NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1036, 20 October 1877, Page 3

NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

DOMESTIC ITEMS. The emigration scheme for Japanese to Australia has been abandoned. i The King of Denmark has been visiting England incog. He has returned to Copenhagen. By an eruption of Cotopaxi the town of Tachunga was partially destroyed. A steamer 150 miles away was covered with cinders. By a destructive fire at Bromley, on the I 27th August, damage was done to the amount of £30,000. The American papers announce the death of Ealph Semmes, the captain of the celebrated Confederate cruiser Alabama, Bombay detectives are on the alert after the thieves who took the 5000 sovs. from the last Australian steamer, belonging to the Oriental Bank. The money was insured. Miss Adelaide Neilson has returned home, after an eight months* tour through the east ern and western states of America, during which she gave 140 representations, and realised over £13,000. The Temeraire is being fitted with the olociric light prior to her departure for the Mediterranean. Experiments, which were most successful, were made with the apparatus at Chatham on the 20th. The whole of the dockyard, the Medway, and the surrounding country, were illuminated for a considerable distance. The “Times’* publishes a telegram from Mr John Dickson at Alexandra, stating that “ Cleopatra’s Needle ” has been successfully launched into seven feet of water. Two feet more will float it. The work is temporarily delayed owing to the insufficient power of the tuSB- - Adelina Patti has commenced proceedings in Franco for a nullification of her marriage with the Marquis de Caux, in whoso favor a decree has been granted in Paris for a separation. She avers that the English clergyman who married her at Clapham was not legally qualified. The Frigorifique, French steamer, has arrived at Kouen with a <cargo of meat from the Biver Plate in a moet satisfactory condition ; 112 days elapsed from the commencement of the loading to its being landed. Another steamer is being despatched from Marseilles to Monte Video for the trade. The strikes in the United States interfered with the meat traffic in England, but it is now again getting brisker. An announcement has been made that the Pope was presented in all with about £650,000 on the occasion of his jubilee. Onefourth was added to the funds of the holy chair, another fourth was given to the employees and ex-employees of the Vatican, a similar sum was devoted to the restoration of ecclesiastical monuments and the execution of works encouraging art and industry, and the remainder was appropriated to hospitals and asylums. The last two girders of the Tay bridge have been raised into position. Thu structure is upwards of two miles long. The bridge consists of eighty-five spans, thirty of which are 90ft. above high-water level. Nearly seven years have been occupied in building the bridge, and between twenty and thirty lives have been lost during its progress. It has cost about £300,000.

THE INDIAN FAMINE. Famine in Madras continues, but the prospect is getting gradually brighter, from partial mine haviug fallen. The Viceroy, consulting with the Duke of Buckingham, has sanctioned all the expenditure requisite. Half a million sterling a mouth is being spent. The total expected is nine millions ; £900,000 in Madras in relief works, one and a half million being dependent on allowances ; £300,000 in Bombay, ia relief works. The

shipments of rice from Bengal in twelve months was equal to 30,000,000 maunds, 24,000,000 being for Madras. The Bombay railway extension is carried out as relief works. Subscriptions for the famine are pouring h to the Mansion House. There is no time to wait when a letter like this can be written, by Mr W. E. James, of the Mysore Revenue Survey Service, to a friend in England: — “ Bangalore, .July 22nd. There is nothing to write about save the famine, which is staring every one in the face ; the country is like a vast desert. My compound, where even last year I was able to keep two cows, will nol now graze a goat. The railway is taxed to its utmost limit, and is bringing 4000 tons ol grain a week into the province, but as this will only feed a million and a half of people, the other three million and a half in Mysore must starve, as all the stores of grain in the country are exhausted. Already the sufferings of the people are awful; there is a regular service organised, in addition to the police, to keep the streets of Bangalore clear of the dead and dying, but outside the municipal limits dead bodies are lying in all directions ; the lower castes are cooking and eating the bodies ; two men were caught doing so, and have been brought before the Magistrate this week. Two days ago, when riding past the Hussar stables, I saw a crowd of wretched women and children routing in the dung-heap, and picking out the undigested grains of corn to eat.” STORMS AND FLOODS. In the end of August Scotland and the north of England were visited with very heavy and continuous rain, which has caused the rivers to overflow and has flooded the low-lying districts. The result has been most disastrous to the crops, and has caused the gravest apprehensions among the farmers. In Scotland the Tay, the Earn, and the Tweed rose several feet above their usual level, and submerged the fields for miles around. Great quantities of hay have been swept away or destroyed, the standing crops have been much injured, and large numbers of cattle and sheep have been drowned. Several fatal accidents are also reported. A woman was washed over the pier at Fraserburgh, a fisherman was swept from his boat, and a girl was carried into the sea at Leven. They were all drowned. In Fife a woman died while removing the furniture from her house, which was flooded. Eight fishing boats are missing, two from Wick and six from Peterhead. Portions of the Deeside Railway were submerged, delaying the Queen’s journey to the north for a day, the traffic on the Crieff and Perth Railway was stopped, and the Dundee and Arbroath line was also damaged. Generally, it is said, a scene of desolation is presented such as has not been witnessed in Scotland for generations. There have been very heavy rains at Liverpool, and the rivers and low-lying lands in Northumberland are flooded. A great deal of the hay has been spoiled, and the corn crops will be much retarded. The Northumberland farmers are said to take a very gloomy view of their position. The same condition of things prevails in Westmoreland. The traffic on the North Eastern Railway was stopped for a time near Rowlands ‘Gill by the washing away of an embankment, A despatch from Dublin says that this year will long bo remembered in Ireland as “ the wet season of 1877.” Heavy rains all over the country have done considerable damage to the crops, but potatoes have suffered the most.