The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-21 00:00:00

SEVERE SNOW STORMS.

One of the most severe snow storms experienced in
Hampshire for many years past occurred on NV ednesday,
and extended in an easterly direction along the whole of
the south coast. The snow commenced to fall at 1 o'clock
in the afternoon, and continued without intermission until
half-past 4on Thursday morning. The train from Solis-
buty which is due at Bishopstoke at 7.10 was upwards of
an hour beh;nd time, and on arriving at Bishopstoke found
that the up train from Weymouth and Southampton, after
waiting for some time, had proceeded without it. A special
train was then despatched with the London passengers, but
on reaching the incline at Micheldever-bank, about a mile

and a half from Micheldever Station, the ordinary train was
discovered, with a heavy goods train before it, blocked up
by the snow, which at that time (9 o'Clock) was between
two and three feet deep. As it was impossible to move the
goods train, the engine was unhooked, and cut its way
through the snow to Micheldever in order to procure assis-
tance, guards being despatched down the line with danger
signals to prevent the approach of any other train. On the
goods engine reaching Micheldever a telegram was sent to
Basingstoke, 11 miles nearer London, and two pilot engines
were promptly sent down, and a number of labourers to
clear the way. In many places the snow was found to have
attained a depth of nearly five feet, and as the fire-box of
the leading engine became choked up every few minutes it
was found requisite to dig a passage for it before any pro-
gress could be made. Ultimately, after remaining station-
ary for nearly six hours, the goods trucks were taken
in detail to Micheldever, the services of three engines
being required to drag them forward. Many of the pas-
sengers in the train behind were exceedingly alarmed by
the delay, particularly as it was known that the up-mail
train was almost due. Great credit, however, is due to the
guards and other officials connected with the company for
the exertions they made and for the precautions they took
to prevent any accident. The goods train was turned into
a siding at Micheldever, and the passenger train drew up
at the station at half-past 1, when its half-frozersoccupants
were enabled to obtain refreshments and warm themselves
at a roadside public-house a short distance from the line.
One unfortunate traveller, a Frenchman from Southamp-
ton, was found to be so ill from the cold and alarm he had
experienced that he preferred remaining at Micheldever all
night to the risk of a further exposure. The train, with
three engines attached to it, proceeded upon its journey at
2 o'clock, but had not gone more than three miles when the
fire-boxes became choked up and a further stoppage took
place. From this point to Basingstoke, about eight miles,
the stoppages were incessant. The snow continued to fall
very heavily, and at intervals of about 100 yards the guards
and labourers were compelled to cut a passage. The train
arrived at Basingstoke at half-past four, and remained there
for about half an hour until the mail train, which was two
hours behind time, passed. The remainder of the journey
was accomplished without further obstruction, and, to the
astonishment of the passengers, it was found no snow what-
ever had fallen between Woking and London. The train,
which was due at the Waterloo station at five minutes past
10 on Wednesday night, arrived there at 25 minutes past
seven on Thursday morning, being nine hours and a quarter
behind time.
The weather in Norfolk, as in the other eastern counties,
has been extremely severe since Tuesday, when a fall of
snow, which has since continued at intervals, took place.
Yesterday morning a frost of great intensity prevailed and
more snow was falling. The railway traffic, &c., has not
yet been interrupted, but there is every probability, so far
as external influences are concerned, of a thoroughly old-
fashioned Christmas.
The snow is lying thick in Northumberland, especially
in the hill districts, and on Wednesday night heavy showers
were falling. The weather, indeed, has an extremely
wiutry appearance. Fortunately all classes of workmen
upon the Tyne have been extremely well employed, and are
continuing during the winter months to be tolerably well
employed, so that there is little or no suffering during the
present inclement season among the poor.
A letter from Edinburgh, dated Wednesday, says :--
•' Within the last 24 hours this district has been visited by
an unusually heavy snow storm ,which appears to;havebeen
experienced over a large expanse of country. On Tuesday
several slight falls of snow took place here, but up to 11
o'clock p.m. scarcely two inches of deposit had been made.
At that hour a very heavy rattling shower of hail, sleet, and
snow took place, and by midnight the snow lay at consi-
derable depth. In the morning the deposit without drift
was at least a foot in depth. The wind was off the north-
east (coming directly from the Firth of Forth), but as it was
not very high, there was comparatively littledrift. Accounts
from East and West Lothian, and from the various parts of
this country would seem to point out this district as pro-
bably the centre of the storm, which has not been equalled
here in weight and continuity of the snow-fall for many
years. The storm has continued with brief intervals of
clear weather during the day, and the depth of the deposit
may be estimated at from 18 to 20 inches. The railway
trains to day have all been an hour or two behind, and the
principal detentions have taken place within 10 to 20 miles
of Edinburgh. On the Edinburgh and Glasgow line three
trains were blocked up for some time seven or eight miles
west of Edinburgh. During the drifting of the snow into
a cutting the engine of the Perth train, which had kept
pretty good time in the previous part of the journey, was
unable to propel the train or even to pass singly through
the obstruction ; and it was not till a body of labourers
had cleared the line that, with the help of the engine o f
the second train, the first train passed through, the
others following shortly afterwards. On the east line
(North British) the chief detention has taken place
in East and Mid Lothian. A telegram received from
Aberdeen states that the snow is nearly two feet deep, but
that the line is clear. Had there been a high wind with
this excessive fall of snow, the traffic of the country would
have been almost completely blockaded, and as it is, with
snow still falling, and with the probability of its being
followed by wind, there is no small risk of that event. In
the town to-day, the locomotion, both of vehicles and has
sengers, was seriously impeded, and youthful mischief
had a capital day's sport in snowballing."
Yesterday morning, about a quarter before one, aver i y
violent thunderstorm rolled over the Northumber and
coast. The lioltninc, was very vivid. It continued about
a quarter of an hour. Snow was falling at intervals in
Northumberland all day yesterday.
IsLE or Win tur.—A letter in a contemporary, dated
Verttnor, Dec. 18, says :_WO are in the midst of a heavy
snow storm, inaugurated by two loud claps of thunder.
accompanied by the snow, broke upon
The thunder us at
half-past) with 91
half-past 1 p., It is stilt
everym. prospect ofsnowing, its coutinu
inches on the ground, and
ante. The morning was very fine and bright, with the
wind north, which shifted to due south about 12 o'clock at
noon, which brought up the storm. The wind has now
shifted to north.

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The Marquis of Dalhousie died at Dalhousie'
Castle, Midlothian, on Wednesday evening, at half-
past six o'clock. The state of his health had for
some time precluded all hope of his restovery.
Having no male issue, the Scotch earldom and
estates of Dalhousie fall to his cousin, Lord Panmtf.re. •
His death in his 48th year is another sad instance Of ct
the sun going down at noon. 'ew statesmen have °a-4
raised such expectations. - • P life of splendid. '
achievement he has passed . :.gut ale critical ,r
age when Nelson was shot de :sfalgar, when
Napoleon closed his public life, and when Wel-
lington ended his military career, but when Minis-
ters generally are only beginning to put forth their
powers. Lord Dalhousie had not only a large ad-
ministrative faculty, but also the happy art of in-
spiring confidence and making all with whom ho
c,ame in contact sharers in his plans and fellows in
feelinee It is an art in the absence of which many
an abiee man has made shipwreck of his policy.
How Sir Charles Napier despised it! How ho
talked of the little vanities of " the little man !"
He forgot that the easiest thing on earth is
to sneer, and that the continual desire to carry the
public along with him and to be assured of their
goad opiniom which characterised Lord Dalitenejet
if it might be called vanity by his enemies, snst
be called prudence and good policy by all
impartial persons who know that even an Indiaa-t
Viceroy is not exactly an autocrat, and that hita
whole power is based on public opinion. There
probably never was a statesman, unless it were Sir
Robert Peel, and he had the honour of numbering
the late Marquis among his political posterity, to
whom the habit of setting himself right with tho
public, by speeches, by minutes, by reports, by
State papers of every sort, had become so much a
matter of necessity—so clearly an axiom of goveTn-
ment. Everything that he did was conducted on
the principle of personal frankness and public urs-
derstanding, a very curious illustration of which ier
mentioned by Sir Charles Napier himself. When
the old lion of Meeanee was sent to take the chief
command of the Indian army he went with a repu-
tation' for impracticability and quarrelling which
could scarcely have been very comfortable to his •
future colleagues. On their first interview Lord
Dalhousie received him in the frankest manner; he
said, half laughing, that he had been told in ever so
many letters) to beware of this Tartar. " I have
been warned, Sir Charles, not to let you encroach
upon my authority, and" he added, " I shall take
good care that you shall not. The brusque
cordiality of this address, which excited the indig-
nation of Sir William Napier, but which his brother
took in good part, as he ought to have done, was
very characteristic of Lord Dalhousie. Perhaps
another man in his place would have received
Napier with fulsome compliments, while deliberat-
ing how best he could countermine Ms ,authority
an thwart his influence if occasion arcan• It
was part of Lord Dalhousie's system to avoid
finesse, to break the ice as soon as possible)
and to have an open understanding on
all points. The consequence was that few
public men have fought their way upwards with
so little of opposition and amid so much genera..)
applause. There has not been in our time a Gover-
nor-General so popular ; and when he left India
with shattered health, many in England would
have risked heavy odds on the chance of his one
day attaining the most splendid position within
the reach of a British subject—that of
Minister. It was not so to be. The hand of death
was upon
gloryup to
him,
hewaste away cam et
the
o pacee fro
that t ewsacse
left
of
him in the vain search for health.
born n on the
.
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay WAS
22dof•April, 1812, at Dalhousie Castle, the
~son
owof
the ninth Earl of Dalhousie, more familiarly an
his
in Scotland as " the Laird of Cockpen," from
representing in right of possession, if not O.
[ descent, the hero of a certain humorous song whose'
courtship by no means ran smoothly. When Sir
Robert Peel returned to power in 1841 heart had to
satisfy so many expectants of a py long
excluded from power that at first he could find no
office for the son of Christ. Church and the con-
nexion of the Duke. In 1843, however, an op-
portunity served. Mr. Gladstone rose to talhe
Presidency of the Board of Trade, and Lord D
housie took his place as Vice-President. Theo,
again, when the chief' resigned the presidency ire
1845, Lord Dalhousie reigned in his stead, and
occupied the same office, not only during the
remainder of Sir Robert Peel's term of Govern-
went, but also under Lord John Russell,
who begged him to retain his post. This
was a compliment paid to the untiring energy
and remarkable administrative ability which Lord
Dalhousie had displayed in the conduct of his de-
partment. at a time when the sudden development
of the railway system and the transition to a new
cemmerch,l era had created an immense amount of
work that sorely taxed the resources of his office.
His power of work was unlimited; he was amung
the first to arrive at his office and the last to go
ravay, often extending his labours to two and three
o'clock of the following morning. In those years
he thoroughly studied the railway system and all
that it involves in the way of iutercommunication ;
he made himself acquainted with every detail of
outlay, of management, and of returns; he framed
rules for the preparation of the legion of bills that
were presented to Parliament in the height of the
mania, and thus giving his mind to the great public
works, as well as to the vast trade of this country,
he was educating himself for the government of an
empire less advanced in civilisation, and especially
needing the creation of similar public works for the
development of its resources. He was, in fact, after
a short but active apprenticeship at the Board of
Trade, offered the splendid position of Governor-
General of India, as successor to Lerd Hardinge.
He accepted the offer, and arrived at Calcutta on
the 12th January, 1848.
It is not yet possible to write the history of Lord
Dalhousie's admiiistration in India. Splendid to
all appearance, it must be read by the light of that
bloody commentary of the rebellion which suc-
ceeded it. That his views were of the largest, that
his ambition was of the noblest, that his faculty of
direction and government was of the highest
order, we do not for a moment doubt.
On the 29th of February, 1856, Lord Canning
commenced his reign over India, and on the 6th of
March Lord Dalhousie left Calcutta. The day
before his departure he received an address from
the inhabitants, to which he made a very touching
reply. After recapitulating some of his services,
and warning his hearers that we have learnt by
hard experience how a very small difference with a
native Power may rapidly darken and swell into a
storm of war ; reminding them, also, of the insur-
rection which they had seen rise in the midst of
them like an exhalation from the earth, and how
cruel violence, worse than all the excesses of war,
may be suddenly committed by men who to the very
day on which they broke out in their frenzy of
blood have been regarded as a simple, harmless,
and timid race, not by the Government alone, but
even by those who knew them best, were dwelling
among them, and were their earliest victims"
—sentences, these, which were curiously illus-
trated after but one short year—he expressed his
confidence in theigcnognutainguea:n_ce„
yo
of u phe
aa
Ne, ee ,
madeand.
then referred to himself personally in the fol-
lowing touching
kindly allusion to the future that may await
andltthoabsrbineegn i to
t per-
mitted me. I do not neck to fathom that future. My
only ambition has long been to accomplish the
honourfeel
ethato s o a. ni d n
Im success.haveycase the principal act
layed out my part ;
task which
lay before me here,
a closwe
htwoi
miet with
i%ndthe drama of my life is ended, I shall be well
content if the curtain should drop now upon mypub-
lie course. Nearly 13 years have passed away since
I first entered the service of the Crown. Through
all these years, with but one short interval, public
employment of the
heaviest responsibility and
labour has been imposed upon me. lam wearied
and worn, and have no other thought or wish than
to seek the retirement of which I stand in need, and
which is all I am now fit for." On the next day he
embarked, attended to the landing-place by a large
concourse of friends, who were full of sympathy
and sorrow. They tried to cheer as the boat pushed
Off, but the cheer was a failure. They were unfit
to do anything but bow a farewell. From that
moment, to use his own image, the curtain dropped
upon him. He had but too truly calculated his
strength. The farewell which he had found it so
hard to utter was an eternal one.

The correspondent of the _Debuts at Turin says :
—" General Denedek has informed his troops that they
must be prepared for war in the spring, and that it is at
Mantua he means to crush Garibaldi and his adherents.
A lady wrote to Sir Cresswell Cresswell the other
day asking to be favoured with a " a prospectus of the
Divorce Court, with the various rates of charges for the
respective descriptions of divorce 1"
THE PERFECTION OF MECHANISM.—" In short, all the
improvements fur our convenience and comfort, dating
from a state of barbarity to one of high civilisation, are
but the cumulative results of inventive ingenuity; and 111
no instance is this more elearly seen than is the history. of
those beautiful inventions which have from (time time
been brought toThear upon the science of Horology.. Trace
its history from the time of the Romans with their clep-
sydra or water-clock and Alfred with his candles, from
hour-glasses and sun-dials don
down to that miracle of inge-
nuity The Watch,' and see how improvement has sue.
o charac-
ceeded improvement, until at last those now manufactured
by Benson, of Ludgate-hill, L ndoll, have been
teristically described as ' the Perfo4ml of mechanism., *,
—Standard. Bensons Illustrated Pamphlet, pest free
for two stamps, 15 descriptive of every construction 'of
watch now made. Watches safe by post to all parts of the
globe.

~~
~

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT-
GARDEN.—Under the Manaxement•of Miss pouisa
Tyne and Mr. W. Harrison, Sole Lessees.

IMPORTANT NOTICE.

The Management find it necessary to announce to their
Patrons that it will be impossible for a few nights at Christ- ,
mias to perform Balfe's eminently su:cessful Opera with the
Grand Pantomime. The time in representation and scenic
preparation for an Harlequinade of such magnitude, renders
the temporary suspension of the brilliant Opera imperative.
Boxes and places will continue to be booked daily at the
Box-office for the reproduction of the Opera at an early date.
The sensation created with the public on the first represen-
tation of Balfe's New Legendary Opera was most enthu-
siastic. Continuous applause marked its progress from the
rise until the fall of the curtain. The demand for places daily
at the Box-office to witness this great music -1 work of our
popular English Composer, places the Management in the
proud position of announcing the performance of BIANCA,
THE BRAVO'S BRIDE, Every Evening until further
Dotice.
THIS EVENING, and during the BRAVO Belle's New
Legendary Opera, BIANCA, THE 'S BRIDE:
.Miss Louisa Fyne, Miss Thirlwall ; Messrs. A. Lawrence,
J. Wharton, H. Corti, A. St. Albyn, G. Kelly, Wallworth, T.
Distin, Lyall, and W. Harrison. Conductor, Mr. Alfred
Mellon. Orchestra of Eighty Performers. Chorus of Fifty
Voices. Concluding with a DTVERTISSEMENT.—Stage-
manawsr, Mr. Edward Stirling. Acting-manager Mr. Edward
Murray. Doors open at 7 ; commence at half-past 7. No
charge for booking, or fees to Box-keepers.
At Christmas a Grand Pantomime, entitled HARLEQUIN
BLUE BEARD ; or, Britannia and the Fairy Hope. Morn-
ing Performances every Wednesday and Saturday.
ROYAL

ENGLISH OPERA

COVENT-GARDEN.
Under the Manazenvnt of Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. W,

Harrison, Sole Lessees.
On BOXING NIGHT, Dec. 26, and every Evening, wi
be produced, with 0n exnenditure hitherto unattempted
BARLEQUIN BLUE BEARD, the great Pantomine, pro.
duced by Mr. Edward Stirling ; embracing the chief panto.
mine talent of the day. A perfect galaxy of

Clowns (Mr. Harry Boleno, Mr. Henry Payne, Mr.
1 Hillyard, and the Lilliputians.
Rarlegnins,„ „Mr. Milano, Mr. F. Payne.

Pantaloons... Mr. Barnes, Mr. Tanner.
Columbines ....Mme. Bolena, Miss Clara Morgan.

Sprites. .The Zelinski 'Family.
Ballet 26 Lidies and Mr. W. IT. Payne.
Gorgeous scenery, from the pencils of T. Grieve and Telbin,
illustrating the moving events of the yea* ; decorations, by
Blamire, on a sca'e of magnitude and expenditure without
parallel ; fairy costumes, by Miss James and Mr. Coombes ;
Eastern splend cur, pro^essions marches, doncing, fun, and
frolic, unit,d to magical transformations by Sloman, pro-
duein, a combination of the grotesque and beautiful, recalling
the golden days of pantomime for which Covent Garden stood
alone and unaoproached. Commenc;ng, at seven, with the
popular operetta of the MARRIAGE OF GEORGETTE, in
which Miss Louisa Pyne will appear. Order the carriages
at half-past 11.

OYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT-
1, GARDEN—under the Management of Miss LOUISA
FYNE and Mr. W. HARRISON, Sole Lessees.
THIS EVENING, BIANCA, THE BRAVO'S BRI DE.
311;s Louisa Pyne, Miss Thirlwall ; 'Mr. W. Harrison Mr.
A. Lawrence, Mr. H. Corr], Mr. St. Albyn, &c.
Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon.
And a DIVERTISSEMENT.
Doors open at Seven. Commence at Half-past.

PHEATWE-ROYAI„ HAYMARKET.
Lefwee, Vt. J. B. BLIA9tOIIe,
TTTTS FITENTNC the nertorrn.reeit Trill r.olpnwnni. with
Sheridan't( comedy of THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL.
Mr. Buckstctue, Miss Amy Sedfrwiek, &c.
After which, GRIST TO THE MILL. Franeoise, Miss
Rose Howard.
To conclude with MY HUSBAND'S GHOST.