December 30th,—(1) A Postscript Memorial from the Governor-General of Szechuen supplementing the periodical return of casualties recently submitted by him with the following cases recently reported to him.
On the night of the 26th of September a fire broke out near and outside the western of the District town of Feng-ta which aggravated by a high wind, causing it to extend to hou fe thy walls, where 1,600 dwel were destroyed and thirty four people were burnt to death, On the night of the 28th of September a fire broke out outside the gate of the town of Fou Chow, during a gale of wind which blew the sparks about and caused the conflagration to extend northwards along the western and northern suburbs of the town, where over three thousand buildin, were destroyed and over a hundred people wore burnt to death.
Again, on the night of the 21st September a fire broke out in the market town of i District, which Aestroyed over a hundred dwelling houses, om porary relief has been afforded by he local authorities and gentry in tance, and the Memorinlist has sent special officers to ascertain the actual amount of damage done and the issue of Government funds to amounts for th tative of the people dino He would add a request that as who have been rendered homeless by these
mishaps above reported were in exch case beyond the power of human effort to control, the authorities i 1d may be spared the li of the penalties to which they are legally liable for accidents of the kind, (2) A Memorial from the acting Governor of Shansi offering a humble tribute of thanks to His Majesty for having graciously permitted him to offer the allomauce granted to the Governor of the province for the prevention of salt smuggling as a mo contribution towards the m ture which is uow pressing so hardly on the State (soe Gazette of Oth and 15 He has uow the honour to report applications have been made to him from the Financial Commissioner and the Salt ut to the effect that it has been mit source of grief to them that they have no households that they can break up and realise upon in order to testify ina humble degree their gratitude to His Majesty for the favours of which they have been the recipients, and they now beg that the allowances attached to their respective offices for the maintenance of a salt preventive service may be applied to military expenditure. These allowances amount in the aggregate to something near Ts, 6,000 yearly. "A similar application has been made by the Prefect of Ch'ang-tha Fu, and in submitting the above requests to His Majesty the Memorialist would respectfully observe that although 10,000 per annum which they represent i asia mere drop of water in a river, the ate of annual collections will be appreciable to warrant the sanction of the request which has been made with all sincerity. There are three other prefectures in Hunan, viz.: Yo-chen, Chfang-te and Ch'éu-chou, to which similar are granted, but the offer to these allowances for the benefit of instructions have hi return shall be compiled for His Majesty of the contributions offered.
Ina Rescript appended to the Memo: the pul tot the officers in question is commended and their offer la accepted. The whole of this day's Gazette is occupy continued in th Commiasi Chi Shit on the result of their inspection of embankments of the Yellow River in Shantung, and furnish ing a detailed answer to all the charges which have lately been the Governor of the pro by various Censors, Memorialist have already reported their movements up to the 10th of October last, and they beg to state in continuation of their final Memorial, that they have inspected all the embankments and jo found in every pond with the specifications and in some places to exceed the charts of the works. have been prepared upon. which the embankments are clearly shown, Daring their passage through the districts in which the distress of the people is the greatest the Memorialists were besieged with applications for relief, and they caused questions to be put to the people on various points in connection with the charges syainat the Governor, besides acquiring information In many other ways direct and indirect.
Phone charges are then cot by one at considerable length, and in every case rotated. The embankments, which were said to be scamped and not up to standard, wore, as stated above, in all cases up to specification and in some cases exceeded the contract dimensions, while in answer to the complaint that reports of certain breaches in the embankments were withheld the Memori of each breach ry peopl public one is equally incorrect. They dismiss the charge that the Governor has caused 1 people to be put to death for cutting portions of the embankment to save their own land with the remark that it would be inexpedient to enquire too closely into the means adopted to prevent the commission of acts which would bring aster to mhatorer the Governor did do, wae und ies convinced them that,
taken with the sole aim of securing the
ability interente of the people to the best of his in the indictment againat the Governor with reference to the wasteful expenditure of Government fands, the execution of inferior work, and the systematic deceit indulged in in his reports to the Throne, together with the oppression and tyranny he is said to have exercised over the people, the Memorialists acquit him of each and all of these charges. They think, however, that, while he acted for the best, he was slightly mistaken in some ews he held, more especially in connection with the outlets provided for letting off the surplus waters of the Yellow River into the sea, The only outlet of this Kind at present provided is at Ning-hai, and they consider that the Governor, who is always open to conviction and ready to do what is best for the public interests, should be called upon to provide a second outlet, Enquiry has also proved the fallacy of the charges that the poople.were not paid for the earth they provided in the construction of the embankments or for the land which was absorbed by the latter. 'The charge against the Governor with regard to the holding of a theatrical enter. tainment and banquet is found to be equally exag 'Theatrical pieces but they merely' took the form of a thank: were, it is true, performed on a certain day,
offering to the God of the River on the completion of the}works; and, as a matter of fact, the breaches alluded to in the indict. ment did not occur on the date or's yamnéu was sieged by the majority of the officials in the province at New Year's time to pay ingratiatory visits, teen exacted from these officials by gate porters or others in the Governor's yamen, he abore denial in made on the strength of the gate-man's visitora' book, which was inspected, and the personal assurances of a number of officials, The Momorialiats finally proceed to consider a boat of pottly charges brought against the Governor and his subordinates, such as "squeezing" on the part of cortaint individuals in the issue of material accused have found to be guilty of indis-
January Int,—(1) A Decree ordering in poraon, often Tie fis ow to be made on the h His Majesty will join at the Ta Kao of the Imperial (8) A Decree acknowledging the re of @ memorial from the Censor liao char.ing the local authori nan with sending in false returns of bad harvest from various causes, and appro-printing the land tex which' they collect though' remitted by special command, together with other acts of peculation and fraud. The condemnation up. conduct of this nature is passed by and the Governor of Honan is subject of searching enquiry, denounce any authorities who may be found to deserve the stigma that has been passed them, The high authority of other proces are also enjoined to ave to it that malpractices do not exist in their lotions, The remainder of Hung-chang reporting the following caro of murder in the Nan-kung District of the of Chibli.
The murderer, Han Ta-sheng, lived with his father Han' Wen-chieh, but was froquently away beyond the Wall, where he jot jobs of work todo. During his absence om home some four years ago, the father, Han Won-chieh, formed a liaison with the wife of a mau called Chao, a fellow villa, who however was iguol improprieties with Hau Wéu-chieh. the return of Han Ta-sheng to his home last winter he heard a com mount of gossips in the village father's improper intimacy with the wife of the man Chao, and his suspicious were confirmed by the discovery of a leather
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.