(6) The Governor of Hunan reports that the custom of:.suing anonymous placards, for which the province has always been notorious, has become worse of late years than ever before. Three years ago the most scurrilous notices were posted about the Into acting Governor Pting Chi-yun. Though he had not a maid servant in his establishment, it was wildly asserted in doggerel rhymes that he and his son had connexion with the same woman. The recent impeachment of his staff gave rise to a fresh crop of these documents. A new and entirely false version of the affair gained currency in a placard which was widely posted, and which concluded with the assertion that the Imperial Commi sioners sent on the mission of investigation received Tis, 300,000 to hush up the case. Now, asa mutter of fet, the Commissioners found their own quarters, paid fortheirm tenance, and nota speck of corruption stai ed the entire proceedings, So far from the matter having been hushed up, the inv gation was of a most eaccking nature and extended over forty day of only were some hundreds of public documents examined, but even the accounts of the offi gate-keepers and the bills of private establishments were produced and carefully scrutinized, The Governor attributes the present state of things to the remissness of the officers in charge of the tithing establishments, three of whom he propuses to degrade for their failure to arrest the offenders.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.