A suggestion recently made by a Censor to the Grand Council which has naturally received the " hearty annrobation of the Empress Dowager and that august assombly, will probably be attempted about next May throughout the Empire. according to a Peking letter. This is that the authorities of each city, town, and hamlet: in the provinces be authorised. to take a census of the trading and manufacturing concerns within the jurisdiction of each, and after having obtained an accurate declaration from each merchant, trader and manufacturer as to the amount of his capital and average profits per annum, to levy a small tax on each man proportionate to the amount he has made during one year. Then another suvestion of the same Censor which has also been approved recommends the levying upon every pawnshop in the land a good round sum each Fear "for," says the memorialist, " pawn-Shops are the lightest taxed institutions of the land. and it will not be too much to compel them to assist the Imperial Government substantially in the present drain upon the revenue of the Empire and materia'ly help to pay off the War Indemnity incurred through the lamentable conflict
this sounds very well, and as regards the pawnshops it may, perhaps, result in putting an extra couple of millions annually into the provincial treasuries, but the suggested tax upon the traders and manufacturers of the Empire will doubtlessly be resisted, and if persisted in, bring about a formidable rebellion. An Emperor of a previous dynasty tried it and almost lost is throne as the result.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.