10th Tune.
Kuxepao is a man of s at ability and long experience of foreign affairs, he is so well-informed and clear-headed, and so far beyond any of his peers as a Chinese statesman dealing with foreigners, that the news that he had come suecessfully out of HE. Chang Chih-tung's investigation into certain charges brought against him before the Throne, was very welcome to all those who are anxious to see the conclusion of the negotiations with the Powers for revised treaties. We print this morning a complete translation of the Viceroy's report as far as it concerns ILE, Sheng, but we fear it will hardly be found by the foreign reader who knows anything of the facts nearly as satisfactory as it has been by the Throne, In' making some examin: tion we shall endeavour to shake off any prejudices or preconi opinions that the reports some months past in Shanghai may have engendered, and to confine ourselves as fi possible to the evidence of the report itself.
The Viceroy begins by expressing recognition of the gravity of the -ges he was ordered to investigate, nid he tress on the precautions he took to get two independent re-rts, his method being to send two expectant Taotais to make separate secret investigations, Chis inevitably reminds us of Mr, Baber's story of the prefect in Szechuan who sent two independent weiyuans each to make a census of a town in his jurisdiction. The result in this case was, as might have been expected, that the two reports in the main corroborate each other, The Viceroy begins by recalling how similar charges were Drought some years ago against our former Taotai, "Psai Chin, now Chinese Minister in jo, and were investiga ted by the late Baron Lin Kun-yi, nd_pronoanced not proven.
Vv croy Chang then comes to the charges against H.E. Sheng Kung-pao and our present Thotai Yuan, After some remarks on the distress that is caused in a place with a population of about one million when there is a stoppage of supplies of rice, and the belief that the scarcity must be due to the rice being exported, an elaborate account is given of the system in vogue for the export of rice. The trouble, we are told, is due to unscrupulous Chinese merchants who get foreign merchants to take out permits which the Taotai finds it impossible to refuse, and then the foreign merchant sets to work to buy rice without any regard to the price in Shanghai at the time, and "most frequently at a time when it is at the highest." It is not usual for the foreign'merchant to buy at the highest
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.