A Decree.—We are in receipt of a memorial from Ch'ang-shun, the Military Governor of Kirin, in which he asks per mission to select a site on which to erect a building for his own private residence, the one which he previously occupied having been destroyed by fire. We have already referred to the' Board the question of rebuilding the Government. offices ut Kirin which was submitted to Us in the Governor's previous memorial. Having regard to the serious nature of the catastrophe, which consumed over 2,000 houses and left a large number of people homeless, it might have reasonably been expected that Ch'ang-shun,.as the responsible officer on the spot, would have felt it his duty to realise his own shortcomings and to make every effort to provide for the destitute people, On the contrary, his thought for his own private residence, which he considers to have been unfortunately situated as it was close to the bustle and stir of the town. The geomancers having pronounced the site to be unlucky, he makes a suggestion for the selection of a larger one in the same neighbourhood, and indulges in nonsensical talk about the new one being less exposed to risk from fire. Instead of assuming the humble attitude becoming in such " grave crisis, the Governortakesadvantageof the opportunity to enter upon wild plans for enlarging his private residence, Seeing that, ecordiny, to his own admission, the jail, public officers, and treasury escaped without, damage, his unseenily" haste about restoring his own dwelling place is all the more inexplicable. We therefore reject his application and beg to remind him that it will be his duty hereafter to devote his whole attention to the interests of the people over whan he rules and thus soe his appreciation of the Imperial favours of which he has been the recipient. Should he fail to reform his conduct and still persist in his former recklessness, he will be punished most unsparingly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.