LATEST EUROPEAN NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 451, 3 December 1868, Page 3

LATEST EUROPEAN NEWS.

(From the Panama Star and Herald.) The Czar visited the King of Prussia at Potsdam, while on his return to Russia. In England there is considerable excitement owing to the election canvass. The Prince of Wales met with a great reception at Glasgow, where he laid the corner stone of a new University. A division of French iron-clads left Brest on the 25th September for Cadiz and Barcelona. The Russian war frigate Alexander Navski was wrecked off the town of Harbore, Denmark. Among Her officers was the Grand Duke Aleais, third son of the Czar. The latest dispatches announce the safety of the Grand Duke, and probably, the entire crew. JIJAn attempt was made to assassinate the Viceroy of Egypt, while witnessing an illumination in Cairo. No damage was done, however. The would-be assassin escape I. It is said that a conspiracy to dethrone the Sultan of Turkey has been discovered in Constantinople. A number of political arrests have been made. i Alderman James Clarke Lawrence has been elected Lord Mayor of London for the ensuing year. He is a candidate for the representation of Lambeth. His brother, Alderman William Lawrence, sat for London in the expiring Parliament. A frightful colliery explosion has taken place near Raubon in Wales. It is not known how many lives are lost. Twelve dead bodies have. been recovered, and several frightfully injured. Hundreds are upon the pit bank. The pit is on fire. It is unknown how many are still in the pit. The neighborhood is greatly excited. Harrowing details have arrived respecting the catastrophe in the cartridge manufactory in the court of the arsenal at Metz, in France. It appears that the explosion was caused by one of the women employed in filling the cartridges. In a fit of temper she threw her scissors at one ! of her companions ; it struck against some fulminating mercury and ignited a pocket of cartridges, and the explosion sent the building, soldiers and workmen into the air— some of the bodies were so fearfully mutilated as to defy The number of persons at work in that part of the arsenal was over 100 ; 40 being soldiers and the remainder women and girls. The woodwork of the building was blown to pieces and the roof fell in. The fire having communicated to the heaps of cartridges made in a few moments fearful havoc amongst the persona present. The court

of the arsenal presented in some sort the appearance of a field of battle being covered with dead, dying and wounded. From under the ruins of the burning planks several barrels of gunpowder and of cartridges were got out, which the slightest spark would have caused to explode ; had that occurred tho brave men engaged in the heroic task would have been blown to pieces. From the burning debris were seen to emerge men and women, burnt, mutilated, their clothes on fire, some of them without a shred of clothing left— one woman had no less than ten wounds, but had not lost consciousness — of the 100 persons in the workshops at the time of the explosion, 95 were either killed or wounded, and amongst the soldiers 21 out of 25 were hurt. The Minister of the I Interior immediately forwarded a sum of 10,000 francs for distribution among the families of the victims. The Emperor also beinjr informed by telegram of the disaster, at once sent word back that both he and the Empress were prepared to give ample assistance in such cases as might be brought to their knowledge. The Emperor Napoleon has lost another of his faithful supporters, Count Walewksi, who was struck down by a fit of apoplexy at Strasburg, when on a special mission to Germany. The deceased had filled some of the highest offices in the State ; he was Ambassador in England in 1854 ; in the following year he held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs ; in 1860 he became Minister of State, and after the Duke de Mooney was appointed President of the Corps Legislatiff. The Count was in his 59th year, Count Walewski was the most enlightened of the Emperor's fr'.ends, and since the death of Fould there was none whose advice he could have spared less. The Spanish Revolution is complete. Queen Isabella having fled to France, Serrano entered Madrid on the 4th Oct., with an escort of seven generals, at the head of a large procession, amid the wildest enthusiasm. The National Guard passed in review, bearing banners inscribed with the phrase: "Down with the Bourbons," "Sovereignty of the People," "Religious Liberty," "Free Education." Serrano addressed the populace. He told them Gen. Prim and himselE had called Espartero to the head of the State, with a cabinet consisting of Serrano as Prime Minister; Castello, Minister of Commerce ; Topete, Minister of Marine ; Aguirre, Minister of Justice ; Prim, Minister of War, Oloyago, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Madoz Minister of Finance. Juan Concha has been arrested. Isabella has issued a protest against the revolution. The document argues that force used by rebels to depose the Queen does not injure her rights to the throne of Spain, and declares that the acts of a Junta established by violence are not binding upon the people. It is announced that the great Powers of Europe will allow their diplomatic relations with Spain to remain in statu quo. The largest political demonstration ever witnessed in this country, occurred on Monday evening, sth Oct. in New York, being a grand mass meeting, torch-light procession, etc., of the Democracy. For several blocks, on every side of Union Square, the streets were densely packed with spectators, and it is estimated that 90,000 persons marched in the line of the procession. Distinguished speakers addressed the multitude from the various stands, and a letter was read from Gen. George B. McClellan, announcing his earnest sympathy with the Democratic party. Everything went off pleasantly, and notwithstanding the large numbers assembled, and the exciting nature of the canvass, no disturbances or casualties of any kind are reported. A new method of smuggling has been invented, the means adopted being the chignon. ' According to the Daily Telegraph, there are now continually traversing the Atlantic, between shore and shore, smugglers of drugs, of cotton stockings, kid gloves, fans, combs, and ribbons ; there is a whole class of German women who smuggle diamonds concealed in their chignons ; and, if common report is to be i trusted, the collectors of the great Atlantic ports have done remarkably well within the last few years by conniving at the practice of smuggling. The Austrian Government has struck another and tremendous blow at clerical ascendancy. The Church Courts have hitherto claimed an almost total exemption from secular authority, have in fact regarded all their proceedings as partaking, more or less of the privilege of the Confessional. Henceforward, they will be compelled to " recognize" civil proceedings, and to yield up any document demanded by suitors. If they do not, they must go to prison, or in legal phrase must submit to civil execution. In practice this rule will give every man wronged by the Ecclesiastical Courcs — say, every third suitor — an appeal to a lay tribunal. Messrs. Evans and Jones, food analysts, have made public the results of a chemical analysis of a pot of what professed to be red currant jam. The dot was not labelled with the name of the actual manufacturer, but only with that of the retailer. It contained a quantity of orchil, a colouring matter developed from a species of lichen (the Hoccellct Tinctoria) by the aid of some ammoniacal liquid, such as urine, &c. ; and the majority of the seeds were, in the opinion of the analysts, foreign to the red currant. The number of convictions in London during the past six months for using false weights and measures was 659. Admitting that a portion of these were convictions for giving too good weight — a frightful injustice still sanctioned by law — we must also remember that for every person convicted two escape. It will not be too much to say that at least 1,000 shopkeepers have been guilty in the last halfyear of cheating unwary persons in the dirtiest way in which it is possible to cheat them — a nice proof of the morality of the middle class ! Among the whole of these men a majority are church members, yet we have never heard of one being expelled his church, or put under censure, or even questioned for any trade transactions. Why should he ? They do not prove that he does not believe in verbal inspiration, or election, or the right of everybody to elect his own clergyman, nor are they breaches of the law of respectability, as, for example, attendance in chapel in shirtsleeves would be. We know nothing worse in its way than the faculty quiet English respectables have of ignoring everything which it is inconvenient to notice, of pardoning oppression if only it is committed by a householder. Make all petty tradesmen knights, and the papers would ring with denunciations of the thieves by { name.