October 9th.—A Memorial from the President of the Board of Civil Office and his colleagues recommending the form of penalty to be awarded te the Govemor-Zeneral and Financial Commissi One of the regula venue Inys down that an officer w clear up his accounts when handing over charge of a post is not to receive any other substantive or acting appointment, or to be ial capacity whatsoever. med Lu Chiing-yun acted for a little over a year as Magistrate of the Chin-chiang District and managed in that short time to embezzle a sum of river Ts. 12,150. Barely a month after he Financial Commissioner to take up. th gutted this post, he was allowed by the
substantly gistrate {the P'ing-nan District in direct defi of the regulations framed by the Load. It is considered probable that he 1 ken advantage of this opportunity to make good his previous defalcations, and, at all events, the example of an officer who has committed such enormous frauds settling down quietly at another post is searcely such as to exercise a deterrent influence on other members of the service, The offence of which the r-General and the financial commissioner are con-viered for making the above appointment is considered to be the same as that of screening a subordinate, and the Mem rialists suggest that they should exch be deprived of three steps of commutative rank and be transferred to other busts. They add that as the Governor-General Yang Ch'ang-chun had already been sentenced to deprivation of rank and retention at his post on account of the mishap at the Pescadores, permanent removal from office should in his case be substituted for the Prefecture, where he settled down with his family. Shortly afterwards he was seized with an attack of asthma, a complaint from I which he had always suffered, His concur bine nursed him with great care, made him i broth, burnt incense and prayed earnestly for his recovery, even offering, her own lite a substitute for his. His illness, however, continued and ended fatally early in the present year. His concubine was inconsolable: for three days she refused food, and unwilling to survive her lord, made a firm resolve that she would follow him to the grave. The principal wife of the deceased and his sons did all they" vould to comfort her, and for a time the watehfulness of the servants gave her no opportunity of carrying out her intention, Que night, however, about a fortnight after her husband's death, she stole out of her room in the clerk and threw herself into a river that flowed close by. The river was dragged and the body discovered at some distance, The sight of the corpse, as it lay dressed in pure white robes of mourning, with the face retaining the very sume expression it wore in life, was atlecting in the extreme. Her husband's colleagues raised a subscription to defray the burial expenses, and the body was laid in a temporary resting place on the hill-side. An application for permission to erect an honorary portal in the lady's honour, emanating from her fellow-townsman stationed at the place of her decease, and endorsed by the Viceroy and Governor of Canton, has been submitted to the Throne and has received the Imperial approval.
(2) The Tartar-General at Foochow, in his capacity of Superintendent of Trade, forwards a statement (not published) of the amount of lekly collected on foreign opium from the Ist February to the 31st March last at Foochow, Amoy, Pagoda Anchorage, and Takow. He refers to the utmerous telegrams and letters which he received from the Tsung-li Yamen informing him of the uew arrangement by which the collec: tion was to be undertaken by the foreign Customs and instructing hin to give the Commissioner of Customs his active cooperation in 1g it carried out. These reports will be sent quarterly in future and drawn up in the same form as the state: ments of duties collected, from which, how: ever, they will be kept distinct.
PUBLIC BENEFACTOR KEWARDED, By constitutional usage permission may be asked to erect an honoruy: portal tu the memory of any one who stbseribes a sum of Tls. 1,000 for the repair of roads, bridges, or other public works. Chang Chil-tung reports that im expectant pre= fect has built, at his own expense and at a cost of Tls. 1,200, an embankment and rampart in the Ssu-hui District. The work was undertaken in obedience to the dying wishes of his grandfather, and has completed in a very substantial manner. The Viceroy thinks that it would stimulate the public interest in such matters if the donor were allowed to build an arch to the joint memory of his grandfather and grandmother, both of whom were recipients of Tmperial honours.—Granted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.