ing tint ili way interest the avorge verite I have written the above, not antici
but because it is one of the straws which help us to understand how the wind is blowing in the Empire at present. We hace here graphically brought before us the manner in which a Chinese official goes to work to raise a larger revenue, He takes over the likin under his immediate supervision. Next he lays taxes on shops which have never paid anything in previous years, and this without any reference to the amount of trade. The pawnshops and butchers' stalls, the salt morlop-ly, and various odds and ends, each help to fill his coffers. Even the beggars are taxed, for men whose Gelds are under water, and who are going from city to city seeking food, are still required to make up the tale of grain and silver. Last of all comes this insurrectionary spirit, manifest everywhere. This is the legitimate fruit of all the effort to raise larger revenue. It shows in miniature what is to be the result if the Central Government attempts to pay its war debt by laying heavier burdens upon the people. Granting that the officer is honest, his method is so crude, and shows such crass ignorance of political economy, that troubles arising from an overburdened peasantry are inevitable.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.