BLE. Feng Lin, according to a belated letter from Chungking, Szechuan province, arrived at Tachienlu, on the Szechuan-Tibetan frontier, on the 26th ult. en route to Lhassa. His Excellency takes only a guard of one hundred and fifty "braves" with him as escort, and was expected to leave Tachienlu for Lhassa the first week of this month.
The Payment of the War Indemnity in Gold.
With reference to the Imperial Rescript published in this column last woak commanding the officials of the various provinces to combine in paying the sum of Tls. 10,400,000 to make up the amount due to the various Powers for the payment to them in gold of th War Indemnity of 1900, dispatches ha boon received from s large member of provinces protesting against the mand and declaring their utter inability to got together the respective amounts they are commanded to pay. The jority, although protesting, say that they can only pay at most one half of the amount they are required to subscribe, 23rd November.
WI. E. Chou Fa, Acting Viceroy-designate of the Liangkiang provinces, is expected to ar today from Tsingtao in the Chi steamer Hainchi, and to take over his seals of office in Nanking from H. E. Tuan Fang, his locum tenons, on the 30t! tant. Mr. B. 0. Wan, special attache to the Viceroy of the provinces, arrived here from Nanking on Monday to escort his Excellency to his new post.
Hi. E. Huang Chien-kuan, Provincial Treasurer of Kiangning (Nan-ud Treasurer-designate of Shantung, eve, will probably remain where he is in Nanking, for the present, ut least, as Acting Viceroy Chaa Fu thinks a good deal of ability and knowledge of foreign diplomatic intercourse. 'The two are old friends, for when Chou Fu was Customs Taotai of Tientsin in the early eighties, ducing the late Viceroy Li Hung-chang's regime, Huang Chien-kuan was manager of the China Merchants' Comparty's Tientsin branch, both of them being proteges of the Isto Li. As the question has often been asked us why this province of Kiangsu has two Provincial Treasurers, namely, one xt Kiangoing (Nanking) and one at Soochow, while all the other seventeen provinces of China Proper have only one each, we may here state that owing to the size and population of this province which render the collection of taxes and dues onerous, this division was decided upon in the reign of one of the early Emperors; of this dynasty. The Provincial Trea-sorer of Kiangning was placed at the head of the revenue collecting departments of the four. prefectures of Kianzningfu, (which has seven hsien or district magistracies), Husianfu (six district ma-Gistracies), Yangchoufu (eight district ma-magistracies) and the two sub-prefecture of Haichou, which has two district magistracion under i 'T*angehou, The jurisdiction over the four prefectures of Soochowfu (ten sist i ies), Sung-kiangsu (eight district magistracies), Ch'ang-ichoufu (eight district magistracies), and Chinkiangfu (four district magistracies), and the sub-prefecture of T'aits'angchou district magistracies), or thirty-four hsi Although on paper the two Treasure: ships are about aqua ly divided—thirty-three and thirly-four hsien each -the Soochow Treasurer handles about one-third more revenue than his confrere at Nanking.
The Would-be Assassin of Wang Chih-chun, ex-Governor of Kuangsi, Wan Fu-hua, was taken on Monday morning for trial to the Mixed Court ima carriage under the escort of mounted and fort police, bat we! ly done beyond asking e-train preliminary questions. With Wan Fu-hua also went twelve young men of the Advancement of Eiucation Society, of Park Street, who had be: med by the man as his accomplices, young men with quiet, intellectual faces snd by looks the very opposite conspirators against a paternal Govern-We understand that without exception all these youths are scions of good families, [many of them wealthy and high in Chinese soc al circles. Indeed one om Ki: is an expectant Tao-i of Fukien province, two others are of sub-prefect rank, while all possess official rank of some sort. This circumstance contradicts of itself the assertion of Wan Fa-hua. The young men were well dressed, although some wore foreign, and others it native costumes. At fist none was Willing to kneel, before the Court, but when his Worship Huang Hstien quietly reminded them that they were standing fore s regularly constituted tribunal, "Fa T'ang" of the Loperial Government, they at once went on their knees, accord. ing to Chinese custom. This again is a proof that the accused youths are not stile to the Emperor.
Purchases of the Army Reorganisation Department.
A Tientsin native newspaper learns that the Army Reorganisation, Department of Peking has ordered from certain German firms Te, 2,009,000 worth of 74 centimetre us, 6,000 magazine rifles, 1,000 e carbines; 610 revolvers, 41,000 cartridge boxes and 40,000 smokeless cartridges, all to be delivered at Tien'sin by the mouth of March next.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.