25th June.
Szechuan Notes.
ur correspondent at Chéngta, the capital of Szechuan province, sends us the following:—Since his arrival in this province, HAE, Viooroy Hsi Liang has been exerting himself in the arduous task of cleaning out the Augean stable of Szechuan mandarindom which the indifference and incapability of preceding Viceroys and Tartar Generals nave left to more heroic and energetic successors to take up. As a result of this a large number of dishonest and incapable officials have either been cashiered through his Exoellency's efforts or have received their congo to make way for more capable and deserving oticers. To assist him in his work of reform, his obtained the permission of the Tnrone to transfer to Szechuan six officials of Yaotai rank from various provinces, whose previous record of superior etiiciency recommended themselves to the Viceroy's favourable notice. The following are the names of these specially transferred officials:—'Ts'ai Nai-huang, Chao Erh-feng, Chung-tai, Chang Shih-en, Tsen Hsien, and Cheng Wen-pao. The _tirst-named Tuotai Ts'ai Nai-huang, is well-known to foreign officials and missionaries in the Hukuang provinces as a capable official and 4 courteous und true friend to foreigners. Ho was an expectant Taotai of Hunan pro-vino and head of the Bureau of Foreign 'AGaire during the eventful year of 1900, and it was due to his firmness and energy that the murderers of the Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries who were done to a cruel death by Hunanese mobs in Chén-chou and Héngchou prefectures, were eventually brought to justice and made to suffer the jast penalty of the law. The fourth Taotai in the above list, Chang Shih-en, is now in Europe having been sent by Viceroy Hsi Liang to purchase extra machinery for the héngta Arsenal, and en passant to visit the St. Louis Exposition as a representative of Szechuan officialdom.
Taotai Ts'ai is now Ca-Commissioner of the Szechuan Arsenal, Bureau of Foreign Affairs, and other important Government lents, and also holds the post of Chief of the Viceregal Secretariat, whicn is the most important office within the gift of the Viceroy and is always held by a man who possesses his chief's closest confidence. Through his energy and uniform friendliness towards foreigners special caro is taken to protect missionaries and mission property throughout Szechuan province, while international amenities and official intercourse have been especially smooth since Taotai Ts'ai's arrival last March. The firmness and stern enforcement of the strong arm of the law by Tuotai Ts'ai when ho was in Hunan has caused the people of Szechuan to stand in great awe of him, so that the unruly classes have 80 far dared not attempt any of their former hostile acts against their fellow-citizens who have accepted the Ghristian religion, acts which were of frequent occurrence daring the past.
An Educational Associati has been started in Chinan, the provincial capital of Shantung, composed of the gentry and mercantile classes of the province. recently started the membership is already The Timber for the proposed Hu-Ning (Shanghai-Nan-King) and other railways is, we hear, being procured from the forest lands of Kuangsi 27th June.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.