Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 702

634

Journal of Occurrences.

DEC.

foes. On no account allow yourselves to be deceived by their wiles, and act or live abroad with them.

"All who have dared to join with those robbers, and have been brought under their influence, if now of their own accord they will return, then their past offenses shall be forgiven; and, allowed to renovate themselves, they shall be permitted to aid in acquiring merit, and shall participate in the happiness of universal peace.

"Let all the governors and lieutenant-governors in the maritime provinces cause this edict to be printed and published on yellow paper, and let it be everywhere distributed, that all may know our earnest desire to save those who are abroad, and to give peace to those who are within our dominions."

Respectfully and carefully published, on yellow paper, by ·

H. M. minister, the rebel, quelling generalissimo Yibshan, H. M. minister, joint-assistant high minister, Tse Shin, H. M. minister, governor of the two Kwang, Ke Kung, H. M. minister, acting It.-gov. of Kwangtung, Leäng Paousbang. The original of this document reached Macao in an unofficial form,

a bookseller's handbill-about the 10th of this month; and ere this time, it has, we presume, been published in due course in Canton. It must have been written after the memorials of Lew Yunko and others had been laid before the throne, detailing the losses in Chěkeäng. But it shows no signs of blenching from the con- test. As in this province last year, so now in Chěkeäng, a grand army of veteran troops is to be assembled, "to advance and extermi- nate," and to achieve great honors! Hither, last year, the army came; and we know its results. It was a scourge to the country.. The soldiers were like wolves and tigers to the black haired people, and in some instances they actually devoured human flesh. Well, therefore, may his majesty feel solicitude regarding the march of the troops through the country.

Yihking, like Yihshan, is a member of the imperial family, and is high in office and high in favor at Peking; but we have no idea that he can or will exercise any more restraint in Chèkeäng, than Yih- shan has done in this province.-Tiheshun is the same person that was recently in Canton, called in one of our former numbers, Tike- shunpoo. Both he and Wănwei are Tartars.

The free and full pardon granted to traitors by the emperor, is the most remarkable feature in this 'yellow edict.'

Its effect, we appre-

hend, will be the reverse of what his majesty designs it to be. Tens of thousands of the black haired race are now under British protec- tion; and in the face of this proclamation, these not only will not with- draw from this protection, but, as things are going, they will induce many more to come where they enjoy a security which the Chinese government cannot afford. In Chekeäng, many villages and towns have declared themselves the obedient subjects of the British,

2. New measures of the cabinet. The heavy drafts on H. M.'s trea- sury, exceeding those of ordinary times by some tens of millions of dollars, per annum,-have induced the cabinet to have recourse to an old expedient,—the kae keuen, or the sale of official rank, by which means a person can rise to office without passing through the