January 14th.—Early in the present Chinese year an order was sent to all the provinces requiring them to coin " prescribed number of cash of the standard weight of one mace each. On the receipt of these instructions the Governorof Kiangsi sent an officer to Shanghai to purchase supplies of copper and lead. Suficient materials having been procured, a mould and a pattern form of cash were obtained from Peking, and the work of coinage was started about six week ago at Nan-ch'ang-Fu. The Governor states that he visited the mint and personally impressed upon the directors and workmen the importance of turning out strong and solid coins with polished rims and well-cut holes in the centre. He now forwards ten specimens of the new cash to the Privy Council to be submitted to the inspection of the Emperor, and a like number is to be sent for examination by the Boards concerned. Should the result prove satisfactory, he proposes to go on with further castings and take measures for placing the cash in circulation as may meet the interests of the people and safeguard the currency system, POISONING OF SIX PLOPLE IN ONE HOUSEHOLD.
January 15th.—(1) Chang Ssu-yin-tzit was a day labourer in the department of K'o-luan in Shansi, who was put to straits to gain a livelihood. He had a second cousin named Chang Wan-ta living in the neighbourhood, to whom he made many unsuccessful applications for the loan of money. Two years ago he lost his wife, and, being without funds, asked his cousin to help him to procure a coffin.. The latter not only refused to do so, but jeered at his poverty; Early this year he again wanted 1is cousin to lend him money, and offered a donkey which he brought with him as security for the loan. Wan-ta got very angry, said he would rid himself of this continual trouble, and had the applicant tied up with the idea of sending him to the authorities for punishment. Eventually, however, he yielded to the intercession of some friends: and released Chang Ssit-yin-tzu. The incident so exasperated the latter that he determined to have his revenge. One day, when in town, he went into druggist's establishment and bought four ounces of arsenic, with which he was going, he said, to poison slugs in a piece of ground he was putting in crop. sonic night he went to his cousin's house and effected an entrance through a hole he made in the wall. Finding a pot of flour in the room he filled a small bag he had with part of the contents, and mixed the arsenic with what remained in the pot. Next mornin hen the family got up, they notice the hole in the wall, but as nothing was missing but a few catties of flour, they looked upon the matter merely as a petty larceny. As usual, the breakfast was made out of flour in' the pot, and very soon after it was over the whole household began to suffer from vomiting and violent pains in the stomach, The neighbours were called in, but in spite of every effort to save their lives, six of the seven persons who partook of the food died from the effects of the poison, Suspicion having fallen upon Chang Ssti-yin-tait_ he decamped, and remained in hiding until he was arrested. He has been sentenced to death by the slicing process under the law applicable to the murder of three or more persons in the same family. As regards the sale of poison, the law is that the son by whose carelessness in selling it for mere gain without ascertaining the antecedents of the purchaser murder may be effected, shall receive 80 blows, and this is the sentence that has been passed in the present case.
SALT "LEKIN" IN HUPEM, (2) Hupeh draws its supply of salt from Svechuen and the South Huai District, Tu former days, before the Taiping rebellion disorganised the salt administration, the whole of the province was supplied from the South Huai, and Szechuen salt is still considered to be in temporary possession of the area that ought to be supplied from the Huai salt avorks. Three years ago an additional lekin levy of three cash per catty was imposed upon Szechuen salt coustnned in Hupeh. The object was to place the Szechuen and Huai Nan article on an equal footing, and to provide funds for coast de-
applied some time ago for the discon-fence purposes. The Viceroy of Szechuen tinuance of this additional impost, but the Governor of Hupeh asked that it should be retained for some time longer to supply the subsidy which his province had to furnish to the Board of Admiralty in Peking. The lekin which Huai Nan derives from Szechuen salt that has invaded the area it originally held in Hupeh was continued on the same scale as that levied by the Hupeh government, and it was intended that both imposts should be reduced simultaneously, The Hupeh authorities have now received sanction to continue the additional tax for some time longer in order to provide funds for the Emperor's marriage, and the Governor General at Nanking asks that the lekin levied by Huai Nan on Szechuen salt may also be maintained at the higher rate so as to equalise the price of the two salts and 4 reaching upon the area originally assigned prevent Szechuen from still further en-
to Huai jan,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.