RUSSIA.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1719, 30 August 1862, Page 3

RUSSIA.

[From the "Timet" June 23.J

The St. Petersburg Gazette publishes a series of decrees suppressing various institutions in consequence of the recent fires. Among others the Chess Club, two Sunday schools, and other establishments are suppressed, on the ground that political discussions of a revolutionary nature were held at them. All the public reading-room; are closed. The following is the order issued by the Military Governor of St. Petersburg :• "I. The Military Governor-General of St. Petersburg, deeming it his duty, under the present circumstances, to take all necessary measures to calm the anxiety which prevails in the public mind, to prevent the propagation in the capital of reports devoid of foundation on actual events, has thought it advisable to close the Chess Club until further orders, as it was there that such erroneous opinions were formed and circulated. '* 11. The baneful tendency of some of the public reading rooms recently established, and which have offered fewer facilities for reading than opportunities for propagating among the persons who frequented them works of a nature to excite the people to agitation and disturbance, as well as false reports, has rendered it necessary for the Military Governor-General to close, until further orders, all public reading rooms actually existMeantime, despite all the exertions of the police and the military, the fires continue, not only at St. Petersburg.but in other towns of the Empire. Detachments of volunteers have been organized, to assist the fire-brigade. A letter from St. Petersburg, in La Pre&e, dated the 12th of June, gives the following account of the conflagrations in the capital : " You will doubtless already have heard of the numerous conflagrations that have extended their disastrous ravages over our capital. Behind these flames there is a dark mystery which alarms the Government. No one here believes tnat these continuous fires are the result of accident. The; details of these conflagrations, and, so to say, their geography, show a concerted plan and a clever organization. Tobe convinced of this it will suffice to follow their course.

" On the 2nd of June, at 5 a.m., fire burst out opposite the police station in the Grand Okhtastreet; fanned by the wind, three streets were burnt down. While the fire brigade was employed in putting out the flames, another fire, burst out, at 2 p.m. in the Georgewska-street, iwhich consumed 25 houses and their dependencies, as also the Chapel of Our Lady of Smolensk. " On the following day, the 3rd, the fire brigade , was hastily sent for to the Kamskai'a quarter; six' houses were in a blaze. The flames shot across to the left side of the Ligowska, where all the buildings are of wood. They were all consumed. "On the 4th of June, at 2 a.m., flames burst forth from one of the barracks; 40 houses were burnt down. The fire brigade had scarcely returned to their quarters when, at 3 p.m., bright flames lit up the Grokowo Market, the streets . Kobyl&wka, Lygowka, and Nazicwae. The num- , ber of houses destroyed is not yet known. At the , same moment a commercial house was burning in the Bechkutoff street; finally, at 11 o'clock at night, a house opposite Nacziwisk burst into flames. I cannot describe the effect of these terrible manoeuvres. Consternation prevails, j Political discontent, armed with torches, is taking the revenge of savages. ,s On its part, the Government responds to these provocations by the sternest measures. A ukase is published to-day to the effect that any person in whose house shall be found combustible mate--1 rials shall be tried by court-martial within 24 ] - hours. This is most severe measure, as in every , house combustible materials are to be found, necessary for daily household purposes. Various arrests have been made by the police. A special committee of investigation is sitting. A military governor has been appointed in each quarter of the town. " Another source of anxiety is added to these incendiary acts. Hand-bills, exhorting the people to revolt, are largely circulated by the revolution-, ary propaganda. One of these, printed and circulated by thousands of copies, contains an energetic appeal to insurrection against despotism. A second called Zomnshaia dvma, or National Chamber, is a project of Constitution. A third {Rousakia Pravda, or Russian Truth) demands the indepeu-, dence of Poland, and conciliates the Russian movement with the cause of Poland. u A fourth is devoted to the memory and history of Captain Alexandrow, who, employed at th« telegraph-oflice, altered a despatch sent from St. Petersburgh to General Luders, in April last, ordering the severest measures to be employed in case of a demonstration, to a milder form, recommending measures of persuasion. Captain Alexandrow°was sentenced to be shot, but his sentence was commuted to exile in Siberia. "Finally, other proclamations denote the moment for a general rising at the anniversary of the inauguration of the monument of Novogorod, the 2nd of August—the anniversary of the foundation of the Russian Empire. The Govern* ment has already ordered the inauguration to be postponed to the Bth of September. In fact, the symptoms are alarming. The proclamations find their way even into the Imperial Palace, and are reprinted in many towns." »q