The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-08 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, Feb. 8.

Au Imperial decree has been issued to-day deter-
mining the relations of the Senate and Corps Legis-
latif towards the Emperor and the Council of State,
and establishing the organic conditions under which
their labours will be conducted. This decree, which
is a modification of the decree of the 19th January,
contains no important regulation not already
known.

_ eb. 7.—Two o'clock.—The market BOURSE, F
is dull, and there is little change to notice. Three
per Cents. are at 69fr. 571 c. ; Italian Fives at 54f.
65c., or sc. lower. Credit Mobilier are 2f. 50c.
lower, at 530 f. Credit Foncier opened at 1,500 f.,
but are now quoted at 1,490 f., or the same as yes-
terday. There is no feature to call for notice in
the Railway Department.

Three o'clock.—Greater buoyancy has been dis-
played towards the close, especially on Credit
Foncier shares, which have advAnced 30f. The
closing prices are as folio

44 per Cents 99 23
Do. end month —

WS

3 per Cents. C9 65

DO. end month 69 621
Credit Mobilier
Do. end month

Credit Foncier --

end month

,1520

Dank Shares 3390
Italian Loan 5l 60
Do. end month 54 75
Mexican Loan 2l 50
Do. Bonds 145
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —
Deferred -

ItAILIY AYS.

Orleans

Northern
Lyons and Moditerranean....

SOuthern
Western
k:astern
Sardiniau

For Account,
917 50

1205 --
:)21 25

~.•
,•.• bB3
bl 5

A ;Ist 17:;tn
Lombard..
North of Spain
FaragosF a
Ditto to Barcoiona..
lionlau,

4O 23
405 -

131 25

THE BOMBAY MIL.

- - -- 4--

The present mail brings letters and papers from
Bombay to the 1-Ith January. The Times (),f
of Jan. 13, contains the following :

No improvement has taken place in the work-
ing of the Indo-European Telegraph. The latest
date to hand from Great Britain is the 31st Decem-
ber. When the mail arrived on January 10th it
brought London telegrams from Alexandria of the
24th, the latest received by the Indo-European line
being at that time of no later date.
A preliminary meeting of European and native
gentlemen has been held in Bombay, at which it was
resolved to commemorate the public services of Sir
r
Bartle Frere. An influential committee was ap-
pointed, and a public meeting is to be called.
be n toufr e
Indialoan
forof iv
n6oboli,eoo\lo,oks in Bombay,
has been rapidly taken up., required by the
GovernmentThed

His Excellency Sir Robert Napier, the Com-
mander-in-Chief of the Bombay army, is on a tour
of inspection in Sind.
A troopship recently arrived at Bombay from.
Cork, the captain of which is reported to have been
in a state of intoxication nearly the whole of the
voyage. His conduct has been reported to Govern-
ment.

passed for
autiionndicngo-mpany,
The High Court of Bombay has rescinded the
order which prohibited the transmission to England
of the funds of the Commercial Bank Corporation.
Unitedßeso up the
and for forming a new company, under the name
vutiicotnosrilai
of the Colaba Company, with a fully paid-up capi-
tal of £1,000,000. been Col Colaba

The Bishop of Bombay ha 3 been s^verely criticised
for forcibly removing some evergreen decoradons
from the altar of the Cathedral Church at Calcutta
on Christmas-day.
It is stated that Earl Cranborne has desired the
Government of India to introduce a uniform sys-
tem of copper coinage throughout the country.

- -
The Government of India has resolved to erect
three strong forts in the North-W est Provinces—
one at Rawul Pindee, another at Mooltan, and a
smaller one at Peshawur.
The Government of India has stopped the annual
allowance to Syud Toorke, the brother of the late
Sultan of Muscat, in consequence of some mis-
conduct on his part.
The committee now sitting at Calcutta for the
revision of the customs tariff of India has recom-
mended the reduction of the duty on light wines,
and the abolition of. many of the
existing duties on
both exports and imports.
Since the final meeting of the Bengal Famine
Relief Fund, its secretary has handed 50,000r5. to
the Board of Revenue, exclusive of the balance due
from Bombay. The committee have received the
thanks of the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal.
The Commander in Chief in India has published
a despatch, expressing his great satisfaction at the
devotion shown to his duty by Lieut. Kemble, and
with the excellent arrangements made by that offi-
cer in meeting a very sharp outbreak of cholera in
the Ist squadron 2d Bengal I.C. in November last.
al Tcherniayeff's
The Russians are reported to have captured Juzak,
the scene of Gene
defeat last
February in Bokhara, after a siege of five days.
The King of Bokhara has sent a messenger to the
Lieut.-Governor of the Punjaub to request his
assistance against the Russians.
Reliable information of the death of Feroze Shah,
the only great Delhi rebel who escaped punishment
in the mutiny in 1857, has been received by the
Government of India. He died of fever at Bokhara.
Col. Crawford Chamberlain has been appointed
political agent in Western Malwa and commandant
of the Central India Horse, iu succession to Colonel
Daly.

The Rajah of Bhurtporo is about to pay a visit to
England.

ORITUARY.--Major-General a F. Caley, Bengal

Army ; Assist.-Surgeon Vesey, Bombay Medical
Staff.

THE LOSS OF A STEAMER AND TWENTY

PASSENGERS.

We (Bombay Gazette) have to chronicle a pain-
Jul
_catastrophe which occurred in the River
Hooghley on New Year's-day, and which, result-
ing in the loss of a number of lives, has thrown a
gloom over Calcutta. The good people of that city
make a point of celebrating their New Year's holi-
day by holding a Ilowrah fancy fair, which, with
the attraction of a steamboat trip on the river,
draws them in hundreds to How rah. One of the
steamers (the Calcutta by name) employed on the
occasion of the present N ew Year's excursion left the
Gardens at 5 p m., and on her passage up the river
(having gone soave 300 or 400 yards out of her way,
struck upon the sunken wreck of the Satellite, which
w:ls sunk during the cyclone of 1864. The locality
of the wreck was marked by a buoy, attached to the
engine room of the sunken vessel. The decks of
the Calcutta were overcrowded with passengers,
consisting of Europeans, Hindoos, Jews, Parsees,
Moguls, &c., many of the Europeans being women.
The engine room immediately began to fill with
water, and it was evident that the vessel could float
only for a short time longer. The panic which
seized upon the passengers baffles description, and
to the terror which danger inspired must be attri-
buted the loss of life which followed. The native
passengers, losing all self-control, shrieked for boats
—the European ladies, who were returning home
after their day's enjoyment, " imagned themselves
face to face with death," and joined in the terrible
cry ; and the frantic fears of all exceeded all bounds.
When the vessel struck it was nearly dark, and a
writer, describing the scene, says that the bitter cry
of alarm from the passengers " went echoing over
the river through the fast deepening darkness, start-
ling the crews of the neighbouring vessels and
tugs." The steamer was instantly surrounded
by native boats and the boats of neighbouring
vessels. Ladies threw themselves iuto the water
to reach the boats, and gentlemen tore up chairs,
benches, &c., by which to float ashore. It is
stated that a river steamer, which was two or three
hundred yards distant when the accident occurred,
went to the rescue, and that the rash to get on board
of it was so tremendous that many jumped through
her awning, and the captain was obliged to sheer off
a little. It, was impossible that lives should not be
lost in a frenzy of terror like this. The parties re-
ported as missing and probably drowned are about
20. The question still remains—Why was the
steamer so far out of its course ? We regret to
state that the evidence which is being taken at the
inquest goes to show that the captain was intoxi-
cated, and this seems to be popularly assigned as
the cause of the accident, though some of the wit-
nesses assert their belief that the captain was quite
sober. If he was, he has to account for steering
the vessel so far out of its course, and right over a
danger which was indicated by a conspicuous signal.
It remains also a remarkable tribute to the fore-
sight and prudence of an Indian government that
an old sunken hulk has been allowed to block up
the river in the very line of traffic for upwards of a
couple of years.
The Calcutta Englishman, of Jan. 7, gives the
following further particulars of this sad catastrophe •
The police belonging to the reserve and river divi-
sions are working hard and well to recover the
corpses of the victims of the accident, and beyond
the limits of the port, north and south, the Bengal
police are taking up the search. Orders have
been issued that all bodie3 are to be brought to the
superintendent before they are sunk in the usual
manner. Up to last evening the following had been
recovered

Edwin Hay, of 3, Cooper's-lane. He was a young
unmarried man, and the support of the rest of his
family.
H. R. A. Harris ; found near the wreck. He was
also the support of his family, and was engaged to
Miss Robertson, who was likewise drowned.

Abdool Rahman ; found near the dockyard al
Kidderporc.

Mrs. Dwyer, whose sister, Miss Taylor, has also
been lost, was found close to the steamer llowrah.
George Smith, •of Ballygunge. The body was
found near the wreck.

Mrs. Brown, the sister of Mr. Simeon, was picked
up at one o'clock on Sunday, at Goosery.
The body of Mr. Simeon was found on the night
of the accident.

An European, supposed to be either Mr. Godfrey
or Mr. Graham, was picked up in Garden Reach.
Only eight bodies had been recovered up to the
time of our going to press, and, strange to say, no
corpse of a child has as yet been found.

THE PRISONERS IN ABYSSINIA.

By the mail steamer which arrived at Bombay on
the 10th we learn (says the Bombay 7 inzes) that the
political resident returned to Aden from leave of
absence to England on the 13th December, on
board the Victoria, having touched at Massowah on
his way from Suez. Ile brought with him the en-
gineers and artificers selected from the dockyard
and arsenal at Woolwich, togetLer with large quan-
tities of engineering tools and implements of all
kinds for the Emperor Theodorus. Mr. Flad was
still at Massowah on Dec. 9, waiting anxiously for
a reply from Theodorus to the letter he had ad-
dressol to his Majesty, informing him of his arrival,
and a-king for an escort to convey him to Magdala
No answer had up to that date been received by
Mr. Flad, though the letter to the King had been
despatched eight weeks previously. Accounts from
the mission down to the end of October, which is
the latest news we have of them—state that Mr.
Rassam, Dr. Blanc, Lieutenant Prideau, and the
rest of the captives were in good health, though they
were still confined in the strong fort of Magdala,
under guards and in chains. They were, however,
kindly treated by the authorities of the place. Five
of the original captives have been released from their
fetters, as they had consented to take service under
the King ; they were two Germans and three
Frenchmen. Colonel ALrewether again proceeded
to Massowah on the 28th December, taking with
him the artificers, engineers, and presents of all
kinds intended for Theodorns. It is hoped that
when he returns, about the 17th January, inure de-
cided news of a cheering nature may have been re-
ceived at Massowah.

THE GREAT EASTERN BLOWN OFF THE GRIDIRON.
—Under the pressure of the gale on Wednesday morning
some of the anchors holding the Great Eastern on the
4, gridiron" at Liverpool yielded, and the enormous vessel
drifted to the eastward—that is to say, nearer the centre
of the Mersey—and grounded on the soft mud, where the
receding tide left her, it is said, "in comparative safety."
Various estimates are given as to the distance the ship
dragged her anchors, the master of one tug asserting that
it was.at least 150 feet, and another shortening the dis-
tance to 40 feet. It is matter of congratulation that the
casualty was not more serious, for it is hardly possible to
estimate the fearful amount of damage which might be
occasioned by so ponderous a vessel drifting amongst the
shipping at anchorage in the Sloyne.

ACCIDENT TO THE BRIGHTON WEST PlER.—Yes-
terday the public were prohibited from using the new
Brighton West Pier in consequence of an accident which
happened to that structure during the night. Tim hull
and a large portiOn of the framework of a brig stranded
near Shoreham drifted along the coast, and struck the pier
near its shore end, and smashed through the iron piling
by which it is supported. Seven of the piles with all the
intermediate stages and bracing were carried away, and
the pier was thereby unsafe for public use, but it is ex-
pected that it will bo repaired in a short time.

PRINTERS' SUNDAY WORK.—At a meeting of
the Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow, held yesterday, a
minute was given in front the session of Gorbals Free
Church to the effect that Mr. Robertson, the printer, whose
case was formally before the Presbytery, had not seen his
way to give up his situation entailing Sunday labour. In
these circumstances, on the motion of Professor Gibson,
the kirk session was instructed to strike Mr. Robertson's
name off their communion roll.—Edinburgh Courant.

WINES. - The consumption of wines in the United
kingdom, according to the published returns, has just
doubled during the past ton years, this rapid increase being
mainly duo to recent reductions of duties. French wines
more particularly have made greater strides in 1866 than
in any previous year, as much as 3,300,000 gallons having
been consumed. The Wine Trade Review publishes a
statement of the quantity of wino paid duty upon during
the past year by various houSes in London, the largest of
which are as follows : Galls.
W. and A. Gilbey 437,687
Martinez Gassiott and Co. ... 215,98,;
Hooperand Sous „. ... 140,369
Saudenaan, Sons and Co. m m 138,268