Prince Upon information received the local mandarins arrested on Sunday in a house near the West-gate of the Native City four men, who had recently taken up their quarters in the place, one of whom gave himself out as a Prince ("Tsing Wang") of the Manchu Imperial House. A careful search revealed to the Yamen "runners" a yellow docnment with the Imperial dragon around the margin, purporting to be an Imperial decree, a so-called Shang-fang Pao-chien, or Royal two-edged Sword—the latter of which (if a bona fide one) confers upon the possessor the terrible privilege of beheading any subject of the Emperor from the 3rd rank downwards, without being compelled to ask first the consent and authority of the Throne—A large wooden oficial-looking seal, the legend on which denoted that the holier of it had been appointed by the Emperor spedfal Investigating Censor over the affairs of seven provinces of the Empire: an official hat with a red button and peacock's feather trailing behind; three documents conferring posthumous ranks of the 2nd grade, and two medium-sized trunks remarkable only for their emptiness. Finally, a further search for treasure and valuables, usually to be found among the baggage of such a high personage as a Prince of the Imperial House, showed only five Mexican dollars, a few hundred copper cash, and four or five silk gowns, very much the worse for wear. At the preliminary examination of the four prisoners held by Mr. Wang, the Shanghai City Magistrate, yesterday, nothing much was learned except that there is apparently some attempt to be made for a big swindle on certain unsuspecting persons in Shanghai provided with more money than brains.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.