DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 559, 3 April 1876, Page 4

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

The American House of Representatives have finally rejected tbe Assembly Bill, and ate considering a revised Tariff Bill.

The Austrian note has been presented at Constantinople, and the Porte has agreed to its principal suggestions. The Senatorial Elections were held in France on Sunday, January 30tb, and resulted in a moderate Republican victory. The election of Deputies for the Assembly will be held on February 20th. Cardinal Ledochowski, has been released from prison. Escorted by police officials, he proceeded by rail in the direction of Breslau. He was informed that should he enter eilher of certain provinces named to him he would be interned in the fortress of Torgau.

The Imperial Parliament was opened at Westminster by the Queen on February Bth. The address in reply to the speech from the Throne was moved and seconded in the House of Lords by Lords Aberdeen and Ellesmere, and in the House of Commons by Mr Ridley and Mr Mulholland. The French Semaphore publishes the traffic returns of the Suez Canal during the first eleven months of 1876, compared with the same period of two preceding years. The figures are as follow: —1875, 1353 ships;, receipts, 26,153,000 f; 1874, 1153 vessels, 22,443,000 f; 1873, 1077 ships; receipts 20,839,000. The most destructive fire in New York for fifteen years occurred on February 8 th, destroying about half of a block bounded by Broadway, Howard, Grand, and Crosby streets, burning thirty buildings. The fire began at 6.30 in the evening. Three firemen were killed, and several injured by falling walls. The estimated loss is 1,000,000d0l on the buildings, and about 2,000,000d0l in goods. The heaviest looses are Lescher Whetman, 250,000d0l ; Lindeker, Waitress, and Boyton, 150,001dol; Wm. Smith and Co, 250,000 dol; Oalline, Brundette, and Co, 300,000d0l ; A, J. Cushing, 10 ),000dol ; Hohenthal, Whitehead, and Co, 300,000d0l ; George B. Shortridge and Co, 200,000d0l ; the Continental Hotel, 100,000dol. The fire was not got under control until after midnight. The Prussian Tribunal for Ecclesiastical Affairs commenced proceedings on January 32th against Dr Melchers, Archbishop of Cologne, with a view to his removal from his archiepisoopal functions, and has ordered a preliminary investigation to be instituted into the charges preferred against him. Cardinal Ledochowski, it is stated, will not be either interned or expelled from the country at the expiration of his term of imprisonment. The Government has determined to liberate him unconditionally. He will, however, be closely watched, and if he should in any way infringe the new Falk laws by exercising episcopal functions or otherwise he will be brought to justice at once.

Dr Featherstone, Agent-General for New Zealand, writes to the Times as follows “You publish in the Times a paragraph taken from the Melbourne Argus , in which it is stated that the City of Auckland recently arrived at Auckland with immigrants, and that among her cargo were 25 tons of oowder. I think it right to inform you that the City of Auckland was not an immigrant shin—that is, did not convey emigrants sent out bv me on behalf of the Government of New Zealand. It will, no doubt, be satisfactory to those of your readers who have friends proceeding to that colony by vessels containing Government emigrants to know that it is provided in the charterparty under which the ships are engaged, ‘ that no gunpowder or any other commodity likely to be detrimental |to the safety or health of the passengers shall be taken as cargo or otherwise,’ and that this provision is strictly enforced by me.' 1

It seems that Thomas’s idea of causing an explosion by means of clockwork was not a new one; The Mecklenhunjische _ Anzeiger has received the following communication; “ In the spring of 1615 the Swedish fleet lay in the harbour of Wismar, The MasterGeneral of the Ordnance, Karl Gustav Wransel, was to make the passage to Sweden on board the Lion, and the Admiral Blume on board the Dragon. Somebody wished to send off two chests, one by each of the two vessels. When the chests were shipped—the one to be sent in the Admiral’s ship stood already near the powder magazine—a noise was observed in the chests as from clockwork. It was opened, and a mechanism in the shape of clockwork was found connected with a firesteel and a flintstone, and beneath them powder, pitch, sulphur, &c. The shipper of the chests, a certain Hans Krevet, of Barth, pretended to have received the chests from three citizens of Lubeck, and was reported to have been woe over by a Danish factor at Lubeck. He was executed on July sth.” A terrible wind storm raged on February 3rd along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, causing much damage. The wind attained a velocity from the north-west of 70 miles an hour. Telegraph wires were partially prostrated. From all directions reports come to-day of unroofed anddestroyed buildings. At Cohoes, New York, a church steeple 225 ft high was blown down, the wreck obstructing the railway. A partially completed Catholic Church at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was entirely destroyed. The steeple of the'Universalist Church, Webster, Massachusetts, was demolished At Washington the tower of the Metropolitan Methodist Church, 230 ft high, was blown several feet of plumb, being rocked by the wind for hours. Its swayings were watched by crowds. At Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Episcopal Church steeple was blown down, crushing an adjoining building. Many vessels were wrecked along the coast. The storm extended eastwards to Nova Scotia, southwards as far as Hatteras, and westwards to Detroit. In Cincinnati, on Saturday afternoon, February 6th, at the Opera House, an allegory of the Great Republic was being performed for the benefit o? the Poor Relief Fund. Several hundred public school children took part in the performance on the stage, while the house was closely packed with a large audience, mainly consisting of women and children. Scarcely had the performance begun when a cry of “ Fire” was raised without any reason, causing a panic and a stampede for the doors. For several minutes horrible scenes occurred in the entries and on the stairways, people being crushed to death, trampled upon, thrown down the stairs, many jumping from the galleries and upper stories upon the crowds below. Eleven persons were killed and about thirty injured.

On January 25th a collision of a serious character occurred on the North Union Railway at Farrington Station, two miles from Preston, and resulted in injury to several persons. The express which runs daily between Manchester and Windermere left the former station at the usual time, and all went right until it neared Farrington, when the driver observed tbe distance signal against him. Having passed the previous station (Leyland) all right, about three minutes before, and receiving no signal there to slacken, he drove on at a quick speed, and when the distance signal at Farrington was observed the train was going at about forty miles an hour. The driver did his utmost to stop, but this was impossible, and seeing that a violent collision was inevitable, he and his stoker jumped off and were seriously injured. The obstacle was a coal train, the waggons of which were being shunted, and they were across the line when the express made its appearance, and they could not be removed in time to prevent the disaster. Two or three waggons were smashed ; the front of the express engine was broken, and, in addition to the driver and stoker, several passengers were hurt. The block system is in full working order on the line where the accident happened. The day before the block system was put into operation on this line an accident occurred at the same station through a similar cause.