Since the date of our last letter, little worthy of record-has occurred,. Several welcome showers have fallen and the farmers have been enabled to' put: in-their crops. The immediate resift has been. that the spirit of unrest which has moved the
evident. It is there, however, and will penis for the. last: few months: is not so not'be finally quieted utu a-better govern-melt is in some way secured,. There.is a rumour-on the: street that the German warships: have paid another visit. to-our coast and that German troops have again proceeded to Jihchao city, the distance here to Jihchao is fully -nivety. miles it is not to be supposed that: we shall learn the truth of this report -inside. of a week, The above sentence is: tobe.construed as a piece of more or Jess, mordant sarcasm.
THE MAILS, But speaking of lines of communication, we were astonished last evening by. the appearance of the first messenger of the LO. P.O. to visit our city. "The thing that was astonishing about it was'that he came from Peking vid' Trianfu (or rather' his bags came thither), instead of from Tsingtao. An office is to be established here in a few days. We are'thus on: the main mail route between Peking and Chinkiang. At present we are: to have a weekly service, but after 'October: a' messenger will pass here each way thrice a week. We shall also'bo connected with Tsingtao by a weekly service so that we are beginning to feel- ver} much in the world even though we are still eight days from Shanghai, AN ACTIVE OFFICIAL DEGRADED, We are pas ote the loss. of our official Ch'én. Kung-liang. His zeal the safety of;-foreignere "and the vigour which he: has shown in quelling anti-Christian riots has.met with the reward it invited. He was accused..of "lightly esteeming. buman..life.and perversely ptt suing his own inclinations," and he. therefore ordered to " retire from office.aud await degradation." All of which means that he. has beaten several. rioters so.hard that one at least, an opium sot of, bad reputation, died, iand that in the skirmishes that accompanied the attempts of his men to arrest. rioters, several of the latter were.at different times killed, -nearly,. if, notvall, of them with weapon their hands. - This is called "lightly. esteeming human life to the harming. of the: people." What verdict the author: of the accusation would render.: in cases by the dozen where Christians have been shot, hacked: to'.death,.aid even burned or..buried alive,. it sould: be instructive to ascertain. I suppose, that the reply would be that Christians.were.not "people!" Mr. Chen-left the day before yesterday. at midnight.for his home. Chinkis It.is, true that.nearly all the other magistrates in this prefecture have been removed. in the course of. these has been so much as. reprimanded, 80 far as troubles, but Mr. Ch'én is the Cee one who we know, and: he: is the only one who tried todo his duty. The shame of it!
th July.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.