'A correspondent in north China writes: ''Becret societies seem specially active; rumours have been abundant and there is a very general feeling of restlessness amongst the people. Agricultural conditions, no doubt, contribute to this, but beyond that there is a very distressing lack of confidence, or even of ordinary respect for the President and officials generally. People who formerly spoke of the Government seldom, and then only with respect, now freely discuss matters with flippant disrespect. Increased taxation, corruption worse than ever and circumstances) adverse to social prosperity afford very inflammable material for agitators, and it is evident that the ignorant people still regard Sun Yat-sen as their hero and future} deliverer. I state facts as I see them locally," adds our correspondent, "You will make your own deductions." Perhaps it is s case of spare the rod and spoil the child. It is exceedingly difficult to have any sympathy with people who still believe in Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and if President Yuan Shih-kai has erred at all, it has been on the side of too great clemency towards agitators who try to stir up trouble in tne discredited revolutionary' name. For the corruption of which our correspondent writes there appears to be no cure, but we find it difficult to believe that the most ignorant Chinese can really thins that things would be any better under a government composed of Sun Yat-sen's grasping disciples.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.