The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-09 00:00:00

PIEDMONT.

TURIN, Jan. 4.—The galleries of the Chamber of
Deputies were crowded to-day, in the expectation
that the great debate on the Convent Suppression
Bill would come off, but they
,were soon vacated
when Count Cavour announced the postponement
of the discussion till Monday, January 8. The
better opinion is that the exertions of the Court of
Rome have not materially changed the King's de-
termination. There is no doubt of a majority in
the Lower House, although the Opposition will be
formidable as well as violent. The question is,
what will he the fate of the measure in the Senate.
If the members of that body were to vote according
to their wishes, there could be no doubt of its re-
jection. But the crisis is so grave as to involve
possibly the very existence of their order, should
they persist in playing the part of obstruetives.
SPAIN .

We have received the Madrid journals of the 3d.
The Gazette publishes the text of the declaration
made by General Espartero in the Cortes on the
preceding day ; it as as follows :
" Gentlemen,—l am about to speak to the nation'legi-
timately represented in this place. The idol I adore has
been, and always will be, the liberty of my country. To
consolidate it on a firm and indestructible basis I shall be
ready to sacrifice my life, and, what is worth still more,
my reputation. But, gentlemen, without obedience to
the laws, and without the preservation of public
order, liberty is impossible. (Applause). I will em-
ploy all ray efforts to preserve it. I count on you, on
your enlightenment, your talents, and your virtues; I
count also on the national guard ; I count on the army;
I count on the entire nation. With such powerful sup-
port, if any men should attempt to violate the laws, or
to trouble public order—whether they call themselves
anarchists, or proselytes of despotism—on them will fall
the sword of the law, and if they should escape they
will fly covered with confusion and opprobrium. Our
country will thus be purified, and liberty will be for
ever established."

In the Cortes, on the 3d, the report of a committee
in favour of the bill authorising the Government to
levy taxes from the Ist inst. was presented. Some
opposition was made to the report, but after some
discussion it was ordered to be received.

A letter from Kamiesh, 17th ult., in the Mo-
niteur dg 'la Flotte, states that Lieut. de Las Cases
remains in charge of the Henri IV., with a de-
tachment of seamen, in addition to part of the
crew of that vessel, who are on shore at Eupatoria,
to man the guns which had been landed there.
A decree of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in
the Monitore of Florence of the 3d, creates a civil•
governor of Leghorn, with the attributions of a
prefect ; and a military govern& with the attribu-
tions and title of chief commandant of the city
and coast. CheValier Ronchivecchi, the present
commandant of Leghorn, is provisionally entrusted
with the functions of civil governor.

THE CZAR'S MANIFESTO.

A letter from St. Petersburg of the 29th ult., in
the Constitutio;nnel, says :
" The manifesto, which you must now be acquainted
with, was published almost simultaneously in all parts
of the Empire. The Government had taken measures to
have a great number pulled off at the Imperial printing-
office, and the Czar having affixed his signature to it on
the 26th at Gatschina, the document was on its way the
next day to be distributed in the most distant provinces.
It was published in the capital immediately after the ar-
rival of General Panin from Gatschina. You can easily
imagine with What lively anxiety that manifesto was
received. Since the beginning of the present crisis the
Czar has always affected in his public manifestoes to
speak somewhat as a prophet, taking care to wind up
his addresses with some passage from the Bible. This
time it is an expression of the Emperor Alexander's
which has been selected. In the prevision of events
analogous to those at the beginning of the present cen-
tury, the Czar says to his people Europe cannot
reach me ; I will accept only such conditions as suit me.
If Europe refuses to do as I want, the fate of arms will
decide.' This language is so much the more remarkable
that the Czar has used it at the very moment when the
accession of Austria to the Western alliance seemed
calculated to produce a certain effect on his resolutions.
Can the Cabinet of Gatschina still flatter itself with the
belief that the last act of its old ally has the character
of a purely defensive alliance ? The Menschikeffs, the
Dolgoroukie and others continue to affirm that Russia
cannot in any case haire lost the fruit of four extraordi-
nary levies aril of so many sacrifices in men and money ;
they maintain that conditions dangerous to the grandeur
and power of the empire cannot be accepted, when the
armies raised for its defence have not even been sub-
jected to a check. All the efforts made have, on the con-
trary, in view the continuation of the war in the most en-
ergetic manner. From the little poor boxes before the
images of the saints on the bridges of the capital, where the
passers-by are invited to place their offerings for the war, to
the products of industry, such as the Schtschclogeff cigars,
called after the young cornet of Odessa, all is done to
keep up the public enthusiasm in favour of the war.
But it must be declared that many persons have very
different ideas when once they have returned to their
own homes. The health of the Empress is a little im-
proved. The court nevertheless does not i,eem likely to
be transferred to the winter palace. The Grand Duke
Constantine has just shown to his two brothers, who
arrived from the Crimea, all the changes which he has
lately introduced. The dukes have visited together
the dockyards, arsenals, and new fortifications on the
shore of the Gulf of Finland. The two grand dukes, in
their turn, have given him sketches of the battle of In-
kerman, of the siege works, and of the battered houses
in Sebastopol. That town now only contains the gar-
rison and the poorest portion of the inhabitants. About
1,200 families have left it. M. Brok, the Minister of
Finance, has just obtained the Imperial signature to an
ordonnance augmenting the price of salt in Siberia and
the Caucasus. This day, the official tariffs of salt in the
southern and south-western provinces are published."

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE
ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Following out the hint recently given by our hebdo-
madal contemporary the Builder, and also published in
the columns of this journal, Dr. Watson, of the Electric
Power Light and Colour Company, has entered into ar-
rangements with the Government authorities for apply-
ing this novel agency in aid of the operations now in
progress for the erection of the new bridge at West-
minster. The advancement of the works being con+in-
gent on the state of the tide, they have consequently
often to be prosecuted after dark ; and hence the im-
portance of pressing any improved lighting appliance
afforded by scientific discovery into the service of such
an enterprise. The experiment had been tried at the
Surrey-side abutment of the bridge. The lighting appara-
tus used, which was computed to possess illuminating
power equal to that of 72 Argand burners, or of nearly
1,000 wax.candles, was stationed on the river's brink, so
ai to threw its rays upon a working stop fixed some 200
feet or upwards out into the stream, and upon which, it
being low tide at the time, a body of workmen, 45 in
number, were "engaged in pile-driving by means of
eight ponderous " monkey" hammers. Chappuis's re-
flector was used on the occasion, and the electric bat-
tery for supplying the necessary power, and which W,4i;
fitted with six dozen cells, was posted on the Middlesex
shore, or at a distance of 2,000 feet. The experiment,
we are glad to state, proved eminently successful in ac-
complishing its object. The light diffused over the
working stage was of an intense and yet agreeable bril-
liancy, far exceeding the lustre of the brightest moon-
light, but resembling the moon's mild and cheerful rt.
diance. The workmen seemed to be greatly facilitated
in their various occupations by its aid ; and we should
think that after once tasting the advantage of so superior
an illuminating agent, they would be very loth to have
to revert to the " darkness visible," as well as the
noxious fumes of the ordinary duck lamps, filled with
naphtha, to which they ,have heretofore been accus-
tomed. It is but right to add that the new light was
subject to a transcient and occasional flickering, but it
was so slight as to cause the least perceptible inconve-
nience to the men ; and, besides this defect, which is
traceable to the fluctuation of the electrical powei, is
considered to be inseparable from the operation of so
subtle an agent. The light appeared to be fully as
manageable as gas, to extinguish it or turn it on being
but the work of a moment. We learn that it is intened
to place the electric light on both banks of the river,
and also on the crown of the central arch of Westmin-
ster-bridge as the works going on there proceed. The
patentee has contracted to light Chelsea-bridge by the
same means, commencing from next week - and we un-
derstand that Mr. Whitmarsh, of Paris, has obtained
the permission of-the Emperor of the French to fix one
of these brilliant illuminators at the Rond Pont, to light
up the grand avenue of the Champs Elys6es during the
forthcoming." Exposition Industeielle" in that gay ca-
pital. Dr. Watson undertakes to furnish this improved
light at the lowest cost of gas, his great gain being
derived from his mode of utilising the residuary pro-
ducts of the battery in making colours.

SILVER.—The bar silver brought by the last West
India steamer bas been sold at 61d. per ounce, being
a decline of id. Nothing has yet been done vial the
AleZiCAll dollars, ' •

THE BUR.RICANE AND INUNDATION"

AT BAMBURG.

~.
DESTRUCTION OF SHIPPING AND GREAT

LOSS OF LIFE. til
HAMBURG, Jan.- 4.—The most heartrending aeouri f
of the devastations caused by. the hurricane and flood°
the Ist January are beginning to pour in from evert
quarter, and go to prove that their disastrous effects are
of nearly if not of equal magnitude to the memorablee
storm of 1825. As far as I have learned at present, thir
hurricane appears to have swept with equal force 0.
the wide district from the Dutch coast up to Lubeelc.
How far it went up the Baltic remains to be ascertained'
In all the numerous islands of the Elbe the embank',
ments which surround them, and which are raised se!
kept in order at a h
great annual expense, were brolroi
through in many places and the land laid under
,
water. The bathing island of Wangeroog, off the
coast of Oldenburg, has suffered very considtrablici
The bathing establishment, the school-house, 3,a
several private dwellings are - completely wa",ei.
away. The church was preserved, but the ebur 1,
yard was so furrowed up by the waves that the CO
have been disinterred and are thrown about in all diced
tions. The lighthouse escaped.
The following outward bound ships were caught in tbell
gale at the mouth of the Elbe, and have returned to tb
port dismasted and otherwise damaged .—Mercator (I.)'
Smith, for Leith ; Sophie, Weasels, for Panama : 111°Y
zone, Captain Ilinrichsen, for Rio Janeiro ; Catbaris*
Captain Claussen, for Guayaquil ; Robert and Leoi6./
Captain Hansen, for England ; and Ludomilla, CaPt;to
Sohst, for Singapore, Whampoa, and Hong Kong. b 5,
Hamburg full ship, George Canning, Captain Jail f
from New York to this port, was lost at the ulo°4ll
the Elbe. She cleared out from New York on the °O,
December. Of the fate of the passengers and crew lief
thing is known yet, but there is no doubt of the 1004
the vessel from a number of the ship's papers boor
picked up on the coast. This vessel belongs t°. 1
enterprising countryman, Mr. Sloman, the ovrse.b;
the unfortunate iron steamer, Helen Sloman, lost Ond bi
voyage to New York two years ago, and commesde
this
the same Capt. Jacobs. However, as a set off t° D'f
heavy loss, it will be a consolation to Mr. sl°llot
friends in England to know that he has just sold aDo
steamer, lately launched in Scotland, to the British :fiht
verement, with a clear profit of 10,0001., and the ril`po
of taking her back at the end of the year if she it!gel
longer wanted by Government for the transport serAi
at half her cost price, making an estimated total P
of 30,000/.
to°
The English schooner Stately, Captain Whiting' f Of
Harwich to Bremen, was totally lost at the 1301,1
the Elbe, near Neuwerk ; crew saved and arrives;
Cuxhaven. The English barque Maxim, of Stile tb.
the ships Johannes and Helene, Captain Boelr,;0;
Nayade, Captain Deneke ; and Johannes, Capt. l'ileyft
the Italian brig Ruggiero, and the Danish barque iio
Eduard, are stranded near Gluckstadt. The Moo
barque Lady Raffles, Capt. Marienberg, is gone to hr
near Bremerhafen, in the Weser, and is expeLted t°o4
come a wreck. The British steamers Rob ft°l,dil
Leipzie put back, and were fortunate enough to tr`iot
Cuxhaven before the gale reached its climax ; the f°tef
with everything swept clean off her decks, the '9'
with loss of her paddle-boxes. ea
Some remarkable cases which occurred will se' )3
give your readers an idea of the fury of the storOwera
the neighbouring village of Ham the congregation ice°
assembled in the church (on New Year's-day sersci,il,
,
performed in all the churches in Germany), and "00,
the clergyman was in the middle of his sermon, 14 Ger
of wind took off the whole roof, and swept it to so,
siderable distance, dashing the beams to fragments., 01
it reached the ground. Singularly enough the roviote)
taken off so clean that not a single person in the °
was injured. 1 5104
When the embankment of the island of Wilbel,vieg
gave way and the water rushed in with overs'berotes?
force, three fishermen's cottages, with all their intbe till°
were floated away, and left high, and dry, whe° ale
receded, at a distance of two miles from their ,-,AOI
locality. Some of' the inhabitants of Wrlhe';los4
were not so fortunate, and several lives have bee; pro',
whilst the destruction of houses, cattle, and WI- to
perty is very considerable. toils ' '
P.S. The crew and passengers of the unf°ra ofP4(
George Canning are all lost. The former consiste-ovt\i,
men, the latter of 135 persons. The cargo 15,. PI
insured here (250,000 marks banco) and partly 1/'
York (100,000 dollars).