great street of the city. Two of those officials take charge of the police, two are the Imperial Examiners, one the Futai who has general supervision in the Hall. Those five enter the Hall and remain until the end. The other high officials have duties on the outside. The Fan-tai locks the hall gates and keeps watch on the outside to prevent any collusion between the scholars and friends on the outside, Soldiers are posted around the Hall and every precaution is taken to prevent fraud, But there is a proverb saying that "wherever there is a law there is a way to break it," and this is eminently true in the present instance. If a man has money he may feo the copyist and the Examiner ete., eto, They also make arrangements to help each other, One ceremony of the officials is, to say the least, rather strange. It is the worship of His Majesty, the Fox, the presiding ins of the Hall. 'There temple cially devoted to this hip, where scrolls inscribed to his 'The two Imperi mediately to this shun acts to his cunning Majesty' bef ing their own lodgings. the Futai to the stamping of the paper on which the essays are to be written, and than invokes the aid of the deified Fox in defeating any cunning plans the scholars may try for i nlawfully. It is said \jesty, in this matter, is omnithat no matter what plans may 0 devised, nor yet how excellent an may be, if it is not decreed for the writer to succeed, he certainly will not. On the other hand, no matter how indifferent the essay, nor low many obstacles may oppose, the writer is decreed to win, he will, The Fox rules here, and gives the honour to him who is destined to receive it, 20th Sept. cutters employed and kept for the purpose. On the first occasion, subjects are given for three essays and one ode, and this first trial is considered the most important of the three. Some of them set their brains to work immediately, but the greater number, it is said, wait until the following morning before putting the mental machinery in connection with the motive power. As soon as the products of their {utelleots are supposed to be about perfect, they are handed in to the proper officer, and the writers are then ready to leave the hall for their lodgings. But they must wait until the Fantat comes to unbar the ates, Then what a rush and scramble! jie does not often see the like. They come out on the 11th, '22nd Sept.
The Jast of the scholars have come out ofthe Hall, They began to withdraw from the scene of contest soon after noon on the fifteenth of the moon, and continued to pour out that evening, all night and the next day. They looked asit they had gone through @ severe campaign and not won the victory. The whole number of those who went in the first day was twelve thousand. But this number was reduced by hundred when they went in for orty or fifty violated regulation were posted on the Bulletin Board and not allowed to enter again, Many fell sick—ma: got sick at heart. 30 the report goes, One became pos sessed" and blurred his manuscript, Th who die inside the Hall are not carried out through the gates. That would be sacrilege, as the gates belong to the Em-but their bodies are hoisted over chay ere and return to their homes, where each one will viously wait for the mossonger annoy that he has jumped the Dragon gate" and won the coveted honour, But this messenger will disappoint nine thousand eight hundred and ninety-th and reach only one hundred and 01 lucky candidates, The deci made and the names of the chosen w posted on the most lucky day ninth and the thirteenth of the next moon—some throe weeks hence.
28th Sept.
The scholars entered the Examination Hall on the eighth day of the eighth moon. It was not a very grand, but it was an ex-ingly interesting sight to seo them on,—the march of the ten many contending for a prize which can be awarded to only one ins hundred is rather grand, and if we extend our thoughts to what is going on in the other provinces, eighteen in all, and estimate that probably one hundred and fifty thousand) men, with bedding and hhaverancks with provisions for three days, took up their line of march at four o'clock last Tuesday morning, the thought is strangely impro: " Under the whole heavens, where will you see auch About one half of them ride in chairs vast walk. Most of those who walk have accolle each to carry his luggage, but many of them carry their own. At the gate, ench one's name is recorded and a stamped paper is given to him to write his easys on, also a little flag indicating the number of the stall assigned to him. By four p.m. all had entered and the great gates wore closed and sealed by the Fantai, A atrict watch is kept both inside and outside the hall; even the two Imperial Examiners are kept under lock and key from the time they enter the City until the Gecision is made. About dusk the Futai's band discourses loud brassy music.
Before midnight the subject for the bay is distributed. It is printed; and the blocks on which this is done, are cut in ho hall, by some of the two hundred type-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.