(Specially translated for the North-China Herald.)
22nd December.
IMPERIAL DECKEE, 'Tée Ling, a ceremonial usher, is at the instance of the Grand Chamberlain to be delivered to the Board for punishment for that he did yesterday conduct in an improper manner a certain portion of the services in connection with the solemn sactitices on the occasion of the Winter Solstice.
CASE OF ABDUCTION, Towards the end of June in the present year Tsing Yao-erh, a us tive of Mienyang Chou, Hupeh, fell in with " certain man named Yang and whilst strolling along together they began total about their extreme poverty atid the difficulty they found in mak-intends meet. Amongst other suggestions 'Tseng proposed that they should yet hold of some young girl sell her, and divide the proceeds. Yang' hereupon stated that he was very intimately acquainted with a man named Liu Hsin-yun, who had a daughter about ten years old, just the sort of thing they wanted, and that he was willing to aesist in carrying her off. They then invited three others, Chang I-liang, Hsiao Yin-kou and Liu San-lin, to join in their plot, and fixed on the first of July as the day for carrying it into execution, On the day appointed Tseng appeared at the rendezvous armed with some foreign matches, " sharp knife and an iron measuring rod, Liu and Hsiao carried wooden staves, but the others came empty-handed. At midnight they proceeded to Liu Hsin-yun's house, which was entered by Tseng accompanied by Liu and Heine, Chang and Yang waiting for them outside. It so happened that the master of the house was absent on a visit to some friends at T'ienmén and the only people at home were the girl and her myther, who were of course unable to offer any resistance. Once they had obtained possession of the child they were in some doubt as to what to do with her, but eventually agreed to ship her off to Hankow and sell her there. This they accordingly did, and on arrival there they took lodgings and set about finding a purchaser, assisted by a fallow villager Ch*en-hsiang, who was induced by a promise of part of the proceeds to lend them his assistance. Before, however, they had managed to effect the sale of the girl, Tseng, Chang, and Ch'en were arrested by the police, who had been set on their track by Liu' Hsin-yun, and were brought before the Wuch'ang Prefect for trial. The result of this trial was that Ts¢ng was summarily put to death for having plotted to abduct a girl, and Chang was sentenced to death by strangulation after the autumn assizes for acting ashisaccomplice. Chen who rendered them assistance in Hankow was thus made a participator in their crime and has been sentenced to 100 blows and banishment to a distance of over 3,000 Li.
23rd and 24th December.
REPORT OF THE HONAN COMMISSION, K'un Kang and Ch'ien Ying-p'u report the result of the mission of enquiry into certain matters in Honan on which they were sent by direct orders from His Majesty in person. They afterwards received from the Grand Secretariat a copy of the original memorial of indictment, whilst en route they received at Chochou copy of an Imperial Decree dated the 28th of October, summarising the various points of the indictment and directing them to enquire into these matters and report_in full, They arrived at the provincial capital of Honan on the 13th of November, and immediately set to work with their secretaries to go into the various details, and after having personally examined the Provincial Treasurer Liao Shou-feng, the Provincial Joige Oh'ang Lz, and the Protech of K'aiféng Wu Ch'ing-shou, they have now humbly to present the result of their investigations.
(1) In the memorial of indictment it is stated that Lien Ying, the district magistrate of Linchang, made a report with regard to locusts in his district, which was not accepted as true by his immediate superior Hsieh Tsu-yuan, the Prefect, who sent a deputy to enquire into the matter. This had such an effect on Lien's mind that he became insane and killed his wife. When the Governor got to hear of this he was of opinion that undue pressure had been ex-excised by the Prefect, and sent officers to arrested the tweiynan whom he had sent to make enquiries along with the prefect's private secretary, with the result that Hsieh died of grief and shame. As this charge had for its origin a ion of locusts, memorialists made it their duty to sift the matter from the very beginning and they find that in the 5th moon of the present year Hsieh Tsu-vian, the Prefect of Chang-t'é, learned that locusts had made their appearance in certain villages in the Rei-huang district. As Linchang immediately adjoins Keihuang he directed Lien Ying to make a report on his district, As Lien reported that no locusts had been found in the Linchang villages the Perfect was afraid that this could not be accurate as the whole of the neighbouri country was swarming with them, an sent deputies on two occasions to' make enquiries, which it was clearly his duty to do. These reported that Lien's statements were in accordance with fact and that no locusts were to be seen. When a month later, Lien Ying in a fit of insanity killed his wife, the Governor, afraid lest this fit might have been brought on by the locust affair, sent an expectant Prefect to make enquiries. This was but natural in the interests of the public, and no blame can attach to him on that account. In his rescript on the Changte Prefect's report she simply asked for fuller particulars; nothing was said about arresting the deputy or his private secretary. Hsieh Tsu-yuan moreover died on the 22nd of August, and the servant who reported his death stated that it was due to a carbuncle which the doctors were unable to cure. The -tory that he died of grief and shame is thus proved to be inaccurate.
District Magistrate, Kuo Ping-hsin, hi (2) TI e second charge, that the Yenchin; poisoned himself under very suspicious circumstances is thus explained. In the 7th moon of the 15th year Kuo Ku-t'ao, the holder of the substantive appointment as Yenching Hsien, was transferred to act at Shangcheng and Kuo Ping-hsin
time being. When he took over charge was appointed to take his place for the he signed a deed stating that the accounts were all in order, but when in the 4th moon of the Present your Kuo, Keut'ao returned to his post he found defalcations in the accounts amounting to over Tls. 3,300. Ping-hsin being unable to clear off this amount, took poison and died. All this was duly reported at the time and a formal enquiry made. Memor-laiists see no reason to doubt the statement made by the Governor in his memorial to the Throne that Kuo Ping-hsin committed suicide on account of his inability to make good the deficiencies in his accounts.
(3) The third charge is that of the scandal caused by the daughter of an old woman named Ma living in the Governor's yamen, and the peculiar way in which the assassin who made an attempt n the Governor's life was got out of the in order to hush up disagreeable evidence which might have come out at his trial. The Governor when questioned replied as follows: " When I was Provincial Treasurer for Honan the pedlar-woman' Ma was never in the ambit of frequenti* my yamen, nor do I find it on record tint the late Governor Tu Tsung-ying ord ered. her expulsion. When last year I too?. over charge of my present post it is true one of my female servants was named Ko, but I deny thatshe married her son toa daughter of the woman named Ma." This was corroborated by the evidence giv yen by the Provincial Treasurer and the Provincial Judge. An examination of the archives shows that Wang Yung-sheer.g, the soldier of the Governor's escort who: miede an attack on his life, was under ¢} ye influence of drink when' he did so, "He was strictly examined by the Kaifeng Prefect and thy evidence was called of or.v of his comrades who lived in the same room with him, The next day, howaret " he died of heat apoplexy anda regular inquest was held by the' Histangtu Heron, All this was duly reported bythe Gover nor atthe time and the charges are thus pzcived to be groundless, (4) The fourth paragraph states that the Governor allows his servants to exact a gate jueeze vf Ths. 48 from every subordinate who comes to the yamen, and that the amount paid by the "Shou" Hsien (i.e. the Hsien in whose district: the provincial capital is situated) is so large that even the Women-servants get their share of the spoil. The Fant'ai and Nieht'ai were directed to enquire into this matter and they report that at the yamen it is the duty of that the Governor's servants have nothing the yee officials to receive visitors, to do with the gate, and that they never heard of any squecwze having been levied there. The Kiangfu Hsien on being inter-togated likewise stated that lhe had never distributed money amongst the servants, male or female, The fifth charge is that of unlawfully establishing a likin station in the Tang district and thus causing a disturbance. This is explained in the followin, manner. Yiiant'anchen or Yiianyiinch'en in the Fang district is situated just above Shech'i in the Nanyang district, In the 3rd moon of last the officer in charge of the Shech'i- likin office found that the revenue-of his station was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.