The Memorialist, on his arrival in Shanai, asked what were the hardships of the officials, by way of learning those of the people." The universal answer he received was that the general contribute was the burden of the magi. This system cannot legally be abolished, as the public service expenses of the whole province depend on it. Several former governors considered how to abolish it, or how to provide other mei plying the public service. The amount has varied from time to time; at present there are contri. butions for seventeen purposes, which the Memorialist enumerates. These are chiefly the extra expenses of the public examinations, of the administration of justice or the transport of the provincial supples in kind to the Imperial Exchequer, The total amount may be put at Tle, 100,000. Tea indeed the chief burden of the officials. The Magistrates of Departments and Districts, not having the means to meet these demands, either misapply the regular funds, or borrow whatever they can from other sources, If they do forward the full amount, it is only by denuding themselves of all their resources, or even, in some cases, by illicitly levying money from the people, or by taking bribes, or by selling justice in Inwauits, The Memorialist, in is desire to purify the administration of Shansi, had first to do away with contribution system, that the Magistrates might not be driven by necessity, on the one hand, to grind down the people, or on the other, to embarrass the State by their defalcations, Shansi is a very poor province, its mout fertile opata being far inferior to the land of other provinces. The reduction of allowances and salary, and the additional burden of the contributions have made excellent mon fow and upright men scarce among the officials. The complications im the accounts on a change of officers, 0 loft ten years without sot-official are doprei being entangled in cases in which dofaultfavo absconded; not one delights in the upright fulfilment of his duty. For some months the magistrates throughout the province, in obedience to the Memorialist's orders, considered what contributions could be abolished, what curtailed. 'A plan of action has now boon decided on, and a special office, thet "Clear Source Bureau," eatablisho tion of the contributions ort of other sources of supply Tint concludes by stating owing on account of contributions cannot be exacted, the proper funds for prossing necessities are constantly found to be wanting, because they have been used to supply the deficit in the contributions, Thus the contribution system, in the first instance, injures the officials, andin the end, rains the finances, The accounts connected with it, alone of all the revenue records of Sha are complicated and confused; the p joint of money owing has been deferred, other sums have been applied to mest the distinguished. ili charges; the old and now debts are not aystem offers the widest field for ti rogueries of clerks and the cunning embezzlements of underlings.—Rescript: Let the proper Board consider and report.
(8) Ming-an reports a ease of extortion, Yung-ching, a noble of the 8th rank, an officer of the Erh-tao River barrier, took advantage of the prohibition, at present in force, against the slaughter of plough-oxen, to frighten a man, named Hsin Ch'ang-Ving, @ pedlar whose cart was drawn by oxen, into paying him a bribe to be allowed to pass. Hsin Ch'ang-ling, when further demands were made on him, complained to the authorities. The case was tried, and the money ordered to be repaid. The dismissal of Yung-ching is requested and granted.
September Ist.—(1) A Decros, in reply to the Memorial of Censor Li Ying, who advocates the establishment of a system for the be TE of the increase in the number of salt warrants in Huai-an prefecture, commanding the Board of Revenue to consider and report.
(2) A Decree, in reply to a Memorial from Wei Jung-kuang, directing the State Historiographor's Office to include in the Record of Scholars (fpf fi!) the biography of Liu Hsi-tsai, originally Secretary of the Supervisorate of Iustruction, afterwards Literary Chancellor in Kuangtung, from which post he retired on account of ill health. Ho was afterwards head of the Lung Men College at Shanghai.
(3) Postscript Memorial from Chang Chih-tung, requesting that the Lu-an silk, lustring, and paper which Shansi ought by law to supply to the capital, may be commuted for the payment of the legal price, the legal carriage allowances and the Boards' ration allowances. The above articles the Memorialist observes are of little value, and far inferior to the articles of the same kind produced in other pro-'The cost of supplying them is for imes, for lustring and for paper ton times, the legal cost. The famine, moreover, has scattered the workmen or caused them to abandon the work, so that now instead of the 1,000 spinners formerly in Tse-chou, there is butene. The carriage of these bulky articles, especially when the extra weight of the packing cases and the oxcart's baggage is considered, costs vast sums, which have to be contributed by the whole provinces. If one district fails to forward its quota of the expenses, the entire transport is stopped. The supply is, consequently, many years in arrear.
alist points out that, with the increased steamer-communication of the present time, any article can be procured cheap and goyd in the City, and therefore proposes the Boards of Works and of Ro ne should buy the articles required there. This course will at once save the Boards the trouble of pressing for the supply from Shansi, and the people and officials of Sha the burden of manufacture, contribution, and escort. To show that such a step is not unprecedented the Memorial concludes with the history of the successive abolitions and re-enforcements of the supply of thi articles from the reign of present time.
(4) Postscrip! 1 from Chang Chih-tung, reporting the measures he has taken to lighten the coreée on the five great roads of Shansi. This, the Memorialist remarks, was the measure that pressed most cruelly on the people. In large districts 50,000 strings of cash used to be levied for this purpose, which sum was all divided _amongat the offici and clerks. In the Districts along the highroads were established cart depots," where the horses and mules and the carts exacted from the surrounding country were imyunded, and those of travellers d ed. he officials at these depots with blackmail on passers-by or extorted a fixed sum at regular intervals—o.g. several thousand cash a month on a cart. The result of this was that Shansi was shunned by all carters, muleteers and the like. Yen Ching-ming regulated the corves on the southwest road; and, fearing lest the insatiable greed of the underlings might cause the rules he laid down to be disregarded, the Memorialist has anew enjoined on the various magistrates to observe them, and to send up return of come and expenditure under this head to the Governor every month, The exactions on the other highroads have now been dono away with, after deliberation, With the assistance of various officials the Memorialist sent to the chief localities on each. Offices for the regulation of the supply of animals, ete., required, have been established, which are to be self supporting, funds for the purchase of post horses, where necessary, have been provided, and illegal fees' abolished. Since the fourth moon not one order for impounding a cart or a mule has boon issued, These reforms, says the Momorialiat, have saved natives and and travellera alike large annual sums; the abolition of the depots has caused general joy, and there is an unbroken line of travellers moving north and south. The Memorialist requests a Rescript ordering all Government officials and soldiers to obey the new regulations in their requisitions of carts and horses, The prosoutation. of articles for the use of the yamens, the supply of food and money to the runners by the headmen of the hamlets to which sent, the sale of subpoenas in lawsuits, the victimizing of the tich—malpractices of long-standing in Shansi—together with assessments for pretended public works or, for the revisal of the gazetteer—extortion-ato customs that have sprung up since the Famine—have all been abolished and prohibited. (Seo Gazette of August 2nd.
(6) The Oftico of Gendarmerie reports the native of Sheng-hsien in Shantung, sent following appeal case. Ydu Feng-ko, 0 his relative, Yen Chien-i to the capital t complain of the following circumstance Pug Showling, a rich bully of. the neighbourhood, bribed P'éng Hsiang-ling, and Wang Ch'ing-yang to deceive and hoodwink the mother of a young cousin. of the petitioner's, with the design of making the gid his concubine; the mother, however, would not consent. On this Peng Shou-ling, without any authority from the girl's family, ordered P'ng Yuan-chen to take a letter fixing the marriage day, which, however, was sent back. Peng Hsiang-ling abused the mother, and refused to take the letter back. The girl,
commit suicide, and ut the letter. hoacing of this made repented atiempte P'éng Hsiang-ling again sent a woman of the Li family to abuse and insult the gir who, in her shame and wrath, hanged herself.' The complainant petitioned the magistrate to hold an inquest. He sum-moued the parties, but only beat some and released the others. The of is still pending, and the petitioner faction at the magist: conduct, has sent his relation to appeal.—Referred in the usual mann September 2ad.—(1) A Decree, in reply to a memorial from Pu-lion, who that over thirty of the sacrificial v in store at the Eastern Mansel wanting, and requests a severe committing him and his colleag oper Yaméus for severe punishment. he officers in charge, and the soldiers on guard, are to be denounced and punished, The thieves are to be caught within a prescribed time, as well as those who short time ago committed a robbery at tomb of a concubine of the Emperor Kienlung.
(2) Memorial from the Tuspecting Censors of the Central Division of the city, Kuohisiu and Hu Lung-hsin, The Momo: received from the Grand Council a pri Deere, issued on 4th August 1882, stating that the Inspecting Censors of the Northern Division reported, that on 27th July about the rowdies Thick-head Clansman Pin-chiang, nicknamed 'Little Pin,' to get together some score of armed. fellows, engage in a free fight in the Yen-chia Lane, and stop passengers at the mouth of the lane; that the said clansman and his companies were audacious enough the next night, in the neighbourhood of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.