It is reported here that Shing Taotai is not finding it an easy task to carry on the railroad enterprise according to his own liking. He is denied direct access to the throne as his petitions must be countersigned by Chs-g Chil-tung and Wang Wen-shao. These Viceruys and the Ministers at Peking desire Sheng to commence the railroad from the two ends Peking and Hankow and work toward their union at an intermediate point. Sheng is unwilling to do this as he fears that the work may be stopped at any time and then he would have two railroads connecting with nowhere and of no value to anyone. Shéng''s plan is to use half of the needed money or twenty million taels in the building -f the road continuously from one end, and when this amount is used up and the benefits of the road are plainly seen by the subscribers, to ask for the remaining twenty millions so as to complete the road. Shéng's shrewdness does not seem to have des-red him andre isdeterminea to provide against future storms which may overwhelm him as they have already done his former patron Li Hung-chang. Although he is wealthy an' a favourite at Court he knows too well the latent strength of the opposing forces he is dealing with and does not care to trust himself too far in their power.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.