The senior president of the Censorate presents a memorial on behalf of certain metropolitan officials belonging to the province of Yunnan protesting against the honours conferred on Ma Ju-lung as his services were not of so brilliant a nature as to make up for his previous crimes. compiler, Wei Li-chieh, a Hanlin bachelor, The petitioners, Ch'en Ssu-lin, a Hanlin
and others state that Ma Ju-lung was a loafing good-for-nothing of Chienshui in the Livan prefecture whom nobody in the village could abide. When in the 6th ear of Hsien Feng, Tu Wen-hsin's rebel-ion broke out and Tuli was captured, Ch'u-hsiung formed the only barrier between the rebels and the provincial capital, so that every effort was made to place' i ina thorough state of defence and it was owing mainly to the admirable means of prevention adopted by the Commander-i chief Ch'u Ko-ch'ang that Tu was held in check. Eventually however Tu entered into secret arrangement with MaJu-lung which resulted in the Istter seizing Linen and Kuangt'ung with a large body of troops and pressing forward to Beneath the walls of Ch'uhsiung, After a siege of forty days he succeeded in exploding " mine beneath the walls and the rebels poured into the cit; Forty thousand of the inhabitants were put to the sword, the women were dishonoured and the whole city burned. More than twenty otticials perished in this awful massacre, Ch'u now that Ch'u-hsiung had fallen was without resources and shortly afterwards was killed in an engagement Mitu. With this success Tu Wen-hsin's fortunes revived and thirty-two cities fell into his hands one after the other. The misery that filled the province of Yunnan at that time is to be attributed to Ma no less than to Fu. In the 10th moon of the same year Ma sallying forth from Ch'u-hsiung suddenly made his appear an: Before the provineal capital, burned its suburbs and slaughtered the inhabitants all round about the city. Hsii Chih-ning, the Governor, who was afterwards degraded tried to come to terms with him and offered him the rank of Brigade General if be would join the Imperialist side. Ma consented and came into the city but arrogated to himself the style of sino fantry and cavalry soldiers in the Thr Yi (S3M). He rode in a yellow chair and in all things did as he pleased, When the late Governor-General P'an To came to Yunnan he persuaded hint to change his title to that of Prov commander-in-Chief and to use a gee chair as being more appropriate, Ma outwardly agreed to do so but was deeply a noyed in his heart and on. the pretext executing his revenge on Lin An he with-drow a number of troops from the capital to attack that city. During his absence the Mahometan rebels under Ma Jung forced their way into the provincial capital a1 put Pan To to death, It is said thi this was done with the connivance o Julung. There does not to the petitioners appear any doubt on the subject; the facts speak for themselves, The late Governor General Ts'en Yii-ying who was then Acting Treasurer, made an appeal to Ma Ju-lung's better feelings and eventually induced him to drive the rebels, out of the capital. It is thus seen that the merit of having delivered the province capital is not to be ascribed to Ma Ju-lun lone. When in the 7th year of Teng hih, Tu Wen-hsin again appeared before Yunnan, Ma who was in the city was like a rat with two holes; he did not know what to do. He was on the point of deserting to the enemy when the Brigade General Li Wei-shu came to the rescue of the garrison and put several of the traitors to death. When Tsen Yiying arrived at the capital from El ching, he was so successful in stirring up the soldiers to sense of their duty that they gradually got the better of the enemy and forced him to retire. Ma Ju-lung seeing how the fortune of war was turning was thus forced to go and fight likewise against his old friends in order to justify himself in the eyes of those with whom he was serving. Having Deen accidentally wounded by a cannon ball he took the earliest opportunity of return ing to the capital and nursing his wound while the work of raising the siege was carried out by other leaders,—Public opinion is unominous in its verdict that his services di not in the least atone for his previous crimes. Those who presented the petition asking that posthumous honours be conferred on him, who are they but a lot of small traders? The principal of them, Wang Chih-hsiang, recommended for the rank of Prefect, used to have a small exchange shop in Chungki He and his other ce-petitioners, lea out of sight the vile treachery with Ma began his career, touch only on such services of his as were rendered in cooperation with others to whom all the glory and credit are due. Were those fionours which by Imperial Decree have been conferred on him not cancelled, it is tobe feared that the ten thousands of innocent souls he has sent to Hades would unable to close their eyes for indigna-Petitioners would therefore pray that' memorialist would make representations to the Throne and endeavour to obtain a revocation of the decree already issued~-Decree published separately.
24th November,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.