May Ist—{I) A Decree. Li Hung-chang has in a memorial given expression to his personal feelings and again requested that he may vacate his post and complete his term of mourning. In reading the outspoken statement of-his grief We have been greatly moved. Filial duty is the principle on which Our Government rests, and it is hard indeed sternly to refuse this prayer and thus to do violence to nature, jut Li Hung-chang has long held his post in the metropolitan province; the difficulties of the hour are great, the measures to be taken-affect the Empire, the position is not to be compared with that of ordinary provinces. In the times of Yung Cheng and Ch'ien Lung (1723-1796), the statesmen Sun Chia-kan, Cha Shih, Chi Ts'éng-vain, Chiang-ping and Yi Min-chung received special Rescripts directing them to pass the period of their mourning at their posts. In more recent times Tsing Kuo-fan and Hu Liu-yi have been employed in spite of their private sorrows. Itis for Li Hung-chang to do his best to repress his personal grief and to feel for his Sovereign in the Unavoidable difficulty in which He is placed, In accordance with the terms of the previous Rescript, let him wait for the hundred days of mourning to be accomplished and then return at once to take charge of his post. Let there be no further persistence in refusal.
(2) Memorial from Ting Pao-chen, Governor-General of Szechuen, containing a high recommendation of Hua Lien-hui, a District magistrate who has rendered most valuable services in dealing with the difficulties and intricacies of the salt trade, by which the provincial revenue from this source has been greatly benefited. A Rescript has already been published in the Gazette creating Hua Lion-hui an expectant prefect.
(8) The Governer of Chekiang represents that the taxes to be remitted to Peking from hi ce are this year assessed og 100,000
Total... $80,000
The Provincial Treasurer now reports that the total amount of land tax that should properly be collected from lands, is some 2,120,000 tat but the amount actually collected falls far short of this computation and, indeed, barely suffices to defray the current expenses of the provincial administration. It will thus be seen that it is impossible to remit to Poking the sum at which this branch of the revenue is assessed, though every effort will be made to meet the call by retrenchment in expenditure and temporary postponement of undertakings that would otherwise have been set on foot. Rescript:—Set the Board take note.
—A confidential memorial from Military Governor of Kirin, requesting' that he may be allowed to retain in his province, beyond the usual term, several oficial' whose intimate knowledge of the conditions and requirements of the newly constituted administrative divisions render their services almost indispensable. Memorialist prays that, under the uonsnal circumstances of the case, his request may be sanctioned in spite of the technical objoctions advanced by the Board.—Granted by Rescript.
May 3rd.—(1) Th Governor of. Shantung reports that during the last year 610,000 piculs of rice were subscribed by twelve prefectures and departments in his province, to form a store from which the pourer provincials may be relieved in case of drought and famine.—Rescript: Noted.
(2) Memorial from Ch'eng Tuan, a dant of the Ming dynasty, whose family has been invested with the' title of Duke and required to offer periodical sacrifices at the Tombs of the Ming Em-perers. Memorialist complains that, in spite of a recent Imperial Decree, the land in front of the Tombs is stil! cultivated by the farmers in the neighbourhood, and much damage is caused by the reckless falling of timber. He feels it his duty
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.