Ture is so much that is quite uinteresting to the general reader in the Peking Gazettes, that they are constantly neglected except by actual students of the current history of China, but now and then there are points of special interest. We printed on Monday a decree in reference to affairs in Hainan. Correspondents at Canton report to the foreign papers that no progress of importance has been made in putting down the rising of the aborigines there, but according to this decree, the commanding General, Feng Taii-tsai, has nearly completed the subjugation of Hainan, having chastised the rebels in the eastern, western, and central parts of the island, and captured the rebel leaders. According to this, there is only the south left for him to subdue; but the south may mean the greater part of the island, and as Liu Jung-fuh, the celebrated Black Flag leader, has been ordered to go to General Féng's assistance, it is probable still unsubdued.- However, what General that a very la portion of the island is
Feng has done already has so far earned the gratitude of the Throne that he has been presented with a "white jade thumb-ring, a dagger with a handle of white jade, one pair of large pouches and one pair of small pout We smile at these proofs of his Sovereign's pleasure, but they are not intrinsically less valuable than the right to buy himself a star and a piece of ribbon, which a General wouldreceiveinasimilarcasefrom a European Emperor. The close of the decree, however, contains a still more amusing announcement, It has been pointed out more than once what unnecessary sufferings Chinese troops have to undergo, owing to the entire absence of any medical staff. The Empress would seem to have taken these remonstrances to heart, for in view of the pestilential character of the country in which operations are being carried on, she has ordered that ten boxes of " peace and tranquillity " pills, which have been prepared for Imperial use, shall be bestowed upon the officers and men employed in Hainan. It is to be hoped that the boxes are larger than the pillboxes in common use in Europe, but even so, there seems a touch of sarcasm in sending "peace and tranquillity pills, to. troops fighting savages in a pestilential jungle. They may be however specially appropriate to the peculiar
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.