The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-27 00:00:00

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The Disturbances in Geneva.

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extr,ict from a S papL,r, ye Jeariud de
Geneve, of the 23d, the follow leg account of the dis-
turbances which iatelytcok place at Geneva :—This
place has been the sc;.,ne of disgraceful distnrhaner,s
attended with bloodshed, which will, we 11,:ve no
doubt, excite the same indignation throughout cll
Switzerland as here. T'no formation of the commit-
tee for the election of a me.ober of the Council of
State gave 17 votes for the Radicals and 10 for the
Indepi•ndents, the names of the nhinbers to firm
the committee being always drawn by lot from
among the citizens present at the opening of the
electoral operations. Party spirit ran very high
during the voting, and the electoral place was filled
all day with a compact crowd. Yesterday morn.
ing the counting of the votes was commenced
and watched with the same feverish anxiety
as had accompanied the voting on the pre-
vious day. The total number of valid votes given
was 11,025; of which M. Arthur Cheneviere ob.

tained 5,67 i, and M. James Fazy 5,340. The former
was consequently elected by a majority of 337. As
soon as this result was known several members of
the radical party demanded that the election should
be annulled, and the committee, consisting as above
stated of seventeen radicals and ten independents,
at once decided against its validity, all the radicals
voting in that sense. This abuse of power, which
is justified neither by the letter nor the spirit of
the law, excited extreme indignation among the
conservatives, andair:meting of 2,000 or 3,000 per-
sons was immediately held on the Place Molard, in
which several speakers advocated the necessity of
protesting against the decision of the committee by
all legal means, and delegates were chosen to lay
the matter before the Council of State, then sitting
at the Hotel de Ville. This was done, and the

Council did not hesitate to acknowledge that the
committee had exceeded its powers, but added that

the law gave it (the Council) no authority over the
decision, and that nothing remained to be done but
to proclaim the numbers of the votes, reserving a
further deliberation of the committee, to be held as
soon as possible. This decision, having been made
known to the (crowd in the environs of the Hotel
de Ville, was received with loud cheering ; and a
commissary of police, attended by drummers and
tipszaffs, proceeded to proclaim the result. An
enormous crowd followed the cortege through the
streets to the Place de Chevelu, on entering which
a shot, fired from the entrance of the Rue du Cen-
drier, struck a citizen in the knee, and caused some
confusion in the cortege, which nevertheless con-
tinued to advance. But, on reaching the Rue du
Chantepoulet, it was received with a volley of 60
or 80 musket shots from the windows and from a
baud of armed men at the top of the street. The
crowd thus fired at was totally unarmed, and there-
fore could not have given any provocation. This
volley, fired into a compact crowd, killed several
persons and wounded mauy others. We have not
bees able to learn the names of all the sufferers, but
we know that one of them was a young man of 17, the
eldest son of M. Jerome,agent de change. He was shot

through the thigh and died an hour afterwards. In
presence of this murderous attack on a defenceless
crowd, the column turned back towards the Hotel
de Ville, which from that moment became their
central position. A strong barricade was erected at
eacii end of the Rue de l'Hotel de Ville ; the wine
dows of the arsenal were forced open, and every
man endeavoured to obtain a musket ; so that the
street became a kind of fortress occupied by men
resolved to sell their lives dearly. We do not know
what the Council of State, then sitting, was doing
white these events occurred, but at five o'clock it
sent for a detachment of recruits, a company of car-
' bineers, and a company of the 20th Regiment,
under Major Armand, and entrusted them with the
guard of certain posts. Two hours later the Coun-
cil issued the following proclamation :

" fhe Council of State earnestly calls on all citi-
zens of Geneva to join in maintaining order. It
relies on the patriotism of the citizens for the safety
of the country.—ln the name of the Council of State,
" MOISE VAITTIERS."
It is also said that several parleys took place be-
twee❑ the hostile parties, which led to no result.

10 P.M.—We have only to add that the aggres-
sors, whose exploits we have above described, have
raised several barricades at the approaches of the
bridges over the Rhone, and have placed cannon,
taken from the arsenal of Grand-Pre, to command
the principal streets of the quarter St. Gervais A
Despatch from Berno announces the arrival of
Councillor Fornerod, with full power to levy troops
in the cantons of Vend and Neufchatel. At the
present moment we learn that the night appears
likely to pass off more tranquilly than was ex-
pected, as the barricades are everywhere partially
removed, and circulation is again free.

Advices from Berne, dated the 24th, are as fol-
[ows :

The official report of Councillor Fornerod states
that yesterday morning passed offquietly in Geneva.
Both parties had, on the urgent representations of
the Councillor of State, replaced the arms and can.
nons which they had taken from the arsenals; the
Conservatives having stormed an arsenal as well as
the Radicals, and the people seemed to have re-
turned to a better frame of mind, so that the
Federal Commissioners had resolved on allowing
the Waadtlander battalion to remain on the Gene-
van frontier, and determined to proceed alone to the
disturbed town, accompanied only by a few Waadt.
landre and Genevan officers who had returned from
the officer's fete at Friburg.
Unfortunately the order for the march of the
troops into the town had neverthless to be given,
because the radical electoral committee refused to
give the Federal Commissioners any satisfactory
explanation of their proceedings on the previous
Sunday, and the Conservatives, notwithstanding
the warning of Councillor Fornerod, intended to
hold a Fopular meeting yesterday afternoon, which

t was feared would give rise to fresh conflicts be-
ween the rival parties.

Councillor Fornerod says nothing of the result
of this meeting, but states his belief that he need
not yet give up the hope of a peaceful solution, as
the Committee of the Genevan Grand Council had
decided upon calling a meeting of the Grand Conn-
-61, and on submitting to it a motion that the elec-
tion of Sunday be investigated by the Federal
Commissioners,

P.S.—The funeral of eight persons killed during
the disturbances takes places this moining. As it
is feared here that this ceremony will be made the
occasion of fresh disturbances, orders have been
given for a second battalion to march into Geneva.

The popular meeting of the Conservative party
does not seem to have taken place yesterday, the
Radicals having threatened to take up arms again
in east the meeting took place. M. J. Fazy re-

turned to Geneva on Saturday from Paris.
The Federal Diet has entrusted the Federal ma-
gistrate, M. Duplan.Veillon, fro the canton of
\Yaw% and the Berne Couneinor of State, M. Migg,
with the investigatic:i into the occurrences at
Geneva.

THE FATAL CASE OF DROWNING AT SOUTHEND.
—A corn,spontlent writes :—" In your impression
of the 24th inst you state that on Monday last a gentleman
of the name of Terry was drowned at Southend while
bathing, and that the sea was very rough at the time. But
as I was an eye-witness to this sad occurrence I think it
only right to the public that you should hear my version of
the accident, of which I can vouch for the truth. On Sun-
day afternoon, about 1 o'clock (not Monday) a Mr Berry
(not Terry) got into No 6 machine, on the west side of the
pier, for the purpose of having a bathe, but not long after
he was missed, and the net being procured, he was dragged
out after 20minutes had elapsed. Dr Warwick (to whom
all praise is due) was quickly on the spot, but after trying
the usual remedies for more than an hour the poor fellow
was given over as dead; and, as to the sea being rough, it
was quite the reverse, but the tide was (as you have it in
your impression) rising rapidly at the time,"