Tue extract from a letter from a Catholic Priest in Honan, which we publish today, describes a very serious state of affairs in the districts which were overflowed by the Yellow River last year. The accounts in the letter from the Chinese Relief agent in the province, which we lately reproduced from the Shen-pao, did not draw such a gloomy picture of the condition of the people there would be immense distress later on. though it prepared us to learn that Unfortunately we have heard little of the afflicted districts for some months, and we should think that' the distribution of relief by the officials and the wages eared at the works on the river—inadequate as both way have beeu—pene distress reaching an acute form until some few weeks ago,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.