July 11th.—One of the Censors represents that brigandage has become of frequent occurrence in Honan, and that in order to preserve order either more troops ought instantly to be enlisted or else some regiments be moved up from Shantung. He says that as many as 1,600,000 persons were thrown into distress by the floods last year, and that among such a number some. must be persons of bad character.
taken for guarding the public peace, Unless therefore most careful measures be widespread disturbances cannot fail to occur, At the end of last year brigades of Inbourers were enrolled for work at the Yellow River. These men, 3,000 in number, were nominally distressed countrymen, but in reality at least half were disbanded soldiers. At the beginning of April one portion of the conducting canal having been completed, and the remainder Doing in a fair way to be finished also, 2,000 men were thereupon discharged from their work, Anumber of them gathered in oband, proceeded to chu-hsien Chen, and plundered three shops there. Two days afterwards they attacked the house of a man named Ton, killed him and cut up his body, and also killed two servants. Next day a band of some 200 men armed with all sorts of the house of one Liu ching-pin in T'aik'ang Hsien, plundered and burnt it, and wounded several persons. Then they attacked the house of a gentleman named Liu Tzu, breaking down the courtyard wall, swarming over the roofs, firing guns, and throwing tiles. The owner trying to escape from an upper window fell to the ground and received an injury which brought on blood-spitting. Having spent several hours in ransacking the place, the robbers at length departed, carrying with them more than ten thousand taels' worth of property, and blowing-up several rooms with gunpowder before they went. The Magiatrate arrived on the scene in the evening but the men were then gone, and nothing resulted from his visit. 'Three more houses are Known to have been pillaged the same day, and two the next, How many more suffer: ed cannot be said, as the authorities compel the unfortunate' people to report their reports cases as thefts instead of robberies with violence, and so many of them dare not come forward. In Chenliu and Chi Hsien highway robbery has become common and travellers are afraid of the road even in the day-time, It seems to the Memorialist most deplorable. that scenes should follow the calamity of the floods, and he begs that measures may be taken to put an end to them without delay.
In thesame Gazette is published the reply of the Govetnor of Honan, to whom aco} of the above Memorial had been sent. The Governor states that the labourers' brigades contained as many as 5,200 men, almost all of whom were sufferers from the floods brought with them certificates to that effect, There might well have been some old soldiers among them; as it har been the custom from time to time to enlist troops locally when required, and to disband them when their services ate no longer needed a man could thus be an old soldier and a distressed labourer as well. 2,600 men were discharged, as the Censor states, some.at the works and some at Chu-hsien Chen, where they had been marched for 9 that purpose. But there was no plundering of three shops; audit is thought that the origin of the tale must have been in slight disturbance, which has already been reported to the Throne and which was suppressed by the shooting of a man by General Tung Ming-li. The next case appears to refer toa robbery, which took place however just a month before the date given; when the house of one T'ien Kang-shu was entered in the middle of the night. The owner's son was killed, but his body was not cut up, and two servants wounded, but not mortally. The house of Liu Tzi was really broken into by several dozen men on
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.