The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-08 00:00:00

EARTHQUAKE AT ZANTE.

ZANTE, OCT. 31 —Scarcely twenty-fours have elapsed
since we experienced a shock of earthquake, which has
iniolved the loss of many lives and a considerable de-
struction of property. As yet we are here ignorant
of the full extent; of the injury; sustain -dj in the island.
Reports are hourly arriving of entire villages having been
laid prostrate. 1 should premise that all the troops (ex-
cepting 100 men quartered in the town) are stationed in
the castle, a miserably fortified inclosure on the summit of
a rocky eminence, which overlooks the town on one side
and ar extensive plain on the other.

I. leave not left the castle since the catastrophe, and will
just'. tell you what fell under my personal observation.
It was a few minutes after nine o'clock, and I had risen
from the breakfast table and was leaning out of the win-
dow with a book in my hand, when I was startled by
the rattling of tiles immediately over my head. I
fancied it was some one walking upon them, glanced
out, and was half smothered by a heap of bricks
and mortar—the whole of the chimney had fallen.
At the same instant I felt the floor tremble beneath
me. All doubts of the cause immediately vanished. I
rushed through an open door into the next room to gain
the outside of the house; the outer door was shut and
latched. In vain I strove to open it, it seemed to elude
my grasp ; the walls, the floor, windows, and doors, Ap-
peared to swim before my eyes. The earth now heaved
under me, and the house seemed to be swayed from side to
side. I tore frantically at the door, which opened in-
wards, and darted into the open air just as a tremendous
cash announced the fall of a portion of the walls. Who
stall paint the scene which now presented itself? A low
an ailing, and then a death-like silence, follow"' the
thendering sound of the fell of buildings. During this
abort but invhil pause of a few seconds, the crowds who
lied rushed from their dwellings stood as if transfixed with
horror and afright. Then suddenly arose the clangour
of human tongues, the shouts of men, and the heart-rending
screams of women, seeking their husbands and children.
Never will that minute fade from my memory, still less
cat, I forget those seconds during which I stood at the
threshold of the deter, and as it seemed to me, of eternity.
The earth yielding under my feet—the crash of ruin over-
bead and around me, escape apparently cut off—those 15
or 20 seconds seemed protracted into hours!
'I he sides of the rock on whicli we are perched arc so
precipitous
that, except from the walls of the castle, the
town below is scarcely visible ; glancing my eye, however,
seaward in the direction of the town, I observed several
dense columns of dust rising, which sufficiently told that
the destructioa was not confined to our immediate quarter.
At this moment a child seven or eight years of age, the
son of one of our sergeants, was borne along quite dead
a bruised mass. Passing on, I observed a woman in an
agony of apprehension, for her child was missing. In a
few inornews he too was found, crushed to death under a
pros rated wall. Providentially these appear to be the
t hly fetal eases which have occurred in the castle. Bruises
and contesiohs are numerous. Not a house up here has es-
cal.ed ; every wall which still remains standing is either
erecked from top to bottom in sundry places, or is thrown
out of tl:e perpendicular. All the plastering is shaken
down both within and without. The only building which
fermis an exception to the rest, being apparently unhurt, is
the grand inag,zine, which is a well-built stone edifice.
Ihe other magezincs, ordnance, and barrack stores are
open to wind end weather.
The great shock must have been of forty seconds' or a
nib:ace's duration. It may assist you in forming sonic
coaception of its violence, when I tell you that the piles
o: e 4 inch shells on a msrtar battery were overthrown and
se.)ttered about. The highest point in the castle is an
open plateau ; this is rent by fissures 40 or 50 yards long ;
large pt,rti its of the parapet and loopholed wall have been
overthrown, and the stone platform in a small bastion is
breken up.
I have been in barracks in England and Ireland, and
have had a pretty long experience of them in Asia and
Al, ice, Let never have I seen troops, men and officers,;thrust
into such dogkennels as in this island of Zante. Nay, I
have here sect, some of our men in hovels such as I would
scarcely permit my dog to occupy, for two days—mud
wells and a rtud floor, with huge stories projecting
at intervals of 2or 3 feet. No windows nor chimney—
one-third of their number without beds, a deficiency of
blankets, not a tab's nor form, and the men positively
obliged to lift the miserable door off its hinges and lay it
ou the ground to serve us a table for them to take their
meals ; nor are the officers more fittingly provided for.
'I he inconveniences to which we were exposed on arrival
here mire unpardonable. Since these islands have been
under It itish protection Zante has had a garrison ; there.
futiog eccommrxlation should have been provide:l for
them. Barracks never have been built here, but these
ntimereble hovels have been rented for the troops to the
annoyance of all parties.
By a fortunate coincidence, the very day, and almost the
hour, tv hie!: brought the earthquake, brought to our
shores the Lord flight Commissioner Sir Howard Doug.
las. He had left Cerfu by steam on the preceding
day, for the purpose of inspecting us, and was within
half an hour's run of the Mole when the shock was
experienced. It was sens,bly felt on board the steamer,
arid any doubt as to its origin was dispel:ed by the
clouds of dust rising from landslip; along the shore,
and the fall of houses. His Excellency landed imme-
diately, and set forth to ascertain the amount of injury
dune both in the town and castle. Accompanied by
his own and the ordnance staff of the island, he made is
minute examination of all the buildings forbade their occu-
pation, advised that the men should bivouac under such
shelter as they could procure for the night, until perma-
nent atraneeements could be made. The engineer was
desired to draw out the necessary reports, and by evening
an express was despatched to Corfu for the chief engineer.
The berreck-master has received authority to hire any cli.
gitole buildings in town which may be available. The
company quartered in the town, who were as summarily
ejected front their tenement as we were from ours, have
taken possession of the Opera-house. It is a large wooden
edifice—the safest of any in town, and therefore not to he
despised. One hundred more of our men have this morn.
ing marched into town, to occupy a house which has stood
this severe test. The remainder of us are either in tents or
bivouac until accommodation can be provided.
Nov. 2.—The steamer is not yet in, so I resume. We
are kept in constant apprehension ; the shocks still con-
tinue at frequent intervals. Yesterday, at 5 p.m., whilst
taking our hasty dinner in the open air, we were startled by .
iow rumbling under ground, which was immediately suc-
ceeded by a violent shock, which has levelled some more
buildings.

In the meantime clouds are gathering and everything
promises a heavy fall of rain. This only is wanting to
complete our discomfort. The tents will afford little pro-
tection to our beds; we shall be soaked, and the howcs
now tottering told fall in upon our goods and chattels. We
arc busy in digging trenches round the tents, and driving
spare tent-pegs.
His Excellency is to inspect us on the Mole this even-
He slerp4 on board the steamer every night, anti
purposes remaining here until after the arrival of the
English mail.
I went into town on Saturday night. Large portions
of rock had been detached and rolled down from above,
blocking up the Venetian-road. A stone archway near
the tarp of the road had fallen in. Some of our men hzd
a providential escape here. Nine o'clock is the hour for
guard-mounting.' The guards, on Friday morning, had
just reached this point ott the road, on their route to tt,tva,
tile leaving guard bad passed through the archway, uh•r:
at that very moment the whole mass of masonry came
down. One huge block struck the bayonet and firelcek of
the last man of the guard. His arms, were, of cour?e
sloped. The bayonet is bent round, the barrel and par
of the stock crushed. Our band was likewise on the road,
some distance in advance, Here there were houses o t
each side. They describe to me the houses as rocking to
and fro. Some walls fell in just at their rear ; nothino
was struck except the bass drum, which was stove in.

DEATH FROM THE VAPOUR OF CHARCOAL.
—On Thursday morning a fatal accident. occurred in the
Archbishop oft. Canterbury's Palace, Lambeth, amongst
the numerous workmen who have been employed for some
months past in the repairs and embellishment of that edi-
fice. It appears that, on Thursday morning, the painters
repaired to their work as usual. Mf,st of them had been
out holiday-making the previous hieht, and bad net had
any rest. Owing to the intensil of the cold, they heated
a large pan of charcoal in the rooms in which they were at
lec rk. Between eleven and twelve o'clock, the forem'n
of the workmen discovered several of his men sleeping in
the room in which the charcoal was burning, and at that
tin e the state of Cie atmosphere was such as seriously to
affect the breath, she doors having been closed for a eon
steerable length of time. L was with the utmost difficulty
that the In, n coo d be roused, and two of them were apple_
Two medical gentlemen were promptly in
renily life.e s.
atte; d.nce, who, kr a considerable length of time, adopted
m asuies of restore:ion, and after the lapse of some time
one of the men was restored to sensibility, but all hu-
man efforts proved unavailing with the other. The name
of the deceased is John Thomas Dobenson. Ile was a
painter, twenty-three years of age, and was a remarkably
flue, robust young man. The surgeons who were called
iu are decidedly of opinion that, had not the men been
discovered at the time they were, the whole of them must
have perished from the noxious vapour. It is supposed,
although not fully proved, that the unfortunate deceased
was in a state of intoxication at the time he fell asleep.
The other man is in a fair way of recovery. The body of
the deceased at present lies at the Palace. He was a sin
gle man. Information of the occurence has been for-
warded to the
parish authorities, and an inquest will be
held on the bcdv.
HEALTH OF TIIE NIETROPOLIS.—The parish
authorities of Whitcchapel have extensively
flees, calling upon circulated no the inhabitants, under a wholesome
clause of the new Police Act, to thoroughly cleanse and
whitewash their houses, or otherwise ,threatening the
with the penalties of the law. no parparchwasth is pre-
caution more needed, particularly in the wretched and
ventilated street in the neighbourhood of Wentworth-street
and Brick-lane, where small-pox and fever of a low typhoid
character have latterly been very prevalent. The circular
solic!ts int.rrnationi from any party on the existence of
I:niSanCe3 may prove detrimental to the public health
Although the period of :he year is not very conducive to thc
spread of contwgiows diseases or the propagation of niiasm
yet in unhealthy and ill-ventilated houses and apartments
the danger is greatly augmented.
The Toulonnllis has the following singular
story horn a correyondent at Algiers:—" During the
Marshal Valve's last expedition one of our chassours found
near the tents of a tribe we were ravaging a sack of con.
aid rabic magnitude. Without seeking to know its con-
tents he fastened it on the crupper of his horse. Ere
long, to his utter astonishment, he heard a human voice
issue from his burden, tied dissolved the mystery. On
opening the sack he discovered a beautiful female, bet sveen
16 and 17 years of age, and a valise containing about
10.000 francs. It appears that the young woman was the
wife of an Arab, uho had thus packed her up with his
as his two greatest va!uables, but in his terror had
abandoned them both. The soldier placed his living
prize on one of the ammunition waggons, and divided the
motley with his comrades."

LONDON:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1641.

The Morning Post has become an advocate of
free trade, apparently without knowing it. It con-
tained yesterday an article on money, which might.
have been written, as far as its principles are con-
cerned, by Mr. COBDEN. It said,—" The prin-
ciple of regular supply and steady prices is free
competition in production, in distribution, and in.
exchange." The italics are its own. What is:
this but the principle of free trade? Free compe-
tition in production is the promoter of regular
supply and steady prices. Thank you, Post.
For this we have long contended as to the Corn-
laws, and you have contended against what you
now admit to be the fact. Free competition is the
principle of regular supply and steady prices. A
sentiment which, being found in a Tory journal, is
worthy of being printed in letters of gold.
The article goes on to contend, as we free-traders
have heretofore contended, against the theory that
a currency must be made to fluctuate, exactly us it
would were it a metallic currency. We have shown
the absurdity of such a theory, by stating the
simple fact, that the use of paper is to supersede
metal, which sets free the quantity of labour and
capital required to procure metal. It increases
business, and diminishes the value of metallic
money, by making less serve, and •Bo puts an end
to the
emetallic standard. The Pvst, agreeing with
us, states—
t, To say that the currency ought, if
possible, to be made to fluctuate as it would do
were it exclusively metallic, is to say, in fact, that
prices ought to be nzacte to fluctuate, far beyond
the bounds of what is 'natural and right, by law."
It ascribes then, tot>, as we have repeatedly done,
the fluctuatiQns in prices,
beyond what is natural
and right, to the law. It also traces these fluctua-
LIOIIS to the ts
plain reason, that in every country
the price ot,
one at least of the two metals must be
fixed ba /ate:, The context of the article shows
that the word must is irony, for the Post, quoting
some unknown pamphlet, says—
The consequence (of fixing the price of gold) is
very
obvious. If, at the time of such a demand, the price of
gold is higher in the foreign markets than our Mint
rice (which, gold being our standard, and not the
standard of other nations, Canntlt MU, however their
price may vary) the whole supply must go front

England—no matter how short may be her supply—
and down must go our currency, and down must go
our prices ; and down must go our credit and our com
merce, our manufacturers and our merchants.

We have more than once denounced the lie
decreed by law, that gold shall always be worth so
much per ounce, and here is what the new convert
to free trade facetiously says on the subject :

These wise men of the west make monetary laws
by which they bind themselves to buy our gold, or
sell us theirs, to any amount, be it ever so scarce with
them—be it dear or be it cheap in other markets—at a
fixed undeviating price ; and when we happen to find
a market which enables us to ease them at their utmos.
need of a few millions, and to fob, by way of profit, four
or five per cent., in their compunctious visitings they
fall to work, like monks or maniacs, to flagellate and
slash themselves!

So the Tory Post speaks of the Tory law, or
Tory lie, that gold shall always be worth 3/. 17s. 4d.
per ounce I After such observations we do not
despair of seeing the Post become an advocate for
the repeal of the Corn-law, in order to ensure
steadiness of price, and fullness of supply, by free
competition.

Before we leave our Contemporary, who has so
ignorantly blundered into right, he will allow us to in-
form him that there exists a certain work on popu-
lation, written by one Mr. MA LTHUS, which is of
high authority amongst the Tories, of which the
main principle is, that population has a tendency to
outrun subsistence, and that, therefore, it is the
height of folly for any Government to undertake the
task of providing comfortable employment, or em-
ployment of any kind, for all the people. If our
Contemporary had been acquainted with this cir-
cumstance, he would have spared the public the
following oracular words :—" The comfortable em-
ployment of our large population ought to be the
first consideration with every wise and benevolent
statesman."

What do statesmen know about employment ?
In the progress of society new arts are continually
springing up, such as lithography, gas-lighting,
steam-engine making, &c. &c., which provide much
profitable employment for the people, of which the
statesman is ignorant. He only hears of the exis-
tence of these employments after they have grown
to considerable extent, and his object in general is
to protect the old employments, such as agri-
culture, prevent the new from succeeding. All
statesmen are, to a great extent, Conservatives, and
inimical to the new branches which society is al-
ways sending forth. We, therefore, deny alto-
gether that it is the object of statesmen to consider
the employment of our population. Their duty
is much more limited. Let them content them-
selves with protecting each and, all the people in
their respective rights, without interfering to enrich
one class at the expense of another, and the
people, if benevolent statesmen will condescend to
let them alone, will find employment for themselves.

It is scarcely our business to defend the Minis-
ters from the charge made against them by the
Standard, that they have pardoned FROST. if they
have done so, their conduct would not require de-
fence—it might be deserving praise. They would
have shown some deference to the prayers of seve-
ral hundred thousand persons, who have taken a
deep interest in behalf of Mr. FROST. If he had
been tried and found guilty of some abominable
crime, against which " all nature cries aloud," he
would have met with no sympathy ; but he was
tried for a political offence, which becomes by suc-
cess no offence at all ; and though he was terribly
mistaken—most unsuccessful—yet because
_an im-
mense number of the people have come to look on
the Government more as their enemy than their
friend, his attempt has found much sympathy in
every part of the empire. If the Ministers, like
the Tories, mean to despise and endeavour to crush
the great multitude of his friends, they ought, like
the Tories, to take every opportunity to sabre and
hang them ; but if they think the millions worth a
little soothing attention, they would not have done
wrong, now that Mr. FROST is removed to the an-
tipodes, and can do no more mischief, had they
lightened his sufferings. We do not think it our
business, therefore, to defend them from the accu-
sation of the Standard : we should rather be in-
clined to praise them, were it true.
We are sickened by the tawdry, brawling cant of
these Tories. They rave against the conduct of
FROST, which we now condemn, as we always con-
demned it, and they glory in the Manchester mas-
sacre, which has ever since endangered the peace of
the empire. They vehemently condemn the violent
language of the Chartist leaders, and they applaud
the foolish fallacies which Sir ROBERT PEEL pro-
pounds,—not being convinced by them himself,
and therefore the more dishonest,—to justify his party
in preserving the Corn-laws, which annually starve
more people than FROST could ever assemble. The
total disregard of the Tory Journals for human life
and for human happiness, when either stands in the
way of their pet schemes of government, makes us
look with abhorrence on their odious and hypocri-
tical attempts to excite animosity against the Minis-
ters by charging them with having pardoned FROST.
We know nothing of the particulars of his case,
further than we have already stated. Every person,
however, knows that transported felons on arriving
at New South Wales are assigned by the Governor
to individuals, or employed in gangs for the public
service. Some are assigned to agriculturists, some
to merchants. Some labour in the fields, others at
the desk. It is highly probable from the nature of
his education and acquiremetits, that Mr. FROST
may have received the latter destination, and also
probable that some such assignment is the founda-
tion of the charge made by the Standard, and of
the anathemas heaped on the Ministers by several
Tory journals, because they are supposed, without
any reason whatever, to have ordered the liberation
of Mr. FROST. The conduct of the Tories should,
however, teach the Chartists that the support they
have given to the Tories has not in the least les-
sentd the hostility of their ancient oppressors.
For months many of the Chartists have been making
common cause with the Tories to turn out the
Whigs. They now know how the Tories hate
them. Should they succeed, their reward will pro-
bably be that lIIOST will be set to work with a
chain gang, and that those who most contribute to
the success of the Tories will be as speedily as
possible, on some pretext or other, sent after FROST.

The French 'Journals of Wednesday have been
received, but their contents are of little political or
commercial interest. More snow had fallen in
Paris on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning,
than had been witnessed since the winter of 1814.
Nearly all the Southern mails were in arrear, so
that no news was received from the provinces. The
fortifications of Paris are to be continued without
further delay or interruption. Strange as it ray
appear, the Commerce is the only journal which
has the judgment and the honesty to proclaim these
works are desighed to bridle the disaffection of the
Parisian Liberals, not to protect the capital of
France from what it is never again likely to experi-
ence, the invasion of a foreign enemy. As to the
inconsistency of providing against the occupation of
Paris by a victorious foreign enemy at the very
moment when the French Journals arc threatening
all Europe with the yoke of France, it appears to
have escaped every publicist in France.

In the Chamber of Peers on Tuesday, M.
GuizoT contrtnicted the statement that King
Lours PHILIPPE, when Duke of Orleans, had
protested against the abolition of the Salique
Law in Spain by FERDINAND the Seventh. The
question in no way concerned the Duke, and