Last year the examinations for Chu-ren (M. A.)'wore held at Wuchang and members went down from Ichang to the capital of the province. Now, on the payment of a small fee, the candidates can have the essays they wrote returned to them. Many have done so and to their surprise they find their essays have not even been looked at; there is not an examiner's mark on any of them. Three whole prefectures in western Hupeh have been thus shelved. Sixty M. A's are allowed to be chosen from each examining district and their Excellencies wore careful to got the full sixty from the schools they themselves had opened in Wuchang. Thus it becomes a mere Lee (enter for the M. A. examination, it is sad to think of the many budding geniuses who are thus deprived of even the chance of obtaining the coveted degree." Why not appeal against such flagrant injustice I asked one. "Who dare appeal against one's superiors ho replied.
Naval News.
8. M. 8, Vaterland arrived in port last Sunday. Built on the pattern of H: M.S. Woodlark, her picturesque fighting-top and shapely lines present a much more business-like aspect to a landsman's eye than the English boats of that class.
H. M. 8. Bramble was in port for a few but has left again for the lower iver. Hr crow played a cricket match with a scratch team from the foreign community and fortune and skill were on the side of the bluejackets.
The naval reading rooms to which I have referred in previous letters have now been taken over in toto by the naval authorities and they will have no connection in future with the shore committee. The foreign community aided by steamer officials started the concern and left it in a prosperous condition, and now that it has proved success it will be better every way for the Navy to control it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.