EUROPEAN ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 866, 6 May 1871, Page 2

EUROPEAN ITEMS.

A violent shock of earthquake, which lasted four seconds, and which was followed, after a short interval, by another and a weaker shock, was felt at Darmstadt on Feb. 10. The Empress Eugenic was present incognito at some recent draaiatic entertainments at Drury Lane for the benefit of the suffering French. It is said that her Imperial Majesty contributed a sum equal to half the proceeds of the entertainment. Prince Mensdorff Dietrichstein, formerly Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and latterly Governor of Bohemia, died on Feb. 14, at Prague. The deceased Prince was a relative of the Queen of England. On Thursday, Feb. 16, at 9.8 p.m., a London establishment received a message, via Teheran, from Kurachee, India, ou Friday morning at 12.43 a.m. The message was therefore received in London the day before it was sent from India. The time actually occupied by the message in transmission was fifty minutes ; the sun would require four hours and twenty-six minutes to do the same distance, and as the message was sent so soon after midnight, the eitraordinary effect is produced of its arriving the previous evening. In connection with an order recently issued by direction of his Royal Highness the Field-Marshall Commanding-in-Chief , instructions have been issued for general officers commanding brigades and commanding officers of regiments at Aldershot to select one officer from each regiment of cavalry, and four officers from each brigade of infantry, to go through a course of instruction, under the garrison instructors, in preparing sketches and reports of the roads, country, and evolutions when route-marching or on outpost duty. A new description, of case shot for rifled oidnance (hitherto the most unsatisfactory of artillery projectiles) has been tried at the Royal Arsenal and at Shoeburyness with great success, as it fulfils the principal desiderata of case in breaking up easily at the requisite moment, and scattering its contents over a very large area. The new case shot, the inventor of which is Mr Widgery, a foreman in the Royal Laboratory, has been ordered for manufacture in large quantities. A fearful trapeze accident took place at the Adelphi Music-hall, Oldham. The Brothers Banvard, described as American gymnasts, were executing some draing feats on trapezes fixed at a height of from twenty to thirty feet. While the most dangerous was being performed, one of the three men fell into the orchestra head formost. The audience was panic stricken. Menyelled and women screamed. The young man was taken up, and medical aid summoned. On examination it was found that one of his arms was broken, that three of the fingers on the left hand were smashed, and that he had sprained one of his ankles. On this evening the Brothers Banvard were to have been presented with a couple of siver crosses for their daring feats. It is said that the same young man had his arm broken a short time ago through a similar accident. The Times correspondent in Naples thus writes on February 1 : — "An eruption of Vesuvius is an event of such general interest that even in times when your columns are so full, you may find room f or,a brief report. It has presented a brilliant spectacle now for some days, and great numbers of foreigners have arrived, who on fine nights make the ascent at least as far as the Atrio del Cavallo, for the grand cone is almost prohibited ground. The action of the monn tain, however, varies so much that it is impossible to predict with any degree of probability what its state may be on the morrow. At times it appears to be pinking into a quiescent state, and then it bursts out in greater fury a few hours after. At the beginning of the week its activity was slight, and the instruments of the Observatory gave no indication of

an immediate increase. Less smoke and scarcely any stones were thrown out, while the principal crater thundered more rarely and with less force. The continued rain which fell at the rime soon carried off the small sublimates, leaving no trace behind. We may infer, therefore, that Vesuvius will for a time present a more or less brilliant spectacle before arriving at the grand finale, and travellers may bend their steps towards Naples with almost a certainty of seeing something worth seeing. The new cone which opeued towards the north on 12th January has closed, but at the back of it another mouth has opened and is this morning throwing out a lofty column of black smoke. In fact, this mountain is in a state of intermittent fever, being sometimes almost passive, and at others ejecting smoke and stones to a great height." On February 10 an'extraordinary escape from a train was made by a prisoner named Charles Champion, who had been sentenced that day to seven years' penal servitude by the Recorder of Windsor for stealing a quantity of timber from the Great Western Railroad Company. Champion, who had a broken leg, left Windsor by the Great Western Railway in the custody of police sergeant Field, the prisoner walking with the aid of a pair of crutches. When between Tayford and Reading, Champion drew the sergeant's attention to a spot where, he said, the new line was coming in, pointing to the right hand side of the line, evidently for the purpose of diverting the attention of Field. Immediately afterwards the prisoner made a dash at the opposite window and scrambled through it. Sergeant Field managed to catch hold of one of his legs, and succeded in keeping his hold for some considerable time, while the prisoner was hanging half out of the window. Eventually the prisoner's trousers gave way ; the sergeant gave him a jerk in order to prevent him getting under the wheels of the carriage, and he fell on to the ground. At this time the train was travelling at a speed of from twenty to thirty mses|an hour. Sergeant Field contrived to gain the attention of the engine-driver, and the train, after it had run about a mile, was stopped. The police officer got out of the carriage and ran a considerable distance along the line, and when about a mile from the spot where the prisoner made hi 3 escape, Field saw him being led into a wood by a couple of laborers employed upon the permanent way. He rec:\ptimd Ida), and, having obtained a fly fi-icn Ta jord, took him on to Reading gaol, \\ki he safely lodged him. The piisuiK-1- sueined little, if any, the worse for his adventure. It appeared that when apprehended by Field in the first instance he endeavored to make his escape, and broke his leg by jumping over a wall of considerable height.