The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-25 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.' Lamenta'

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE LUXEMBOURG QUESTION.
PARIS, April 25.

The Constitutionnel of this morning publishes an
article signed by M. Paulin Litnayrac, in which it
protests against the idea that France desires war.
" The policy of France," it says, "is a policy of
peace and conciliation. The French Government
sincerely believed that, after her increase of terri-
tory, Prussia would have made it a point of honour
to show moderation and consideratio❑ for the rights
and interests of her neighbours. The Government
of the Emperor has never seen in a settlement of
this question conformably to the interests of France
and the wishes of the population of Luxemburg any-

thing but a guarantee not only of peace, but of a
durable peace. The French Government never
thought that it could in any way be to the interests
of Prussia to maintain a garrison in an indepen-
dent country—never thought that Germany could
claim the same national rights and a common origin
with a small country, the population of which by
Count Bismarck's own avowal entertains a deep
repugnance for Germany, and would, if consulted,
vote with enthusiasm for reunion with France.
" And now the Government of the Emperor does
not aim at raising a war out of a question in which
it had seen but a pledge of peace.
" France, animated by no ambition, has put aside
every claim. As far as she is concerned, the ques-
tion has become an European one, and even in this
new phase, France holds aloof, in order not to em-
barrass the pacific action of the Powers and not to
involve national susceptibilities. Without fearing
war, if a war, though God forbid, should be unjustly
provoked, France desires peace, and is anxious that
no doubt should exist with regard to her intentions."

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, April 24.

The official journal, La Turquie, of to-day says :
—" We are authorised to deny, in the most formal
manner, the assertions of the Paris journal La
Liberte, concerning the state of things in Crete and
Epirus. Omer Paella is on the point of crushing
the last remnants of the Candian insurrection."

SPAIN.

MADRID, April 24 (Evening).

Senor Corradi has presented, in the Senate, the
following amendment to the Bill of Indemnity de-
manded by the Government on account of the
recent exceptional acts of the Administration :
" The Senate declares the Ministry free from res-
ponsibility for all acts which have not been opposed
to the principles of justice, but it does not adopt as
laws the decrees which have been promulgated, be-
cause they render difficult the Constitutional con-
ciliation of parties, on which the existence of our
national institutions depend."

a Fire.

On Monday afternoon the most intense and pain-
ful excitement was caused in Ladybank and the
surrounding district by a melancholy occurrence
which took place at the little village of Monkstown,
situated about 500 yards west from the junction of
the Perth and Dundee branches of the North British
Railway, resulting in the destruction by fire, within
a very short space, of four cottages and the death of
three persons. Monkstown is a small village, com-
posed chitfly of those thatched houses which a few
years ago were very common in that part of Fife-
shire, but of late years have been rapidly giving
place to buildings of more commodious and
safer construction. About four o'clock in the
afternoon smoke was seen issuing in dense
volumes from the roof of one of the cottages,
which was occupied by a labourer employed on
the roads named John Muckarsie, and the inhabi-
tantsof the hamlet, appreciating the danger to which
they were exposed, at once turned out to assist
in putting out the flames, which immediately after-
wards began to shoot forth, and speedily enveloped
the building. The attempt, however, which the
very nature of the structure rendered hopeless
almost from the first, was soon seen to be
utterly futile; and in the absence of fire en-
gines, and every effective means of throwing water
upon the flames, the fire rapidly spread to the roofs
of the neighbouring cottages, and in not more than
ten minutes after the outbreak was first observed
four were blazing. The unfortunate inhabitants,
seeing the impossibility of saving their dwellings,
attempted, while the flames were confined to the
roof, to save the more valuable pieces of furniture
—a foolhardy carefulness which was the occasion of
a melancholy accident. In the absence of her hus-
band, Mrs. Muckarsie, in whose house the
fire broke out, assisted by her son Richard
and a young man named David Anderson, an
apprentice joiner, was thus engaged when the
burning thatch roof fell in upon them, at once chok-
ing up the doors and windows, their only means
of egress, and by loosening the burning straw and
woodwork of the roof, causing the fire to burn all the
more fiercely. The three persons inside the house,
if not killed by the falling debris, must have been
very speedily suffocated, and, the hamlet being at
the time deserted by nearly all the male population,
any attempt to extricate them from the burning
mass pas impossible. The bodies, when some time
afterwards recovered, were found to be dreadfully
scorched. After this fearful warning no further
effort was made by the other cottagers to save their
household goods, and the unhappy and excited
women and children were reduced to the situation
of helpless spectators of the sad sight. Before five
o'clock, or within an hour of the first discovery of
the fire, the four cottages were burned to the ground,
and nearly everything they contained was destroyed.
So rapid was the spread of the flames that some of
the villagers, and those who were assisting them in
saving their furniture, very narrowly escaped with
their lives.