Governor of Kuangsi acknowledges the receipt of sepiee of the various Memorials which had been presented to the Throne by Censors against the award of posthumous honours to Chang K'ai-sung, and forwards a report of the investigation which had been held on the subject. The Censors, Li Shih-kun and Liu Tsung-piao, stated in one of their charges that Chang K'ai-sung, when prefect of Ch'ing-yuan-fu had made his escape from the city when it was attacked by the rebels and been degraded in consequence, and that, when it was recovered by Chiang Yi-li he falsely took credit for the services of the latter and got himself reinstated in office; that he was subsequently promoted to be Taotai of the Vu-chiang Intendancy, and rose in a very few years to the position of Lieutenant Governor. The incident referred to occurred in the year 1858 and at that time Chang ai-sung had handed over charge as Prefect and had been promoted to the position of Taotai. The capture of the city was due to the superiority of the enemies forces, but as Chang K'ai-sung bad been entrusted with the command ofthe eer operations, he was temporarily d and left in his command to retrieve his defeat. His services in collecting troops and defeating the enemy during the following year, were considered to have atoned for past offence, and procured him restoration tu office. He had previously attained the pan of Taotai and the statement that did so under false pretences is therefore incorrect. His higher appointments having all been conferred direct by the Throne, the means by which they were obtained cannot be held open to question. The second charge brought against him! was that he had appropriated military funds, and had used his ition as Lieutenant Governor to enrich himself, that he had sold good posts like the Magistracies of Huai-chi, P'ing-nan and others at a rate of seven or eight thousand taels each, and inferior districts like Ch'iian-chow, P'ing-lé- etc. ona proportionate scale, and that under him even the very poorest posts had to be obtained by bribery. The districts menned, are, for Kuangsi, comparatively good ones, but their annual revenue docs not in ordinary times average more Tls. 10,000. When Chang K'ai-sung held office as Lieutenant-Governor of the province the country was overrun by the rebels, and the revenue did not reach to even half of its normal amount, while in many instances difficulty was experienced in finding funds for the necessary public disbursements. It is therefore inconceivable that seven or eight thousand taels were ever paid for such appointments. As r the malversation of military funds neither the date nor the items of the above charges.. Indeed,-a consideration of the circumstances tends strongly to disprove them. The rebels were at the height of their power, the exchequer was exhausted, official salaries were reduced and it is very unlikely that at such a time much extortion could have been practised. Lin Ch'ang-yn was one of the most upright and intelligent of Viceroys and not at all the man to allow his subordinate to carry on bribery and corruption under his very eyes, After disposing of a number of other accusations which had been formulated against the deceased Governor,.the Memo-Tialist quotes a recent enactment of the Board of Ceremonies under which distinguished officials were not to be canonized until 30 years after their death, and though the present case does not come strictly within this category, still he thinks that time should be allowed to pass in order to allow public feeling to subside before taking any further action in the matter. If anapplica~ tion is made 30 years hence for a temple to the deceased and public sentiment is in its favour, the question should receive full consideration.
Decree published separately.
October 26th.—[No papers of interest,]
RIOT IN KIANGSI, October 27th.—(1) The whole of this day's Gazette is vecupied with the account of the trial of a umber of persons who took part in a riot as long as five years ago in the District of Hsin-vii Hsien in Kiangsi 'The your after the occurrence of the ial commission was despatched from Peking for the purpose of enquiring into it; and in consequence of the Commissioners' report the then Governor of the Province was punished for having furnished an_incomplete account of the affair in the Memorial which he had presented to the Throne concerning it, After this long delays occurred. First, some of the persons implicated had disappeared and there was a difficulty in discovering them. Then the case was time after time remitted again to the lower courts, because the prisoners, when brought before the higher judyes, denied the truth of the statements which they had made or were represented to have made when previously examined. It is only now that the present Governor is able to terminate the ease and pass sentence on the prisoners. In the year 1883 the early harvest in Hsin-vii Hsien was about what is called a seventy per cent, crop. When the time for paying the land tax arrived, the headman and the tipao of one section of the District showed a want of energy in making the people pay. "The Magistite, therefore, beg in a hurry to remit the proceeds of the tax to the Government, put these two men into confinement asa means of hastening on the collection, As the summer went on, the weather was dry, and the autumn rice on some of the uplands failed entirely. This was reported by the Magistrate to his superiors with a view to obtaining a remission or postponement of the autumn tax. But still it caused eat difficulty in getting in what was still jue of the spring tax; and the tipao of an adjoining section, Hu Ch'un-jen by name, began to fear that he would suffer the same fate as his comrade who had been arrested. He therefore formed the fea of assembling a party to frighten the Magistrate into granting @ remission of all the land tax due. He got together a small
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.