The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-20 00:00:00

THE LATE STORM.

Stories of the mischief, as well as the good wrought by
the thunder and rainstorm continue to flow in. In the Grand
Surrey Canal the water rose three or four inches. At
Whitefriars the sewers overflowed, and filled the base-
ments, and in several instances even the ground floors.
In Lambeth, Rotherlithe, and Bermondsey the cellars of
publicans became overflowed, the barrels of beer, ale. and
casks of spirits were sent rolling about, and a vast amount
of stock-in-trade was destroyed. The market gardens
which all stood in need of rain, soon became flooded;
but the water quickly soaked into the ground. The
lightning set fire to the furze on Clapham-common,
but the rain almost immediately extinguished it. Fires
are also reported by the railway guards to have taken
place from the lightning in Mid-Surrey, Sussex, Cam-
bridge, along the Midland Railway, and at Cookham and
Maidenhead, all caused by the lightning. In the river
the sails of some coasting vessels were burned. The
lightning at one time was so vivid, and the rain fell in
such torrents, that it was impossible to bear against the
wind, especially in the Channel ; and whilst a sailing
barge, termed the Ixion, was bearing up against the tide,
the man in charge, named George Ayres, of Christ Church,
Blackfriars, was struck down by lightning, and, falling
into the river, was carried away by the tide. At a vil-
lage near Feltham, Surrey, as a man and his wife were
returning home, tkey were overtaken by the storm, and
the woman was killed by lightning. The man was
knocked down, and the money he had in his possess-
sion, as well as his watch, considerably dama..ed.
Much damage was done by the storm in the Bolton'clis-
trict. The lightning struck a dwelling at Dembhill and
set it on fire, but the flames were soon extinguished.
In Bolton the main sewer burst, making a gap in the
street eight yards long and endangering the co-operative
stores. Five farmers' houses in the neighbourheod were
flooded, and the inmates rescued from the bedroom
windows. The Farnworth and Ashley-bridge suffered
rab
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The honorary degree of D.C.L. of Oxford ha-Steen
offered to Mr. Darwin ; but the state of his health unfor-
tunately precludes him from accepting the proffered
honour.
A new line of steam navigation between Norway
and Havre has commenced operations. The first vessel
which arrived at Havre, the Ganger Rolf, brought,
among other things, 181 cases of fresh mackerel and
salmon, packed in ice. As the fish arrived in a good
state, the belief is that the importing of fresh fish from
the extreme north to Paris may become a regular branch
of trade.
All the efforts of Mi. Abrams, the solicitor
engaged in the defence of the def,:ndants, in the Park and
Boulton case, have failed in obtaining the necessary bail
for the release of John Safford Fisk, the American (:;onsul
at Leith. The prisoner, will, therefore, remain in Newgate
till the day of the trial in July. The remaining four
persons indicted are still at large.
ST. GOTHARD RAILWAY.—A correspondence from
Vienna to the Augsburg Gazette states that, on the sub-
ject of the St. Gothard Railway, the Cabinets of Berlin
and Paris have come to a good understanding. The Prus-
sian Government has given the full assurance that their
only desire was to favour the enterprise, which was so
eminently calculated to further the interest of German
commerce, and that, far from regarding the railway as an
advantage in case of war, Prussia would be the first to op-
pose any attempt to violate Swiss neutrality.
STRIKE OF PROFESSORS.—We gather from the
Slave Correspondence fresh details as to a curious strike, on
political grounds, of the professors at the College at
Agram, Croatia. Two of them, MM. Jagie and Brateli,
having been dismissed from their posts from suspicion of
their patriotism, six of their colleagues at once resigned
their places. In consequence of the retirement of so large
a proportion of the teaching body,
the pupils followed the
example, and quitted in mass their places in the establish-
ment, the lectures being necessarily suspended.
A BALLOT AMONG THE BALLET.—A ballot among
the corps de ballet at the French Opera and other persons
connected with that theatre, has just been taken to
decide a phiological dispute between M. Jules Janin,
critic 'of the Debats, and the Entr'acte. The latter, in
describing the style of dancing of the late debutante,
Mdlle. Bozacchi, had used the word tiquete to designate a
particular movement of the feet, whilst the other journal
maintained that the word should be written tacquxte.
The vote lasted two days in the green room of the opera,
under the honorary presidency of Madame Taglioni,
and resulted in 287 bulletins being deposited for the
orthography. of the Entr'acte, and not one for that of
the Academician.

THE BELGIAN TACTICS. The Independance
Beige attributes the success of the clerical party to the
faults of the Government, and the offence it has given by
disappointing the legitimate hopes of the country. The
Belgian journal refers to the alliance of the Catholics
and the Radicals during the elections, and draws from it
the inference that the triumph of the Catholic party will
not have the disastrous consequences which might have
been feared at first. At any rate, if the clergy have won
in the struggle, their doctrines are not the less condemned.
The clerical party may be in power, but their dreams
will not be realised. In the present state of affairs in
Belgium, it is believed that only a transition Minister
can remain in office.

EXTRAORDINARY AC CIDENT.—A serious accident

has happened at Woolwich Arsenal, just as the working
staff of the new Army Service Corps was leaving work.
Some men of the corps were engaged in taking
clown the heavy shot from immense piles in a pyramid
form, ranged along the east end of the arsenal,
fronting the river, for the purpose of inspecting and
repairing them, according to the general rule at this time
of the year. The men, instead of commencing to
unpile the shot-6 S-pounders from the top of
the pyramid, began by removing those in the
lowest tier at the base ; consequently, directly they were
levered out the whole of the shot above them rolled down,
entirely burying one man and crushing the legs of two
others, while several more only just managed to escape in
time. Every effort was made to extricate the sufferers,
when, strange to say, the man entirely covered with the
metal was drawn out almost unhurt—save from a severe
squeezing ; but the other two, named Halpin and Salter,
were very much hurt.

THE. MURDERS BY BRIGANDS IN GREECE.- I
Part XV. of the Correspondence has been forwarded to
us from the Foreign Office. It contains dispatches and '
enclosures from Mr. Erskine to the Earl of Clarendon
from 30th May to 4th June. The only paper of interest is
the report of the trial of the brigands up to a certain point.
The ninth witness examined was M. Theagenis, and his
evidence strikingly illustrates the wild character of the
brigands and their lawless life. Mr. Erskine, in writing to
the Earl of Clarendon, 4th June, explanatory of the
source whence the ransom was to have been obtained,
states that the Greek Government had never addressed
any communication to him on the subject, and
adds :—" It is true that at my first interview with the
King, on his return from Syra, his Majesty stated
to me that he had given order that whatever funds might
be requisite were to be furnished by the National Bank
or the public chest, and of course if there had been the
'least difficulty in procuring the money I should not
have hesitated in availing myself of his Majesty's most
.gracious offer. But I looked on the question of liability as
one that would have to be officially discussed between
the Governments of England and Greece, and I did
not think that it would have been becoming in me to
attempt to fix upon his Majesty personally the liability
!which could be more properly settled with his Minis-
ters. It was Mr. Merlin, the general manager of the
'lonian Bank, who, without a moment's hesitation, under-
took on my own responsibility and that of Lord Muncaster
to furnish £20,000 in specie for the ransom' of the four
English captives."