The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

A STORM AT SPA.

For some time past the weather here has been
extremely hot. Yesterday (Aug. 4) the air was
more than usually sultry, thermometer 90 deg.
Fahrenheit in the shape.
About 10 o'clock a.m. a cloud of smoke was seen
rising in a southerly direction, and it was imme-
diately presumed that a house was on fire in the
hamlet of Creppe, situate on a rising ground about
a mile from the town. The town fire-engine was
instantly despatched, hut upon its arrival it was
found to be perfectly useless, in consequence of
the long drought, the place was almost absolutely
deprived. of •water.
By one o'clock 28 farm-houses and cottages, with
hay ricks, &c., had fallen a prey to the flames. The
church was entirely destroyed. •
About 7 in the evening I drove out with a few
friends to the heights, near th- old race-course, on
the road to Sart, to get a little of the fresh air of
the hills. Halting for a few minutes, we were ad-
miring the distant scenery through a most tran-
sparent atmosphere, and a few thin columns of
smoke still emerging from the ruins of the evoted
hamlet, when, looking westwards, we observed
corning over from the direction of La Reid a dense
black cl ond, which came on spreading over Designit
Winanplanisdie, Marteau, Crippe, Spa, and the
place where we had pulled up ; it was a whirlwind
of impilpable dust and noxious exhalation ; this
passel over in the direction of Sart, having lasted
in its course about a quarter of an hour. The
atmosphere again becaine bright, but the air re-
mained still sultry.
This morning the intense heat continued, the
sun shining brightly until about 4 o'clock, when
suddenly the same black-looking cloud came over
Spa from the same direction, and in a few minutes
there fell, amid a roar of thunder like the booming
of artillery, accomnauied by uninterrupted sharp
platoon tiring, such a shower of hailstones as no
one present in this place remembers ever to have
seen. The shower lasted about ten minutes ; the
first hailstones that fell were of the size of grape-
shot, then like marbles, mixed with myriads of
others of all shapes and size 3, many of them of
the weight of several ounces, the • greater number
being spherical, nodulated, of a quartz-like aspect,
and measuring uniformly an inch and a half is
diameter. The windows were riddled, as from
discharge of grapeshot ; slated and tiled roofs were
perforated aif traversed by shells. Fortunately,
the crowds of visitors who are usually in the after-
noon riding, driving, or sauntering about the neigh'
bourhood, were just quietly seated at their table
d'hote. At the Hotel de l'Orange the hail burst
through the windows and' broke a considerable
quantity of glass upon the table, indenting by their
violence the silvernish covers; at the Hotel de Flan"
dre, a friend of mine standing in his bedroom, upon
a travelling trunk, to reach out of the windovr
' and close the persiennes, was struck by a large
hailstone on the head* and knocked over. Our,.
lovely walks, such as the Promenade de Sept
Heures, the Place Royale, and the Avenue du
Marteau are ankle-deep in twigs and brandies. A
the English Club, the skylights over the billiard;
room were broken in, and the cloth of the billiard
table cut up earapletely. It would be impossible
in a letter of this sort to describe all the ravagee
committed by this truly memorable storm. We
are, many of us, busy in getting up subscriptione,
for the victims of the disa•ter at Crippe, most (;41
whom are uninsured.—Correspondent of the TirO•

THE CASE OF MRS. Hon.—Mr. and Mrs. Hope,
after numerous legal proceedings relative to their divoro°
and to the possession of their children, before the courts
both of England and France, came in March, 1855, t°
an arrangement that their youngest child, John ffenrift
should remain with Mrs. Hope, and that the others,
rivivillege of seeing
in number, should go to their father, Mrs. Hope regal"
and correspontliv%
tion for divorce which she had ra0,.8„:
-I'B. Hope besides consented V
aii:ii3.iigatEhntoiighohluerter:;(7,l2lafaiPludtPhdriee'uenpna.d, rtciek not only not to Appose
but
promote the demand r divorce made by him against
that country: On Wednesday Mr. Hope applied to tb-
Civil Tribunal at Paris to order that thip child in q nes!i°l3
should be given up to him, and he based his demand ella
the ground that the Court of Chancery in E. glae,
had decided that all the children should be placed 5"A"g:
his care, and that as the arrangeo‘ent of Marcb,-1°"i;
wa, nA legal he was not bound by it. Mrs. Hopes i
ten yearn of age,
reply, insisted that the interests of the child, who is on f
required that he should be left nude
her care ; and she represented that a, her husband Ot
an Englkiimaii, and as she by her marriage to him 010
e considered English also, a French tribunal had
juri,diction over them in such a matter. She also reP`o
seated that if the arrangement of Marcb, 1855, cco9 p
binding in law, there was nothing to prevent the trib4tila
from declaring that it was equitable, and that it E_nobt
be acted on. Lastly, she urged that as Mr. Hope 01%700
fit to live apart from her, and refuse to fulfil the oea
of husband towards her, though no separation bet7ar,
them had been pronounced in France, he was no/_vier
ranted in insisting on exercising alone paternal t
ovi r all their children. The tribunal decided ,basics
so°while the parties are Euglish, as Mr. Hope refused to rec
his wife into his house, though not legs lY re
from her, and besides the interests of the (tbe
quired that he t,h old remain with big inothe.; 1
gr.
tribUnal) had no jurisdiction in the matter, and to'
Hope's application must 'be dismisa;.d %WI (Alto.