Tue following will be the Customs rates of exchange from the 3rd to the 3ist instant £1 @2) £1=Hk. Ts. 6.65 Francs @ #401—Hk. Tls. 79 Marks @ 276}—Hk. Tls s 3.08 Gold $653—Gold_ 1=Hk. Tls. 1.37 News has been received by the local mandarins from Nanking confirming the report that Viceroy Liu had asked' and obtained the permission of the Empresa Dowager to defer his journey to Peking until February, owing to the large amount of business on han] which must be completed personally by H.E. before leaving Nanking. A decree has also been sent to HE. Governor Lu Ch'uan-lin commanding him to remain at Soochow until further orders. Under these circumstances and in view of the frequent changes in the political situation at Peking, the chances are that Viceroy Liu will not go up to the capital after all. is reported that the reorganisation of the Inland Customs bureaux of Hupeh province recently inaugurated by Viceroy Chang Chih-tung has crested much di satisfaction amongst the Customs and ficial of that province, and much intrigue ing has been going on in consequence at Peking with the view of frustrating the Viceroy's measures. The disaffected mandarins have managed to get the nid of a high metropolitan official to memorialise the Throne against Chang Chih-tung, and the Empress Dowager has taken up the matter and commanded LiPing-hong to investigate during his tour in the Yangtze provinces.
reported in local mandarin circles that Viceroy Heii of Foochow is now under acloud at Peking owing to the fact that he has made another contract, unknown to the Tsungli Yamen, with M. Doyére, the French Enyineer-in-Chief in charge of the Foochow Arsenal and Naval Dockyard, whose contract ended on the 3ist of December last, to continue the charge of the above for another term. The Tsungli Yamen, on the other hand, had, it is alleged, already arranged with the Japanese Government for the engagement of Japanese engineers, shipbuilders, gunsmith: ete,, to teach the Chinese at the Foochow Arsenal as soon at the contract with the French officers and artisans had expired. The question now is whether the Viceroy of a province has greater power in matters relating to his own jurisdiction than the Tsungli Yamen or Central Government, and whether the latter can override the engage ments of its subordinate officers.
'A Caxtos dispatch reports the arrival at Kiungchou, Hainan, on the 24th ultimo of Chou Ping-hsin, the Hainan Island Taotai who was recently detained by the French at Kuangchouwan for supposed complicity in the attacks of the people there on the French. According to an Imperial decree published in these columns atthe time, we, however, know that another Taotai has already been appointed, which is rather hard lines for the old Taotai who in alleged to have paid a pretty large sum for his post, which he was only allowed to enjoy for afew mouths. The new Taotai, ver, will not have everything smooth sailing for him when he arriv-s at Kiungchou as the Li aboriginal tribes have lately begun to come down into the plains from their hill fastnesses to pillage and plunder the Chinese colonists, of whom it is alleged that nearly 100 have already been killed.
A Canox dispatch states that - H.E. Tan Chung-lin, retiring Viceroy of the two Kunng provinces, was to have left Canton for Peking on the 26th ultimo, when the day before his daughter w gave birth in the Viceregal yamen to a son, the only grandson of the octogenarian Viceroy. As, according to Chinese custom, the mother of the heir of the wealth of the Tan family cannot be moved for a month at least, ex-Viceroy Tan has changed his plans and will not leave Canton until after the New Year. It is also reported that the retiring Viceroy has already memorialised the Throne asking for a two months' leave to ble him to return to his native province of Hunan before going up for his audience, but that no Rescript has, as yet, been received from the Enipress Dowager to his memorial.
Ir will be remembered that, when Kang Yiwas in this province last summer, he managed to scrape together the sum of Ti: 1,200,000 which was handed over to Vice. roy Liu K'un-yi, by command of Imperial decree, to be transmitted to Marshal Ssu when he came up from Kuangchouwan, for the organisation and armament of a foreign-drilled Army Corps with head-quartera at Tsingkiangpu, on the Grand Canal. Owing to the dissatisfaction, however, of the Empress Dowager at the result of Marshal Su's delimitation work at Kuangehouwan, the latter has been degraded t his original position of Provincial Commander-in-Chief of Kuangsi, as already noted in these columns, and now an Imperial decree has again been issued prohibiting Viceroy Liu from handing this money to Marshal Ssu, but to retain it in the Kiangsu Treasury until further orders from Peking. As no one has been appointed to succeed Marshal Ssu it looks as if the proposed foreign. antied Army Corps is to be put aside after all.
_is reported in native official circles that Kang Yi and Li Ping-hong who have always shown themselves the most bitter enemies of Reform have again begun to rake up the ashes of last year's Conspiracy of Reformers," as they term it, and have selected the' ex-Imperial Tutor, Wong Tung-ho, now retired, as their victim, ree garding him as the head of the Reform Party, as Weéng's strenuous support of Kang Yii-wei and strong recommendation of him to the Emperor are considered as having opened the way for the Reform movement in Peking. Whatever these two bigots have secretly said to the Empress Dowager is still unknown to outsiders but the wrath of their Iwperial Miitress is plain enough, it being stated that she intends soon to have the unlucky ex-Imperial Tutor bound in chains and brought up to Peking to undergo a trial for his ' treachery."
Tr is stated that the Tsungli Yamen has sent a circular dispatch' to the various high provincial authorities, authorising them to ud aprond each a large number of students for the purpose of studying one of three professions, viz:—Scientific Agriculture, mechanics, or Commercial affairs. Six years are to be allowed each student to complete his studies and the expenses are to be defrayed by the Imperial Government. The student who wishes to take advantage of these conditions must first apply to his own local authorities who, in turn, will petition to the Viceroy or Governor of the province, the latter to report the matter to the Throne for approval before. sending the student abroad. Proclamations in regard to the above will soon be posted in the various Treaty ports, prefectural cities and towns, and it is estimated that before the end of 1900 some 1,000 to 1,200 students can be thus sent aprond to the various countries of Europe and America.
Tas following characteristic story of the effect of Western civilisation on the unsophisticated Japanese is told by a former resident in Japan, At one of the numerous nflagrations which vary the monotony of life at the treaty ports in Japan, the foreign firemen were playing the hose on a temple. A Japanese policeman remonstrated, say ug that this would hurt the feelings of the Japanese. For myself," he said, "I don't care a d—for God (Buddha) because I'vo been to England, but most Japanese are not so civilised."
From the Ostasiatische Lloyd of the 5th instant, we learn of a betrothal between an attache of the Chinese embassy ut Berlin and the daughter of a Breslau official (deceased). The attache, Me. Chang Vang, is said to have courted the lady, who resides with her mother in Berlin, in a thoroughly European manner. The' same Paper announces a second execution at Kiaochou_ on the afternoon of the 19th ultimo. It appears that the criminal, Kuo Chung-kang, in company with tive or six others waylaid and robbed a native workman of ten dollars, threatening him with pistols. The following day a gang of five
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.