The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-27 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 27, 1846.

boats, and 250 boatmen who had volunteered their
services with the most laudable zeal.
Our correspondent has selected from the reports
which arrived on Sunday the following particulars :
In one place a horrible spectacle wee presented; a church
and churchyard being inundated, the tombs were over-
turned, and the graves literally pre up their dead. On the
subsidence of the water, heaps of human remains, bones,
heads, and fragments of bodice, were scattered about or
thrown promiscuously pell-mell in Inapt. In the midst of
this frightful disaster, as unfortunately happens in such
eases, the basest propensities of our nature showed them-
selves in a few individuals, who were not deterred by the
general distress from availing themselves of the opportunity
of entering the deserted houses, and robbing the unhappy
owners of such objects of value as the flood had spared. It
is feared that the amount of the loss in cattle alone and
horses will be immense. The rush of the waters was tar too
rapid to allow the escape of these creatures. Quantities of
sheep, cows, oxen, and horses, are everywhere floating on
the surface of the water. The metric of Orleans has been
converted into a depot of bread, where the wretched suffer-
ers daily receive subsistence. The innumerable houseless
receive there also billets for lodging, and are cheerfully
received and accommodated in sueh buildings as the flood
has spared. The extraordinary rain which has pro-
duced the floods of the Loire has extended over
a _great portion of the south and south-east
of France. On the night of Saturday, in particular, a
frightful hurricane manifested itself at Valence, accompa-
nied by thunder and lightning. The rain resembled more
that of the tropics than what is seen in Europe. The
strangeness of the phenomenon filled with terror not only
the human race, but the inferior animals; vast numbers of
birds of every species flew fur shelter from the surrounding
country to the town. Flocks of thrushes, widgeons, and
ducks were seen and heard in the streets and gardens of the
town • some of them, attracted by the light, took refuge in
the elle/I, others descended the chimneys. On the same
night, a phenomenon most extraordinary, though not abao-
lbtely unprecedented, took place at Grenoble. On Sa-
turday morning the thermometer fell suddenly above
thirteen degrees, and the barometer fell to the point
marked storm. The firmament was loaded with a brown,
thick, dusty-looking vapour, which produced almost com-
plete darkness. The heavens retained this appearance with-
out rain until the evening, accompanied by an oppressive
heat and gusts of a southern wind, like the Italian sirocco
at 11 at night, preceded by loud (laps of thunder and
terrific flashes of lightning, the rain began to pour and
speedily assumed a violence as though it menaced a deluge.
The streets were filled with tiles, slates, and the d.,bris of
chimneys blown down by the force of the) wind. Flacks of
birds invaded the houses, entering through doors and
windows. The same storm was manifested on the
same day, at distant points, in the departments
of La Dame and Isre, and was accompanied by
an extraordinary phenomenon, which the witnesses call
showers of blood. The rain which fell lett upon the cloth-
ing, the umbrellas, the leaves of trees, panes of glass,
reddish spots resembling blood. A bucket of this
liquid was saved, and forwarded for analysis to a chemist at
Lyons. An apothecary at Bourgoin is said to have ex-
amined the spots found on the leaves of plants, and found
that it was composed of iron, silex, alumina, and carbonic
acid."

How, it may be asked, did iron and flint get into
the clouds ? It was conjectured that these and the
other solid materials were drawn up by a vast water-
spout, which had been reported to have been seen in
the vicinity of the storm by the conducteur of one of
the diligences.
The terrific character of the inundations in some places
may be collected from the fact, that at the bridge of Per-
tuiset the waters rose, between noon and six in the evening,
to the incredible height of 50 perpendicular feet, and, strange
to say, this particular bridge was one of those which escaped
destruction.

The amnesty announced in our correspondence of
yesterday, which was received by the mail of the
18th, was regarded by all parties in Paris, even
including some of the ministerial journalists (the
Editors of La Presse, for example) as a cruel insult
and wanton mockery. Under the pompous language
iu which the Spanish ministry glorifies itself for this
measure of clemency is concealed only a decree of
continued incarceration and persecution against the
victims of a long succession of struggles for liberty.
The fact communicated in our correspondence of
yesterday, that Gonzales Bravo and Costa Cabral
have delayed their departure from Madrid for Lisbon
is confirmed. These individuals have thoughtit more
prudent to wait for more certain information of the
manner in which the coup d'etat of the Queen will be
received throughout the kingdom. The ('onstitution-
ad states, that the reported arrest of tho Duke of
Terceira has been confirmed. The Count Das Antes
who commanded at Oporto, having been apprised
of what was in contemplation, and summoned to
Lisbon under pretence of suppressing a movement
there, refused to obey, and when the Duke of Ter-
ceira disembarked, intending to take command of the
provinces of the north, the Count had him arrested
and immediately conducted to prison. A provisional
junta it is said was named, the forfeiture of the
Queen pronounced, and her eon Don Pedro pro-
claimed king with a council of regency. Coim-
bra, Evora, and Braga, adopted it is said, the same
course, which seemed likely to be followed by all the
cities of the north.

There was still current in Paris, in the principal
political circles, reports of a ministerial change. The
retirement of M. Lacave Laplagne, to give place to
either M. Rignon, or more likely Passy, as men-
tioned in our correspondence of yesterday, was re-
peated as settled. M. Martin (du Nord) was to give
place to M. Hebert, and M. de Salvandy to M. Rossi.
But the great ministerial event talked of was the re-
tirement of Marshal Soult, and the elevation of M.
Guizot to the presidential chair. Some persons main-
tained that the royal will is strongly opposed to
this step, as one which would infallibly alienate still
more the Cabinet of London. The old Marshal, it is
said, although a political nonentity, is nevertheless an
excellent cloak under which to attempt to recover the
favour of England; M. Guizot, on the contrary, is
the very impersonation of the latest ultra-dynastical
pranks of the cabinet, and would be not unwillingly
sacrificed in high places. Royal gratitude, as we all
know, does not aspire to actual heroism, and the
Minister of Foreign Affairs might possibly be offered as
the first holocaust to the manes of the entente cordiale.
Others, however, usually well informed, assert posi-
tively that the retirement of the Duke of Dalmatia is
settled with the full accordance of the Château. The
motive of such accord is, however, according to La
France, dictated by a somewhat long-sighted and
crafty policy :
This combination (says that journal) would amount to no-
thing less than a project leading to the ultimate disgrace of
M. Guizot. After having, in fact, proved the difficulty of
composing a cabinet out of the elements of the actual minis-
try, the following project was decided on .—to remove imme-
diately the old Marshal, to save him the mortification of a
fall ; to invite M. Guizot to the presidency of the cabinet,
which would be newly patched-up, then some fine day to
pull the whole to pieces, to give satisfaction to England, and
in fine to return to a cabinet formed out of the elements
of the old one, making Marshal; Soult its president.
Whatever course be followed, equal disgrace seems to
await M. Guizot. It is in a word the prevalent opinion that
the retreat of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is the most
certain mean+ of calming the sneer of our neighbours. It re-
mains to be seen if Great Britain will be satisfied with it.

At the moment that our Paris correspondent closed
his letter, no Madrid mail had arrived. The cause of
this delay must have been south of the Pyrenees,
inasmuch as the journals of Bordeaux andthe southern
towns on the route of the Madrid mail have reached
Paris.