A. Government Gazette extraordin li afternoon (20th) reich Consul here, of ports of Formosa, It reads as follows PROMEMORIA, sent mis en tat Jes frang-rises sous ment clu Vice-Amiral Cour Hongkong, lo 19 Octobs 1884, The above notifica imation that has been received from of the existence of war bette and China. It is a mont important notification, inasmuch as it puts a stop to all trade with the whole of the Formosan ports, not only in contraband good but in all the articles of commerce. Any neutral vessel now visiting the island will be liable to seizure and, although her cargo may be exempt from confiscation, the vessel self will be a pri ing the block do not think it will be wise on the part of any shipowner practically to test that question.
The blockading of the Formosan ports It can scarcely ch to put Surely i Chinese troops The stoppage of ordinary trade cannot in nos the Chinese Government, while it must caus great annoyance and. in; the neutral powers. The most reasonable explo of the step is that it has been taken by the French to justify the searching of neutral will be seen from a tel have been made to the French Government on the subject, and this notification of a blockade is the result, It is to be devoutly hoped that we are not going to have a repetition in the Far East of the Madagascar proceedings. There are very large commercial interests at atoke in these waters, and the blockade ing of the Formosan ports alone is a serious matter in a mercantile point of vlei Unless the French intend to adopt ti feeble and undignified course of starving ABSTRACT OF PEKING GAAErTES, Soptember11th.—TheGovernorof Kua i reports the erection by public subscription of a temple to the memory of ''san; Heidi, the reputed inventor of the art o writing in the mythical period of antiquiry, and request, that it may by placed on the list of temples at which the local authorities are to offer worship twice a ered to the Board of Ceremonies, reports the occurrence in various places in his jurisdiction attended with loss of lif On the 14th of January a fire broke out in a place called Wen-an Ch'ang in Chien Chen, when forty-seven houses were burnt, On the 23rd of April a fire broke out lace called Sha-ping-ch'ang in the Ya-an istrict when 47 houses were burnt, and another fire ocourred on the 12th of June in one of the main streets of Yachow Fu when 511 houses and shops were destroyed.
21st of April 126 ho were dustroyed by fire in a place in the Department -chow, and on the 23rd of May 103 were burnt down in the Chien-wei District. In the Ling-yuan District a fire broke out on the 22nd of May, when 80 houses were destroyed and two womon burnt to death. Hires also occurred in the following places The Hsin-chin District, with a loss of 80 houses.
The Feng-tu District, with a loss of 77 houses and one man burnt to death; Kuang-an Chou, with a loss of 64 houses.
Local subscriptions have been raised for fingrations, but as that the contributions thus collecte not be sufficient to meet the diatres Memorialist has ordered grants of mone} to be supplied from the different likin collectorates at the places concerned to aid in the relief of the suffer (2) A Memorial from sug Kuo-ch'tian, Acting Governor General at Nanking, praying His Majesty to allow him to defer for the time being compliance with the arrangement made by the Board that a discount shall be levied on all payments on military account. By an arrangement made by the Board, all payments on military account were to be subjected to a discount in lien of the maintenance money" that used to be claimed by the Boards as a feo for passing these accounts, and in accordance with this arrangement, the Kiangsu Military Organisation Office reported to the Memorislist that they proposed to levy a discount of one per cent on the pay of all officers above the rank of Siao-kwai, or Lieutenants in command of the patrols into which ying, or battalions, are divided. All wages for porterage labour
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.