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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 66, 18 March 1874, Page 2

Alsace-Lorraine. — A correspondent, writing from Metz, states that since tbe war some 25,000 of the most wealthy French inhabitants have left tbat place, and about the same number of the poorer sort of German tradespeople have taten tbe : r places. Fieneh people are still leaving as they are able to arrange their affairs, and not a few shops are now closed from their occupants having left, and no new owners having as yet arrived to take their places Much about the same sort of change has occurred at Strasburg, and to a similar extent. The old fortifications of Strasburg, constructed by Vauban in 1682, the year after the town was taken by the French, and which served it so little when Germany was retaking it nearly, 200 years afterwards, will speedily be demolished, and the town extended. Tbe new earthworks and stone fortifications command approaches to tho town about two miles off on elevated sites, and will make another such bombardment of tbe town impossible by any future enemy. The exterior forts around Metz, placed on most commanding situations, are being placed '"n the best possible condition by tho Germans, and tho interior forts will most probably be demolished. One cannot but be impressed most deeply with the exceeding riches and value of the two great provinces of nearly 2,000,000 people wbich France has lost. Ono of them contains the chief seals of cotton and other manufactures, and tho othor abounds in riches of coal and iron. The transit of the planet Venus across the sun's disc, which will take place a few months hence, is an occurrence of great rarity, and is eagerly looked forward to by astronomers of different countries. The phenomenon is of importance (says an exchange) as furnishing the best moans of ascertaining the sun's distance and volume, and of supplying data for determining the distances and magnitudes of the planets. It is, in fact, a universal Btandard of astronomical measurement. The first transit ever known to bave been recorded took place on tbe 4th of December, 1630. After the close of Ihe present century there will be no transit of Venus until the Bth of June, 2004, there will be another on the Gth of June, 2012, again December llth, 2117, on the Bth of December, 2125, June 10th, 2247, and June 9th, 2245. How strange theso far-off dates look to us now!