The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-07 00:00:00

GREAT FLOODS LV AMERICA.

The New York papers at hand publish despatches con-
r,erning great floods in America. One dated from Granby,
Canada, April 22, says :—" While a number of
persons were congregated on the principal bridge at this
place last evening watching the flood, one end of the
'aridge gave way, precipitating eleven persons into the water.
the river being very swift at this point and the water un-
lsually high no assistance could be rendered to the victims
of the disaster, and the whole number were quickly car-
ried out of sight and drowned." Another, from Albany,
N.Y., April 22, is as follows :—" The water here is
higher than ever before known for a spring freshet with-
out ice. It has reached a point within two feet of the great
freshet of 1857, and it is still rising rapidly, at the rate
)f an inch an hour. The lower section of the city is com-
pletely inundated. Broadway for a distance of a quarter
of a mile is navigable for boats. The storehouse of the
Glens Falls Lime Company at Green Island, containing
about 1,500 barrels of lime, and the building were wholly
lestroyed, together with the storehouses of 'roles
and Sweet, of Troy. Loss, $5,000. The freshet North is
very severe. The boom above the dam at Glens Falls was
carried away this morning, and 40,000 logs set adrift.
The loss will be very heavy. Several bridges on the
Central Railroad have been carried away, and all travel
has been suspended."

THE MANCHESTER ELECTION PETITION.

Judgment was given on Thursday in the case of Roy se and
another (appellants) v. Birley (respondent), which was argued
on Wednesday, the question being whether Mr. Hugh Birley,
M.P. for Manchester, was dirqualified from sitting and vot-
ing in the House by reason of the firm of which he was a
member being contractors with the Government.
Mr. Justice Willes (in the absence of the Lord Chief Jus-
tice, who was unwell) said that it was not necessary to de-
cide whether a contract with the Secretary of State for India
In Council was a contract for public process within the mean-
ing of the disqualifying clause ;but the inclination of his opinion
was that such a contract would be within the section. The rea-
son for not deciding this was that in his opinion Mr.Birley had
before the election ceased to be " a person executing, hold-
lug, or enjoying a contract under which anything re-
mained to be done by him, and ho bad been converted
into a mere creditor of the Government whose claim was
ascertained, whose right was simply to receive his
money, and as to whom it could be unjust to give effect to
the statute unless there was language which made it
their duty to do so. As to the second contract, to sup-
ply articles to the Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum, it
was not a formal contract in the popular sense, and
neither Mr. Birley nor his firm, nor anybody con-
nected with it, knew until af; er the election that it
was a contract with the Government, and he was satisfied
that it was not the intention of the Legislature that such
a casual act as this should work a disqualification. This
being so, his judgment was that Mr. Birley was entitled to
retain his seat. Judgment for the respondent.

SHOCKING OCCURRENCE IN STAMBOUL. A
tragical case of criminal hallucination occurred a few days
ago in Stamboul. A rayah Greek dreamt that a heap of
treasure lay buried in the plain of Veli Effendi, beyond the
Seven Towers,but that to discover it he must kill a child on
the spot. Saying nothing to his wife, he resolved to sacrifice
his own little daughter, a child of ten years. Proceeding,
accordingly, to the school she had gone to, he took her
away, and saying they would go for a walk led her
3utside the wall to a heap of stones on the plain,
where, holding her down on one large stone, with
another he smashed her heal, and then, close by the
body, began digging for the expected gold. Of
course nothing was found, and after some hours' further
exploration he returned home, leaving the dead child
where he had killed her. As she did not reappear
at the usual hour in the afternoon, the mother
sent to seek for her, and was then told that her father had
taken her away early in the day. On being questioned,
he answered incoherently, and this exciting the suspicions
of a neighbour who happened to be present, the latter re-
ported the affair to the police. The wretched man was
then arrested, and after some further prevarication, made
a full confession. The child's body was, found where he
indicated, and he is now awaiting his trial in the Zaptieh
—Levant Ilcr•ald.