The natives are now looking forward with zest to the New Year holidays which, for rich and poor alike, form a really festive season. It is unfortunate that the lust days of the old year are often given up by well-dressed scoundrels—a class not by any means, however, confined to Chi to the accumulation of wealth by means emphatically proscribed by law. A week ago in a village not far removed from the busy town of Mutung, which is only 90 down river, a raid was made by a vet of skilled burglars upon the property of man named Liu who, it is alleged, sith weturnal visit to the ext Tls. 10,000. The magistrate has so teen unable to trace the thieves, and is said to be considerably perplexed over the matter, The legal Code of China contains a statute which in the event of the district mandarin not discovering the desperadoes would, if applied, make him suffer alike in dignity and purse. But it is not likely that any application will be made in this ease, and everybody who knows anything of Mr, Kuo will be pleased to believe that iso. Mu-tung nnd its environs have a somewhat unsavoury reputation for harbouring bandits, and it would give generals satisfaction if they could, by some means or other, be permanently dislodged.
MRS, A, J. LITTLE'S NOVEL, A Marriage in China, has reached Chungking and has been read by some of the residents, The volume, for various reasons, is decidedly interesting, and will command the close attention of those who are in any treasure acquainted with life in the Yangtze Valley. Full of demonstrable facts and unquestionable fancies, and containing many passages of genuine eloquence and beauty, the reader will not willingly Ixy the volume aside until the last page has been perused. Perhaps Mrs. Little has erred, and the present thinks she has, in making her missionary characters so very much the pe"ple of one language; but in saying this it is not the less possible to congratulate the auth ress upon taving produced a very entertaining and infor ming nove'.
Since ay last jetter we 2 pleasure of welcoming back to 0 Mr: and Mrs; Davidson of the Friends'
Foreign Missionary Association who during the past two years have been on furlough in England. Their arrival makes it possible for Mr. and Mrs. Wigham of the same Mission to take holiday and consequently it is their intention to start for home vid Japan and Canada in the course of a very few-days.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.