A postscript memorial by the Grand Secretary Li Hung-chang, Viceroy of Chili, states that on a former occasion Wei Brigadier-General of the Ninghsia ast, and Commander-in-Chief hing" Army Corps of Horse and Foot, lying "outside Tientsin, reported to the memorialist the death of his mother Wei Wang-shih on the 13th of March, 1891, at his home in Anhui, and prayed memorialist to report the matter to the Throne, asking that a successor be appointed to take his place in order that he might return home to stay in retirement, during the prescribed time fixed for mourning for one's parents. But owing to the fact that the "Sheng" Army Corps, which consists of some eight thon-sand men, is one of the principal defences of the capital and an important portion of the army covering the Peiyang region, and owing, moreover, to the fact that the men of this Corps were then occupied in river and canal works requiring the constant and immediate supervision of the Commander-in-Chief himself, the memorialist decided that Wei Ju-kuei was too important an officer to be spared long away, and asked and obtained the Imperial consent to allow Wei Ju-kuei one hundred days to go through the principal observances required in such cases, after which time, as a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.