(GRUY @), ox Chinese Patriotic Association, noted in these columns the day before yesterday by a correspondent at Peking, we give below what our native correspondent in the same city has written on the same subject, and it may here be said on the Chinese side that the movement has nothing in it hostile either to Foreigners in general whose advanced civilisation is, on the contrary, greatly praised and respected and set up as an example for earnest emula'- tion, or to foreign missionaries whose earnest and philanthropic work is also much respected and freely acknowledged with admiration, while their right to live in the country and propagate their religion wherever they please is also recognised as a settled condition of present affairs. Nur native correspondent goes on to say The Pao Kuo Hui was inaugurated an the 17th of April last at the Kuangtung Guild-house in the Capital and the headquarters of the Association are at present to be there. The founders of the Patriotic Association were a very large number of ALA. graduates, gnthored from all parts of the Empire for the great Matropolitan examination for the Doctor's degree, and the influence and social standing of many of the leaders brought nearly two hundred members of the various Boards and Courts, and high literary graduates to join the new Association. The membership daily increased, including many men of the highest literary attainments and social influence at Peking and elsewhere, and the indications seemed to show that the /Association would outstrip the old Reform Club or any society aiming at China's advancement now in existence. OF course, there are still not a few narrow-minded, conservative officials in Peking who, perhaps, ing for their own eventual loss of influence and power by the advancement of the new liberal and patrio tic party, forced the former into a hostile attitude, and one of their number, a censor named P'an Ch'ing-lan, presented a memorial denouncing the movement to the Emperor and accusing the members of the Patriotic Association of an organisation contemplating a rebellion against the Throne, etc. His Majesty, fortunately, refused of his own accord to entertain, for a moment, the bigoted and narrow ideas of the denouncing censor and his party, his Majesty remarking after reading the above memorial that ''a Patriotic Association whose views were to raise the whole country to defend the integrity of the Empire, the security of the dynasty, and the cause of the sacred religion of Confucius, could not have any thought of rebelling against the Sovereign." The memorial was therefore suppressed by the Emperor and will not have the honour of being publisicl in the Peking Guzzette. The position that his Majesty has taken has, of course, increased the enthusiasm of the merabers of the Association a-thousandfold, hence, to enlighten still more the mind of the Emperor, on the 2nd instant the well-known ex-leader of the Old Reform Club, Me. K-ang Ch'ang-ssu, of Canton, who also holds_a Secretaryship in the Board of Works at Peking and is one of the prime movers of the present Association, pte sented to his Majesty a number of work: on Reform and the Benefits of Western Civilisation, written by liberal-spirited Chinese literati and officials, and also some standard foreign books translated into Chinese such as The Life and Works of Peter the Great of Russia; The Reformation o Japan from the Revolution; Mackenzio's Nineteenth Century; and Selections on the Reformation and Consequent Rise of certain European Powers. When presenting the above books Mr. K'ang also presented a memorial praying ti the curriculum for the future exami nations of young aspirants for literary honours may be changed according to the actual needs of the Empire, quoting the example of Japan. Immediately upon roceiving the books and memorial his Majesty Kuang Hsii wrote the following Rescript with his own hand instead of through the Grand Secretaries, as usual: The receipt of K'ang Ch'ang-ssu's books is hereby, acknowledged, and they will be retained for perusal by us. As to. the memorial concerning a change of the lum for the Hsin-tsai, or Licenttato, ations for the fature, we hereby command the ''sungli Yamen to emnsult with the Board of Rites and report upon the same to us." It is reported that his Majesty appeared to lose no time in beginning to read the books presented to him, for shortly afterwards his Majesty was heatd to praise the nature and subjects of all of them to the members of the Grand Council and Secretarint and was especially interested in the work on the Reformation of Japan. Tu conclusion it may be of interest to foreign members of the Tien Tsu Hui to know that Madame Kang, the wife of Mr. Kung Ch'ang-ssu, was one of the foremost supporters of that Society in Shanghai last year, and that she is also one of the founders of the proposed School for Chinese young ladies intended to be soon inaugurated at this port.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.