We translate the following from the "Tungwen Hupao":—We hear that 'song Chi, the Tartar General of Féngtien, has informed the Central: Government at Peking that the Russians have evacuated his (Tartar General's) yamen in Moukden, but that they have not returned the yamens of the Boards of Revenue, Rites and Works, nor the Awellings of the common people of that city, all of which had been seized by Russian troops upon the arrest by them of Tseng Ch'i himself during the latter days of October last.
The Russian Forces in Manchuria.
'The same paper states that, according to the latest' news from Manchuria. Russians have in Port Arthur 17,000 men; in Linoyang §,000; Harbin 5,000; Fénghuangehéng (Yalu) 1,200; in tenghsien and Shahotso 350, and city of Kirin, the capital of the province of that name (Central Manchuria), 2,400 men of all arms.
Further Unlawtul Acts of Russia An official dispatch received from Hsinmintun, some forty miles to the north-west of Moukden (to the former of which a railway was not long ago con pleted by the Chinese Chief _Railws Engineer, Mr. Kinder), to the effect th various bodies of Cossacks have been pillaging the villages and inhabitants in Bsinmintun and the region round about and generally cruelly treating them as if war were actually taking place. Upon being remonstrated with by Chinese ofneials in the vicinity the Russians merely replied that they had "orders to search for Hunghutze (Red beard) mounted bandits," in spite of the fact that. these banditti are in the pay now of the Russians.
Rumoured Projected anges im the Grand Council. uvate letter from Peking, emans!- from a reliable source, states that since the beginning of this month, ever Since it became known that the Russians had reoccupied Moukden, even to the extent of mitting the Tartar General of the city. under' arrest, the Empress Dowager has been daily receiving, dozens at a time, sealed memorials from Censors and secretaries of Boards and Ministries, charging the various members of the Grand Council with gross neglect of duty and utter lack of patriotism and loyalty to the Throne. Further, that althougit the Empress Dowager has for some reason of her own Laid these memorials on the table, for the time being, and refrained from handing them out for publication in the usual manner in the "Peking Gazette," she has not seen fit to hide from observers that she has been greatly moved by the memorials in ques fion, "Hence those who are always near the Imperial presence and accustomed to prognosticate from her Majesty's fits and moods what will happen in the mi future, one and all declare that the Empress' Dowager has been so influenced the memorials that a general change is going in the composition of the Grand Council; but whether the new Grand Councillors are to be more progressive than the present ones remains to he seen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.