January 15th.—(1) A further series of prayers for snow is ordered to take place on the 18th.
(2) The Governor of Hupei reports the remittance to Peking of Tis, 20,000, on account of lekin on salt, together with Tia, 660 as scale and porterage allowance, (3) The Military tenant-Governor of Oh'aha'rh begs for permission to draw a sum of Tis, 1,600 from lekin dues levied on tea and ponies, and expend the same in the purchase of 750 skin-cents for the soldiers ing to the Ching Jui battalion stationed at Kalgan.—Granted by Rescript, January 16th.—@) The Governor of Hupei submits his report on the proposed modification of the law rezardiny the summary execution of prisoners guilty of robbery with violence and other similar offences. He urges precisely the same arguments as hare been brought forward by other Governors on the subject, and concludes by strongly disapproving, as every other Governor has as yet done, of the contemplated alteration of the existing law.
January 17th.—(1) Posteript Memorial from Ming An, reporting the escape of two prisoners from the gaol at Sen-hsing, and subsequent recapture, trial and punishment, two men were both under sentence of death, one for highway-robbery, and one Li Yung-sheng, for the murder of a suspected paramour of his wife. They were confined together in the same cell in the east ward of the gaol, and on the night on which their escape was effected, the lieutenant in charge, Yung Cheng, went the rounds, and carefully locked' and twisted the prisoners' fetters, which did not appear to him to be at all loose. He then fastened the doors securely and retired to Ho was aroused in the middle of the night by the sound of the slamming of a door, and, after getting a light, went to the eastward, where he discovered the body of the corporal T'ai Cheng, with a rope round his neck. Life was already extinct. Near im he found the warder Mi Yung-fa, lying with his arms pinioned and his mouth gagged with cotton, He released him, and the warder then stated that he did not know how the prisoners had managed to get out of their fetters and to open the door of their cell and strangle the corporal. Ho himself was roused by the noise and ran forward to secure them, when they seized and vagged and bound him, threatening him with the corporal's fate if ho resisted. The convicts then tore down some of the planking of the wall and by means of it mounted on to the top of the outer wall, and so escaped. Yung Ching and is men attempted a pur suit, but some days elapsed before they were recaptured, The confession of the Prisoners established the fact that there ad been no connivance on the part of the gaolers or bribing on that of the convicts. In accordance with the law, the officers in charge of the gaol, Yung Cheng, is stripped of his rank, but as the convicts were recaptured within the term of four months, will not be put on his trial, 'The warder, Mi Yung-fa, will receive a punishment four degrees tess than that' to be endured by the prisoners; (a mitigation of two degrees being allowed in cases wherotho prisoneramaketheirescapeunperesived, and of an additional two degrees where they effect receive lows with the heavy bamboo, it by violence) Mi Yungt0 will, Uhrefor, and be banished for two years to such piaed as the (Governor's) Yamin at Feng-tion shall decide, The two re-capture prisonora marily executed, jai from the aame officer, reporting the escape of five prisoners from the gaol at Altel The ringleader was a Mongol, P it, condemned to death by stret horse-stealing (according to the law affecting Mongols.) The rest of the prisoners had been convicted, but not yet sentenced. The convicts took advantage of the soldiers on guard being sound asleep, towrenchoff their fetters. Inserting wooden pegs into the crevices of the brick-work, they mounted to the top of the wall, where they removed the spikes and 80, one the other, made good their escape. They have not yet been recaptured, and Momo rialist begs that the officer respon them may be stripped of hi usual term of four months giv him in which to secure the fugitives. The soldiers on quard will be sent, i be ending the recapture, tot provincial capital, and notice of the escape of the prisoners will be given to the authorities of the neighbouring provinces, (8) Vu Lu, Governor of Anhui, reporte the murder of a wife and her paramour by the husband. The husband, Kung Ching-tang, is a colonel in the Chinese army, Daring his absence from home on duty, his wife had formed an illicit connection with a labourer on his estate, Ch'én Wei-san, Returning home on leave he surprised them together, and in the heat of the moment, seized a knife that lay at and her Paramour in flagrant delicto by the hus pand is not pitnishable, the officer in ques tion is only liable to' punishment under the statute forbidding surreptitious interment. By this he should receive 80 blows of the heavier bamboo, which, as the offence was committed prior to' tne Act of Grace of 1881, would in ordinary circumstances be remitted. However the accused is a military officer of the third grade, and the fact that he was unable to keep order in his house, and control his womenkind, brings discredit on the service, and the secret burial of the bodies and neglect to inform the authorities by a man of his station cannot be treated with the leniency due to more ordinary offenders,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.