FAILURE OF A BRITISH COLONY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 800, 11 April 1871, Page 3

FAILURE OF A BRITISH COLONY.

The Emigration Commissioners (says the "Home News") having been desired by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to make known the result of the attempt made last year to establish a British colony at Kosaria, in the Argentine Republic, have forwarded for publication the following statement: — '' Intelligence has recently been received from her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Buenos Ayres of the entire failure of the settlement of Englishmen which it was endeavoured by Mr Henley to establish in the Argentine Kepublic. This settlement, which consisted in the first instance of about sixty youug men of good family who subscribed £l5O a piece towards preliminary expenses, and which was accompanied by a clergyman of the Church of England and a medical man, it had been intended to establish at Fraile Muerto, between Rosario and Cordova. Some difficulty, however, having arisen in obtaining the land contracted for at that place, it was eventually established at Kosario. According to the prospectus the colonists were for a certain time to work in partnership with Mr Henlly to learn the buisness, and when they had done so, were to be put in possession of farms at a price to be agreed upon beforehand. The profits were to be divided each year, and one half applied to the repayment of the entrance fee, which Mr Henley estimated would be done out of the first year's profits. The colonists arrived at Buenos Ayres in the spring of last year (1870) and shortly afterwards proceeded to Bosario, well furnished with farming implements and other supplies considered necessary for their use. It soon, however, became apparent that they were quite unsuited to the life they had undertaken. On the 27th of July the charge d'affaires at Buenos Ayres reported that several of the party including the clergyman and his family, had returned to England, stating that they had been brought out under false pretences. Towards the end of September the colony was visited by Mr Hutchinson, the British consul at Bosario, who reported that the colonists did very little work, that almost all the money paid to Mr Henley, amounting to £IO,BOO, had been spent, and that the colony would probably break up very shortly. This anticipation has since been verified. On the llth November last, the charge d'affaires at Buenos Ayres reported that the colony had been abandoned ; that Mr Henley had disappeared without giving an account of the money he had received ; that of the colonists 'few linger about Bosario ruined, discouraged and disheartened ; others are endeavouring to obtain employment on the neighbouring farms ; some will endeavour to return to England; others have ventured up the country with the remains of their limited means; two or three of the most enterprising have started for some imaginary goldfielda in the Sierras of Cordova.' Thus, he says, the unfortunate men brought out by Mr Henley, after losing their capital, find themselves cast adrift penniless in a distant land, ignorant of the language, unprotected, and exposed to every possible danger."

At a funeral at Newport (Ehode Island), recently, instead of a hearse being used to convey the remains to their last resting-place, an express waggon, completelv enveloped in evergreens inside and out, was used for the occasion. A raised dais in the centre of the waggon, also covered with evergreens, sustained the coffin, which was profusely decked with flowers, -ine novelty waR in accordance with the expressed wish of the deceased.

HORRIBLE RESULT OF A FIRE AT AN AMERICAN HOTEL. Just as a porter commenced waking the passengers for the Southern train at Spottiswood Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, on December 23, he discovered it on fire in the lower floor. An effort was immediately made to wake up the guests, and the scene became indescribable. Men commenced rushing about trying to save their baggage, and women, nearly naked and barefooted, were seen fleeing into the snow-covered streets- The steam engines were promptly on hand, but the water being frozen, it was sometime before it could be thrown on the building. The flames spread to such an extent that escape by the staircase was cut off, and the guests commenced leaping from the windows. P. P Clarke, the steward of the hotel, leaped from the third story, receiving fatal injuries. A most fearful scene of disaster then followed. Mrs Emily Cornelius, the house-keeper, appeared at the window of the fifth storey, with one or two ladies, screaming, " Help ! help !" The Fire Company's ladders were put up, but the firemen failed to reach the window by two stories. While the firemen were endeavouring to lengthen the ladders, the crying women disappeared in the thick smoke, and were soon lost, the room brightening up a few moments after with flames. The register is consumed, and it is impossible to give the names of strangers who may have perished. Several are believed to be missing, as there are about a dozen unclaimed trunks belonging to persons fron NewYork and other northern cities. The weather is intensely cold, so much so that the telegraph wires in front of the burning building were covered with ice, and the steamers were encased in ice an inch thick. Among the remarkable escapes was that of C. Shifter, attached to the office of the State printer, who was in the fourth stojry, and escaped by dropping from one%indow cornice to another until he reached the ground. He was badly burned: The correspondent of the "New York Herald" had a narrow escape. The guests lost all their clothing, and the ladies had to walk barefoot over tbe snow to places of shelter.