The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-15 00:00:00

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

A meteorological correspondent at Chislehurst, in Kent
reports a deficiency of rain-fall to the extent of nearly
four inches since the beginning of the year, the wettest
month being March. Both April and May had less than
a third of their accustomed share. The deficiency amounts
to 376 tons per acre. What would our farmers give just
now for liquid sewage, or for such effluent water as the
A B C people are discharging into the sea at Hastings ?
" Native guano "is selling at 25 per ton ; but are
we not throwing away our British rain-fall ? We
drain the land for agricultural purposes, and let
the water run away quickly into ditches, streams, and
rivers, on its way to the sea. We collect great masses Of
water into reservoirs, and having filtered it we send the
precious liquid into the towns. From the towns it emerges
black and stinking, and we are only too glad to get rid of
it. So we fling away our treasure and presently we want
it, so that we are even praying for it to come back to us.
But the clouds float overheard in mocking dryness, tinged
with a faint copper hue, as if to tell us that they are
clouds without water. Now and then a few drops
descend, in the proportion of about a dozen to the
square yard, the sprinkle lasting for the space of five
minutes or so, just making us wonder that there should
be any rain at all, seeing that there was so little. We
have heard of shipwrecked sailors in an open boat, long
parched with thirst, who bowed their heads and would
have wept, when they saw a cloud pass over their zenith,
and afterwards pour its cooling flood into the wasteful
ocean miles beyond their reach. Are we not doing this for
ourselves at the present time ? We are irrigating the sea if
such a thing be possible. We are casting our bread,not merely
upon the waters, but into them ; and we shall have to
wait until the Atlantic clouds bear back to us what we
have first thrown away. When we conjure a dry manure
out of town sewage we think ourselves clever. And so
we are—that is to say, stupidly clever, in an agricultural
sense, though we mean no reflection on those who accom-
plish this feat. All we want is the supplement—the
water as well as the manure, for plants must drink as well
as eat. Within the last fortnight the dry weather has
induced a state of fever in Mark-lane. Wheat has risen
rapidly in price, a result chiefly ascribed to French opera-
tions. Our hay prospect is about as bad as it can be.
Beef and mutton will continue dear. The best news is
that the heavens have begun to weep in some' parts of
Europe—abundantly in Italy, hopefully in France, and
partially in England. May we dare to hope for a favour-
able change—a speedy answer to the supplications of
Sunday last !—Standard.
The provincial papers almost without exception give
favourable accounts of harvest prospects in Ireland.

THE GREAT FIRE AT CONSTANTINOPLE.
The late conflagration at Constantinople first broke out
in the district of Pero, called Aghajanrisy, close to the
Armenian Churcli. At the time nearly all the people
of that district were absent at a fête, and returned en
masse from their rejoicings to find their homes destroyed,
and all they possessed consumed. From the Armenian
quarter the flames spread with tremendous rapidity,
driving out the British residents, who were obliged to
fly and leave their valuables behind. Soon the fire ap-
proa,ched the British Embassy, until at length only half
a dozen wooden houses intervened. The only
chance of saving the Embassy appeared to be to pull
down these wooden houses, but the Turks looked
on with characteristic supineness, and so the magnificent
building was lost. A correspondent of the Standard,
writing on June 6th, gives some description of the scene :
—" This morning at an early hour I walked round by the
British Embassy, thence turned to the right through
streets wholly burnt down into the Grand Rue de Pera,
coming out opposite the police-barrack, contiguous to the
Galata Serai' which does not appear to have suffered at
all. To the right and left of the Grande Rue leading to
Taxim, houses in large blocks are destroyed on
both sides of the road. Here and there some
wonderful instances of good fortune stand out
from amidst the general destruction ; sometimes one, or
at most two houses, apparently untouched, while
all the houses on the opposite side of the street and
on either side of the uninjured ones are burnt to the
ground. The ruins were smoking and oppressively hot ;
in many places the fire was still apparently not burnt out
(something more than smouldering) ; and huge high
walls are standing alone, unsupported, looking
fearfully dangerous to the foot-passengers, who go to
and fro without any restriction or apparent pre-
caution, to view the scene of destruction. The whole
of that part of the town, from the rear of
the British Embassy to the Jardin des Fleurs, in-
cluding both sides of the Rue de Pera, from that
point to Galata Serai, has been utterly destroyed. This
I have seen myself ; the other points I have not person-
ally visited, but I know from the extent of the flames
that many districts, containing an area of some square
miles of closely packed human habitations, have been ren-
dered'completely desolate. The Embassy has been com-
pletely gutted, nothing having been saved excepting the
few articles of furniture carried out of the mansion. It
is not quite certain whether the archives in the fire-proof
room have escaped. Sir Henry and Lady Elliot andtheir
young daughter took refuge on board the Antelope, and
will proceed to-day to Therapia. The young
lady suffered somewhat in her eyesight from the
burning sparks, but not severely, and was soon
relieved by the doctor of the ship. It was the
roof of the Embassy which first caught fire from the
houses immediately behind, and it burnt steadily from
the top to the bottom. Of the four engines at the
Embassy, and which are supposed to be in perfect repair
and readiness for action, twq were found to be out of
order, and could not it is said, be used at all ; but nothing
was left unattempted by the blue jackets and marines,
under Captain Buchanan and Mr. Lascelles, to extinguish
the fire, the officers and men remaining on the roof
until they were literally driven off by the flames.
If the Antelope had not fortunately been in
harbour the wreck of the noble mansion—the finest
Embassy in Constantinople—would have been complete ;
as it is, though the destruction has been great, it has not
been utterly destroyed, like the large stone houses around
it, and in the Rue de Pera, but may yet be repaired and
utilised as it stands. The house occupied by the Italian
Legation, opposite the Galata Serai, has shared the fate
of the houses in its immediate neighbourhood ; they are
now nothing but charred masses of ruins, and broken walls
burnt perfectly white by the red-hot heat. Among other
remarkable buildings which have been destroyed ought
to be mentioned the Armenian Patriarchal Cathedral,
immediately behind the Rue de Pera, which. con-
tained the magnificent piece of tapestry presented to the
Armenian community by the Empress of the French,
representing the Transfiguration, after Raphael's cele-
brated picture. This loss is deeply deplored amidst so
much which is not only deplorable but heartrending ; for
there can now be no doubt (half-past eleven a.m.) that the
loss of life has been frightful. In the midst of this
great calamity, when the gigantic conflagration was at
its utmost height, and it seemed quite probable that the
whole of Pera would be burnt to the ground, what struck
one most was the utter heplessness of the authorities.
No fire-engines, no water, no organisation anywhere.
The miserable things carried on the backs of four men
called fire engines, but which are not bigger or of more
value than a good garden hand-hose, and cannot contain
much more than a large-sized bucket of water at a time,
were, as a matter of course, useless. The devour-
ing element, in vast sheets of flame, licked up all
it came across, totally uncontrolled on all sides.
Literally the fire burnt itself out ; when it had no
more to consume, it ceased. Since 1865, when a
great part of Stamboul was burnt down, and the fire con-
tinued for some days there has been no conflagration any-
thing approaching this one, which is chiefly remarkable
for the vast number of stone houses and the immense
amount of property which have been destroyed in the
wealthiest part of the European portion of the capital._
Every housetop had its knot of eager and excited specta-
tors, every preparation was made, and every possible pre-
caution adpted, to prevent houses from catching
fire, while volumes of lighted sparks •were
carried high in the air like a vast fiery cloud
across the Horn even to Stamboul, and from which
constantly fell pieces of lighted wood, or cotton, or other
stuff which the high wind caught up from the flames.
The crescent moon looked blood-shot in the cloudless sky,
and by the light of the burning town everything around
could be seen as distinctly as at midday. At midnight,
on the top of a high house, I could tell the time by a lady's
watch, though it had a gold dial and very fine black hands
—and I was just then at least a quarter of a mile distant
from the nearest point of the conflagration—so vivid was
the light of the flames.

MADAME JULES FAVRE.—The sudden -death of
Madame Jules Favre, wife of the celebrated French
politician, is announced. Madame Favre, who was 55
years of age, flied suddenly from aneurism.
It is stated that the result of the elections for the
French Councils-General up to yesterday afternoon was
as follows :—The number of Conservatives re-elected is
253, and of Radicals 5 ; the number of newly-elected Con-
servatives is 118, and of newly-elected Radicals 25.

MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF DERBY.—The mar-
riage of the Earl of Derby with the Dowager Marchioness
of Salisbury will take place as soon as the settlement can
be completed. The earl is to settle a jointure of £5,000
per annum on the marchioness. The marchioness (who is
in her 45th year) already enjoys an income of £5,000 per
annum, under the will of the late Marquis of Salis-
bury, by whom she has five children. The settled estates
of the Cecil family have of course, gone to the present
marquis with the title ;'but a sum of £300,000 was left
for apportionment among the younger children. This
large amount was saved by the late Lard SaliSbury, in
addition to some further provision made for the younger
children. The settled estates of the Earl of Derby will,
in the event of there being no issue of the forthcoming
marriage, devolve upon the children of his younger
brother, the Hon. A. F. Stanley, M.P., who married in
1864 the Lady Constance, eldest daughter of the Earl of
Clarendon, thus uniting the two great families of Stanley
and Hyde.—Correspondent of the Belfast News Letter.
THE POTOCKI CABINET.—The German papers
give some details with respect to the situation of the
Potocki Cabinet towards the various parties formed
dmong the numerous nationalities. It is said that Dr.
Smolka has left the Potocki Ministry on account of its
refusal to dissolve the Diet of Bohemia. Besides adopting
this course, Dr. Smolka convoked a conference of his
party at Lemberg, in which he declared his sympathies
for his brethren by the Moldau. If these words had pro-
duced the desired effect, a great change would
have taken place in the electoral movement in
Gallicia, Dr. Smolka proposint, to elect no deputies, who
would not join with the Czech's.' It turned out, however,
that his proposals were not received with favour. The
defeat of the Polish Federalists may be regarded as a
good augury for Gallicia. The Poles will still endeavour
to acquire the largest share of autonomy for Gallicia, but
they do not claim it on special public grounds. They
wish to remain under the guidance and protection of
Austria, and nothing seems likely to interfere with that
•
desire.