THE NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 450, 28 January 1867, Page 2

THE NEWS BY THE MAIL.

GREAT AND DISASTROUS FLOODS IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND, Floods widely destructive of life and property have recently occurred. From the Trent to the Tweed the streams and rivers have all been swollen by the incessant rainfall beyond all remembered precedent, and vast floods have carried devastation and ruin wherever the nature of a district gave motive power to the immense bodies of water. For several weeks past the fall, especially on the Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire lulls, has been extraordinary; but up to Thursday night, 15th November, no particular danger was apprehended. In the dark hours, however, the people were roused in all directions by that peculiar sound, sullen and hoarse, which indicates the gathering of the waters and before dawu there was a vast spread of ruin over two of the broadest English counties. The Irwell, the Irk, and the Mediock had burst their boundaries, and run through Manchester as roaring torrents, carrying along theicourse the huge bulksof uprooted trees, cottage staircases, barrels of oil and parafin, mill machinery, the roofs of houses, and an indescribable melee of wreck. The inundation swept over villages, rolled into cellars, and invaded warehouses aud human habitations up to the second storey, drowned horses and cattle, swamped the Peel-park, extinguished the furnaces in the factories, stopped trains at full speed, washed the ballast from the lines, submerged immense sweeps of field and pasture so deeply that the hedges disappeared from sight, clicked tunuels, aud swept away many human beings to their deaths o.i the banks of the Aire. There were boats uaviga ing the streets of Wakefield, and waggons engaged to rescue the people imprisoned in their dwellings by this fatal deluge; hundreds of mills are stopped, and thousands of hands, as inevitable consequence, will be thrown out of employment. In Abraham park only the tops of the trees can be seen. Ships ride upon the very quays ; bridges have been shattered to their foundations ; chimney stalks have been literally flung bodily from their foundations, aui the valley of the Gaidar lor five miles is an unbroken lake, The Manchester Guardian, devoting three columns to recording the above and other facts, says We regret to have to add that several lives have been lost. One man was drowned in Lower Broughton two were drowned at Wakelkld, one at Bradford, and one in the neighborhood of StayTebndge. At Ripponden, near Halifax, a women and three children perished through the washing away of a bridge which they were crossing. Several narrow escapes are recorded.”

In addition to the above melancholy details, an apalling catastrophe is reported to have occurred at Leeds. It appears that a coal barge was overturned at Leeds Bridge, and obstructed the course of the current. On the north bank is a palisade terrace, appertaining to Mr Oonyears, leather merchant, and this is washed bv the v..Vd„l, t.. , - .

“ ee, J'QOi, HiioUgn Hit arCU* way near the gentleman’s place of business. On Saturday morning. 17th November, at 7 o clock, some 30 persons had assembled on this terrace to see the wreck, when all at once the earthwork gave way and 3u persons were precipitated into the foaming stream. Six ieniaies who had in despair clustered together, fastening to each other’s garments, were rescued by the captains ol two vessels by means of best-hooks, and recovered. One corpse, that of a man resembling a commercial traveller, was fished out by a brave fellow who saw the- last convulsive struggles of the man and brought him to land, but he was then dead. There is no doubt that at least 20 lives have been lost by this sad accident,

The remarkable characteristic of this visitation is the extensive area of the track over which its ravages have been carried. Xt has assailed Moncusstorj Lower Brough* ton, and Strangeway ; it has swept through Blackburn, Burwen, and Stockport; it has broken over entire quarters of Preston. It has laid waste whole districts in and about Wakefield. It has closed the roads to Huddersfield from north and south. At Leeds ail the low-lying parts the town are several iee» under water, and at Manchester alone it is computed that nearly s uiousana persons wc&b s&sur? t6Sipopavllr Viomnl onn A M 1 a. „ ii . _ 11* j -vMivivoo, n.u Appeal wu Udt? piump. benevolence will of course be made on their behalf, and of course will- be warmly responded to ; for the loss to them, must be bitter indeed. They, for the time* ara thrown out of work j their habitat tions are destroyed, or more or less damaged ; their furniture is irretrievably injured ; their clothes are rendered worthless. We must add to this the general sacrifice of the great manufacturing region which this deluge has invaded. Happily,, there were no crops to suffer; but an enormous amount of property has been swept out of the warehouses ; the railways are impaired; the complex and delicate machinery of hundreds of mills must have sustained serious if not irreparable injury j the autumnal sowings have been drowned, out of the land ; ships have actually ridden over the sides of the rivers, into which, it is a problem how they can ever be launched again ; quays and wharves have been forced away by the rush of the swollen waters, with- all the store of wealth upon them. Numbers of sheep and oxen have perished. In all, we shall not be far wrong in putting the cost ef this misfortune at half a million sterling. Considering, however, all the circumstances, tho loss of property has not been very great.

FENIANISM IN IRELAND.

Fenianism, which, it was hoped, was dead and buried, has latterly shown signs of revival, which have given rise to some alarm and apprehension, especially in the more southern districts of Ireland. The Dublin Nation of 24th Novembersays j—“ If our last advices from America be correct, Stephens is now at sea, speeding his way towards the shores of Ireland. And with him come a number of men skilled in the trade of war, men who have looked death in the face ere now, and in a cauwhich had less of their hearts’ devotion than this cause of Ireland, Mr Stephens has promised and pledged himself to do this thing. He has proclaimed to tho world his resolve to be on Irish soil, directing an armed struggle for Irish independence, within this year j and if he really endeavor to fulfil his words, even | partially—if he of his own free will shall set foot on the shores of Ireland within the specified time—he certainly will prove himself possessed of no ordinary degree of courage. Possibly he is so bold and daring a man. Thera is nothing in hia character as it stands before the public, and nothing in his records, to forbid tho supposition. His lack of certain good qualities does not prove that he cannot engage in desperate adventures, and face the risks coolly and collectedly, with a subtle intellect and undaunted heart. It is also possible, we think that he may succeed in lauding on some point of tho Irish coast, and making his way to Dublin or such other place as he may select for his ‘ head quarters.’ The task of getting out of the couutry, which be accomplished, was, wo fancy, a more difficult one. And thus we are brought face to face with the important question whether in a few weeks from his date the blood of Irishmen will flow in another struggle against the power of England “ In a previous column a brief allusion is made to the seizure of arms at Cork. It now appears that on the morning of the 22nd November, two cases, brought by the Liverpool steamer the previous day to that city, were opened by the police. One was found to contain 50 Enfield riflea perfectly new, with bayonets attached i another, 30 rifles and a number of bullet moulds. A person named Tracey, in the employment of Daly and Co., of Cork, has been arrested. The cases were consigned to the address of this firm. On the following morning 10 persons were arrested in Limerick city on a charge of Fenianism. A large number of pikes and a hogshead of bullets have been discovered. The prisoners are of the laboring class. Great excitement prevailed in the city. At noon the same day a man who had been transacting business in the Hibernian Bank, Dublin, was arrested on leaving the bank by the detective. In the possession of tho prisoner, who gave the name of John MPhereon M'Qilvray, was found a small pistol, a cheque on the Commercial Bank of Glasgow for £930, and about £3O cash. There were no documents to criminate him, but it would appear that, having landed in Dublin on the 6th November from America, his movements excited the suspicion of the police, and he was watched. He declined to give any account of himself. It. is supposed ho hud. besn B n office? in. the American army, and that he had come over to this countryin furtherance of Fenian interests. A telegram from Dublin this morning states that the suburbs of that city were patrolled by cavalry last night, and during i j -:j----y esieruay ui6 pOnuo uau # nuiu vucu oivxo arms. No further arrests had been made. Twelve hundred and fifty breach-loading rifles for the use of the constabulary arrived in Dublin on Saturday,24th Nov. THE POPE AND MR GLADSTONE. An Italian journal gives tho following very interesting account of an interview between these celebrated persons

“Mr Gladstoue found the Pope as calm &S MSsibls, Politic— jsnf. ■ untilthe end of the conversation, and it was air, Gladstone who took the initiative. " The Pope complained of the Austrian Government, while fully admitting that events in Germany had pat it out of the power of that Government to defend the

"PTnlw fiaa an/? almAaf «»a •*vy WVtJ MUh* (MIMWBV jusuuuu tl/O WUUUVVI Mr Gladstone congratulated the Pope on the arrival at Rome of the Atibes Legion. On this the Pope said, ” Terrestrial legions have the defect of often failing of the end they desire to attain. Moreover, what matters it to me what shall happen ? Rest assured that when the French are gone I shall not beless protected, seeing that the legions

luai ueiomi iuo v/uurcn never xau. xu saying I that, the Pope raised his eyes to Heaven. * ■ Mr Gladstone wished to speak of Italy, and ha asked what truth there might be in the preliminaries of negotiations with the Government of Florence mentioned in the journals. This is the Pope’s reply, “I -do not read the journals; 1 know nothing in that respect; I am ignorant of everything | all 1 know is, that, in dying, I shall not leave entire to my successor the sacred and inviolable inheritance of St. Peter.” •The conversation on Italy having ceased, the Church in Ireland was spoken of, and the Pope warmly commended to Mr Gladstone his well-beloved flock. Then, smiling, he added, “If one of these days I should have to leave Home, although Ireland is far from the centre of Christianity, I should not object, perhaps, to choose it for my domicile. Malta, a place almost entirely mercantile, now that the revolutionaries accuse my poor priests of simony, would not have my sympathies.” He said in conclusion, that he would go where Providence mighty and never failing to judge men who are not eternal —should wish. In saying these words the Pope seemed much moved.'* FRENCH CRIMINAL LAW. The Evening Standard (London) says: —The French nature is unique in Europe. It is vain, it is bold, it is dramatic. Our own correspondent has supplied us within the last few days with eome startling examples to illustrate the working* of it* energy when enagaged in deeds of wrong. A mighty stockbroker has just appropriated the savings of many bishops, after years of confidential communication. He is politely sent to Mazas for five years. The head clerk and confidential agent of a great Parisian banker robs his employer of £24,000, and gets twelve months’ incarceration. A rascal cheats a racing club by running a horse under a false name. Ho is acquitted. Twelve hags aro tried for kidnapping young girls, enticing them L into luxury and shame, and the extreme sentence is twelve mouths’ imprisonment. Wo shall have to mark a curious inconsistency in the French code presently. A Pontifical mercenary and his brother, both «x-Zouaves, concoct a speculation. They combine and produce a Great Western Coal Company. They rent splendid offices; they enchange shares in their association for chateaux and lands more gelid ; they buy, with sim lar paper, houses in Paris and castles in Spain ; they obtain, by fraudulent representation, property to the extent of £50,000, and cash £50,000 more. This i J considered heinous. So the French Court sentence the swindlers to two years’ detention, and a fine of forty shillings each'. Wa are getting on with our catalogue. Last week two priests were indicted, in the Department of the Asinc, for monstrous offences. One escaped upon

a technicality ; the other was convicted and condemned to hard labor for life. Then, we have the case of a marauding rogue, charged with having murdered a forester fifteen years ago. Four witnesses swear to his identity, but the jury are not satisfied, and he is acquitted, with a warning, perhaps, not to do it again. Next, there is one, Asye by name, whom we commend to the particular consideration and artistic delineation of M. Victor Hugo. He killed a woman at Toulon, cut her head of£ and flung it to the pigs, and threw her body into the water. There was “ extenuating circumstances,” and, instead of dying on the scaffold he is sent in chains to New Caledonia. Possibly a new French dictionary may explain what the word “ extenuating ” signifies. Two young fellows having barbarously slain a woman in the Rue de Clichy, Paris, are also certificated for mercy, and become new Calidonians, with privileges. For they are told that after some years of probation they shall select from among the prettiest convicts upon the station their wives, on condition of cultivating certain farms. The original New Caledonians, however, being addicted to man and woman eating, the ladies may be otherwise disposed of before the young murderers are of an age to claim their titles.

We must not linger, howerer, over one particular instance, because the catalogue of the week for the French tribunals is elaborate. We have M. Alexis Ohevrier, who dwelt with the tsondin family, near Lyons. He loved the wife, and the result was shame to her and misery to her busband. Madame Boudin was penitent, and would have asked for pardon, M. Alexis Chevrier’s vanity being kindled, he first tried to shoot the lady, end, not succeed-

. u;- .. J ing, caugnc ner m *»*» nu^ her into the wide and swift flood of the Bhone. She not drowning soon enough he plunged in to hold/ her hood trader the\ water ;°but somebody interfered, and the poor creature's life was saved. What was Guilty, with extenuating circumstances? There was only one suggested —that the gentleman was jealous of the lady's husband. There is something sublimely French in this. The French deal with actual murder upon a principal the

most extraordinary that can be imagined. Wa awa?g that is our own country, 3 when the law had not been mitigated, and ] hanging was the daily diversion of justices, 1 juries constantly forswore themselves, by i ■ (livln/i im _ lamtani 111 AVrl A 1« t./l ' gsixug UI t» XVUIVUH “*• t spare a culprit whose guilt was undeniable, i : but did not deserve the gallows. It ap- i A--. ... :r ‘*-1 1 • ter us man u cspiliu jiuiuaumvuv is ■ i to bo got rid of it should bo by & direct 1 . and avowed process. Here is a scoundrel ’ i who slaughters his mistress, mutilates her i I corpse, flings n part into the pig-trough, 1 • and throws the rest into the river. He is ] ■ punished exactly on the scale of an un- i L happy young wretch who, maddened by ’ • desertion and treachery, casts from her i ; bosom the offspring of her guilt, and is i . unable, although anxious, to rescue it i , afterwards. It is inevitable, we suppose, i i that all justice will be inconsistent in one i respect or another; but with examples 1 i before us the contrast appears too start- [ ling. The whole subject of French crimi-; I nal jurisprudence is interesting, and ■ worthy attention, but in no respect more 1 than in tbe light from which French juries 1 regard the guilt of a murderer. We can ’ comprehend an American “ serve him , right,” or an English “ recommendation Ito mercy.” “ Extenuating,” however, ■ when a man assassinates a woman because - he is jealous of her husband, seems a [ mystery. i _____ j MISCELLANEOUS. 3 The Home News of the 26th November 3 quotes New Zealand 6 per cent, debentures f at 98 to 100, and the 5 per cent, at 84 to ’ 85. 5 r A deputation of Australian colonists at 1 present resident in Epgland waited on the a Earl of Carnarvon on the 6th November, to recommend the construction of a telegraph line with Australia, by way of India, Singapore, and Java. The Home News of the 26th November . says:—The great success of the Victoria and the New Zealand Loans has, it is stated r induced parties to arrange preliminaries i for other financial engagements. With the . gradually increasing ease in the money s market it is expected there will be further new loans and projects introduced, but it . may be pretty well understood that the r public will exercise great discrimination 5 in selecting securities to which they will subscribe. f p The Home News of the 26th November says : —Relative to the proposed prosecution of ex-Governor Kyre, the AttorneyGeneral is reported to have decided that a j retainer which the Jamaica Committee of- ( fered to Mr Coleridge, Q.C., and which , was accepted by that gentleman, is informal, and that a retainer subsequently of- ’ fered by Mr Eyre is consequently good. The Jamaica Committee state (hat, having | been advised that the facts disclosed in the , report of the royal commissioners afford a , proper ground for an indictment for murI der to be preferred against Mr Eyre and . the other persons concerned in the trial , and execution of Mr Gordon, and that no j other mode of vindicating the law in reference to those facts is open to them, they ’ have instructed their solicitors forthwith . to proceed with au indictment against Mr , Eyre. 3 During Friday, 16th November, and the 7 preceding evening, a circumstancial statei ment was current in London and in many s places in the country, that the Prince of , Wales had met with a serious accident in i Russia, and some persons even affirmed ] that his Royal Highness had been killed. , The report was that it had occurred during , a boar hunt, one version being that his r Royal Highness was accidentally shot, r another that he was thrown from his horse. . It is stated that the origin of the report , arose from the wording of a telegram being ; misunderstood. The telegram stated, 1 “ The prince’s skill in riding during the ; hunt was much admired.” Those who s heard the telegram read out understood it 1 to mean, “ The prince is killed in riding r during the hunt.”

A recent charge of Archbishop Treneh gave great offence to a portion of the Dublin Protestants, who lost no time in raising against him the cry of “Tractarianism.” This feeling led to a “ demonstration ” on Sunday, llth November. His grace was announced to preach in St. Mark’s Church, and eircolars were distributed calling upon the people to attend the service and mark their disapproval of counterfeit Romanism by quietly withdrawing before his grace’s sermon. The appeal was not in vain; the church was crowded, and just as the archbishop was about to give out his text a considerable number rose and walked out. His grace was hissed as he left the church at tbe close of the service.

The terrible conflagration which recently occurred at Quebec is said to have originated in a drinking saloon, where some men quarrelling over a card-table upset the lamp, and the oil running over the floor, set fire to the house, the flames spreading with great celerity among the wooden houses in the neighborhood. The great extent of surface burnt over is attributed to the neglect of the authorities in not providing an adequate supply of water, or in any way attempting to relieve their exposed condition. The condition of the sufferers—-over 20,000 people having been and, owing to the stagnation of business, and the near approach of winter, many o> them are in despair.

The Austrian Government has decided upon adopting the English Bennington rifle, which, like the needle-gun, loaus at VU'-. mu. - lx. _/* : uio jluo runtui in uuo CAycrituouvs has been that sixty shots per minute can be fired with this nfle,

By the fearful hurricane at Nassau, New ' it--i _i j o_ j _r r% • ■v'SiUwUWwi wii i/uv isv niiu ariivi wi vvK/uct) H.M. Nimble (Commander A. J. ChatSeld) ! has been literally “ blown out of the 1 water” on to the shore of the harbor, but i wiftmui' i,5.,0 „<■ i;r„ nn,- „i , »• -tv iwoo v* luo« iQe ouguc vu auvic i was terrible; the town in ruins, not a single vessel (of some hundreds the day I bctors) rcSuniuod. GOTDfumdilt'uOUsO, barracks, hospital, and officers’ quarters were r.nroofed and partially blown down; all the stores on the beach destroyed; wharves and commissariat and dockyard piers down; all the sheds and outbuildings in both places destroyed; the dockyard wall blown down in two places, and nearly ail the houses in town partially or wholly unroofed 5 public buildings unroofed, and four chapels blown down (one a new stone one). All the trees are either blown down or stripped of their leaves and branches. The salt has blown over the island, and all the wells are salt as far as the ‘Blue-hills, four miles inland. The top of the lighthouse is blown in, and the light destroyed ; a temporary light is shown. The accounts from the other islands are very dreadful. Most of them being low, the sea made a clear breach over the settlements and completely destroyed them, and the inhabitants are suffering from want of provisions; indeed the sufferings of the poorer classes must be dreadful. Their gardens and provision grounds and huts are all destroyed, and hundreds have no shelter. Providentially, the loss of life at Nassau has not been very great—only three, although numerous accidents have taken place. The number drowned in the harbor is not known. The lights on Abaco are damaged, and temporary ones (about the brightness of a ships light) shown; Stirrup Bay ie most damaged ; Great Isaac’s and Gun Bay light’s have not suffered. The Daily News says: —Some disgraceful disclosures have been made in Oxford of the practice of sending new-born children to dry nurses, where they die of inanition and debility from being deprived of the natural support of their mothers. A nurse named Chard having applied for certificates and registers of deaths more frequently than usual, the case was brought under the notice of Mr W. Brunner, coroner, and an enquiry was instituted into the death of a female child, committed by its mother to her care. The inquest was opened on Tuesday, and adjourned for further evidence. The adjourned inquiry was held yesterday when the registrar of birihs and deaths stated that bis attention had for some time been directed to the mystery surrounding the birth of children in the care of Mrs Chard, as also to their frequent death and disappearance. It appeared that the deceased was the illegitimate daughter of a respectable person, the father was unki own. and the baby was registered under an assumed name in order to conceal its parentage. The coroner’s officer described the condition of the house to be filthy in the extreme, and the children there were so emaciated and dirty as to be scarcely recognisable as human beings. Tho jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased was found in a house totally unfit for habitation ; that it died from debility ; that the practice of medical men recommending children to be sent to such a place was censurable in the highest degree.

The subject for discussion at the Oxford University Union a few days ago, says the Home News, was, “ That, in the opinion of this House, Mr Bright is a reproach to the country which gave him birth.” An amendment was moved, “ That while admiring Mr Bright’s talent this house regrets that it should be given to to the support of a mischievous party.” This was negatived, and another amendment moved, “That Mr Bright’s political career for many years past has been such as to render him a most serious nuisance to the country.” This was also negatived, and the original motion was then carriied, 63 voting for it and 26 against—majority 37. The writer of Homo Talk, in the Homo News, says:—More than once I have had to make allusion to the book called “ Ecoe Homo," which excited so much interest in what is called the religious world, though its doctrines have been sternly repudiated by that section of the commnuity. The secrecy which was observed as to the authorship had something to do with the success of what is undeniably a clever and sentimental history of the Founder of Christianity. The origin of the book was assigned to a great number of persons, of all kinds of opinions, and when I say that tho guesses ranged from Lord Broaghhara to the author of “Adam Bede,” I shall give a good idea of their wildness. The Spectator now states, as from authority, that the book is by Professor Seeley, and that accomplished theologian has not contradicted the statement. Now, if we could only be quite sure who wrote “Junius” wo could live happily till the end of our lives.

The Paris journals announce the death of M. Lcgot, the tailor who it is said, designed and executed the famous grey coal — la, redingote ffrise —which Na&oleon always wore, in which the common people always picture the hero in their mind’s eye. From his hands, too, went forth the uniform in which .Napoleon was buried at St. Helena.