DESPATCH, March 27th.—Memoirials addressed to the Throne from the Provinces are forwarded in small wooden boxes which are protected on both sides by boards fastened together by strips of bamboo. The Board of War recently received one of these packets from the Governor-General at Foochow, which had been opened on_ the way, the box taken out, and nothing but the outer boards left. The Governor: General was instructed to make a full enquiry into the loss of the documents and to forward duplicate copies at once. He now reports that he has communicated with the postal authorities, and directed an investigation to be made stage by stage along the whole route. The missing Memorials are three in number, one reporting the remittance of Tls. 60,000 as a contribution towards the Kansu subsidy, a second announcing the transmission of Ts, 6,000 from the four-tenths of the Customs revenue for supplementing the salaries of Peking ofticials: and a third stating that Tls. 33,000 had been sent from the likin duties on plum towards defraying the expenses of the repairs of the breach in the Yellow River. Duplicate copies of all. these documents have now been furnished.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.