Readers of these columns will perhaps remember that the notorious ex-Governor of Hupeh, Yii Yin-lin, a devoted follower of the equally notorious Kang Yi and Li Ping-hong of Box. fame, had an audience of the Empress Dowager a fortnight ago at Loyang, and that he had been most favourably received by her. Later news from Honan to hand now states that it is quite probable that this reactionary will be appointed by the "Throne," i.c., the Empress Dowager, to be Special Imperial Commissioner and Inspector-General of Yangtze Defences," in other words, to become a second Li Ping-hong and the bane of reform and the Yangtze Viceroys and Governors. As the advent last year in the Yangtze of the notorious Li Ping-hang was the forerunner of the Boxer uprisings in the North, so it is to be feared that the advent of Yi Yin-lin, a facsimile of the former, may have similar consequences.
A Government Lottery at Hangchow.
A Hangchow dispatch states that it has been decided to establish a Government Lottery in that city. the movement being headed by the Provincial Treasurer, Ch'éng Hsin (Manchu). a Taotai_ named Wan, and a prefect named Chuang, a nephew on the wife's side of H.B, Sheng. The sanction and cooperation of the Governor, H.E. Jen Tao-yung, and HE. Sheng. as Imperial High Commissioner of Commerce, have also been obtained and the " Chekiang Government Lottery " may therefore now be considered a certainty the near future.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.