TITLES, July 23rd.—(1) The high authorities of Fuhkien request. thut a limit of time may be fixed within which persons who succeed to hereditary offices may be required to signify their acceptance of the same. It is laid down in the laws that civil or military officers who lose their lives in the service of their country may be granted the hereditary. title of Ch'i-tu-vii or bat n-chi-vii, either of which is given for a certain number of lives, and is followed, when those lives have expired, by the perpetual title of En-ch't-wei. Ifa iminer should succeed to stich x title; as soon as he proves his claim, he is granted, half the allowance of his ra til he reaches the age of eighteen and is presented at Court. This is evidence that those who have a right to such' titles are intended to assume them without, delay. But owing to the scattering of many families during the great rebellion, it frequently happened that descendants of deceased officers were not able to put in their claims till after a delay of many years. The lapse of time which thus occurred, combined with fusion which fendered it impossible pro-the multiplicity of the cases, caused a con perly to investigate each application. The local authorities did their best, and cases of fraud were severely "punished whenever discovered; still, by the connivance of corrupt government clerks many titles have been conferred on persons whose ancestors were not killed in the public service, or have been continued to those who were nob the rightful heirs of the original holders, In the one province of Fuhkien though seventy or eighty per cent. of those whose claims have been approved have not yet received appointments, still there are serving under the provincial standards 350 such oticers, who draw more than Tls. 20,000 of yearly pay. Not only must the difficulty "occasioned to the government be taken into consideration, but, it must be remembered that those whose titles have been legitimately obtained are rightly aggrieved to find their path blocked by number of false claimants who have stepped in before them. The remedies which the Memorialists propose are, first, that the Board of War should fix a limit within which each rank may be claimed son entitled to hold it, and if the limit overstepped the title shall immediately become extinct; secondly, that the number of hereditary elficers on the list. of expectants for appointments be not allowed to exceed 360, each applicant beyond that number waiting till a vacancy occur ini the list, and receiving in the interim half the allowance of his rank; third, that all here~ diary officers, who shall have passed their time of probation with the colours, he required to undergo their examination qualifying for a full appointment within term of three years. If they fail to present, themselves to the examiners within this period, they will be given no further opportunity of doing s0.—Referred by Rescript to the Board of War.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.