The middle of the last moon of this current Chinese year finds the people of this part of the Empire in even more than their usual peck of troubles. It is always difficult to get past this annual time of reckoning, 0 ing to the universal fact that, every one has an immense number of debts, and has.a very limited amount of money. For this state of things the most: keen sighted observer finds it dificult to suggest any remedy, since the causes are camples and so far-reaching that to alter them is almost equivalent ton reorganisation of the Empire. But this year there is no market for silver, which doos not rise in price even a month and more after the close of river navigation, and che unhappy thought occurs that perhaps it is going to stay very low. The causes are such as thuse* already named ina preceding communi tion, and others which it is difficul to trace, or even to understand. At any cash is hard to yet in sufficient quantities for business, and the local officials find it huge task to get together the few thousands required for the payment of the indemnities of the ooted Christians.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.