The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

jr MARCH 31, 1855. Court ant lastion. Volitztai ad Omni. Her Majesty held her third levee on Wednesday, and the first drawing-room of the season on Thurs day, at St. James's Palace. On Wednesday next, as at present arranged, the Queen, Prince Consort, and the younger branches of the royal family, will leave Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle, where the Court will, as usual, spend the Easter holidays. It is understood that the sojourn of her Majesty at Windsor will not exceed ten days. The visit to England of the Emperor and Empress of the French is now authoritatively announced both in London and Paris. Their Diejesties are expected to arrive about the middle of next month. The Queen has excused the Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes, from all attendance at Court, until the family mourning for the late Lord Frederick Leveson Gower shall have expired. The state apartments of Windsor Castle are now closed until further orders. Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston gave a mag nificent entertainment on Saturday evening at their mansion, on the Terrace, Piccadilly, to their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Mary, and the Duke of Cambridge. The Countess Walewska had a reception on Wed nesday evening at the residence of the French Embassy, Albert-gate House. The Countess Colloredo held a reception on Thursday evening at Chandos House. By the death of Sir John Keane, and of the Rev. Dr. Parkes, 3,000 acres of land, near Lismore and Tallow, fall to the Duke of Devonshire. Cabinet Councils were held at the Foreign•olfce on Saturday and Wednesday last. Ma. C. H. Daturta, late Governor at the Cape, has been appointed Governor of Newfoundland, in the room of Mr. Kerr Baillie Hamilton, appointed Governor in-Chief of the Leward Islands. THE EARL OF CARDIGAN has now succeeded his Royal Highne's the Duke of Cambridge as Inspec tor-General of Cavalry of the United Kingdom. Mum regret has been occasioned at Cambridge by the death of Mr. Mackenzie, an undergraduate of Trinity College, only surviving son of the late Lord Mackenzie, and grandson of the celebrated Henry Mackenzie, the author of "The Man of Feeling." Mr. Mackenzie was educated at Glasgow and Edin burgh, and was in his third year at Trinity, where his career had secured for him several prizes. THE MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY is forming a costly and valuable racing stud. A PARIS CORRESPONDENT of the Indipendance Beige writes on an old subject: "On commence a parler, dans la maison de l'lmperatrice, de l'itat de grossesse de Sa Majeste." A NUMBER of English grooms (says the Gazette de Lyon) have just passed through this city, in care of twelve fine hunters, and thirty English hounds, pur chased for the King of Sardinia. THOMAS GRAHAM, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry at University College, succeeds Sir John Herschel as Master of the Mint. Professor Graham's reputation as a scientific chemist is European. THE REV. EDWARD B. DEANE, D.C.L., vicar of Lewknor, Oxfordshire, has resigned his benefice, and has een received into the Church of Rome. THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL has paid a fifth part of the life-assurance annual premium of every Post office official in the kingdom who has insured his life. _ _ _ THE LIVERPOOL ELECTION terminated on Tuesday by the return of Mr. Ewart. At the official declara tion of the poll next day the number of votes was stated to have been—For Mr. Ewart, 5,718 ; for Sir G. Bonham, 4,20•'2. Majority, 1,456. MR. W. P. PRICE has resigned his seat for Glou cester, in order to get rid of any disqualification that might attach to him from the fact of his having accepted a contract under Government for the erec tion of wooden huts for the army in the Crimea. He will, it is understood, be re-elected without oppo sition. _ _ A SPLENDID EDIFICE, designed as a branch synagogue for the Jews residing in the western districts of the metropolis, has been erected in Great Portland street, and was opened on Thursday, when the consecration ceremony was performed by Dr. Adler, the chief Rabbi. CAPTAIN SIR LYDSTON NEWMAN, whose brother, Captain Sir Robert Newman, was killed in the Crimea, and who is attached to the 7th Hussars, has been appointed Aide-de camp to Lord Seaton, the Commander of the Forces in Ireland. IT appears from a parliamentary return just pub lished that there are in the army 5,553 full pay commissions, the total regulation value of which is 8,088,535. THE PRESS. Ittibtnts and Offmtes. Tux unusual spectacle was presented at Belfast, on Thursday week, of a ship on fire, which spread with great rapidity, and in a short time the deck and bulwarks were one mass of flame. About one o'clock the masts fell simultaneously with a loud crash. The night was dark and stormy, and the wind was from the east. The Madonna is a St. John's built vessel of 569 tons register. THE London correspondents of the Bank of New South Wales have received advices from Melbourne, announcing the conviction of George Dumore Lang and Frederick Lee Clark, manager and accountant, for having defrauded the establishment of moneys amounting to nearly 30,0001. The trial took place at the Supreme Court, and it appeared that Lang and Clark were appointed in February, 1654, and the concern appeared in a most flourishing state for some time ; but Lang, refusing additional aid when offered, suspicions were aroused, and, on Lang and Clark being ordered to post their books, it was found that deposits which had been received had not been entered, and that defalcations, or embezzlements, had taken place to the amount mentioned. The Chief Justice sentenced Lang to five years' and Clark to four years' hard labour at the public roads. k DEATH FROM CHLOROFORM shows the danger of using this perilous drug except under medical direc tion. Mrs. Elwes of Aislaby-hall, near Whitby, was accustomed to inhale chloroform for tooth-ache and other slight affections. On the night of Sunday the llth inst. she was found dead in her bed. Her medical attendant slept in the house, as she expected to be confined, but he was ignorant of what sbe had done, and was for a time puzzled to account for her sudden death. On investigation, however, the truth was disclosed; an inquest was held, and a verdict returned that Mrs. Elwes died from the incautious inhalation of chloroform taken to alleviate pain. WILLIAM WRIGHT, who was convicted at the re sent Wilts assizes for the wilful murder of Ann Collins, a woman with whom he cohabited, at Ly diard Tregoze, near Swindon, underwent the ex treme sentence of the law in front of the county gaol, Fisherton Anger, on Tuesday, at noon. A PAINFUL SENSATION was created in Canterbury on Wednesday by the discovery that the Reverend John Peachey Francis, the vicar of Holy-cross, bad committed suicide by shooting himself in his study. It appears that the reverend gentleman bad been in a desponding way for some time past, and was unable to attend to his clerical duties. The deceased was brother-in-law of the late Bishop Broughton, and in his 76th year, having held the vicarage of Holy cross, Westgate, with the incumbency of St. Peter's adjoin ing, for the period of fifty years. AN EXPLOSION OF GAS of frightful character occurred in Portsmouth dockyard on Saturday night. The scene of the catastrophe was at the dockyard police station, where the men had for some days past experienced a disagreeable smell, evidently arising from an escape of gas, and had complained of the circumstance to their superior officers. On Saturday night the smell of gas seemed to be stronger than on previous occasions, and to ascertain where the escape came from, one of the men applied a light to different crevices in the flooring-boards. At length a terrific explosion took place, resembling the dis charge of a piece 'of heavy ordnance. It appears that the gas had escaped from the main, and bad accumulated under the floor of the room the police were waiting in, the whole of which was blown up, together with the furniture of the room, and all the unfortunate men who were sitting in it. The roof of the building, only consisting of a ground floor, was alto blown into the air. Ten men were severely injured by the catastrophe, one of whom, a policeman named Giles, died next day. THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL reports that 1,383 per sons, namely, 701 males and 682 females, died in London in the week ending last Saturday. The public health is improving, though the rate of mortality is still high, even for March ; for there died last week 123 persons more than the num ber obtained by calculation from corresponding weeks in the ten previous years. It does not happen usually till April that more Fenial weather produces a marked effect in the reduction of mortality. LIEUT. CUNNINGHAM, R N., has exhibited during the week his patented apparatus for self-reefing top sails without sending men aloft—by which great saving is effected of life, time, and property. The apparatus is very simple, and the rapidity and cer tainty with which the sails may be reefed appear marvellous. _ THE SULTAN has conferred the first class of the Order of Abdul-Medjid on F. M. Lord Raglan and Lieut. General Sir John F. Burgoyne, G.C.B. GOVERNMENT have called upon a number of the most distinguished officers now in England—both of the Queen's and the the Indian armies—to state, in writing, their opinions as to the advisability of amal gamating the two services. DREADFUL EARTHQUAKE AT BROUSA. DETAILED particulars have been received of the earthquake at Brousa, which has destroyed great part of that city, and buried, it is supposed, about three hundred of the inhabitants in the ruins. The convulsion occurred between three and four o'clock in the afternoon. For twenty-four hours previously there had been a deluge of rain, accom panied with high wind and thunder. At three o'clock in the afternoon the sky became suddenly overcast, a strong smell of sulphur was perceived, and the first shock took place, which in less than a minute overthrew mosques, bazaars, and houses, creating a scene of indescribable ruin and terror. The Journal de Constantinople relates:— There was first of all an oscillatory movement from the west to the east; then very sharp shocks ; and then another oscillation which was much more violent than the first. The earthquake lasted altogether between fifty and sixty seconds. From sixty to eighty minarets, and as many mosques, were thrown down, or so greatly damaged that they are every moment in danger of falling. Several khans were totally destroyed, and amongst them he Esklyenik-Khan, Hia-Khan, and liaradjahey-liban ; and others have large rents in their walls. The mosque Davoullou-Monaster, a Greek construction about 1,210 years old, is nothing but a heap of ruins. The large mosque of Oulon-Djairni, which is 600 years old, and which is of great beauty, has had two minarets destroyed, and its cupolas have sustained what is considered irreparable damage ; the part of the town which has sustained the greatest injury is the Balouk-Hazar. In that neighbour hood enormous blocks of rook from the mountain and of masonry from the old fortress, falling down, crushed a dozen houses, and a small manufactory called Hadji- Anastase. In this manufactory thirty persons were killed, and amongst them were the owner and his two sons. In the evening a tire broke out amongst the ruins in this quarter, and spread to the houses which had escaped in jury. It was six hours before it could be got under. In the night shocks took place at intervals of half an hour, but with less force. The day after they continued at irregular intervals, but slightly. All the population abandoned the town, and took up their residence outside in tents. The number of victims, as far as is known, is between 280 and 300. The earthquake extended all through the province, and in some places completely destroyed a number of villages, and killed a great many of their inhabitants. The convulsion was so violent that large masses of rock were shaken from Olympus, and crushed the houses in the neighbourhood of the mountain. The old wall, coeval with the date when the early Ottoman sultans held their Court at Brousa, swayed to and fro for some seconds, as if shaken by the wind, and then fell with a tremendous crash, burying the houses raised against it in the ruins. The famous Emir Abd-el-Kader is resident in the city. He re mained calm in the midst of the panic; and his house, though a very old one, was not injured. The ravages of the earthquake do not seem to have ex tended beyond Brousa, though the shock was felt over a wide extent of country. it was experienced at Constantinople at nearly the same moment as at Brousa, but without occasioning injury, and slighter shocks were felt at intervals during the evening and night of the 28th. CiAt Brousa it seems that for five days after the great convulsion the earth trembled at intervals of every four or live hours, causing the greatest terror to the inhabitants. Numbers of them, according to a letter from Brousa of March sth, had left the town, and were living in tents in the open country. Some notice of the city, extracted from Murray's " Handbook for Turkey," may not be unaccept able:— Brousa, or Prusa rather, takes its name ftom Prusias, the King of Bithynia, who protected Hannibal, and was long the capital of that kingdom. It was taken from the Greeks by the son of Othman, was rebuilt by 11lahomed and was the capital of the Turkish kingdom till Amurath removed the seat of government to Adrianople. The population in 18.12 was 73,000. The houses are mostly built of and a great tire in IhOl4 destroyed one half the city. It is situated iu a beautiful plain, and the near neighbourhood of Olympus renders the environs most picturesque and pleasant. Brousa is famous for the cultivation and manufacture of silk, which are said to *fiord employment to 30,00(1 persons. Mr Wituse B. GURNEY, the short-hand writer to the House of Lords and Commons, died on Monday morning, at his residence, Denmark hill, Camber well, in the 78th year of his age. His death was somewhat unexpected, as the state of his health was such as to encourage the hope that he would be able, on the first Thursday in May, to lay the foundation stone of the Jubilee Building of the Sunday School Union, of which, in 1808, he was the founder, and of which he held the office of President up to the timo of his death. Tax flying rumours of an alliance between Mr. Gladstone and the Manchester party, wording to the Daily News, are becoming more definite and positive. It is even said that the right hon. member for Oxford and the right hon. junior member fur Manchester have agreed cn the terms of a treaty, by which the leadership of the party is to be transferred to the former. The gain will be for the peawit tuly-price party. ' I