A stone tablet has just been erected at Hsiich'ien which has proved of much local interest, The stone was erected by certain flatterers in honour of a General Ch'en. It praised him for his "quondam valour when the Taipings threatened, for his merit in keeping the district at peace, and for being willing to help any good work with money." Then followed this sentence: "In the 19th year of Kuang Ush, foreigners came to Hsiich'ien to buy Wu's house and establish a mission—the whole city came together and planned to "keep them away. It was finally agreed to purchase Wu's house and make a temple of it. It was then found that money was hard to get, but General Ch'en coming to town just then, freely gave one half of the whole. For this the whole city praises him to this day." General Ch'en has since that time become a friend of the mission, and also many of those who subscribed to the stone could possibly have no evil intention against us, £0 we simply made an appeal to the magistrate. He ordered the stone to be re-cut, and made (he leaders of wk pardon. The part i is of more general in-apers that. should be No official help was ever given {0 recover this Wu's house because the magistrate who was here then in his note to the Taotai and Consul the man Wu was a scoundrel and tint the foreigners had been humbugzed, that there was already a deed in his yamen riped six months previously stating that this house bad been suld toa temple. He forced Wu to write a deed and date it back six months; he was sorry the foreigners not asked his help, ete. Another proof all Chinese official "documents are solutely true, It was decided me not to push the matter, but we did not expect a vindication of Wu's acter and our business sagacity from this quarter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.