Tung Fu-hsiang and his Friends in Peking.
The following has been received from our native correspondent in the Capital—OF late telegrams have been frequently passing be'wern the principal prote of Tung Fu-hsiang in Peking and that notorious old Kansu savage, who is at Fiangehou prefecture, in the North:
resent at a place called Hsiienping, western Kansu province. The message', usually signed by half-a-dozen person, bitter reactionaries all of them, are naturally in a evpher pre-arranged between senders and receiver, but from the talk and conversation amongst themselves of those proteges of Tung Fu-hsiang it is not difficult to gather the main purport of the messages. They urge, on the one hand, that the Kansu ex-General shall Jos no time in hoisting his standard in favour of Pu Chun, the son of ex-Prince Tuan, and ex-Heir Apparent, as Emperor, and march upon Peking to depose his Majesty Kuang Hoi, incidentally driving out the hated foreigner from the Holy Capital (Sheng Ching); and from the Kansu and, they ask what sort of aid in men and money the ex-General is to expect from his friends. As the telegraph line only runs through Liang-chou and does not connect with the headquarters of Tung Fu-hsiang, that is to say Heiienpine, the conspirators have a very convenient ally in of Taotai Poh Yii-tao. the present prefect of Liangchou, who forwards, the messages between the parties. If there is any scepticism in the matter it should be stated that the latest telegram from Peking to Tung Fu-hsiang, at date of writing of this dispatch, was sent on the|king—although really made in Poshan, 10ch or this month of January, while the Shantung. rly seven-tenths of the message in question was a numerously population of Poshan, men, women and signed one, amongst which were the fol- children, are engaged in one way or other lowing cognomens "Shao-p'oh" (Chou in the manufacture. The whole region Shu-mu, *Mei-scug" (Lhén Chia-yen), outside the city walls is dotted with kilns eqMung-peh" (Kuo Sung-hsi), etc. with! and private works, large and small, acthe mame of Siso Yung-chid bringing up cording to the means of the owners. the rear. Perhaps it is not generally Amongst the poorer people, as soon as each known amongst foreigners that Sis Yung-/ article is finished they generally take it chie was a confidential friend of ex-Prince at once to the agents from Peking, men-'Tuan and it was he who drew up for Tuan ' tioned above, who pay cash for the article the famous "Imperial" decree in June,; or articles and the money so obtained is 1900, ordering the massacre of all for-' to purchase the daily food of the makers, eigners in Chins. Siao Yung-chie is a' who thus live a hand-to-mouth life. It Hunanese bigot, and he it was also who follows, therefore, that should these pur-drew up for Tuan the decree in the winter chasers be stopped from buying the daily of 1899 deposing the Emperor Kuang Hsii manufactures of the poorer classes the and proclaiming Tuan's son the Heir! latter immediately find starvation star-Apparent, or as the Manchus call it "Tsing in their faces. When therefore the Ab Let not these warnings be un- Governor's deputy came to Poshan he heeded in 1903 as similar ones in 1899-! caused the district magistrate to issue 1900 were scouted—Peking, 18th January. orders forbidding such hongs and agents Indisposition of Viceroy Yuan to buy any of the above-mentioned articles on pain of fine and confiscation, the do-A Tientsin dispatch states viceroy Shih-kai. ea a puty desiring to supply the articles of his {own manufacture. OF course, after this Yuan Shih-kai has been 50 ill with fever, the Peking agents dared not buy; the the tem going up to 105 degrees since the 13th inst., pie pa heagred people could not get food; and so within 8 month of his arrival at Pos! to pay the regulation offic Russian Consulate on the occasion of the vernor's deputy found his life in danger—which was not to be wondered at. yy Russian New Year (Old Style) that day, nor attend a dinner given by the British The Customs at Hunch'
Admiral. Even on the 15th when some reported by the "Universal presents from the Empress Dowager ar-Gazette" that if has been decided by the rived by the early morning train from authorities of the Customs at Hunch'un, Peking, Yuan's illness prevented him from in, to commute for ever import. duty going out to his yamen gates to receive on all Chinese produce, with the excep-the Imperial gifts, as etiquette demanded. tion of tea only; and that this has no Ho was forced' to do the necessary ireferenco to the collection of duty on obeisances before the things in the cosiness {foreign imports. of his retiring apartments.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.