The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-19 00:00:00

THE STORM AT CHATSWORTH.

On Tuesday evening last a fearful thunderstorm,
accompanied with hailstones of an unusual size,
passed over North Devonshire, and produced effects
which will be long remembered. The day had
been excessively hoe, the thermometer at one time
ranging as high as 85 degs. in the shade. About
halt-past 4 in the afternoon the sky became sud-
denly overcast, and the incessant roll of distant
thunder gave indications of an approaching storm,
the clouds advanced rapidly from nearly every
point of the compass, and shortly after 5 o'clock
they had concentrated and produced a very great
darkness. The rain shortly afterwards commenced
and literally fell in torrents, and was succeeded by
hailstones, which fur their dimensions and the
damage they have done are unprecedent, d the
memory of the oldest person here. Many of the
stones, which were more like broken pieces of ice,
were as much as six inches in circumference, and
the general size of all the larger pieces was from an
inch to an inch and a-half in diameter. The per-
petual glare of the lightning and the incessant roll
of the thunder, will the breaking of glass in every
direction, rendered the scene a truly awful one.
The vast amount of injury which must have been
done within its course cannot at present be fully
ascertained, but at Chatsworth alone the damage
will amount to many thousands of pounds. At the
commencement of the storm the deer and cattle
in the park ran about in the wildest confusion,
but subsequently huddled together in crowd:,
beneath anything which could afford shelter. So
fearful was the devastation at Chatsworth-house and
grounds, that nothing of the kind has probably
ever occurred before since Chatsworth has existed.
In the house all the skylights are more or less de-
stroyed. The fine ground plate-glass lanterns over
the Sketch Gallery are all either cracked or broken
through ; the large lights over the staircase, chiefly
composed of sheet glass, are ut'erly destroyed, and
where the sashes were doubled the pieces of ice
passed through both. The roof of the Orangery
connected with the house is completely riddled.
The Camelia House, Conservatory walls, and the
extensive ranges of pits are all very much injured;
but the Great Conservatory, from its peCuliar con-
struction of ridge and furrow, suffered much less in
proportion than any other glass structure about
the place, and the same rule applies to all the ridge
and furrow roofs, both at Chatsworth and at the
gardens, the proportion of the bre tkage being in
these cases about 1-10th, but in the flat roofs at
least 9-10ths. At the gardens the devastation is
complete ; the whole of the forcing-houses, glazed
in the ustal way, are an entire wreck, scarcely a
whole square remaining, the ice even cutting
through the canvass shades, which, in many in-
stances, covered the lights. The vices in the houses
were also sadly cut, the leaves and fruit being sepa-
rated as with a sharp knife. The fruit trees in the
open ground have also heavily suffered, and cab-
bages and other vegetables growing in the cottagers'
gardens are perforated through and through as if
by thousands of caterpillars. What is also ♦ery
remarkable is that about the same hour on Wed-
nesday night a similar storm appeared, only in a
milder form ; but much of the glass that remained
from the first storm was broken out, and gave al-
most at its close as desolate an appearance as the
night before. —Derby and Chesterfield Reporter of
yesterday.

,:~.~ - f

SETTLEMENT OF ME NEAPOLITAN
QUESTION.

(From the Times.)

The correspondence between Lord Malmesbury
and Count Carafa, which we publish elsewhere,
shows how sudden and complete has been the
submission of the Neapolitan Government in the
question of the Cagliari and the English engineers.
Lord Malmesbury's despatch of the 25th of May
was written in evident anticipation that theiNeapo-
litan Government would endeavour by every means
in its power to evade payment of an indemnity to
the Englishmen and the liberation of the Sardinian
ve.sel and crew. Its tone, therefore, was firm and
something more. The King'A Government was
warned that it must either accede to the demands
of England, or refer the matter to the mediation of
a friendly Power. Should Naples refuse to accept
either of these alternative, it was plainly intimated
that the indemnity would be taken by force, by
means of an embargo or reprisals. This ultimatum
quickly terminated a controversy which had been
lingering on for so many monthQ. The Neapolitan
Government returned a most satisfactory and un-
expected answer. Not only did they pay at once
the indemnity demanded, without waiting for the
judgment of a mediator, but they also restored the
Cagliari and its crew to Sardinia, through the me-
dium of the British Government. Thus this vexa-
tious and much debated question has been brought
to a happy conclusion.
We must do justice to Lord Malmesbury for the
firmness and vigour he has displayed. It is now
several months since public attention was draws to
the suffersngs of Watt and Park by an 2.-ridele in
this journal. Since then we have appealed repeat-
edly to the Government to give prompt assistance
to our unhappy fellow-countrymen. For a time
little way was made. It was asserted and believed
that the Cagliari had been lawfully captured, and
that, consequently, the engineers were lawfully in
custody until their guilt or innocence was deter-
mined. All that could be done, then, was to sea
that they were not ill-treated before trial, and to
hasten the tardy decision of the Neapolitan tribu-
nals. But when it was discovered that the Cagliari
had been, in fact, illegally seized, the whole char-
acter of the case was changed. We were then in a
position to demand not only the unconditional
and immediate release of the engineers, but also
an indemnity for their imprisonment and the harsh
treatment which it was proved they had under-
gone. It is to the credit of Lord Malmesbury that
he took advantage of this new position of affairs,
and made his demands with a mixture of firmness
and moderation which success proves to have been
judicious. When a great country like England ad-
dresses a weak State like Naples, to the effect that
her demands are only in accordance with the judg-
ment of eminent jurists, and that she has the
right as well as the strength to enforce them, and
yet at the same time proposes to submit them to
the mediation of a friendly Power, she gives the
highest proof of fairness and sincerity. It would
be impossible for the public opinion of the world to
be shocked if, unfortunately, an appeal to force had
followed this application. Such au event could only
have been the result of the obstinacy and folly of
the Government which had rejected an offer so fair
and reasonable. Happily, the Neapolitan Govern-
ment, convinced that its own position was unte-
nable, has obviated a recourse to harsh measures,
or even the delay necessary for arbitration. It
states that "it has neither any argument to pro-
pound nor any opposition to make to it." The
3,0001. have been paid in, the Cagliari and crew de-
livered up, and here, we trust, ends our dispute
with King Ferdinand and his Ministers.