The Governor of Hupeh states that the embankment at Chingchoufa has given much cause for anxiety this summer and autumn, This important river-wall, known as the great Mau-cheng Dyke, protects the whole prefecture and a wide tract of country beyond, which would otherwise be liable to inundation from the Yangtze. Strong freshets came down from Szechuan during the past month and were prevented from escaping eastwards because the stream below was plucked by the usual quantity of water issuing from Han River and its affluents, The river rose to an extraordinary height, and the situation was aggravated by the long-continued rains and violent winds which occurred locally. The embankment was frequently endangered by the force of the current and the waves; but it was safely preserved by the watchfulness and energy of the local authorities, The river is now falling and all danger is past.—Noted.
12th and 13th January.
ABUSES CONNECTED WITH THE LEVY OF THE
LAND TAX, A Censor recently represented to the Throne the deep-seated abuses which exist in connection with the levy of the grain tax throughout the Empire, and suggested that the high provincial authorities should be held responsible for exercising proper surveillance over the action of their subordinates in the matter. When any remission or postponement of the collection of the tax is sanctioned by the Emperor, a copy of the Imperial Edict nade out on yellow paper ought by established usage to be posted widely in the form of a proclamotion for general information, The rules on the subject leave nothing to be desired in the way of completeness, but their enforcement becomes in the hands of the local authorities an instrument of the ssost abuses, The lists of the districts for which exemption from the tax is claimed are too often falsified, and what is worse, the officials take care nut to post the Im: penal proclamation until they have coljected the tax in full. The revenue is lost to the State and goes into the pockets of the hangers-on about the yamens. The Emperor expresses his abhorrence of this aystem of fraud, and addresses in stereotyped Iniguage an injunction to the Viceroys and Governors of the various provin-in which he calls upon them to de-nce for punishment all district officers who may be guilty of such villainy in future. 'This step will, His Majesty hopes, serve to check official' depravity and alleviate to sume degree the burdens of the people.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.