Wang Wen-shao, Viceroy of Chili reports the result of the trial of a certain Chens Ting-yih, an expectant District Magisteste ut the 4th class, who had been Found guilty of the crime of sending anonymous lette's to the Governor of Peking, the Provincisl Judge, and the Treasurer of Chihli, containing false and foul charges ayainst 4 connection by marriage, of who the said writer of anonymous letters appeared to have been jealous, with the confessed object of creating the suspicion of the high anthori'ies against his alleed en-my. The case was transferred t" Tientsin by the Governor of Peking, Hu Yue-fen, owing to the fuct of the victim of the arcosed ex-masisteate being in that city in charge of a Upon receiving the despatch of Hu Yii-fen, the memorialist immediately deputed the investigation of the matter to Shen Chit prefect of Tientsin, and the following reliable evidence has been extracted from the guilty party The accused Cheng Ting-pih ix a native of Shaoshing, Chekiang, and was an officer who had obtained his first steps by purchase, from which by successive promotions he attained the rank of an expectant magistrate of the 4th class, being relegated to await employment in Honan province. Ho had also the decoration of. the Plain Blue Butte". In 1877 while in Honan the accused somehow got an appointment toba acting magistrate of Lotinghsien, Honan, but subse, uently betrayed lis limited education and inability at the usual annual examination of magistrates held by the Governor and Treasurer of Honan. In consequence of this Cheng 'Ting-pil was denounced to the Throne' and degraded tw the rank of a deputy magistrate or its equivalent—that of gaol-warden in " prefect's yumén. In 1881 the his nams inserted in the ing officers who served through the campaign in Kuldja (Ili) after the reconquest of Chinese Turkestan ty the Imperial Rule, and vot his rank of full magistrate restored to him n consequence, with the exception of awaiting preferment from the Board of Civil Appointments instead of being sent to Honan as expect-aut magistrate. In 1895 the accused came to Tientsin and through the usual "*go-betweens" was engaged to and legally married to a daughter of the late Chang Lin, Second Captain of the Huhsiwa battalion, near Peking. At the time the accused got acquainted with one Huang Chen, an expectant deputy magistrate, a connection by marriage, Shortly after his marriage, his mother-in-law, who was reported to be quite well off came and lived with her daughter the wife of Cheng Ting-pih; but eventually for some reason or other removed again to Huang Chen's (another son-in-law) house, and with herself she removal also everything she possessed to the latter's house. This against Raang whom the former aepectad fired the envy and jealousy of Chan;
led his character to the -law, so that filled with distrust of the ultimate views of her new son-in-law, the old lady had moved herself off from his house and settled at the older son-in-law's house. The matter was further aggravated by the old lady's refusing to lend any more money to her new son-in-law. Actuated by feelings of revenge and jealousy the accused decided upon a trip to pointments for preferment and seized the Peking to petition the Board of Civil Ap-
opportunity of sending an anonymous despatch to Hu Yii-fen, Governor of Peking accusing Huang Chen of incest, etc., with the object, as the accused declared, of raising suspicion against Huang's character" so that he would be made to, lose a lucrative post in the likin service.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.