According to news received here from Peking the notorious Conservative Grand Councillor and President of the Board of Revenue, Lu Ch'uan-lin, is at present quite ill, his condition being aggravated by disappointment in his political ambitions and grief at the recent death of his third and favourite son who had been his constant companion during the last three or four] years. Also seriously ill is the Conservative Manchu Grand Secretary, K'un Kang, who a matter of fuet is approaching dotage fast.
The Inveteracy of the Empress states that the Empress Dowager having 4 Canton dispatch of the Oth somehow been informed on the 4th instant, vorectly or not remains to be seen, that the proscribed Reformer Kang Yii-wei_has retuned from exile to the city of his forefathers—Canton—immediately sent on the same day an edict under her own seal to Canton, addressed to the Manchu Acting Viceroy Té Shou, asking him whether he was aware of the fact that Kang Yii-wei was in Canton, and if so why he had shown such indifference in the matter ax to make attempt to arrest her arch enemy. This edict struck consternation into the hearts of the mandarinate of that city, and they are now busily engaged, openly as well as secretly, in trying to obtain some clue to the Reformer's whereabouts, in order not only to set the Empress Dowager's heart at rest, but also their own for the preservation and continuity of their several official buttons and posts. - In well-informed circles in Canton it is, however, not considered likely nor probable that Kang Yé-wei would so rashly tempt providence and his hitherto good fortune by venturing to Canton and putting him se in the toils of his bitter enemies the Manchus, 15th November.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.