The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-11 00:00:00

HANOVER.

A telegraphic despatch, dated Hamburg, 9th
instant, announces that the Hanoverian Chambers
have been dissolved by Royal order. New elections
are to take place. The new chambers are to meet
on the 10th of February next.

THE LATE EARTHQUAKE IN THE

MEDITERRANEAN.

Letters received at -Alalta from Candia, a town
in the island of the same name, give a deplorable
account of the ravages of the recent earthquake, in
addition to those already published, up to the 15th
of October (three days after the shock). As many
as 500 mangled corpses bad been dug out of the
ruins, besides many persons severely wounded and
bruised. Not more than 50 houses remained unin-
jured. The ovens and bakeries are destroyed, and
starvation menaces the houseless population, in
addition to the inclemency of the weather. The
Roman Catholic church, only a year ago erected, is
in ruins. In the interior the results are still more
appalling. Five villages are totally destroyed, and
the few surviving inhabitants are reduced to the
most abject misery. A steamer had been despatched
to the Commauders-in-Chief of the Anglo-French
forces at the Piraeus of Athens craving assistance,
and the Ottoman Porte had sent a despatch to the
Sublime Porte to a like effect.
Canea has suffered more than was at first re-
ported. Most of the houses in this town will have
to be, if not wholly, in great part rebuilt, which,
unless an immigration of builders takes place, will
not be effected in five years ! Good workmen ob-
tain 2s. 6d. per diem, master masons much more,
and labourers ls. 6d. per diem ; 500 carpenters
would readily find work. The church, hospital,
poor-house, and school of the Roman Catholic
community, and the Greek school, are among the
fallen buildings. 400 tents have been sent to
Candia from Canea by the Governor-General,
whose humane measures to succour the people are
beyond all praise. At Maori, iu Asia, opposite to
Rhodes, where earthquakes are of frequent occur-
rence, the shocks, strange to say, were only felt
slightly. At Mytelene, between the 4th and 19th
of October, one or two slight shocks had been ex-
p,
rieilcc:l daily, with b:Ltl effect I fli.te
creating much -,la-rryt the inliallitr.nts, eo-
specially after hearing of the disasters on the 12th
at Rhodes and Candia.
Professor Ragona, the Director of the Royal

Observatory at Palermo, reports the shock to have
been felt in that city at 1 h. 59 min. 24 sec. a.m.
(true time) ; the shocks were' two in number—
strong, undulatory, of long duration, and remark-
able for the amplitude of the oscillations. The first
shock continued nearly 8 seconds, and the second
(with an interval of 2 to 3 seconds), 9 to 10 seconds.
The predominating direction of the shocks was from
E to W, with oscillations from NE to SW of a
minor intensity. The sismograph marked some
very slight irradiation or divergence in the oscilla-
tions from. Sto SE. The pendulums of the Royal
Observatory, which oscillate nearly in a right angle
with the predominating direction of the shocks,
came to a standstill, whilst those oscillating in
almost the same direction as the shocks were not
affected thereby. From an early hour of the even-
ing the entire horizon was covered by a low fog,
which continued even after the earthquake, and
which fog was more particularly dense between the
N.E. and S.E. points. .The barometer stood at
2a
30 in. rz, and the exterior thermometer at 15 deg.
Reaumur. These particulars agree to a nicety with
the observations made at Malta by private indivi-
duals, in the absence (shame be it said) of any
public observatory, although in the time of the
Knights of St. John the island was famous for its
establishment of this description, and we had loped
to have seen it revived under the British rule,
particularly during the administration of so scien-
tide a personage as its present Governor, Sir
William Reid, the author of that truly useful work
the " Law of Storms."

The shocks of the earthquake of the 11th and
12th of October were felt at Puzzuoli, Castelamare,
Bari, Avellino, Tera di Lavori, Capitanata,, Basi-
licata, the two Principalities, Otranto, and Calabria,
but no damages have been occasioned thereby at
any of these places. It is, therefore, evident that
the focus or seat of the earthquake has been about
Candia and Rhodes, extending westward with
almost equal violence as far as Malta, which owes
its preservation from ruin and destruction to the
solidity of its stone structures, not one of which
have actually fallen, though most of them are
much shaken, and some cracked to their very
foundations on the live rock.

EGYPT.
ALEXANDRIA, OCT. 31.

Travellers are beginning to arrive, but not in
great numbers, with the intention of passing the
winter iu Upper Egypt either for health or amuse-
ment. Englishmen express their astonishment at
the heavy rains we have lately experienced, having
come with the erroneous impression that it never
rains in Egypt. Notwithstanding that September
and October are the most unhealthy months in
Alexandria, the sanitary condition of the city is
regarded as excellent, the deaths averaging from 15
to 16 a day.' This proportion of deaths in a popula-
tion of 120,000 souls would be considered excessive
in Loudon,—here it is pronounced to be a vast
improvement compared wiih a former period. Tnis
satisfactory state of the public health may in a great
measure be attributed to the excellent regulations
drawn up by Clot-Bey, and so well carried out by
the Sanitary Board established by Mehemet Ali,
and continued by his successors.
The members of the Russian Chancellerie have
arrived in Alexandria, and the Councillor of State
Giers, appointed Consul-General iu Egypt, is ex-
pected, with his family, next week.
The expedition for the discovery of the source of
the Nile has received a valuable addition in the
person of a Lieutenant in the French Imperial
Navy, who served as aide-de-camp to the Admiral
commanding in the Black Sea during the late war.
He left last week for Cairo to join his companions.
Travellers arrived from Syria state that English
influence in that country is diminishing, and
French influence is in the ascendant. This they
attribute iu some measure to the inefficient charac-
ter of some of our Censuls in the province of the
Turkish Empire.
A collision has lately taken place near Nablous
between a marauding tribe of ;Arabs and the Sul-
tan's troops, in which the latter were defeated,
with the loss of 40 men.

English travellers just arrived from Jaffa state
that the Sultan's firman is regarded as waste paper
in Syria.
Nov. 1.

A telegraphic despatch has just been received,
announcing the arrival at Suez, at three o'clock
this morning, of the Ganges, with the Indian mail
and 32 passengers.