A decree from His Majesty in reply to a Memorial from the Censor Liu Lun-hsiang, praying that certain abuses in conneetion with the Palace examinations may be rigorously suppressed. 'The Court examinations being the grand ordeal for the selection of men of talent, the high examiners are in duty bound to exercise the must perfect impartiality in their scrutiny of the candidates' essays, 40 that none may be improperly passed ox rejected without good cause. If, as alleged by the Censor, public comment has been aroused of late by the increasing prevalence of irregularities at the Palace and Court examinations, the matter is one that calls urgently for stringent reform. Henceforwand the high examiners appointed must the. most scrupulous m of the essays. No rses are faulty in resi es, ur which contain misquotations or characters wrongly written, is in any case to he placed among the first on the list. The several examiners are not to pick out the papers of particular candidates, or pass these over from one to another, so that there may be no possibility of any show of favouritism, All carelessness on their part in the detection of mistakes will incur corresponding punishment, ax soon as His Majesty is made cognisant of the fact. oferring to the practice among candidates of handing in specimens of their verse compositions ws the examiners prior to the actual competition, His Majesty declares that such a proceeding differs in no respect from that of 1 candidate making, private arrangements with an examiner for 8 distinctive mark on his essays. As, how-the high examining officials are all specially appointed by the Throne, His majesty imagines they would not knowingly lend themselves te this or any other form of fraud, and therefore declines to ent tain the Censor's suggestion for the pointment of Imperial Princes and Dukes to act as supervisors at the examinations.
With reference to the Censor's allegati that among the papers sent in by Wen T'ing-shih who passed 2nd on the list at the final competition during the recent lace examination, the mistake in the two: characters ('i mien) [2] fil was not under lined by the examiner, the President of the Board of snonies is directed of refer to the original papers in question, and to report to His Majesty the result of his inspection.
In reply to the Censor's further remarks on the predilection shown of late for the Shao-en, many words, here and there, Veing now written in the seal character, thus enabling the examiners to guess with greater facility the inlentity of the writer, and at the sane thee affording the an opportunity of fulling in with the views of any examiner who is known to have partiality for this style of writing, His Majesty' points out that the regulations governing the conduct of the provincial and metropolitan examinations distinctly prohibit the use of the seal character in any form, as also any alteration in the mode of writing dificult characters, every infraction of this regulation being liable to punishment. The same rule holds good in the case of the Palace examinations, and Any breach of it is to be punished in precisely the same way.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.