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

AUSTRALIA.

By the overland mail dates from Sidney of Jan. 27,
from Melbourne of the 31st, and from Adelaide of
Feb. 3, have been received.
Sir W. Denison, Governor-General of Australia,
arrived at Sidney January 17.
No further disturbances had occurred at Ballarat.
Trade in Australia had somewhat improved, but
political matters were considered unsatisfactory.
Prices of wool were flat, and the gold market dull
at 111. Ns. per ounce. Freights had Mem

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. '