The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-26 00:00:00

The Cape of Good Hope.

PLYMOUTH, March 25.
The Union Company's steamship Briton hag
arrived here with dates from the Cape of Good
of February 19 ; St.llelena, 27 ; Ascension, March
3 ; Madeira, 19. She brings 73 passengers, the usual
mails, and four pkgs. specie. The mails are for-
warded by to-night's mail trains. The Briton has
proceeded to Southampton.
At the Cape politics were quiet. There was
already great speculation as to the probable course
of the business during the next session of Parlia-
ment, which will open about the end of April. The
necessity of a further retrenchment iu the public
expenditure was everywhere admitted.
The Governor had issued a circular to the resi-
dent magistrates and civil commissioners to show
how far the retrenchment resolutions adopted by
the House of Assembly could be advantageously
carried out in their various departments.
A pamphlet had been published by Mr. Darnell,
pointing out that £40,000 might be realised by a
proper me being made of the Crown Forests alone.
Refreshing rains had fallen over a great part of
the country, but some districts were suffering slightly
from drought. Agricultural prospects continued
favourable, and trade was quiet.
Table Bay bad been visited by an unusual quan-
tity of shipping.

The natives in the colony and on its immediate
border were perfectly quiet, but another war between
the Free State and the Basutos was considered im-
minent, as some Boers had been killed. The lands
taken from the Basutos during the last war had
been sold by auction, but it appeared doubtful whe-
ther their purchasers would be allowed peaceful pos-
session. Some of the Burghers admit that the Basu-
tos have not space enough to live in. They think it
a groat mistake to occupy land beyond Caledon,
this greed of land having, in their opinion, been a
fruitful source of colonial war.

The trial of borne members of the British Kaffra-
rial Mutual Protection Association, which had orga-
nised an armed attack upon a Kafir tribe, near King
William's Town, a few months since, has been fixed
to come off at Port Elizabeth in May next.

The news of the alleged death of Dr. Livingstone
had reached the Cape. In a letter from Dr. Kirk,
British Consulate, Zanzibar, to Sir Thos. Maclear,
the news was feared to be but too true, from the
known ferocious character of the Mazitu, the alleged
perpetrators. No further news, however, had arrived
than those which have reached England.
The birthday of the Sultan of Turkey was for the
first time celebrated by the Malay population at
Cape Town on Feb. 9. Great solemnity was ob-
served. There were grand ceremonies at the prin-
cipal mosque in honour of the day, and a compli-
mentary address was presented to the Hon. P. E. de
Roubaix, Consul-General for the Turkish Empire.
A controversy had been raised in the colony by
Lord Romily's judgment in the appeal case of the
Bishops of Natal and Cape Town. Active meetings
continued to be held by the different Churches,
and petitions to the Imperial Parliament were
adopted. Some of these petitions are in favour of
the introduction of a bill similar to that brought in
by Mr. Cardwell last session, but the large majority
of them are opposed to separation in fact or name
from the Church of England. One of the resolu-
tions passed at Cape Town expresses great regret
that doctrines contrary to the fundamental princi-
ples of the Church of England are taught within
her pale in the colony of Natal, and deeply deplores
that measures have not been taken by those whose
duty it was to institute them through the lawfully
constituted tribunals of the Church of England.
Another, at Grahamstown, petitions " that if the
Parliament of Great Britain legislate in any way for
the English Church in this colony they will legislate
only so far as may be necessary to remove the
doubts and uncertainty which exist, and to secure
for your petitioners the same rights as their fellow-
churchmen in Canada possess by law."
At Natal there had been a monetary crisis from
there being more banking institutions than were
needed, causing over trading and speculation. The
temporary effect of the crisis is considered likely
to be soon got over.
The African mail packet M'Gregor Laird arrived
out at Madeira on the 19th inst.

FALL OF FOUR HOUSES INTO A LAKE.—SIXTEEN
LIVES LOST. —A letter from Pallanza, dated the 17th, in
the Morimento of Genoa, says :—" Yesterday evening, be-
tween 6 and 7 o'clock, four or five houses, situated on the
national road at Foriolo at the extremity of Lake Maggiore
and a shipbuilding slip, fell into tho lake. Sixteen persons
are missing, and no doubt exists that most of them, if not
all, have perished in the catastrophe. Fuur houses were
carried away with the ruins. The cause of the disaster
has not yet been discovered. Some persons affirm that a
subterranean current exists, for last year a terrace sup-
ported by a wall, the foundations of which were on the
bank of the lake, gave way ; others attribute it to geologi-
cal causes, the burgh of Foriolo being built on alluvial soil
resulting from the overflow of the river Joco and the tor-
rent Strona, which have their confluence at the spot; the
boatmen and fishermen attribute it to some volcanic action,
because at the moment of the catastrophe the water in the
neighbourhood was quite warm."
NAVAL APPOINTMENTS.—The Lords Commis-
sioners of the Admiralty have appointed the following staff
of officers to the Royal Marine Battalion in Ireland, under
the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Stewart:—Bre-
vet-Major T. V. Cooke, paymaster; First Lieutenant A.
Hill, adjutant; First Lieutenant W. N. U. Johnson, quar-
termaster.