The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

Obituarg.

COLONEL HUGH FRASER, C. 8., died at Mussooril
on the 12th August. He was the eldest and only
surviving son of the late Hugh Fraser, Esq., of
Stoneyfield, Inverness. Colonel Fraser died in his
fiftieth year, thirty consecutive years of which were
spent in Bengal. He erected the beautiful iron
bridge at Lucknow, the first structure of the kind
which had been seen in India. His services in the
Burmese war, and his success in housing and pre-
serving the health of the troops there employed, ;are
in the fresh and grateful recollection of those who
benefited by them. For his gallantry in taking by
assault, with his own engineers, the " White Horse "
Stockade at Rangoon, where be was first in, after a
disagreeable " check " on the side of our assailing
force, he was rewarded by a Commandership of the
Bath.

MRS. JAMES HOLMES, wife of the Mayor of Liver-
pool, died on Saturday morning last, in London, at
the residence of one of her daughters. Mrs. Holmes
had been ill for a long period, and on Saturday
morning she became suddenly and alarmingly worse,
and rapidly sank, dying at noon on that day.

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
COMPANY has arrived in Dublin, for the purpose of
taking measures for laying down a new line of com-
munication between Ireland and England. The new
line will be direct from Kingstown to Holyhead.
M. DONATI, the discoverer of the comet now visible
in the heavens, has been appointed a.saistant astro-
nomer of the Impe►ial Museum of Florence.

THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF AN ASYLUM FOR
INEBRIATES was laid on the 25th ult., at Binghamton,
in the State of New York. The citizens of that town
have granted 250 acres of land for it. Dr. Francis,
Rev. Drs. Bellows and Bethune, Hon. George W.
Clinton and Alfred B. Street, took part in the cere-
monies, and the Rev. Edward Everett delivered an
address. The idea of an asylum for inebriates is
founded in the fact that intemperance, though a vice,
nevertheless becomes a physical disease, and needs
medical as well as moral treatment. This institution
is an entire novelty.
PRI:IT IN ISlmiroN is this year so plentiful that
some kinds are almost unsaleable. In one instance
the owner of an orchard shook the fruit off the trees
and turned in his pigs to eat it.
POSTAGE STAMPS have been introduced into Spain.
They are square in shape, and the colours are pink,
green, and brown. Within a circular border is a
representation of the head of Queen Isabella. The
lvalues of Spanish postage
.stamps are ltd., 24d.,
and sd.

THE GHOST OF GENERAL MARCEAU has, according
to the Gazette de Cologne, been playing strange
pranks at Coblentz, acting in open defiance of
military routine, and thus reversing the case of the
ruling passion strong in death. "It is very well
known," says oar credulous contemporary, " that
underneath the Fort Empereur Francois, near the
Cologne-road, the monument of the French Repub-
lican, General Marceau, who fell at Altenkirchen,
had been erected ; the body of the general having
been buried at Coblentz, on Mount St. Pierre, where
may now be found the principal part of the above-
mentioned fort. The monument of the general,
which was a truncated pyramid, had been removed
when the building of the fortifications of Coblentz
was commenced. It was, however, subsequently
reconstructed at the place where it now remains by
the express order of the late King Frederick William
111. M. de Stramberg, who in his Rheiniseher
Antiguarius gives a very detailed biography of
Marceau, in making mention of this monument
states that several persons bad alleged that they
had seen the general on different occasions at night,
long after his death, mounted upon a white horse,
and enveloped in a cloak of the same colour (the
French Cbassenrs), riding towards Mount St. Pierre.
It is stated that a soldier who was on duty at this
mount at midnight has just seen this white spectre,
mounted upon a grey horse. Not receiving any
answer to his demand, the soldier fired three times
at the object. A patrol having come to the spot in
consequence of those shots found the sentinel
extended upon the ground in a state of unconcions-
ne,s, and in a frightful paroxysm of fever. He was
transported to the hospital, where he became dan-
gerously ill, and throughout his delirium he could
speak of nothing but the aforesaid apparition."