THRONE, The Governor of Kiangsu reports the result of inquiries which he has instituted in compliance with Imperial instructions respecting the tampering. with certain memorials to the Throne, which was supposed to have taken place in Kiangsu while yn their way to Peking. The memorials in question were forwarded by the Sur-erin. tendent of the Arsenal and the Viewroy at Foochow, and Pien Pao-ti, who bad been directed to investigate the matter, reported that no harm had happened te the documents while passing through the provinces under his jurisdiction. The Emperor remarked that documents of this kind had recently been frequently lost or damaged while in course of transmission through the provinces, and directed that the present case should form the subject of rigorous investigation on the part of the various high authorities concerned. 'The Governor of Kiangsu now states that one of the memorials referred to was received on a certain day over three years ago by the P'iugwang postal station from the Hsishui station in Ghatiang. Tt was enclosed in wooden boards in' the ordinary way, but the bamboo wrapper was very thin and its weight was 12 ounces, These facts were embodied in a certificate which the Hsishui office furnished to the station at P'ingwang, and after the packet had been transmitted safely through Kiang-ssu, it was handed to the first postal otice in Shantung from which a similar certificate. was obtained.
As regards the second packet, it contained!
memorial from the Superintendent of the Foochow Arsenal, which was received from the Hsishui station in Chekiang on the 13th January, 1890. At the tine of its receipt the packet was securely done up and it was delivered in the same state to the Hunghua postal station in Shantung, which furnished a certificate to that effect. No mishap therefore occurred to either of the foregoing memorials in their passage through Kiangsu.
With the third, which was a memorial from the Tartar General at Foochow, the case indifferent. When it reached Kiangsu from Chekiang it was accompanied by a certificate stating clearly that the bamboo wrapping was damaged and that a portion
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.