"REPAIRS, Wa Ta-ch'éng takes credit to himself for having personally superintended all receipts and disbursements in connection with the breach in the Yellow River, and states that the perquisites for the Board of Revenue have, to avoid confusion, been Kept in a separate account, totally distinct from the public one, The amount of the expenditure, however, is so Jarge and those engaged upon the work find it such a good opportunity for making money that it is impossible to ascertain from outside sources the amount which reaches the pockets of the clerks in the Board. There is no large surplus in the public account, and although a secret remittance of, for instance, Tls. 100,000 for the use of the clerks of the Board would be considered by the officers engaged in the work as. customary proceeding justified by precedent, yet from memorialist's standpoint it could only be regarded as a squandering of public money. Besides, such a large amount could not remitted by bills to Peking without becoming generally known, and memorialist, who is scrupulous in all his dealings, is not prepared to take upon himself the' responsibility for the faults of others, which, if challenged, he could not justify to the Emperor. After much reflection, therefore, he has decided to report the bare facts to the Throne and to suggest that, in accordance with the precedent established by Chang Chi-tung when GovernorofShansi, anallowanceof Ts. 40 forever Tls. 10,000 spent on the work be given to the Clerks in the Board, and that the allotment of this sum should be undertaken by the Heads of the Department. The arrangement, however, should not be taken as a precedent in cases of ordinary disbursements elsewhere.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.