ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 679, 4 February 1852, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Spain. —A most extraordinary and wholesale batch of robberies was committed near Avila, on Sunday last. A letter from that place says: —at nine a.m. on that day, six men, well mounted and armed, took possession of a ventorrillo, or small inn, situated five miles from Avila, on the road to Madrid, and having made themselves masters of it, remained there all day, detaining and robbing all who passed, and keeping them tied hand and foot during their stay. At five p.m. there were 40 persons thus bound and shut up in a small stable, and above 100 beasts of burden. At sunset they stopped and plundered a private carriage, in which two ladies, two gentlemen, and a child were going from Madrid to Barco de Avila, shutting the parties up in a small room during the operation. Night having at length set in, the robbers made off with nine horses loaded with the effec s of the day’s plunder, and it is supposed at least 2000 dollars in money. It was gathered from the conversation of the robbers that they bad come from Madrid, and their chief object was to rob the carriage going to Barco de Avila. One of them boasted that he had been sentenced by the tribunals to 106 years’ presidio, and had been condemned to death six times.

Bloomerism in the Metropolis.— On Wednesday, two ladies attired in short black silk petticoats, reaching below the knee, loose gray silk trousers, fastened at the ankle, brown Cashmere boots, with a short jacket for the upper garment, over which was worn a scarf, the head dress being the bonnet usually worn by females, appeared in Piccadilly, St. James’s-square, London, and vicinity, their unusual costume attracting considerable curiosity. They had a number of small bandbills, addressed to “ Mothers, wives, and daughters,” inviting them to the ranks of dress reform,” and to join the association of Bloomers, founded near Fitzroy-square, (Literary 'lnstitution, John-street.) These were left at milliners’, dressmakers’, &c. The leader of the movement is said to be a Mrs. Dexter. The Daily News says On Friday forenoon a further attempt was made in Piccadilly to familiarize the inhabitants ol London with the appearance of the new lemale costume lately introduced in America. wo young ladies, with two companions who might have been their mothers, alighted from a cab, in the peculiar dress so often described of late, and, proceeding towards the entrance to the Green Park, distributed in their way handbil s, containing a spirited appeal to the women of England to throw off the yoke of their unfeeling and brutal oppressors, and adopt an attire better suited to the dignity of the equal of man. In a short time the pressure of the crowd became so great that the missionaries found it convenient to call a cab, which they entered amid much laughter, mingled with cheering. ° Earthquake in Southern Italy.— Naples, Sunday Morning, August 24 —Since closing my letter of this morning I nave received several details relative to a readful disaster which occurred on the 14th instant, in the province of Basilicara, in this kingdom, and about one hundred miles from the capital. A list of more than fifty villages is given, in which greater or less damage was done, in more than one place the principal buildings having been destroyed, and in al several lives having been lost amidst the ruins of fallen houses. The greatest sufferer, however, was the town of Melfi, a place contaming 10,000 inhabitants, ; three-quar-

ters of the city are a mass of ruins—the archbishop’s palace, the college, the municipality, the barracks, and the police station having been all levelled to the ground. .The known deaths amount already to 700, besides 200 wounded, among whom the principal families count victims. 1 have not time this morning to give all the minute details, but it is sufficient to say that a rich and populous district has been completely destroyed, and the loss of life has been immense. It does not appear that the ground opened, but all the injury was done by the houses falling from the repeated shocks of theearthquake, the rapidity of which was such that the persons in the bouses, and passing in the streets had not time to escape. The King on receiving this dreadful news immediately ordered a sum of 4000 ducats to be sent fr.om his private purse, to which the Queen added 2000, in addition to the sum of 5000 ducats contributed by the Treasury. - -Bell’s Messenger.